Great place to ask this - Climbers

[Marshallrobinson]

This will be the first year ever for my wife hunting traditional. We were talking today about our tree stands and I remembered to mention the issue with the cross bar on our stands.  
I have learned to set up and work around it but she, being new, shouldn't have this as just another thing to have to think about when the time comes.

I am talking, of course, about the issue of slapping the crossbar with the lower limb.

Her shoulder will not take a "strength to use climber". She has to sit her butt on the bar and use her lower body to climb. This is the problem, since a good open face climber is cheaper but she cant use one (I think.. maybe sit and climb?) and we can only do cheap right now.
The sneaky sack and such are out for her. Hang on stands are out because we hunt public.

We have set up a good number of ground blinds but with the winds here, I am not expecting to be able to use them much or even at all.

Anyone want to offer advice on what to look at that will give her an advantage and not break the bank?.

Thanks folks    

[Cwilder]

I use my summit viper which has the bar in front. I bought a hazmore seat which I'm able to lower the top half down further since the seat is now flush with the support bars. The only problems is really close shots one the sides since you have a bar that is further up on the side

[Rob W.]

I would buy a $2 bottle of wind checker and hunt the ground.

I remember Charlie Lamb once saying "A good treestand spot is also a good ground spot". That stuck with me and the ground is all I hunt now days.

Yeah some spots have bad swirly wind but that's part of the learning process. The shot angle is better and you won't have to worry about lugging stands around.

I wish I had bowhunted the ground more 20 yrs. ago.

Good luck to both of you and enjoy your time in the woods together. I hope when my wife gets out of school we get more hunting time.

[Marshallrobinson]

Originally posted by Rob W.:
 I would buy a $2 bottle of wind checker and hunt the ground.

I remember Charlie Lamb once saying "A good treestand spot is also a good ground spot". That stuck with me and the ground is all I hunt now days.

Yeah some spots have bad swirly wind but that's part of the learning process. The shot angle is better and you won't have to worry about lugging stands around.

I wish I had bowhunted the ground more 20 yrs. ago.

Good luck to both of you and enjoy your time in the woods together. I hope when my wife gets out of school we get more hunting time.

Thats a fact!. BUT ... we are talking switching winds that are 180 degrees out and sometimes (most times) that happens three times within the hour. No joke...it's bad. Most people get busted in the trees when they are not more than 20' up.
Hunting the thermals is about all we got OR hoping for some fawn to walk by   :D

[LB_hntr]

Here is what i do for my wife when she hunts. Might help make it easier on her.

I dont use climbers at all and all we hunt is public land and go up and down each sit.
 Here is a video on my set up and how fast and easy it is.
 http://tbwpodcast.com/video-29-super-fast-way-to-hang-a-tree-stand/

I put up the stand and sticks for her and attach a lifeline (a line attached the the top of the tree above the stand with a prusic knot that slides up and down the line with the bottom of the line attached to the bottom of the tree) she then connects her harness to the lifeline and climbes up and hunts. When i come back to get her after the hunt i pull everything down and leave with her.

Also a side note that might help. nobody needs to be 20' in a tree and with traditional equipment and the close ranges we want that angle will be very steep for shooting and not ideal. 12-16 feet is more than high enough. If the wind is gonna bust you at 14 feet its gonna bust you at 20 feet. Your wife might feel more comfortable shooting from a lower hieght with trad gear. Its much different than sights on a compound and from 20 feet up deer look pretty small and confidence can get rattled.

[TGbow]

Nothing wrong with a treestand. But, I think it's a myth that the deer wont smell you in a treestand.
If you think about it, where does your scent go while you're in a tree?
You would have to be 25-30 ft in the air for the deer not to smell you, and then the deer would have to be close to your stand with the wind blowing high enough over the deer.

[TGbow]

Another option for a couple , and folks that hunt with children is a pop up blind.
Set em up and brush em in, they will conceal some of your scent..to a degree.
I just hunt the wind the best I can, if it changes ,it changes..aint much you can do about swirling winds...in a tree or on the ground.

[Marshallrobinson]

Originally posted by LB_hntr:
Here is what i do for my wife when she hunts. Might help make it easier on her.

I dont use climbers at all and all we hunt is public land and go up and down each sit.
 Here is a video on my set up and how fast and easy it is.
   http://tbwpodcast.com/video-29-super-fast-way-to-hang-a-tree-stand/  

I put up the stand and sticks for her and attach a lifeline (a line attached the the top of the tree above the stand with a prusic knot that slides up and down the line with the bottom of the line attached to the bottom of the tree) she then connects her harness to the lifeline and climbes up and hunts. When i come back to get her after the hunt i pull everything down and leave with her.

Also a side note that might help. nobody needs to be 20' in a tree and with traditional equipment and the close ranges we want that angle will be very steep for shooting and not ideal. 12-16 feet is more than high enough. If the wind is gonna bust you at 14 feet its gonna bust you at 20 feet. Your wife might feel more comfortable shooting from a lower height with trad gear. Its much different than sights on a compound and from 20 feet up deer look pretty small and confidence can get rattled.

Agreed. I was saying before that people here get busted in trees due to the winds (which is true) but playing the thermals is much more important.
Also agree that the traditional bow does not lend itself to such steep angle shots and we are looking at 12-14 feet for those spots where we have located tree's to use.

Thanks for the link  

the linesman belt is the trick that I need to employ. couple of good tips in that video

[RC]

A treestand is not an escape from a deers nose but the chance is less that you will get busted by sight or smell. Anyone that does not believe this had not hunted from a stand much.A beginner needs all the advantage they can get early on till experience builds I would recommend hunting from a tree. The lone wolf rails/sticks and loc on are great and easy up and down. I use a woodpecker drill and loc on a lot as well as an open shot climber. RC

[Lefty]

You could buy just the top section of the lonewolf hand climber.  They are open in the front but have a strap you can sit on to sit and climb.

[Marshallrobinson]

Originally posted by Lefty:
You could buy just the top section of the lonewolf hand climber.  They are open in the front but have a strap you can sit on to sit and climb.

Will go to their site and look at this right now. Thanks  

[Marshallrobinson]

Originally posted by TGbow:
Another option for a couple , and folks that hunt with children is a pop up blind.
Set em up and brush em in, they will conceal some of your scent..to a degree.
I just hunt the wind the best I can, if it changes ,it changes..aint much you can do about swirling winds...in a tree or on the ground.

I have used blinds before and I would like to do this but while I have no issues shooting from a dog house blind, she does. It's a great suggestion to be sure and one that I may follow buy buying a larger blind for her. I am keeping all practical options open now.
Thanks

[Guru]

Originally posted by RC:
A treestand is not an escape from a deers nose but the chance is less that you will get busted by sight or smell. Anyone that does not believe this had not hunted from a stand much.A beginner needs all the advantage they can get early on till experience builds I would recommend hunting from a tree. The lone wolf rails/sticks and loc on are great and easy up and down. I use a woodpecker drill and loc on a lot as well as an open shot climber. RC

Exactly!!!  I use both of those myself.