Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Deer stand views.

I was thumbing through my pics, gave me the idea. It’s not very open where I hunt, had to cut lanes to have more to see. I hate having one place to look.

One way is to go to: https://postimages.org/

Once you're there you can upload an image, click on the Share button & select the Copy button to the right of Hotlink for Forums.

Then paste that link into your post.

A panoramic view from a stand on the edge of a bog. Three shooting lanes to choose from but sometimes they come from behind you so you have to keep your head on a swivel.


A few minutes after taking this selfie, I shot a deer to the left at 156 yards with my .303 British & a 150gr Hornady SP Interlock.


On this morning, any shots taken were going to be short. Could have used iron sights that day.


We have more time & money than brains so sometimes we design stands that are bigger & more over-engineered than they need to be just because we like building stuff.

Now that's a STAND....

Last elk I took was from here. A less than 20 acre piece of public land 300 yards from an Interstate. My kid and I have taken several deer from this spot too.

Now that it's laser-leveled on concrete pilings it has cables that also keep it anchored. Lifting a prebuilt carpeted & heated top section into place and bolting that down was both fun & awkward. We have a staircase with a landing built so we'll be attaching that next. On the day we moved it into place, no one remembered to bring a chainsaw so we had to take turns chopping down a nice size tree with an axe. I'm afraid to imagine what the future ones might look like if someone decides we need to go bigger next time.

What would the cost of that be compared to building it out of some kind of metal, either pipe or square tubing? Wood has gone crazy, but so has metal. I ask because metal will last so much longer, can be brought out to location, pulled up after attaching stand in a few minutes. This platform was built in 1982, been moved at least 6 times, 3 boxes on it. Metal seems like a better investment if you’re a young hunter. It will last a lifetime and probably more. It took me 3 or 4 afternoons to build the platform by myself.

That stand was setting where I took the picture, I let it down on trailer, moved it, pulled it it up by myself after I’d cleared juniper out. I was 58 or 59 then, don’t know if I could do it now. It let me be able to see way the hell down the hill, made it a lot more fun to hunt. The area behind green feeder was already clear, deer cross there bigtime. I cleared out to bottom of hill, feeder hanging in oak tree, killed lots of pigs down there.

picture share




Dead pig walking at bottom of hill. I caught him in pen around the green feeder the day before, but he jumped over the fence. That fence is 3 feet I think, hog panels.

In both the locations I usually hunt, someone else in our group is always making the decisions on what should be built & how. I just show up to provide physical labor and tell them how they're doing it wrong.

So I haven't really done a price comparison on the different options yet. At the places I hunt, I've usually pitched in by buying tree stands and various other items while staying out of the long-winded arguments about the bigger permanent stands. Having said that, if I was unilaterally running the show, I probably would have chosen differently. The last time I was hunting hogs in east Texas, I spent several days in a variety of stands with metal bases and was really impressed with them. Based on the way the last wooden stand I was in had a disconcerting lean towards the back, I think your statement that metal is a better investment is spot on & probably the decision I would go with.

Even if you had to pay a welder, just seems better. I’m not much of a wood hand, always likes fooling with metal. Wood ain’t near as sturdy, doesn’t like being moved. I build the angle iron frame, put legs and short braces on it. I made a jig to get legs at correct angle. I pull it up from tree, kick legs around to square it up, put braces on to finish it up. Ain’t much to building it. I’d say faster than wood. I bet it doesn’t weigh near as much.

I built this in 2020 for an east Texas lease I got on. Lease sucked, one buck two does in 3 years, 14 hunters. I took it down, sold to son in law, bought box back, he still has platform. He might sell if someone lives close enough to come get it. Frame has landing, ladder, and handrail. He is in Anderson Texas

I look at it this way. Say it cost me a 500 bucks( round number) this year to build. Two years, 250 a year, ten years be 50 a year, 20 years be 25 bucks a year for something you still have. The frame in post above is 41 years old. Of course being a damn plumber I got material free, even angle iron.

I agree with everything you posted. We actually had a welder back home in south Louisiana agree to fabricate some stuff for us. But it was a low priority job & never materialized. So we went to a local fabricator & talked to him. I thought it all looked great & I was all for it but the next time I showed up at the camp there was a big pile of lumber waiting for me. It's all good because we had fun and that particular stand will never ever move. Like you, the other guy in the photograph with me is a commercial plumber so we've gotten a lot of useful scrap (especially irrigation pipe) to use around the camp.



Even though the deer stand I posted a photo of was by most camp's standards ridiculously tall, there was a somewhat legitimate reason for it. Being able to shoot over that slight ridge in the distance is a good thing along with the ability to shoot at as much of a downward angle as possible. I like to guarantee the bullet is going into the dirt shooting in that direction because there's a road at a distance behind the trees. Safety is a priority.

No windows?? Some thick felt like material would help stop wind, deer less likely to see movement, keeps your scent in, and hell of a lot warmer. Can block sun on hot days too.

The dark area above the open window is the flip up glass with a dark screen the hunter can see through. There’s also an outside window too for long term weather protection. So double windows. Just not obvious in the photo.

Oh, OK. I put glass in my windows, they fold up and in.

Sitting in the new the 1st mountable buck I killed at 13 with a bow from the one in the background.My all old time favorite spot

An hour and 15 minutes later I had a deer in the bed of my truck. Rifle is a Winchester 1895 in 35 Winchester

Fabulous old rifle

couple from my stand in Va

<a href='https://postimg.cc/HrLhGXPM' target='_blank'><img src='https://i.postimg.cc/ht8Wd0L2/43301-B78-417-A-4-D65-BF33-23-E6-F7-E26792.jpg' border='0' alt='43301-B78-417-A-4-D65-BF33-23-E6-F7-E26792'/></a>
A couple more. Some pretty rugged ground for the area, these mountain deer will get in your blood and make a man go in some rough ground to find them.

Try this again….