Figured out a way to Practice from Treestand

[Longspur77]

Last year was first full Trad hunting season and i practiced most of the summer from the ground shooting 3d targets and such. When it got closer to the season(late summer) we put 20 foot millinium ladder stands up and a couple of climbers and practiced out of them. Our comfort levels out of the elevation was not what it was off the ground. Late summer in MS is brutal. It is a cool crisp 90 degrees at daylight and steamy 100degrees with a heat index of 110 most days. Needless to say that if you wanted to practice from a stand you had to gut it out and climb 20 feet up with a helper to pick up arrows or really gut it out and get the climber out. The climber was borderline suicide. This year my dad, brother and i have devised a way to solve this problem. I found a old elevated metal deer stand(6 ft tall) and we put a platform and rail on it. We then moved it next to my dads house on top of a ridge and put the targets down in the bottom which is about 12 to 15 feet below the platform of the perch thus giving me an 18 to 20 foot elevation change due to the topography. As you can see from the pictures this theory of ours actually came to fruition. It is easy to climb up and down to retrieve arrows and really helps in the elevated shot placement. The key was to have 12 to 20 arrows ready to shoot at a time if you are by yourself thus getting the most out of your practice. OR just get your little brother to fetch your arrows when you shoot.LOL Hope you enjoy and i am pretty proud of it.  I figured if i practiced 50 to 100 arrows a week out of this then a shot from a treestand will be alot easier.






There is 3 deer targets and one Rhinehardt target. I will add another deer and hopefully other targets latter

[GRINCH]

Nice setup.

[treetoppredator]

I agree,very nice setup I'd like to give it go myself!

[Stumpkiller]

Nice.  The club I used to belong to had a set-up like that plus a sandbox/broadhead pit.  We had a 3-D fox set at 20 yards that was a killer from the platform.

[C. Halstead]

NICE set up. I have something similar...a deck! But your pics got me thinkin I need to build something!

[nschlag]

looking great. wish you were in illinois!

[Claym]

Nice setup

[Bernie B.]

Great plan!  You've solved a problem that a lot of hunters face.  You have a very nice looking area to shoot!

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

[magnus]

That is great. For those of us that don't have that option shooting off the roof helps a lot.

[Shedrock]

I do the same. I have a ladder stand in my back yard I shoot out of. It is up year round. I don't do much hunting out of a treestand, I practice these downward shots for my mulie hunting, shooting down off cliffs and such. Good practice.

[vintage-bears]

Wonderful job and great idea.
I want one of those too!

[LimBender]

Nice setup!  Nothing like real-world practice.  I admit that I'm often too lazy or don't have time to really practice the way I hunt.  But I will be doing more as the season approaches.

I sympathize on the heat!  When you can't even focus on a spot because your eyes are dripping and stinging with sweat and the bow is slipping around in your hand, it takes a bit of the fun out of it.  :mad:   But we have to look at the positive.  I was shooting outside in February (parts of it) in a t-shirt.     :D

[sawtoothscream]

My gun club has a elevated platform on the archery range I use. I hated using the climber in my yard to practice. Much better with the elevated stand with stairs

[tr23489]

Great setup!  I shot off of my deck and that works pretty well.

[reddogge]

Great solution. I love the setting.

[South MS Bowhunter]

Great setup David!  If you Will and I believe Tom (mentioned in a past post about the late season 8 point) ever make it deep down south try and look me or "Possum Head" from Hurley MS, up we have started setting up backyard 2d/3d courses to practise during the year, youre welcome to shoot. Do you guys attend any shoots in the area?  I have never attended a 3D shoot but plan to try and make a couple this year to get to know some of the area Trad hunters.

[Longspur77]

Thanks fellows, i felt pretty good about the setup. SOuth Ms Bow, yes we shoot in tournaments. Shot in one mid February in Brandon and the state tournament is in April sometime. You should give us a shout, we will probably be shooting again this year in it.

When I was young we built trees stands large enough to take a wide stance when shooting standing, although not as big as the castle in the photo.  when i went to the Baker climbers, I had a serious learning curve because of the smaller platform size and shooting down from a sitting position. Apparently my ladder stand was more portable than I thought, because it moved twice last season without my help and my Sabor widow maker disappeared the year before, in some ways it was easier to shoot out of than the ladder.

[Shawn Leonard]

Nice, but for me to get the actual feel of a hunting situation I would need to set up the stand type I am shooting out of. It does not do a lot of good to practice from that large a platform when you will be standing or sitin on one way smaller, for shot angle yes but for real world hunting no. Shawn

[Longspur77]

I agree with you shaun in that to get the real feel of an exact hunting situation then you should shoot off or out of whatever blind stand you will be using. My goal here is to build my back muscles, gain confidence in my angle of shots from elevation and not bust my a$$ sweating my cahonees off doing it. Especially during the swealtering heat of the summer down here. It sucks shooting when you cant even see because number 1 your eyes are burning from the sweat running into them and number 2 the mosquitoes trying to tote you off. This way i can move a shop fan and put it on my dads deck(which is 10 feet behind me where i took the picture from and then put my Thermocell attached to the rail on the platform. Problems solved. Plus i can practice my angles.