I have the viper and the bushmaster. I bought the bushmaster first but didn't like the way it climbed (I'm 290 pounds and bushmaster was hard on my back when climbing) so I bought the viper and use it for bow and gun. Nothing gets in the way and the stand is extremely easy to carry, set up, and climb with. They've got a great safety harness, too. The only negative thing I can say about the viper is that the top and bottom sections don't fit together when carrying it as well as I would like for it too. I put an extra strap on it to help hold the parts together and to eliminate noise while carrying the stand. If someone stole mine, I'd buy another one and I been using tree stands for about 30 years.