leaving your climber at the base of the tree?

[ozy clint]

does any one leave their climber at the base of the tree till next hunt? do you find it spooks game out of the area? i've got a spot picked out for fallow deer. i can hunt there at anytime after work, (i work on the property) just wondering what your experiences are with leaving it on the tree ready to climb for next time. i'm not concerned with having it stolen, heck most people here in oz think your crazy when you say tree stand. most wouldn't know what they're looking at if they stumbled upon it.

[Pullonmylimb]

I think it becomes like any other stand that you hang long term.  The longer you leave it the more it becomes part of the area.  With initial set up the more scent free the better.

[piggy]

Clint I don't know if this helps but I have a tree stand set up for about 2 years now and an aluminium extension ladder going from the ground up to the stand, the deer still come out and have found scats at the base of the ladder.
Like all things in their environment in time they just accept it as part of their environment.

however if the deer are used to seeing it at the base of the tree and come along when it's not there they may be on alert to the change in their environment and take an alternate path.

[Hoyt]

I do it and have killed many deer doing it that way.
However, I much prefer to take it off when I get down and carry it a hundred yds or so, hide it and pick it up on the way in next time I hunt the area and set it up again.

I just beleave that some deer will walk by it right after I have sat in it for hrs. and smell my scent, then avoid the area. The ones I kill probably didn't walk by it.

[KentuckyTJ]

I think its a bad idea to leave it. Especially if you are hunting mature animals. In fact even hunting the same tree time after time is a bad idea unless there are weeks between sits.

[ron w]

Unless your in an area that you have all to your self [few and far between] I would be more concerned about getting there and the stand be missing.I know to many people that have had there tree stands stolen right in the prime of the hunt!

[Badwithabow]

I used to but I think it depends I like to get in there with em in the thickets or edge of em atleast no farther than I have to from the bedding area. In my mind if I did get used to seeing somethin on the ground and its not there I'm goin to start lookin for it, and we all know the first place deer look lol. Again it works no doubt but to me confidence in a set is key I feel confident bringing mine in and out every sit even if I'm goin back in the mornin. The last thing I want to do is change their habits. Now I'm only 27 but this has changed the amount of deer and good deer I see.

[Rick McGowan]

Animals notice anything new in their living area, I left a stand a couple feet off the ground and the next morning a black bear had taken a HUGE dump right under it! I use ladderstands in small woods and virtually everytime I put one up or move it, whitetails will walk right up to it after dark and leave tracks all around, at least SOME of those have me spotted, before I have ever used the stand and will watch that tree from a distance. Most places around here, its not an issue, the stand will be stolen OR at least, I will have given my hunting spot away and a lot of hunters "scout", by using the spots others have found. Its not that big of a deal to put the stand on the tree after its been adjusted, so I prefer to move it a short distance away and hide it in the weeds.

[Scott Teaschner]

The number one reason I would not do that is just the noise alone. If you can use steps or sticks or a ladder I would. There is no way to climb a tree quietly with a climber stand and if there is game around they will hear it. Big Whitetails are so easy to disturb that I would never take that kind of chance. But maybe Fallow Deer have the brain the size of a squirrel but I doubt it.

[3arrows]

I use a cable and lock and move stand to a place where deer or people won't pass.But don't over hunt the same tree.Stay too many times deer will find you out.

[BEN]

I have often left a climber on the tree over night when I plan on hunting the same spot the next morning. Esp. during the early season when hunting public land and trying to figure out travel patterns....

I have seen deer up close multiple times and no sign of spooking them......racoons have used platform as a eating platform too, as well--maybe their 'cover scent" helps me out..  

[don s]

back when i used a treestand. i would leave my climber at the base of the tree so i didn't have to carry it in the next day and have to set it up in the dark. it didn't seem to bother the whitetails where i hunted. i was on private land and i left in the dark and returned the next day in the dark. because of this, i was not worried about theft. you say you are not worried about theft, so, my opinion is leave it. don

[lt-m-grow]

BTW:  I use climbers almost exclusively.

I think it is a bad idea as well.   IMO there is a big difference with a climber versus ladder, climbing sticks, tree steps etc. and that is you leave a lot of your scent on the stand and now  you bring it to the ground for all the animals to investigate.  And they do. So getting used to it doesn't count as sometimes it is almost scent free and sometimes it stinks of people.

And as mentioned previously, you also don't want to sit the same tree over and over.  So even if you choose to move, you would be walking into you "old" stand to get the climber and move it leaving your scent trail in and out.

Modern climbers frankly aren't that heavy or bulky to not bring in and out every time, or at least that is my theory.

Good luck.

[Don Stokes]

I don't use climbers any more, but when I did I preferred to leave it in the woods rather than carrying it in and out, because in the thick woods I hunt, you just can't carry an aluminum stand without lots of metallic noise from rubbing on bushes.

Sometimes I moved the stand away from the tree to a hiding place, and sometimes I just pushed the stand up the tree as high as I could reach, to elevate the scent and get it out of direct line of vision from ground level.

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

I used to share hunting privileges to a five-acre woodlot with a local gentleman who always left his climber at the base of one tree or another. The last year I hunted there he set up two yards off the main deer trail. That November I shot a deer on that trail from a different tree 20 yards away. The funny thing is I actually shot over his stand that was on the ground, only a few feet from the deer.

His stand didn't bother the deer in that woodlot one bit. But a similar situation in another area may have different results.

[Orion]

I've done it a time or two.  No ill effects as far as I can tell.  However, before leaving the tree, I raise the climber and stand platform as high as I can and leave it hanging above my head.  They may still smell it, but less likely to know where the small is coming from. I don't do this day after day, however.  That just wears out the stand site.  Like Don S, I only do it when I plan to hunt the same place the next morning.  Very seldom that I hunt the same location two days in a row, however.

[Pope Co.]

I agree with a lot of things I read on this thread. I have several thoughts I'll add, I hope they help.

James C. Kroll says the best way to see and harvest mature bucks is by using Climbers. Identify the "Non-rut" travel pattern way before season, stay away until the day you hunt and go in with your climber. He says mature bucks key in on ladder stands.

One guy said don't use a spot to often. I agree. I did a lot of research on scent and how to reduce as much of it as possible. One of the things I learned about was "dander". No matter how de-scented you think you are there is this thing called dander falling off of you all the time. The dander leaves scent. Mature bucks will figure this out. If you have a "honey-hole" don't use it to often or it will not be your "honey-hole" for long.

One guy said climbers are noisy. He is right, but you probably shouldn't be setting up within earshot of the sancturary of the "thirty point buck".

My last thought. I like climbers and when I got trophies on my mind I use them. But, trees that you can use a climber on don't have much cover. They have a clean trunk. I've seen mature bucks peep through some cover and  stand motionless for twenty minutes just watching for movement. You have to be very careful about your movement on climbers.

For stealth, I like snakesticks and strap-ons with limbs below me. Like a good post oak. And I have several setups out. If there is a place that I just became aware of I want to hunt then I take my climber out.

[jamesh76]

I have one that has been on a tree for at least 2 years now. I have moved it so that the tree does not grow into it but I have not even used it.........I need to go take it down.

[Huntingnut]

I do it all the time,killed quite a few deer in the process.There has been a few times I haven't even pulled my bow up yet, and have had deer coming.So you can definitely use a climber quietly if you are proficient with it.

[Hoyt]

I've also had deer, hogs and turkeys walk up on me while I was in process of climbing trees with different brands of climbers. If I happen to scrape the tree a little too hard I'll stop and scratch my fingers on the bark making noise like a wood pecker makes when digging for bugs.