Old Wooden stands

[LV2HUNT]

Whenever I see one I look over the area carefully because as others have said they are usually in a good location. Back in the day I fell climbing out of one because an old step gave way. I literally hobbled home and drove up and bought my first Loc-On Lem. I do not like to see new ones (because we now know better) but the old ones are a bit of nostalgia.

[joe ashton]

they always get my imagination going..  I also take a few minutes to study the set  up and try to understand why they picked this spot.  I want to learn everything I can...

[Buckskin57]

i heard about this old pick-up truck cab 20 ft. up in a tree in Adks.Mnts.n.y.pushed as tree grew up.Deep in woods, used as deer stand by old Mnt. man for years.People figure old shine runner truck.They say don't let him catch you in it he carrys rile!

[Ron+dog]

i hunt one that my grandfather built in 1950 or so over the years it has been repaired several times but its his land and always is good for game my dad uncles cousins and brothers all have shot somthing there

Maybe 20 years ago I thought permanant stands were an eyesore too.....however these days, when I run across one I will often just stand there for a few minutes, look around and try to imagine what the woods looked like back then.  To me they now represent a legitimate piece of history of what we call traditional archery.  Amazing how our perspective changes as we get older...

In my younger years I did build a few of 'em.  That is just what we did back then.  It is now illegal to do that in Michigan.  Prolly a good thing..

[Terry Lightle]

My cousin did not stay out of one ,broken back and sufferage ever since.Was not paralized but still suffering after many years.

[lpcjon2]

When I see a really good constructed old stand I put mine up close to it.Back in the day most of those cats had it going on,and they have always been good spots.

[Bobhat]

Back when I started hunting with my dad about 30 years ago that is all we used.  Nowadays I see remnants of old ones on some of the properties I hunt.  They bring back memories.  The ones I come across don't seem to be eyesores.  Infact I'd venture to guess most non-hunters passing through don't notice them.  A few on my primary land now are so high up that I didn't even notice a couple until after hunting the property a few years.  They were obviously gun stands and not bow though.

[moose eye levi]

My uncle and I plan on building one this summer.
It's a good way to hunt places you'd be afraid of putting up a movable stand, can't trust anyone.

[lpcjon2]

Check the laws for some states you cant build them anymore.

[joe ashton]

Yes, every time I see one I do pause to learn the lessons it has to offer.  It is there for a reason.  Is it a funnel, a bedding area, is h2o near. Where are the deer coming from/going too?  Why is it here.?  I can, in my minds eye, see a man in a red and black wool coat with a 30.30 sitting in it... waiting...patiently.

[hardwaymike]

I removed one this past summer that looked alot like the one in the pic. In its place I put in a steel ladder stand. I didn't get to hunt it much due to the wind and family stuff but I had a camera out there and I got a pic of the biggest buck and biggest doe I have seen on our property with that camera. So yeah I would say that they are there for a reason.

[highpoint forge]

I've come across them on the private places I hunt with a buddy (his land). He doesn't hunt "hard" or far like we do, instead he likes to hunt for about 2 hrs max, and stay close to his truck to drive back to the house in case he has to poo-poo or something (big 350# tough guy who can't go #2 in the woods and hates the dark...hilarious)...but I digress.... I scout around on foot and see stuff that is probably 30+ years old which nobody knows about since they never really go far from the 3-4 gun stands they now have on their 7000 acre place. I even found a fallen down cabin back in the woods that nobody knew about on another place they have that's about 1500-2000ac. I'm sure the smaller property has several old stands on it, and I'll GPS mark them to investigate the spots further. That small place is hi-fenced and it's breached in many places from limbs falling on it, etc. Some deliberate cuts too with roads close by.

Surely the "neighbors" make use of the place as NOBODY hunts it, save for ducks and the occasional hogs. They really fish there mostly and enjoy the house.

We were stalking hogs through a serious river bottom on the BIG place in Oct and in the middle of the thickest briars and crap on the place just about, there's a tall ladder stand and deer feeder with hog wire around it.

[wapiti792]

This I have also wondered! I even stop to take photos of every one I stumble across. It is magical to hang a stand in a new area and when the lights finally come on in the morning you have chosen a spot close to an old wood stand...makes me feel like that person did their scouting many moons ago and I get to hunt their spot  

[stiknstringer]

I have a buddy who climbed up into an old wooden stand few years ago way back in by a swamp.To make a long story short, we had to transport him to the er by chopper for his triple leg fracture.  

[finkm1]

I also always wonder who and when the stands were put up. Was it put up in the early 70's? I can some times picture the person in the stand with his brand new Bear Grizzly that was made in Grayling MI., waiting for his first chance at a whitetail.
Darryl Quidort wrote a good article in a Michigan magazine called Woods and Water about an old stand that he had put up years ago and harvested a few deer from. The article had a picture of the stand in the tree and both are on the ground, rotted out. After years of remembering the good times hunting from that stand he noticed some trees around the fallen tree had grown big enough to support a hang on stand. He hunted the area and harvested a Buck. Very interesting article...

[finkm1]

ttt...

[Hopewell Tom]

As a woodlot owner and woods worker, what those things mean to me is nails in the tree. And if it's a tree on my land and you did that, I'm not too pleased. As mentioned, they ARE a piece of litter in the woods and if you put it up, you should remove it when done. Fat chance. It's really hard to remove nails from a tree after a bunch of years. I hope I don't hit them with the saw or run over them with the skidder. "Ah, they'll just rust away." I'm finding more galvanized nails these days. Lumber is long gone, nails still look OK.
Also people come on our land and cut trees to build their stands and then can't understand why I get upset. "They're just some little trees." You aren't getting it - little trees grow into big ones and then we can cut them for a living.
I appreciate the nostalgia of the scene, but to me it's a real lack of respect for the land.
 I like the concept of Leave No Trace.

[Killdeer]

I shot my very first deer here, up in these cherries. The stand's remains are down in between the trunks. Only deer that I have ever taken from a tree.

When I started hunting, there were stands all over these woods. Evidently, the guys who built them don't come here anymore, for which I am pleased. The stands become somebody's "turf", and I found myself tippy-toeing around them, trying to avoid disturbing somebody's hunt. I did spend a lot of days up in various locations, though, which gave me a bird's eye view of travel patterns. Sometimes I miss sitting in them, but then I remember the cold, the butt-spasming hardness of the seat, especially in the waning hours of the day. I was always wanting to see what made that noise just over the ridge, too, and couldn't without doing the pack-it-up, lower it on the rope dance. Now I just stand up and investigate, and scare whatever it was into the neighboring state.

I have had some hunts ruined by folks barging in to build stands, too. Now, not only is it illegal to put them up, it is illegal to sit in them. That day is gone in the public woods. These days, I sometimes go to gaze at them, and remember the view, and former hunts.

Killdeer

[BRITTMAN]

My dad was old school and didnt believe in buying anything he didnt have to so I have alot of old wooden stands on my hunting land . Many good memories with my Dad and our old wooden stands , i miss him so much .