[quote=devnull]Here's a couple we just put up. Sorry for the sideways image. The first one took much more time to build as it was my first one to construct. I learned a lot and my next one will be modular.
Don't know why you went to all that trouble building that camo one when you already had that fine one behind it on site.
Pappy, Good eyes. The one behind it was ran into by my father-in-law with the bucket on the tractor. It in turn became unusable and hasn't been used for some years.
When I think about the ones we used to climb into in the bad old days, it makes my blood run cold. Most were totally made from saplings cut on-site, nailed together. Doubt if the Tree Stand Police would approve.
My generation started carting in pre-cut plywood platforms and eventually 2x4 supports and steps, but it was considered a bit radical and certainly wasteful by the oldsters. The last one I built, here in WV used those galvanized braces they sell for building decks. Very cozy and strong, but almost as pricey as discounted ladder stands.
Better staple the bottom or your bloomers will be flapping in the wind. I used some of that in my two-person ladder last season, tied to the shooting rail. Kept my foot on it on windy days.
Got a couple collapsable screen setups to use with folding chairs this year for days when the wind's not right or I just don't feel like strapping in 17 feet up.
I tried hunting from a duck blind many years ago, couldn't take the sitting! But now I'm old and thinking a nice blind with an easy chair and cooler might be a good idea! :-)
Better staple the bottom or your bloomers will be flapping in the wind. I used some of that in my two-person ladder last season, tied to the shooting rail. Kept my foot on it on windy days.
Copy that, Pappy!
Starting about 10 years ago, I seriously started working on what was the best way to put a camo skirt on a shooting rail. Burlap? Die-cut? What I found was the best bang for the buck was Camo Burlap with black landscape fabric backing. The latter was there to keep the sun from back-lighting you.
So there I was with my new-found knowledge, sitting in a buddy ladderstand on the Opener, a big buck popped out at 400 yards and took one look my way and VOOOOM! He lit the afterburners and ran. All he could have seen was the top of my head-- at 400 yards it would be a flyspeck. Then I looked down and the burlap was blowing in the breeze! He'd picked up on the movement. SInce then, I've made sure to tie-off the burlap to the back of the stand with electrical ties.
BTW: That's how I put my skirts on a buddy stand. I first put round pipe insulation all the way around the shooting rail, afixed with electrical ties and then use the burlap and landscaping fabric over that. The pipe insulation acts as a padded rifle rest.
Better staple the bottom or your bloomers will be flapping in the wind. I used some of that in my two-person ladder last season, tied to the shooting rail. Kept my foot on it on windy days.
Got a couple collapsable screen setups to use with folding chairs this year for days when the wind's not right or I just don't feel like strapping in 17 feet up.
Probably a whole lot safer then the Baker Tree stands I used in the day..I went for a few elevator rides and thankfully remained intact.
Here's a couple we just put up. Sorry for the sideways image. The first one took much more time to build as it was my first one to construct. I learned a lot and my next one will be modular.
I hear ya Windfall. I've got one son like that. He loves coming to deer camp, but won't go hunting. The other two have the bug, and there's little that will keep them out of the woods.
Pappy: It's already on order. I'm going to use 2 12' lengths of burlap on a clothesline arrangement all the way around the blind. It'll be up at the corner post's height, and there will be just enough slack so you can rest a rifle on the rail and the line will dip a little to accommodate it.
Staple that burlap, then take some foam pool floaties ( on sale everywhere now), split them down one side and fit them over the top rail for a rest. Dust them with spray paint, or not.
I tried resting my rifle over strands of barbed wire this summer while shooting groundhogs, and it was too bouncy. The padded shooting rail on my ladder stands is just right.
That's a great stand, I especially like the idea of the middle horizontal rail, you know just in case somebody goes to sleep and falls out of the chair they wouldn't go all the way to the ground.
I now have trail cam footage from Hollywood. Last Sunday, I mounted the camera about 6 feet up the NW leg looking west. The video is a timelapse of the previous week. It takes over 9 minutes to run through, but there's a lot in there.
There are no monster bucks. However, I think you'll see why I was leaving puddles when I viewed the pics. I've analyzed some of the pics taken at night. There is a couple of hat racks mixed in, but they're known offenders-- younger 8 pointers that are part of a bachelor group we see on a regular basis.
T, W, and TH, the remnants of Irma blew over.
A spider built a nest in front of the lens, but it did not really affect the quality. However, that's the big black blob you occasionally see blotting out the sky.
It's funny, but after I placed the camera on the 10th I was having serious misgivings. You have to understand that we've spent 16 years treating this pasture as nothing more than an alternate way of getting back and forth to our campground. I have hunted it only a few times from the ground and every time I've been busted by a doe. The only real hint that there was something in this pasture was the afternoon of The Rifle Opener two years ago. I was late getting out to my blind and was passing this field an hour or so before sunset and interrupted a very large herd of deer having supper. I had not even mounted a camera at this site prior to this batch of pics. Building this tower was a mix of faith and guesswork.
Why not put a popup on it? Give the hunters some protection from the weather and hides movement.
Actually I've got one, and I've already thought out how to install it, but I kind of like it open for now. Once the camo skirt is on, as long as a fellow stays sitting, a deer will only see the top of his head. A good part of why I built this was to have a place to go that wasn't cooped up.
This is another update on the tower blind project.
Saturday, I was out putting up the camo skirt around the rails of the blind. Burlap alone was not enough to hide me, so I added 3' landscape fabric as backing.
Just some constructive criticism of the article on your website. You have a slideshow of photos of three different sizes. That means about once a second the text position changes as each new picture is rotated through. It's highly annoying and makes it near impossible to read the article. I would either remove the slideshow and just have static images, or reserve space for the largest image so the text doesn't constantly shift around.
The pictures of the stand look good though.
“There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man's Fear
Just some constructive criticism of the article on your website. You have a slideshow of photos of three different sizes. That means about once a second the text position changes as each new picture is rotated through. It's highly annoying and makes it near impossible to read the article. I would either remove the slideshow and just have static images, or reserve space for the largest image so the text doesn't constantly shift around.
The pictures of the stand look good though.
You're right. I gotta change that! Thanks for the heads-up.