Favorite types of trees for stands
 

What type of tree do you normally find yourself observing the world below you from? I try and target oaks when Im hunting hardwoods, only because at some point and time deer will be scrounging for tasty acorn morsels. Plus the branches dont grow low on the trunks. I also sometimes try and get a lock-on up in pine trees but find getting good shooting lanes difficult. Whats your favorite type of trees to climb up in, I know this will vary some depending on where in the country you hunt.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

First and foremost I look for an available tree.;) But to narrow it down....my two favorite stands are in an oak and a white pine....I do find that I'm usually up oak, ash, or pine but again, the tree hardly matters when it's in the right spot and available.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

a tree to actually place your stand in or a type of tree that produces a crop? I found myself in more oaks than anything. I do hunt some thick stuff where a pine is about all the option I have. I do like my one spot because it offers honeysuckle, persimmon and the occasional acorn while supplying safe bedding cover.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Well depends, do you hunt near or around crop type trees like oaks for a reason? I know I do. Also I look for trees that are easy to get in with a climber, oaks are definately good for climbing stands.

I also use pines for thicker cover stands when the oaks are producing, but like I said you can usually only get a climber up in them and you will have some trimming to do.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

I really like Hemlock.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Personally, I love to hunt pines. Not big dark open pine forests, but smaller patches of pines with some hardwoods mixed in. Most of my stands are in thick imature/mature pines.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

I'm with Bob on this one..... But sometimes I find myself looking for a tree, any treethat has alot of travel route intersecting.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Its pretty much all conifer forests here, my two favorite trees to set a fixed stand in are Doug Fir and Grand Fir because of the great back ground cover. If I have to climb, western larch or doug fir because the bases are usuallyvoid of limbs.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

That would be uhhh.... hmmm... well my choices are Sitka spruce or Sitka spruce so I guess I'll have go with Sitka spruce.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Hemlock because it is easy to climb with many strong limbs and it offers great concealment. My stands are usually in a dark place overlooking runs in and out of a swamp where the big ones stay.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Slash pine is the only choice in the Big Cypress swamp.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Any tree with3 big branches, main trunk with 2 or 3 branches I can sit right in the middle of. I have an old maple I have hunted for 12 years out of, sit right in the middle of 4 branches around me. I can dance the jig, and the deer have no idea. Second choice is oak tree, can get real high and plenty of cover.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Whatever tree is sturdy enough to allow me to get up 20+ feet and be 15 - 20 yards from the only trail in a bottleneck.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

I usually try to hunt form Oak trees, mainly because when snow is on the ground and all other trees have dropped leaves, oaks tend to hold theirs and that gives you some good breakup cover.

I WILL NOT hunt from a hickory. The wood is so hard and bark so slippery, it is impossible to get a portable stand to bite into it, and if you do, you never know when it may slip ( I know form experience). Plus its a real b!tch getting steps screwed into a hickory

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Not any particular flavor of tree as much as what it offers. First it must be in the right place, whether its a food source or on an intercept course. THen I look for cover. Cover can come in many forms. It can be multiple trees in a wad(I love two or threes). It can be a tree with small full trees growing up near it to give me cover. It can be a tree that allows me to lasso and pull other trees and branches in around me for cover. Nothing worse than a 220 pound man hanging on the side of a 12 inch tree with nothing around him. It can be a tree with a lot of vines and things hanging all over it that I can blend in with. I don't care what flavor it is as long as deer pass near it and I'm hidden.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

A tree that is easy to climb without sawing much and if it is in a good spot, i sit in all kinds of trees including pines, oaks, ect.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

White oaks and ladder stands are my prefered setup early. Later in the season I'll go to a red oak thats still holding some leaves. The deer around here will devour the white oak acorns first then move to the reds & pin oaks later in the year.

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

Same Here. My favorite stand position for my ladder stands is on a nice big hardwood that has a pine or spruce within a few feet of it. I can then set my ladder in the hardwood w/o cutting braches, but then I can use the pine for concelement were I can set the stand up right in the middle of it. Almost all of my ladders are like this.

I'm hoping to get a climber for the upcoming season and I imagine I will use the same technique for picking trees for that stand as well.

Combine that tree setup with a nearby funnel, and I'm in heaven!!

RE: Favorite types of trees for stands
 

I like what Davidmil said about "an intercept course". That's how my favorite tree location would be described as.

A nice straight sweetgum tree a few yards away from a bunch of oaks. The trees are 20 yards parallel to a trail and on the other side of the trail is a tangle of overgrowth, thickets, briars. I can climb perfectly to 22' in that sweetgum tree and overlook the acorns on the ground, and to the left side of me, I can overlook the small field of brush, thickets, etc... It's a perfect setup! :D