duckdog, I can speak from personal experience of being a Summit owner...

I bought a Viper XLS (which comes with the shooting rail) for my father, who is a gun hunter. After listening to him gripe and moan about how much work it was to put a safety harness on and attach a stand to a tree (read, "lazy" -- not trying to be mean, just honest) -- I bought it back from him.

Since I'm a pure bowhunter only, I wasn't crazy about the idea of the shooting rail possibly interfering with a shot, so I contacted Will at Summit and they sold me just the Cobra XLS top to go along with my stand. Now, I've got the best of both worlds: if I ever do gun hunt (doubt it) or if I'm just looking for an easier way to get up a tree in the stand, I'll use my Viper top. Ninety-nine point nine times though, I use my open-top Cobra.

Now... what do I like about it... The extremely stiff cable keeps it from dragging against the back of the tree while climbing or descending. The way the cable fits into the stand with no pins or bolts is a major, major plus.I don't know how Summit gets their stands to feel so absolutely, 100% rock-solid, but that's exactly how it is.

And the comfort factor... Even when reading posts where people are not necessarily huge fans for one reason or another (i.e., sponsored by another company or something), everyone still gives props to hom comfortable a Summit is.

I wouldn't use any other stand.