Tree Standing Versus Stalk Hunting for a Buck
Day 3: What Kinds of Tree Stands and How Many Do You Need
 Most hunters consider the type of tree stand a woodsman chooses to hunt from as personal as the kind of shorts he wears. Although I’m bound to make folks mad, here’s my opinion and what I’ve learned from my research with other hunters much more knowledgeable than myself. The ladder type of stand provides the easiest, quietest access to a tree of any stand on the market. You can take a ladder stand into the woods, strap it onto a tree and leave there until the hunter’s ready to hunt. Then when the outdoorsman goes into the forest to take his stand and wait on a buck to show-up, he’ll not make any of the noises associated with portable, climbing tree stands. But the ladder stand with all of its advantages also has disadvantages. The hunter gives up portability and height control – because when using a ladder stand he can’t climb any higher in the tree than the ladder permits.
 With a portable tree stand, the hunter can take the stand into the woods, put it where he wants it and then when he’s through hunting, climb down out of the tree, and carry his stand with him. However, a hunter will make a great deal of noise going up and down trees. Many times he’ll spook the very deer he’s attempting to take. The hunter can use the lock-on limb type of stand to lock onto the trunk of the tree and leave it in the woods - attached like a ladder stand. By utilizing either screw-in or belt-on steps, the outdoorsman can climb to his perch and hunt the same place for several days. Or, he can carry the stand to another location, attach it to the tree and hunt there for a couple of days.
 The amount of control you have over the land you hunt often will dictate the kind of tree stand you use. If you put up a ladder stand in the woods, and everybody in the region hunts out of that stand, then you’ll only have a slim chance of taking a deer from that stand. If you control the land and hunt from the ladder stand exclusively yourself, then this type of stand may provide the very-best perch for your hunting.
How Many Tree Stands Do You Need?
I’m convinced that no tree-stand hunter can hunt effectively unless he hunts from more than one tree stand. A consistent deer hunter must expect the unexpected. If you’re hunting in a tree stand, and the wind changes directions and blows your scent into your hunting area, you can remain in that region. But you probably won’t bag a buck, because your scent will warn the deer not to come there. Or, you can leave that place, go to another stand site where you have a favorable wind and increase your odds of bagging a buck by perhaps 100 percent.
 Since weather conditions and hunting pressure affect deer and can change drastically from one day to the next, the sportsman who has only one stand to hunt out of really restricts his odds of taking a deer. But the outdoorsman who has several, well-placed tree stands that he can move quickly to, greatly can increase his odds of bagging a buck, when and if the conditions change while he’s hunting.
Successful tree stand hunting - an exacting sport - requires the hunter to know where the deer should feed, where he needs to place his stand, who else may hunt from his stand, which stand is the best stand at that time and when to change stands as hunting conditions change. A consistent deer hunter from a tree stand, whether with a bow or a gun, must think carefully and have the patience to effectively use this method to harvest whitetails.
Tomorrow: The Whys and Wheres of Stalking Deer
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