I' m building myself a new tree stand this weekend. It will be a " floating platform" between 2 trees. It will be about 7 feet by 4 feet. I will be using it for rifle hunting for now, but maybe next year bow & rifle. Does anybody have any ideas for me that have worked for you?

Thanks in advance.

When I built my stand, I used old carpeting on the floor to muffle the sound. Also, when I put up the railing 2x4' s, I used camo burlad between the railing and the flooring. Plus I used lag bolts and 2x6' s versus 2x4' s on the flooring. I did not put on a roof. Also I used see through camo around the middle section plus cut holes in it so the deer won' t see my outline. I also built a wodden ladder out of 2x4' s, but the stand could have been a little wider. I also put carpeting on the tree so when I lean on it, it makes no sound.

Good Luck....

Tomster

If you have never used this type of stand before, they are quite a bit of work. We used 16penny nails in our stand, and with the wind blowing the two trees(1 tree, split) differently, we had to fix the stand each year. We use the stand each year, and it is about 7 years old. Its the size of a pallet, 25+ feet up, and no railings or what not. I don' t like siting up there.

one thing you can do to stop it from shaking or swaying so much is to tie guy lines from the bottom and top of the stand to the bottoms of trunks of some other nearby large trees. we ( my dad and i ) built my stand out of 2x6' s and 2x4' s. we used an old piece of tin metal roofing from our pole garage with some felt wrapped all the way around the stand and on top of the roof. then we spray painted the entire thing with branch pattern, inside and out. we also used a stainless steel latter. hope this helps.

For all the time and effort involved, I would just buy myself a portable stand of some type and use it. Also, there are safety factors involved. With all the effort and cost of initial installation and the yearly maintenance others have mentioned, a portable makes more sense. If you get sick of hunting in one place, you can move on to another.

Clint

We have had great success building platforms inside trees, we normally make a
platform and set a small box blinds that we make out of 2 x 2' s on it. Makes a
great blind location set up in the right spot. Good Luck

consider cutting the tops ( if possible) of the tree this will stop the wind from makining them sway. Use a cordless drill & 5-6 inch lag bolts to tie the boards into the tree.

Thanks to all for their input. It is greatly appreciated!

just be carefull that local laws allow you to put nails and bolts into trees. There prohibited in tennessee and alot of other states. The reason being, when that tree is harvested for the sawmill and the saw hits that nail, it tears up alot of stuff and can be hazardous to those standing around.