Use Climbing Stands To Improve Your Hunt

It’s just after 5 a.m. and I’m waiting for dawn in one of the most comfortable climbing stands I’ve ever used.  The frosty air is clear and crisp and the only thing I can hear is the slight rustle of the breeze through the fall leaves.  The pre-dawn sky is a mesmerizing display of stars and I settle happily in to wait and see what the day brings.

Climbing Stands Put You Above the Action

I’ve hunted for most of my life.  I’ve been in hunts on foot, by boat, and by horseback.  I know what it’s like to be hidden in a clump of bushes and hear a big buck just 20 yards away, but because of my low elevation I can’t get a clear shot.

I first tried climbing stands a few years ago and my only regret is that I didn’t do it earlier!  Being up where you can see more clearly (and where you’re not in the line of sight of your game) makes a huge difference.  I’ve had fewer animals spook before I could get a clear shot by using a climbing stand.

Climbing Stands Improve Your Hunting Experience

In addition to improving the outcome of your hunt, climbing stands improve your experience!  They are more comfortable than crouching in the bushes.  You can get a comfortable seat, up away from the moisture and some of the pests that inhabit the forest floor, and wait the long hours for that perfect shot to present itself.  You stay warmer in the winter because you don’t have snow melting and getting in your shoes and clothes, and cooler in the summer because you’re up high where you can catch a nice breeze instead of being stuck down on the ground where terrain and smaller foliage block the wind.

If you’ve never tried hunting from a climbing stand, you’ve never truly hunted.  Why lose more shots because the bushes are in the way?  Why sit for hours in the mud, letting leeches and other such things crawl into your clothing?  Why gaze longingly at the breeze moving through the treetops and wish it were moving down at ground level?

Try a climbing stand today.  You won’t regret it.