Tree stand gadgets????

H

haliwa04

New member
Alright, i've got ladder stand up, and my makeshift blind set up and brushed in. I never really thought about safety measures too hard when i first started hunting and always carried my gun slung over my shoulder up the ladder, unloaded of course. But that was on nice big ladder platforms with a good angle to climb. Now, my ladder stand is almost straight up and quite a bit higher than the ones i was spoiled on before. What do you all use to pull your gear up? Plain rope, paracord, is there a special gadget you prefer? Have you replaced any of the items that came with your treestands to make it feel a little safer to you?
For a little detail, i'm using an Ameristep 2 man ladder stand, 15' with padded shooting rail. My girlfriend is going to accompany me when she can, so she can get the idea of what i find so appealing about laying a deer out at 50+ yards instead of cheating like everyone around us and running dogs. I've been hunting for 7 years, mostly on farm land, but now i'm in the northern part of NC, on 34 private acres with a 2 acre pond which my stand is overlooking.
 
Ordinary paracord tied to the seat and ending about ground level. Works great for hauling up your gun/bow. And, I almost always wear a HSS vest.
 
Luckily the stand came with two harnesses, tree straps, and relief straps. I was thinking keep it simple, but then i saw some pulley systems on amazon and thought that might be a little easier.
 
The pulley systems are really for help in getting the stand up. Once it is up, they are pretty useless.

Do yourself a favor. Take those harnesses you got with the stand and throw them in the garbage. Once you try putting them on in the dark wearing heavy hunting clothes you will never want to see them again. If those were the only kind available, nobody would wear safety harnesses. Go to a good sporting goods store and try on either a HSS, a Gorilla, or one of the other modern harness systems. You can put them on by feel in total darkeness and they are comfortable enough to wear all day. My only complaint with my HSS is that I didn't spring for the deluxe version. It gets hot down here during archery season and the deluxe version is vented mesh.
 
Tree Spider safety system and LiveWire descent system is about as good as it gets. Second place, and much cheaper, is the HSS system. I've use the HSS but if I buy another it'll be the Spider.

For hauling up gear at 15', a retractable dog leash is the cat's meow. No tangles, it retracts as you pull up the gear.
 
This is the pulley system i was referring to: http://www.amazon.com/Pine-Ridge-Archery-Pulley-System/dp/B001CGBZJG/ref=sr_1_1?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1378836671&sr=1-1&keywords=tree+stand+pulley
But I think i'll follow the K.I.S.S philosophy and just get a paracord rope.

As far as the harnesses go, i was surprised to find that the stand actually came with decent harnesses. They don't have the vest part, but are actually quite comfy and easy to get on. Getting them off is another story, but that has more to do with me being clumsy, tall, and bigfooted. My stand is only 200 yards from my house, down a trail between our house and the pond, so i have the luxury of getting all doodied up before heading out. Maybe next year if i get more stands up at the back of the property or start using climbers, i'll get a better harness system, but the ones i have fill their role of mostly for insurance. Thanks.
 
Just as I thought. That pulley system is for help in mounting the stand. It isn't intended as a means of pulling stuff up afterwards.
 
But if I wanted to waste some money, it would work for hoisting my rifle and pack right?
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I'm confident that if you put it in the tree and used it for that purpose, it would pull your pack and rifle. However, I'm also confident that after using it one time you'd just say "screw it" and pull them up by hand. Unless you had some kind of double trunked tree, the pulley would be above your head and you'd be pulling down at an awkward angle. Also, because it sits close to the tree your rifle would scrape along the tree every time you pulled.

I've been doing this a lot of years. Trust me. Cut a length of paracord the distance from your seat to the ground. Tie one end to your seat so that you can easily reach it while sitting. You can either leave the other end empty or tie on a carabiner. I prefer a carabiner because it makes hooking and unhooking the load faster. The carabiner also makes leaving the stand at the end of the day easier. Just hook it to the ladder and the rope won't swing around in the wind or get rainsoaked from laying on the ground.
 
Doyle said:
I'm confident that if you put it in the tree and used it for that purpose, it would pull your pack and rifle. However, I'm also confident that after using it one time you'd just say "screw it" and pull them up by hand. Unless you had some kind of double trunked tree, the pulley would be above your head and you'd be pulling down at an awkward angle. Also, because it sits close to the tree your rifle would scrape along the tree every time you pulled.

I've been doing this a lot of years. Trust me. Cut a length of paracord the distance from your seat to the ground. Tie one end to your seat so that you can easily reach it while sitting. You can either leave the other end empty or tie on a carabiner. I prefer a carabiner because it makes hooking and unhooking the load faster. The carabiner also makes leaving the stand at the end of the day easier. Just hook it to the ladder and the rope won't swing around in the wind or get rainsoaked from laying on the ground.
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Well Yea, I know that. Its only 12' and a 6lb rifle. I doubt I need any mechanical advantage. I've seen another system that was made for bow hunters that actually stood out from the tree. Paracord or even just some braided rope will work good enough.
I can spend the rest of the cash on extra padding and camouflage. I was going to paint it to match the trees around it, but mother nature will take care of that when the leaves drop and everything turns gray. I'm going to go sit in it in the a.m just to see if anything turns up. I've got a couple other hills or ridges with built in seating that I normally use for morning hunts, but I've been wanting to get that picture perfect across the pond shot since we moved in and I was given permission to slaughter all deer on the premises.
 
I'm in the paracord and carabiner camp.

Since I'm very prone to getting nice and comfy in my stand then dropping things :mad:, I like a carabiner on each end of the cord. One gets clipped to weapon the other gets clipped to the stand. I usually leave it there clipped to the stand through the season.

I also carry extra camo gloves and headnet in my fanny pack as well cause I seem to like to drop also. :rolleyes:
 
here's one

Here's a country boy trick that I learned from some old hands in the now defunct North Alabama Bow Club.

Find a clip from a fish stringer. You know, great big thing that resembles a safety pin, sort of. Attach that to the end of your pull cord. You can take the cord, make a couple of passes around one limb near the pulley, and then clip onto the main line instead of tying a knot. I don't think I'd pull a rifle or pack up this way, but it works fine for a bow. Knotting and unknotting the pull cord gets to be a hassle.

Here's the trick though. You can unfold that stringer clip into a giant fish hook type affair, and you can use that to retrieve all sorts of things one tends to drop from a tree stand. Hats, gloves, calls, arrows (yes you can) .

I've used a dog snap the same way, its stouter and holds heavy weight better, but is not so good in the hook work. The ideal pull cord ought to have both maybe, say one on either end.
 
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