I scouted some public land today and went by this old stand. I seen this stand probably 15 yrs ago but didn't have my cell phone with me to take a pic of it. I looked around at the base of the tree for human remains. LOL…
Old treestand
- Thread starter Rackseeker
- Start date
Just sit on the bluff. 
Kinda what I thought.Just sit on the bluff.
When we first leased the property in Lewis Co. someone had made some really good permanent stands in several places but those things must of been 30 ft .high . I got in one and once I set down in it I got kinda paranoid. Killed a coyote in it and got down before it got dark simply because I was afaid to climb down in the dark 
If scared say your scared ..." SCARED " .
If scared say your scared ..." SCARED " .Winchester
Well-Known Member
Old permanent stands use to be everywhere it seems. I used to see them frequently all over both Private and public lands that obviously had been hunted for decades, but it seems to me most have now rotted down and are gone. I dont see near as many as I once did when I was younger. I have made some sits as a young man in some of these old stands that never should have happened, literal death traps and I got in them with no safety harness or belt many many times as a youngster. Killed a lot of deer out of them actually but all I can say is the Good Lord was looking out for me!!!!
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Same. Don't know how I didn't fall from any of them. Some were tiny and I'd just sit on the platform. We still have quite a few dangling from trees on our place that we built 25 years ago. Some are somehow still hanging on from the 80's. Love seeing them though and good locations to set up near
First deer I ever killed I was sitting on a 2X8 nailed across two cedar limbs about 20' up.
Me as well .
Urban_Hunter
Well-Known Member
I have about two dozen really nice tall walnuts on my place. Every. Single. One. Of those suckers has some sort of old stand nailed up in it.
Bone Collector
Well-Known Member
exactly.... that is a big ole NOPE for me.Just sit on the bluff.
killingtime 41
Well-Known Member
I love seeing old stands. I wonder who and when. And how many deer were killed out of those things over the years. Me and everyone I know that hunted. Never even thought about a safety harness. I personally never knew anyone that fell and got hurt. And nobody I hunted with knew anyone. Not really till social media stories. Only getting older and a little smarter did I start using one.and reading posts about safety. I don't know if they even existed 30 years ago.
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
We made a few here and there up until about 10 or 12 years ago. Thats all there was when I was a kid and 90 percent of them they were sketchy, uncomfortable and my paw paw thought we needed to be at bare minimum 25 ft up. I still hunt pretty high. Its fun to look back at memories.
Used to have an old wooden stand built up in a tree on my property years ago. It's been gone, rotted away, for some 30 years now I guess. But it did signal a very good travel corridor for the deer in the area moving between properties. 
I have a couple loc on stands within sight of it when the leaves are all off the trees even.
I have a couple loc on stands within sight of it when the leaves are all off the trees even.BSK
Well-Known Member
When my family first bought our place, there were permanent stands all over. And whoever put them up, knew their stuff. Great locations. We hunted from them for years and killed a lot of deer from them. Made a few ourselves out of 2x4s. Remnants from a few of those are still hanging in trees. In fact, we still use them as place names. If someone says "Old Stand #3" everyone knows where that person is talking about.
swampbadger
Well-Known Member
There was a very old deer stand behind my aunts house that I used to hunt when I was college aged. My uncle had a younger brother and we would both deer hunt from it. It was the sketchiest stand I've ever been in.
It was an old radio antenna. I remembered the 3 legged structure had crisscrossed rungs. The make shift ladder was leaned into a crook of massive oak tree. It was tied at the top with only a piece of bailing rope, so it wobbled.
When you got to the top, (about 35 feet up) you had to keep one foot on the top rung of the antenna. Then crawl and bear hug the first big limb. It was probably 10 inches in diameter, then had a bit of a straddle then grab the bare wooden platform and pull yourself up onto it.
The platform was maybe 2-3ft by 2-3ft and about the size of a small couch cushion. Your feet would dangle in the breeze and I never used a harness in those days. I kept my rifle in my lap and felt comfortable after I got set.
Killed a handful of does out of it. Looking back it was very dangerous. No way I'd try that nowadays without a harness clipped in.
Things were different back then!
It was an old radio antenna. I remembered the 3 legged structure had crisscrossed rungs. The make shift ladder was leaned into a crook of massive oak tree. It was tied at the top with only a piece of bailing rope, so it wobbled.
When you got to the top, (about 35 feet up) you had to keep one foot on the top rung of the antenna. Then crawl and bear hug the first big limb. It was probably 10 inches in diameter, then had a bit of a straddle then grab the bare wooden platform and pull yourself up onto it.
