your thoughts on stand elevation ??

[gendoc]

some folks have there favorites but at distances, 20ft high becomes 10 inches
to eye sight level.............

thick cover is one thing but average shots from bows and even rifles need
some clearing.

ok, 30yrds from tree....20' high becomes 2ft at eye sight level

sure if the whitetail is directly under your tree will not likely look up to see you.

but at a distance, they can see you (if you move) at any height within reason.

so high climbers or lock ons are good but there just as good as a ground blind,
if you have done your homework and studied these critters..........

[Riflemanz]

@20' I put my 355 crosshairs dead on and shoot.

[gendoc]

@20' I put my 355 crosshairs dead on and shoot.

im talking about elevation of stand height, not hold over aiming........

[xcaliber]

X2!

[georgiaboy]

I try to climb between 18-20ft...depends on how thick the cover is.
Sometimes in these thick jawga swamps i'm not to far above eye level. In those situations i make sure i have plenty of cover around me.
I just aim dead nutz & sling some carbon!!

[munch]

make all my ladderstands 16 feet but my climber is about 18 feet most times . most deer i shoot are at 8 to 10 yards from the tree when i shoot them .i read a story once that said the average deer was shot at 17 yards .im sure if you added all mine up and divided it it would be less than 17 ,i try to be patient and wait

[Pasidewinder]

The height i go up depends on the cover and the area i am hunting. Due to an injury at work back in 08, i can no longer use a climbing stand. It took me a while to get over that.

Ever since it has been lock ons or ground blinds, i try to find a pine tree in the area that i hunt for setting up my lock ons, they give good cover all season long and height is not so important then. I have in some occasions found myself at 30 foot up in a tree in open timber in a lock on, i actually do like being up high like that but you do have to practice close shots from that high up.

So in a nutshell, depending on the cover availible, the sky is the limit

[robertyb]

I usually climb to the end of my rope which is 30'. I have climbed trees in food plots with no cover at all and have rarely been busted by a deer. Don't move, play the wind correctly and you will be fine.

[frisky]

My ladder stand is 10 feet tall . Works good for me. I have been busted a few times, but I still get a crack at a buck once a year.

[gendoc]

My ladder stand is 10 feet tall . Works good for me. I have been busted a few times, but I still get a crack at a buck once a year.

and the high-up folks can't say they have never been busted, if they do.......

[wabi]

There are 2 or 3 20' ladder stands out on the farm I hunt. Reason I'm not sure of the count is that I don't use them! I stick to my 2-man ladder (12' to the foot platform). It has a shooting rail around it, and a camo "skirt" on the rail.
I'm very comfortable in that stand (room to move around a little) and I've seldom been "busted" in that stand.

I get what you're saying. If a deer is 200 yards away looking at it, a 12' stand or a 20' stand is still just above the ground on the horizon the deer is seeing.

One of the few times I've been busted in my stand was when a huge old doe (I Do mean HUGE - she was bigger then most bucks around here) crossed the creek about 175 yards away and looked right at me! I mean she topped out on the creek bank, looked my direction and headed for the thick woods as soon as she looked! The only other time I saw her she walked out in a bean field about 250 yards from me (where other deer were already feeding) stuck her nose in the air, looked my direction, and took off running!

[rolltide]

Lock on 20-25 ft
Ladder 15 ft
Climber at least 20 ft

[roly]

I'm at 20ft in an old cedar tree

Good height and cover, I also like a
big ole pine tree too.

With the cedar I just pinch a few of the greens and you get instant scent cover

[bobcattrapper]

I use ladder stands.I take out one section and put em up.That is about 10 to 12 ft high.Have deer go right under me and all around.Just don't move when they are looking around toward ya..I don't think I could find a straight enough tree to go up much farther anyway where I hunt.Sure I can find a better tree but its never where I want to be.I think I seen once on the outdoor channel they brought in a telephone pole to use before season for the no tree problem but I'm not going to do that.So y'all have fun in your 30ft stands.While I will still keep on peeing off my 10 ft stands and the deer don't seem to mind.

[Lake shooter]

My pull up line is about 22' before knots on either end, and I prefer to be that high. Having said that, the public ground that I hunt has few trees that allow one to go that high, are in the right spot and are the correct diameter for long stay comfort.

I can remember reading many deer hunting articles as a kid where the author flatly stated that "deer don't look up"! Well, that may have been the case for most of them back in the 60's, but at least where I hunt, that's total BS!!!

I've been busted by a 2 good bucks who were upwind and just happened to stop and look up. I was dead still, dead quiet and fully comoed, including face mask. They didn't hang around and do the head bob deal, they were out of there! On hard hunted public ground, those that make it past 3 seasons have quite the education! Sometimes a little luck (hope they don't look up) goes a long way.