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How high do you like to climb

How high do you prefer to climb?

  • Total voters
    142
sdonx said:
I like the higher the better. I try for 30’ but the cover usually dictates my height. Even when gun hunting later in the year i get held down in some areas. I’ve been following the Hunting Public and they believe that those higher elevations lead to single lung hits. I am amazed at how low they setup. Like someone said earlier. Deer bust me all the time...hieghts my only answer.


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I don't really follow them, but I seem to recall that the hunting public hunted Alabama public land without much luck? Wanna say I read that on the ALdeer forum.

I firmly believe that deep south hunting is some of the hardest there is. I do believe that height helps when it comes to scent control, and if they're filming (more movement) and hunting low, I think they were definitely handicapped.

Single lung arrows kill more deer than quiver arrows.
 
Out of my treestands historically I hunt 20 feet, because that's how high my ladders went. I killed a ton of deer from 20' with no concerns. Last year with the saddle I took a buck from 30' , and a buck from 25'. I think with the saddle I'll be lookin to go higher as needed. I carry 6 WE stepps to get that 30' if I need to but if I can get away with 20' that's fine too. I actually scouted a spot that has a good run on my strong side and the tree's in the perfect spot to give me cover from approching deer, I'm thinkin I want to hunt that one low and get down and personal, maybe 10' or 15'.
 
Nutterbuster said:
I don't really follow them, but I seem to recall that the hunting public hunted Alabama public land without much luck? Wanna say I read that on the ALdeer forum.

I firmly believe that deep south hunting is some of the hardest there is. I do believe that height helps when it comes to scent control, and if they're filming (more movement) and hunting low, I think they were definitely handicapped.

Single lung arrows kill more deer than quiver arrows.
Click to expand...

You are dead on here Nut! I have followed those guys very closely and they are doing a fantastic job and I love watching them. But every time they see or kill deer they have tons more viewing area than I ever do. I can’t ever see a deer coming from more the 30 to 40 yards away and usually closer. I think because it’s so thick, these deer don’t take a step without stopping and gazing, looking for predators. Also if it’s before November you will be sweating with no breeze at all. Your scent is then falling straight down from the tree and spreading along the ground, probably about 30 yards out. That spells busted.


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Same methodology as @EricS 30’ pull rope not stopping until weapon is swinging. Obviously it is situation dependent as you cannot always reach that height. My reason for preferring this height is same as the ones already mentioned.
 
15-20 feet is my sweet spot in most cases but depending on available cover I will hunt under 10 feet if needed especially very early in the season when leaf cover really limits me. I tend to go higher as the season progresses and will even go over 20 feet after leaf drop.
 
I like the 20-25' ballpark. Unless I'm in some really open woods where I have a lot of tall straight trees, I may feel the need to go higher but most areas I go it's so thick that I'm lucky if I can shoot farther than 30 yds. Any higher than 25' I have a tendency to hit low. Only time I go lower is if I can find something like a cedar tree that provides good cover above and below me. But has a small enough opening where I can set up and still see/shoot around the tree well. At least that's what I always did with hang ons in them.
 
I usually get 15-20 early season and once leaves fall off I like to get 20-25.
 
Often, I find 18' - 22' to be my personal sweet spot ...some I'm between two zones a bit. Therefore, I selected 15' - 20', because I'm more likely to go to 15' than 25'.

More than height, I'm also looking for forked trees, branches, of clumps of trees together.
 
I will hunt, ever how high I need to, in a given situation. I have hunted trees in the bottoms, where my platform wasn't 8 feet off the ground. Hunting lower in the bottoms helps keep from being silouetted. I have hunted 30+ feet in the hills. I used to get just as high as I could, when I could. It took me wounding some nice bucks with single lung hits (I would literally rather gut shoot a deer than hit him in one lung), to realize the error of my ways. All else being equal, I prefer around 20 feet. That is with a bow. With a gun, I may be curled up in a brush pile or swaying around 40 feet up an old Hackberry.
 
FYI on some pros opinions - Zach from THP just said in a recent pod he usually stays pretty low. He said he intends on using a saddle to go up quick but bail on a spot and move on quickly this year. Also Cody D’quisto likes to stay pretty low at 8-15 feet if remember corretly. He says that is this mid range that they seem to ignore, ie they pick you off lower and higher but that is a sweet spot and I could see how that would be the case. He prefers a cedar at those low heights and says a cedar with a stand at that height should be in the dictionary next to the word “death” lol!

I am 16-18 usually but I’ve always been in a stand but I get picked off a lot. I’m an idiot and only been hunting 4 years and I only just figured out I need to worry about cover lol. But I’ve killed deer!

FYI
 
That Zach dude is the reason I unsubscribed.

I might be 8’ today, 22’ tomorrow, 16’ the day after that.....I want THAT tree in THAT spot so whatever height THAT calls for is where I’ll be.
 
20-25 is my sweet spot. At times, I may go higher but heights are not my favorite and I also don't feel like I'm where i need to be if Ii'm below that either
 
Also Cody D’quisto likes to stay pretty low at 8-15 feet if remember corretly. He says that is this mid range that they seem to ignore, ie they pick you off lower and higher but that is a sweet spot and I could see how that would be the case. He prefers a cedar at those low heights and says a cedar with a stand at that height should be in the dictionary next to the word “death” lol!

FYI[/QUOTE]

Thats very interesting, about the middle height?


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Like South Paw Shooter, I too only go to about to between 15 to 18 feet and try to keep my shot inside of 20yds.
 
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