ORIGINAL: gzg38b
I don't think cutting all the branches on the way upthe tree is a good option for me.For starters, talk about working up a sweat. On public land, it's illegal to hack up a tree like that. And on private land, it's disrespectful to the landowner. It's one thing to trim a branch or two for a shooting lane. But to take out every branch from the base of a tree up to 15 or 20 feet just so you can climb it seems unreasonable to me.
I'm not knocking climbers, I'm just looking for somebody to alleviate my concerns about them so I can justify buying one.
What about cover? You can't have any cover below you because you cut it all down on the way up, right?
I usually do not find a problem locating a good tree. Sure there re times when the other tree is perfect, but you have to decide if this tree is good enough. Regarding cover, I try to find a tree that is surrounded by other trees. I get high enough to have a nice "roof" cover and have scrup trees to my right, let, and rear.
An ideal situation is to have several fixed locations set up and a climber to move around. I never seem to find myself in ideal situations, so I use the cliber, a blind, or just still hunt.