Do You Hunt from a Wood Tree Stand Anymore?
Part of my heritage was climbing 2x4 steps to a wood platform my dad and/or my buddies and I had nailed in the fork of a large tree (or, better, where 2 or 3 oaks or hickories grew together) about 10 feet off the ground. We didn’t go high. Sometimes we’d nail a single 2x4 rail around the stand for safety and a gun rest, but not usually. Sometimes we built a little seat, but mostly we carried up a crate to sit on, which was not very safe.
We lugged the wood and built stands back in the VA woods, on ridges and in hollows and creek bottoms where bucks traveled, and had for decades, and still do.
I logged many long, cold, wet, miserable, bored, wonderful days in those stands. I saw squirrels, deer, turkeys, coons and other critters and learned about nature. I killed some deer and learned about life and death.
I can’t remember the last time I hunted from a wood stand. Twenty years ago? How about you? Many of you younger bloggers have never done it.
The tradition is dying. Everywhere I go to hunt, from the Milk River to Iowa, I find wooden stands abandoned and crumbling in the woods, turned black by the weather, the rotten steps hanging loose like decaying teeth on a big, long face.
When I find an old stand, I stop for 2 reasons. I look around and check out the woods. This is a good spot to hunt, or else the guy would never have gone to the trouble of building the stand there. I often hang a lock-on nearby, or hunt on the ground.
I also look up at the old stand and try to picture the man who built it. Who was he…what did he look like…? I see him sitting there, gun on lap…freezing…shivering…thinking about the good and bad in his life…happy…bored…heart jumping when he sees a doe or hears a squirrel in leaves…the explosive rush of emotions when he sees and kills a buck…
And then I move on, thinking: The tree stands may be different today, but the spirit of the hunter is the same.
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in the woods. Our property we hunt now has three old stands like this that i have found. Every one i found was in a spot i was looking at hanging a stand or hung one near by. One of them we put a ladder stand in that same tree. Didnt know it was there until we were putting it up. No old wood left hanging on it but some of the old nails are still in the tree about 15' up all rusted. We've killed a few deer from that spot. I found one of them this past Dec. when i was out muzzleload hunting on the last night. Made my way to the corner of our property to keep a eye on a picked corn field for deer. looked at a couple trees while i was standing there and sure enough there was the old woodrail on the tree...some of it hanging off. Two years earlier we put a stand about 60 yards from this one and killed a good buck out of it both years. I looked at this old stand i found while i was hunting wondering the same....who had built it and how long ago and how many deer they may have killed out of it. Its stuff like that, that makes me love to be out spending time in the field. Animal killed
or not its all about the experience.
In fact, when we would see someone's old wooden stand with those 2x4 steps, Dad would always remark, "There's a man that will end up in the hospital sooner rather than later". Those wooden steps are way more dangerous than the wooden stands, and many a hunter has fallen when the old nails pull out of the tree. Of course most guys were too cheap to buy treated wood too.
Awesome post!
Just like you Mike I have the same feelings and thoughts when I come up on one of these ancient stands in a tree while I'm hunting thru the woods.
Be Well Everyone...!!!
You just painted us a picture of our past. All of us have special memories of our early hunting days. You just put me back on the farms with my Dad & Grandfather in Pa. My Grandfather passed away 19 years ago and my Dad doesn't hunt anymore. But we are hunting together tonight. Thanks
now it's hang on and ladders only, though i used to have some homemade wood ladders, replaced them every two years........that wasn't a great plan either.......
besides unsafe, it's just hard on the tree....... don't like screw in steps either.........good way to get thrown of hunting land around me......
if the farmer/ land owner ever hits an old nail with his chainsaw when cutting wood, you are history on that place...... just not worth it....... and they make more noise .......... only benefit is they are cheap....... spend the $30 on a hang on and save the planet :)
IMHO it's a matter of maintance. My tree platform is safe for me because I maintain it. And I wear a harness .
When the tree falls over, I'll stop hunting out of it.