Share time.

Hunting a different section of the river bottoms this coming deer opener and have no "perfect" tree for the climber. But there is this large root mass with dirt that has been thrust perpendicular with the trunk pointing to three joining trails. Hmmm . . . standing on the trunk gets old and too exposed. But what about getting behind that root mass at just the right height?

Tinkering with the little guy this morning. Will clamp the camo to keep it in place. Easy to carry in maybe 50 yards from the boat folded down and small.

Will tie to the root mass to keep from tilting backwards in the heat of battle. Positioned so I straddle it facing the root mass. Thoughts?

I saw something like that in an older article on coyote hunting. Guy sat on a 4 foot ladder, just tall enough to get over the brush and take much longer shots. I've toyed with the idea myself in areas of tall grasses or even the edges of cornfields.

If you use it, make sure to take pics.

Good luck this weekend.

Hmmm

if it's comfortable and not tippy...why not?

I've ratcheted together 4 tall young popular trees and put up a 15' ladder stand on those trees.

that worked for years

I have been kicking around building a light short tripod stand/platform that can be carried easily and set up fast just for fields and places where just a little elevation will gain you visibility.

Something I could put in a small boat for transport if needed. Probably aluminum from light weight. May need to tie it down but the cheap screw in dog tie outs and ratchet strap should do that quick and easy.

I'm in trouble as soon as I get all the welding gear set up. I and I think I'm busy now.

were they like prom King and Queen?

The ground will break your fall.

I wouldn't waste my time with the camo and stuff to trip on. When they start staring at the glare of the ladder, start shooting.

Unless of course you are using a bow and not the standard AK-57 uzzie radar laser triple barrel double scoped heat-seakin shotgun.

Guys here would do 2-4 person drives in the vast cattail marshes. One guy stands on top of ladder and other guy(s) walk through a patch of cattails towards the ladder. They used to harvest lots of deer that way until they got sick of walking. I remember one year watching a guy cartwheel off the top of ladder after a deer ran into his ladder. Deer trying to escape didn't see the ladder blocking the trail in the cattails.

Emergency room visit coming soon.

I made one with an old wooden ladder once, I screwed a 2x10 piece to the top step and clamped a boat seat onto that. I had it in an alder swamp and shot deer out of it.

skip the netting and paint it camo

you could rig up a ladder jack to set your height too

Painting it was my first thought. Then I was going through duck hunting gear and found some of my old blind making camo and settled on this. Practiced going up the ladder with the camo pushed over so I'm climbing on aluminum. Once at the top I can bring it back over the ladder.

The ladder will be tied to the root mass sticking up in the air, so it won't have a chance to tilt away and have me wind up in the emergency room as upstateNY predicted. We're setting camp Thursday and I'll have all day Friday to tinker with this.

Anyway . . . thanks for the words of encouragement and I'll keep in mind the ground will break my fall. Good to know.

With the warm temps coming this weekend will be bringing a big cooler with ice blocks already made to pack venison in. Will be cutting deer up by lantern light, hopefully.

Take care out there. Coming up on 60 years of hunting deer in a few years, 'cept for the stint in the Air Force in the early 70s.

I'm sorry. I think what you're on to is basically a good idea. I have climbing stands and a lot of times I'll go for nosebleed heights. Only the tree or my courage limiting me. I'm sure there's times where being eight feet off the ground would have served me better than 25 or 30'.

Aw, c'mon . . . that was good humor. Appreciated.

Finding the right tree for the climber is getting more difficult down in the river bottoms. So many trees are dying from sustained flood events and tilting over.

Now, help me out here Posco, harness or no harness? ;o)

How firm is the ground? I might be a tad concerned about the ladder feet sinking in as the day(s) go by.

Skip the harness, go straight to ejection seat.

So many places this could go. I'm going to abstain on this one.

why not just get you some stilts