The platform was maybe 2-3ft by 2-3ft and about the size of a small couch cushion. Your feet would dangle in the breeze and I never used a harness in those days. I kept my rifle in my lap and felt comfortable after I got set.
Killed a handful of does out of it. Looking back it was very dangerous. No way I'd try that nowadays without a harness clipped in.
Things were different back then!
TheLBLman
Well-Known Member
It was because of those old stands, I once thought I was extra smart when I ordered a genuine "Buck Rope" from Cabela's. This greatly pre-dated today's safety harnesses.
Anybody else reading this thread thinking about Catman? My goodness he caught a lot of grief over his stand he built!
cjmt29
Well-Known Member
My brother and I wonder all the time how we didn't die from the stands we used to hunt. Most of the time it was a pallet in the top of a tree with railroad spikes as your ladder. Had one that was an old Baker stand about 30' high with no shooting rail around you of course. I always knew my dad was a MAN, but never realized how much of one until I tried to do some of the things I saw him do. We had the bright idea we would build one like we used to hunt out of several years ago. Both my brother and I in our prime at the time, we thought we'd have it up in no time. We got about 8' off the ground with the railroad spikes and realized that type of stand wasn't as cool as we thought. I wouldn't trade those days for nothing, though. We had a couple of guys that hunted with us that used climbers and would climb up in the top of a tree and sit on a limb. Eventually, they got fancy and put a 2x6 across the limb. I never was that brave. Thanks to @Rackseeker for starting this thread. You brought back some great memories. I'll try to get a few pics of "days gone by" stands the next time I'm out!!!
BSK
Well-Known Member
Urban_Hunter
Well-Known Member
That was my first thought.
We used to find double and triple trunk trees and make permanent stands in them. We nailed 2x4s up as steps. The platforms at the top were always well built and wrapped in Inland(paper mill) felt. We used those all the time until one juvenile morning. My dad started to climb down and the step gave way as he put his weight on it. I watched him fall about 17 ft. Somehow all it did was knock the wind out of him.
From then on we no longer hunted from those kind of stands. He welded up homemade ladder stands for us.
From then on we no longer hunted from those kind of stands. He welded up homemade ladder stands for us.
Yea, I have built some dandies back in my younger years myself, but nothing as stupid as the one in the pic. I enjoy finding old built stands way off the beaten path. As others said a lot of times there in good spots. I usually average 70 miles of hiking/scouting after season every year until green up and snakes come out. When I was a teenager, we had a built stand in a big oak right on the edge of a bluff. It was probably 30 ft. up to the platform. The steps were those big 12" nails. I hunted it one morning and a thick fog rolled in and the temp dropped below freezing. I could still see the gap in the bluff, so I sat there way to long for the conditions. The old plywood platform and steps froze over. I liked to have never got down out of that stand, that was the last time I hunted out of built stand.
We used to get fiberglass grating they couldn't use at the place we worked to make permanent stands out of . We'd wedge it in a tree fork and use bracing of some sort to fasten to the tree limbs . Most didn't have seats because we would just stand . As we got older though I started making seating because I couldn't stand all day like when we were younger . Those stands where still there after about 20 years or so , matter of fact my best producing stand was a permanent we had built . The tree would just grow around the grating making it just that much more stable . Bought an old homemade tree stand at a yard sell once that was metal just to hang around the tree for a seat . That fiberglass grating I bet is still there . Those were high class permanent stands in the day .
Young and dumb. I found a stand on Carter mountain years ago. About 30 ft high. Tree has holes drilled into it and I looked around and found the bag of metal pipes that you plug into holes as you go up they had hid. Used it twice and each time it scared the crap out of me coming down as you remove the pipes as you go down.
348Winchester
Well-Known Member
There was a sh!tty old stand in a forked tree on a place we used to hunt in Hancock County. It was a consistent producer. I got stung on the face by a yellowjacket in that stand. My cousin walked up on a local red that was hunting from it one morning. When he climbed into it that evening the dude had crapped in the stand, wiped with a pair of purple bikini underwear, and hung them from the nail.
themanpcl
Well-Known Member
lol that ain't going anywhere....
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Are y'all sure that is not just a Baker that someone fell out, died and it is just still there?
I can show you a frame still in a tree from one that I hunted out of many years ago.
I went from a Baker that I found, to a Summit. What a difference.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I had a Baker climbing stand, and still have the scars to prove it! ;)
First one i built was from stuff I cut green near by about as big as a golfball, I put it in a "V" tree with steps going up like a ladder. That stuff was splitting before i got to nailing it in place, it was shaky from day one and luckily I never fell from it.
