Does anyone cut branches off of oaks and stick them through pvc pipe around their stand to create cover, I am going to try that this year, althogh the leaves will die quickly they usually hang on for a long time.

All of are stands are 12 foot and we have never been spotted by deer, have them walk right under like no body there. Its call sit and be very still , less movement is less noise and that means less chance they will look up

No shame in that:happy0001: Better off to be confident and feel comfortable in the tree and not have the anxiety going when the deer comes in!

I like to usually get to the first layer of foliage as others have said already. When I first started climbing I would go way beyond that just to do it I guess, and trial and error has allowed me to figure out that most of the time that inhibits your shot distance by quite a bit! My bow rope is 30' long, and there have been many times that ive been dragging a bow up the tree lol! But usually only if it helps me to be able to be more efficient in that area.

We just built 2 16' ladder stands, and have about 4 more that are 15' as well.

IMO you CAN get too high, but if you would've asked me that 4-5yrs ago, I would have argued differently:s12:

I feel like when you are inexperienced, or less comfortable with deer on you, being higher is worth it, but now id rather just have better distance and shooting lanes.

Derek

Nothing better than acting like a tree:s2: Many times when i climb and have to cut limbs i will jam them in the platform of my climber and try to brush it up a little bit. Sometimes its not worth the trouble though...

Derek

If that were the case, then I'd probably sit on the ground in a lawn chair.

That said though, I have found that with adequate cover and minding the wind, 12 to 16 feet is a nice height at which you can easily still get both lungs in to about 5-6 yards. No matter how high you go... if you have no cover and you can't hold still when it counts, you are going to get smoked.

just depends.. but my ladders are all 20-22 ft. Most of my hang ons are probably 22ft.

Depends on a lot of things, but I usually try to get at least fifteen feet off of the ground. Terrain, canopy, and the background, as others identified, figure into the equation. Sometimes in a place where I can see for a long way though, I'll get 30' or more up where the limbs begin on most pine trees where I hunt. Usually for bowhunting though, I try to limit it to 20'.

I don't like hunting very high.... I would say that most of my stands are between 12 - 15 ft (normally don't go any higher), but my best stand my feet are only at 5 ft. Sometimes where I hunt, there aren't a lot of options for trees... And I would rather hunt a bad tree in a good area than a great tree in a not so good area any day....

around 15 feet for me......

It depends on where the deer will be coming from. When i hang a set i try to look at from the deers point of view. I've found that most of my sets are no higher then 12' but then again everyone's situation is different.