The 8' is a special situation. It's a tree in a really ideal spot where I see deer almost every time I’m in the tree. I call the spot “The Mall” because the deer love to walk around that spot and on several occasions I’ve seen multiple groups of deer come there from different directions, and they like to mill around there (like kids in a shopping mall). The tree is in almost the middle of the Mall and it has ideal cover at 8’. If I were to move higher, I would be exposed where I didn’t want to be and would have fewer shooting lanes (ironically). Also, the deer are almost always coming from either downhill (which means I’m actually more than 8’ above them) or across the hill where I have great cover and can often see them moving uphill before they get in range.

I usually set up between 12’ and 16’.