ORIGINAL: hoosierhunter2

We usually do alot or prescouting and set up permanent 2 man sets on land that we have access on. The permanent setups we use lock ons, we look for the right location with a good run to hunt then pick a good tree 20 yds. off the run. Look for a good setup with plenty of natural cover and cut shooting lanes as necessary. Our stands are setup where the best cover will be, so it could be 12' or 20' to the base stand, then we set another above it about 6' higher. We set the stands at about 45 degrees from each other, and you may need to adjust the height of the stands to fit the hunter's height. We put the cameraman in the upper stand, and we use a Hunter Cam Cradle tree arm that is strapped to the tree and removed as we leave and set up each day out. We use the same setup with climbers as well but the only difference is we clamp the Hunter Cam Cradle tree arm to the shooting rail of the climber and that is really nice! With the climbing setup, let the camera man climb up first and get setup, then the hunter will climb up and set up, this way you don't run the risk of falling into the hunter while trying to setup. Usually with climbers we get up pretty high as you will most likely be in a bare tree to be able to climb so need the height to stay stealthy with all of that mass outline of 2 guys. Also one thing to note.... There is alot of gear to haul that gets heavy for the camera man, I pack all of mine into a good back pack with seperate compartments, etc., and I would guess that it weighs 20-30 lbs., so this is very heavy to haul up to the stand!! I bought a length of actual 3/8" rope and tied some knots in it to use as hand grips to haul the load up, otherwise it could slip right through your hands and fall down with all of that expensive equipment in it!! I send the camera itself up seperate so it is light and easy to pull up, and I don't do this till I'm setup with the arm attached and everything ready to go first then the camera comes up and attached right away to the mount!! Don't want to run the risk of dropping the camera while trying to setup everything else! There is alot of extra work involved in filming a hunt, so I always allow an extra 45 min. to an hour to pack in and setup! Better to be too early than too late!! If you have a spot with a forked tree where you can set up seperate that will work sometimes as well, just make sure that your vantage point is not too conflicting with the hunters so you can get good footage and have an opportunity for him to shoot and you also have the animal in view! The climber set ups are very comfortable!! Just take alot more time.