Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Wooden Ladder Stands

Hunting spot small now, try to keep a low profile..........ladder stands too easy to see from the road.
Deer sneak behind barn and neighbors house, hop road into the thicket.
Behind barn in early bow should be good (landowner owns both sides).

I used screws and bolts for my standsl.
The screws were gold colored. Never snapped one.
Had to tighten them a couple of times (every other yr?)
Predrilled the foot pieces and then screwed them onto the runners.
Ladders were sections, held together by bolts. Silver shiny big ones.
Washers used under heads and nuts.
All spray painted.
After 6 or 8 yrs (maybe longer?), the untreated wood got light/soft. I unbolted the sections and dumped them.
Fun projects though.

Cheap azz screws will break, but nails will pull out from the shrinking and swelling of the wood (temperature changes). Buy some good screws /lags.

Back when I used to build our deer stands and climbing rungs using treated wood and big nails nailed directly in live trees I noticed that the nail heads would get 'pulled' deeper and deeper into the surface of the treated lumber each year I assume due to the tree's growth. Over three - four years the nail heads would be sunk into the surface of lumber as much as 1/2" or more eventually making it feel rickety. Have had some nail heads pull far enough through thinner climbing rungs that they pulled loose from the tree under weight.

Ha me too .

I've built and hunted out of home built wooden stands. You have to test them out every year to make sure they are still sturdy.I use a combination of nails and screws. Nails have more shear strength and screws keep the nails from pulling out. If they are the least bit questionable strength wise I rebuild the weakness or take them down. I don't have anything but metal stands currently.

We build some shooting houses, but there is one thing that makes me lean towards metal down here in South Alabama...wasps. They usually are around all but the last couple weeks of January. Sometimes all season. And they love wood structures. We spend over $100 and a more than a few hours every season just getting a handful of shooting houses clear of those spawn of satan.

However, I am planning on replacing a wooden ladder to one of them. I think I may actually drill large holes and use 3/8" bolts with nuts to attach the rungs to the legs.