The worst Treestand you ever had?

[JMR]

Its funny how you work so hard getting up the tree with the stand and one portion or another of the stand will go back down the tree without you so easily! We are probably all lucky we don't walk with a limp or worse.lol

[Ron LaClair]

My tree hunting was before tree stands. I carried a length of rope to throw over the lowest limb and then pull myself up. I use to like to climb as high as I could and stand on a limb or in a crotch, putting my weight on one foot and shifting feet when my foot went to sleep. Then I got smart and started nailing short lengths of 2X4 on the limb. I never even thought about a safety belt the Good Lord must have been watching over me..        

When the Baker stands came out it made hunting from trees a little easier..although you did have to mind your p's and q's with those man trap's..    :eek:

[KentuckyTJ]

Can you imagine the lawsuits today???

[Widow's Son]

I think of two things when remembering those home-made scrap lumber deer stands. Wasp nests and rotten lumber. How in the world did we ever survive.

[Adam S. Daugherty]

The only good thing about bakers is all the time hunting with them you were expecting a fall which i think prepared many of us to survive the fall.  I remeber when I started bowhunting getting that thing down from the shed from where dad had done retired it.  Made me a climbing rope to use with it.  Spent about 20 minutes to get 12 feet up, so damn tired couldnt pull a bow back if I wanted to.  Worked up so much sweat that squirrels were winding me.  Froze to death from the sweat.  It had to be a blustery 40 degrees.  Sit there afraid to move.  Finally a slick head came down the trail from the next county over (no way anything within mile radius didn't spook during the climb)  doe was approaching started to stand to ready myself.  Stand sqeaked, doe went on alert and started to circle to get wind.  I tried to reposistion to follow her, stand began its decent, i hugged tree to ground to save life.  Man those bakers were sure fun.  However I did finally kill several deer from that old stand.  used some tree steps to climb, fastened it to a tree with some 12 inch spikes.  Never took it down.  Last I heard squirrels had built a nest in it, but it fell when the littles ones were playing in the next and all got on tree side of nest.  Here is the best thing about an ol baker.  People still get $15 for them every year in a yard sale.  Gotta love it.

[riverrat 2]

       

[Flatshooter]

How many of you guys had the experience of struggling up a tree only to realize you forgot something on the ground??? That's when I invented the barbless treble hook on a string retriever.

[Big Ed]

Baker's bring back floods of memories!!

[Stinger]

I'm with pavan.  I used a Baker for several years and only ever slid down the tree once.  I was young, stupid and very lucky however.  I took the Baker apart about 7 years ago so nobody could use it and put it in the trash.  

The first "portable" stand we ever had was one that my grandfather built for us in about 1965.  He was a blacksmith and built everything to last.  It was made of iron and really heavy.  It had these 4 long metal rods that ran from the end of the platform that were supposed to stick in the tree.  The part that went near the trunk looked like a collar.  I wish I had a picture of that thing.  It was so bad that after testing it out in the backyard, we never used it.

Back in the day before portables I climbed into many trees and sat on the limbs or stood on 2X4's nailed between a couple of branches.  The first deer I ever shot was from one of those that could not have been a foot wide and 2 feet long and must have been 25 feet up in the tree.

[Rick Richard]

Yeah, I remember the old Baker stands and me sliding down those slick cypress trees we had in the swamps in Lousiana.

[Owlmagnet]

It's funny how amusing picking pine bark out of your belly seems when 35 years, or so, have gone by....

One time I was using a buddy's home-made, Baker-type climber. It was HUGE because we were hunting an area where the Eastern White Pines  were so big, a regular Baker wasn't wide enough to get around the trunk. And brother, we hunted high enough to get a nosebleed from the change in altitude!

After an unproductive hunt, I hugged the tree to start down and immediately lost the stand. I swear that stand didn't touch that tree all the way down. I just heard the crash when it hit bottom, leaving me clinging to a trunk I couldn't get my arms around!

It wasn't painless and it wasn't pretty, but somehow, I made it down. I'm sure I didn't leave much more than a pound of hide on that tree.

I cannot believe I lived through my early tree stand phase. Thanks for the memories....

[Widow's Son]

Owl, that story gave me the shivers. Never personally burned a tree with a Baker but I've had some real OMG moments with them. Thank God for the new climbing stands.

Ross

[Hoyt]

Back when I started deer and hog hunting it was still illegal to hunt from trees in some states. Homemade portables weren't out yet, so I just climbed trees and stood or sat on a good limb.

The first treestands I remember were what we called "Permanent Stands" nailed or tied to the trees.

Then we started building what we called portable stands. First one I had I bought from a guy who was building the best around and paid $25.00 for it. Piece of plywood fastened to a basketball rim with sharp studs welded to the back. Used a chain to attach it to the tried. It also had a piece of pipe with a round seat on top, fastened to the plywood with floor flange. The round seat fastened with a floor flange also and the pipe was threaded so you could swivel all around when sitting on it.

We used pole climbers we would bum from friends who worked at the power co.

My one and only Baker didn't have a seat or climbing section...had to hug the tree. Only stand so far I almost fell with. Left it hooked to a tree in Ocala, Forest.

[wisconsinteacher]

I had 2 Bakers that were given to me.  I took the quick ride down one time and when I got my Lone Wolf my dad asked what should I do with your stands in the basement?  I said take them to work and cut them in half.  He said what about the kid next door just starting to hunt.  That is when I told him the quick ride stories and he understood why I said cut them up.

[bretto]

The first " Climbing Stand " I ever saw was a Baker knock off called a Tree Frog. My hunting buddy bought one in the late 70's.

He wanted to show it off so he climbed the phone pole in front of our house. He climbed to around 20 feet or so and then turned around to act like he was shooting his bow. When he stepped back to act like he was shooting below him he stepped in towards the pole causing the platform to release and free fall. It got about 3 feet off the ground and grabbed again acting like a spring board.

It catapulted him at least 10 feet in the air!! Luckily he wasn't hurt. After we were through laughing we had to cut the stand off the pole with a hacksaw. A $100.00 lesson on climbing treestands.

bretto

[Orion]

Didn't have a hand climber, but hugged the tree with a Baker back in the day.  Usually put an elastic cord from arm to arm and around the trunk to hold it in place once I got into position.  Never had one drop from under me once I got it set up.

Opening day of gun season many years ago, we had a sleet storm the evening before.  I shinnied up that tree, and slid back down again, three times before I finally got it set.  I was younger, stronger and probably more persistent then.  Stupid also comes to mind.  Anyway, I'm still here to tell about it.  

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Glad that we are all still in one piece after using equipment like that.     :eek:

[gregg dudley]

I never hunted this stand, but it was on a lease I had.  I never went by it without shaking my head.  It has an old swivel seat rolling office chair on top.  It was a death trap the day it was made.

 

[Friend]

For me, tree limbs and a single 2x4 were actually worse than the Baker. However the Baker was still an experience I care not to relive.

2 X 12 Wedges were far better.

[ChuckC]

Even Bakers could be made safer by simply adding a strap around thetop and the tree.   But they were fun.

Bear had a stand that was actually pretty sturdy, but it had heavy metal points that really dug into the tree.  Hunting public ground, they were. . .  well  , , ,  an issue.

I had another,  can't recall the name,  with a round ball earing swivel seat.  Quiet as all get out, 'cept when you turn one way or the other and it almost throws you off the stand.

Heck, those were the good ol days, when you tied a rope around the tree and you to stay safe.
ChuckC