Interesting Article
08-05-2004, 07:41 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 6,006
Interesting Article
I was flipping through one of my Bowhunter magazines when I happened to come across this small article. I must have missed it the first time around. I found it interesting so I thought I would share it with you...
The First Treestand
In 1947, Andy Anders was standing precariously in a giant live oak tree on Blackbeard Island. It was the first public bowhunt for whitetail deer on that now famous federally owned barrier island. Anders was one of only nine bowhunters participating in the hunt. As the Native Americans did, Anders and his friends knew they had to get in the treetops if they wanted to kill deer with their recurves, longbows, and cedar arrows.
Anders, a Jacksonville, Florida, fireman, found the going tough in the timber. Rough bark and uncomfortable, shaky limbs made climbing in, and hunting from, the oaks less than fun. In fact, it was downright dangerous.
"There had to be a better method," Anders thought. "There must be a way to construct a portable platform, a stand, in the timber to more effectivley bowhunt deer."
Thus began the "Andy Stand," which may be the first commercially made platform designed specifically for deer hunting from trees. Yet Anders is quick to point out that he didn't devise the original concept of the fixed position treestand he made out of tubular metal and plywood.
"I was in the Pacific Theatre in World War II as a counter-sniper rifleman," Anders told me on a bowhunt to Blackbeard Island in 1977. "Japanese snipers used small platforms made from native plants, mostly bamboo, to sit on in the treetops. Their stands had half round frame rims, just big enough to sit on, made from tough bamboo strips. They wove a tight, durable base on the rim from vines and smaller bamboo strips. The fram was lashed to a tree with a vine strap, and the stand was supported by a rugged 'Y'-shaped bamboo post that was jammed into the tree bark under the stand to support the base.
"My original 'Andy Stand' was that exact-same design, except my frame and 'Y' were made from tubular metal and the base was made from 3/8-inch plywood. Instead of a vine to wrap around the tree, I used a heavy chain bolted to one side of the tubular metal frame that went around the trunk, then fitted to a heavy metal hook welded in the opposite side of the frame.
"Other than that, the stand was the same as snipers used on the Pacific jungles during the 1940s. I guess you could say that the Japanese even are ingenious enough to have invented the modern deer treestand that millions of American sportsmen use today."
The First Treestand
In 1947, Andy Anders was standing precariously in a giant live oak tree on Blackbeard Island. It was the first public bowhunt for whitetail deer on that now famous federally owned barrier island. Anders was one of only nine bowhunters participating in the hunt. As the Native Americans did, Anders and his friends knew they had to get in the treetops if they wanted to kill deer with their recurves, longbows, and cedar arrows.
Anders, a Jacksonville, Florida, fireman, found the going tough in the timber. Rough bark and uncomfortable, shaky limbs made climbing in, and hunting from, the oaks less than fun. In fact, it was downright dangerous.
"There had to be a better method," Anders thought. "There must be a way to construct a portable platform, a stand, in the timber to more effectivley bowhunt deer."
Thus began the "Andy Stand," which may be the first commercially made platform designed specifically for deer hunting from trees. Yet Anders is quick to point out that he didn't devise the original concept of the fixed position treestand he made out of tubular metal and plywood.
"I was in the Pacific Theatre in World War II as a counter-sniper rifleman," Anders told me on a bowhunt to Blackbeard Island in 1977. "Japanese snipers used small platforms made from native plants, mostly bamboo, to sit on in the treetops. Their stands had half round frame rims, just big enough to sit on, made from tough bamboo strips. They wove a tight, durable base on the rim from vines and smaller bamboo strips. The fram was lashed to a tree with a vine strap, and the stand was supported by a rugged 'Y'-shaped bamboo post that was jammed into the tree bark under the stand to support the base.
"My original 'Andy Stand' was that exact-same design, except my frame and 'Y' were made from tubular metal and the base was made from 3/8-inch plywood. Instead of a vine to wrap around the tree, I used a heavy chain bolted to one side of the tubular metal frame that went around the trunk, then fitted to a heavy metal hook welded in the opposite side of the frame.
"Other than that, the stand was the same as snipers used on the Pacific jungles during the 1940s. I guess you could say that the Japanese even are ingenious enough to have invented the modern deer treestand that millions of American sportsmen use today."
08-05-2004, 08:40 PM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: creemore Ontario Canada
Posts: 5,525
RE: Interesting Article
Washington hunter! that's agood article very interesting ,I must have missed it also. I noticed that the last 2 copies of Peterson Bowhunting has increased in size and there's alot of extra articles to read now ,this is just the way I like my mag's.
nubo
Sorry Washington you said Bowhunter not Peterson's,I don't have that mag but my buddy has it and I'll get it when he's done with it.
nubo
Sorry Washington you said Bowhunter not Peterson's,I don't have that mag but my buddy has it and I'll get it when he's done with it.
