How High Do You Hunt?

[ihookem]

My feet are abput 10-12' off the ground. I never had a problem. However, I sit in tree crotches and I like to " snuggle up" in several trees very close by like 1 or 2' away. I always make sure I dont have open sky behind me and make sure I am not out in the open at all. When I find a tree with several trunks, Ash and basswood grow several trunks many times. I like to get in those . It makes me harder to see and is safer if I fall for some reason, I likely could grab a tree to keep me form falling. Never happened yet and at 10' from the ground I have a much less chance of getting hurt than at 20'. I never felt a deer was worth the 1 in 1,000 chance of falling and almost never get busted.

[oldrank]

Every tree is different. If I'm in a thicker area with crappy trees I may only be 6 ft up. If I got good trees I'm usually 25 feet up. It's really just area specific. I like to be higher up if possible because I don't get busted by sight or scent as much, but shot angles get worse.

[OH nontypical]

All situational but the older I get the lower I hunt.
When I hunted with a climber I always hunted high due to the trees I had to use, probably averaged 25’.

Now that I use a mobile set up with sticks I can pick any tree I want and usually have better cover lower.

[Maverick1]

@jimmywallhanger hunts higher than ALL of us!

[Brad]

With my setup I can get the bottom of my feet to 18 feet... but it's pretty rare for me to actually set up that high. The buck I killed in 2020 I was only about 6 feet off the ground, in a really large diameter tree that completely broke up my outline. This years buck was up about 12 feet, in a pretty large tree with several fairly big trunk like branches coming out that allowed me to be well hidden. The doe I killed in Jan I actually set my platform up less than 2 ft off the ground and used it as a seat because there was better cover to break my outline staying on the ground. Seems like I have better leaf cover lower in early season, and in late season its way too easy to be picked off if high up in a tree most of the spots I hunt. Late season I only get higher if I have alot of brushy trees or cedars immediately behind me to break me up.

[EthanatLU]

I used to climb pretty high when I used my climber. Had to climb pole trees with no cover and thought the higher the better.


I've been running a LW for the last several seasons. I don't remember the last time I used my 4th stick.


Like has been said over and over, where I put my stand is dictated by everything else.


Height can definitely help with "getting out of the deers world". Out of their vision...can be beneficial for scent pools etc....but a lot of what I hunt l, shots are close. You get high and that shot angle is extreme and difficult.



I really like having cover. I've found I can get by with a LOT...and the deer that think they saw or heard something, often times look right through me and don't nail me.


If you look at the OPs photo, I'd actually wanna be lower. A few feet lower puts a good bit of clutter behind the stand. Where it is now, it's sky. For me, that background cover is huge and I think overlooked. If I can't get something immediately behind/around me, I definitely try to picture what the deer see and try to avoid that skyline effect which typically means being lower...


Very situational, but I find myself on the lower end of things more than i find myself high.

This right here. Fully agree. Great job articulating why!

[Maverick1]

@jimmywallhanger hunts higher than ALL of us!

Isn't that right, Jimmy?...

[tim]

I’m never sure how high I’m going to hunt I spend way more time deciding on the right tree then I just start climbing and looking as I climb when I’m there I know then I hang

[greenhorndave]

I’m terrible at estimating the height of features in trees and whether or not it’s going to be in my way. Most of the time I hit it before reaching full height and have to set up lower than I expected. But… this weekend I thought I’d clear a clump of leaves from a tree in front of me and was about 2 feet short. I had to contort to avoid them after snagging my quiver and missed a chip shot on a doe as a result.

[mspaci]

as high or low or in between as the spot dictates. I was hunting Westchester county in the hay day of the 90`s & killed several from a stand 8=9 ft off the ground in a crotch of a tree. My Bros in law insisted it was too low & moved it up to 15-16 ft. Got picked out every time after that. Moved it back down & shot another. Mike

[Dpoole90]

I dont like heights so the closer to the ground the better for me, but my max is 15 or 16ft.

[upwind predator]

Depends on the situation sometimes 8ft sometimes 25ft. Anywhere in that 8 to 25ft span is where ull find me, all about the tree and terrain.

[Kokes]

I hunt however high I need to be - depends on back cover / front cover / thickness of tree / rough distance I expect deer movement, and a whole bunch of other factors... If you can hunt and be still I think you can get away with being lower than most think..

[Jimmy wallhanger]

@jimmywallhanger hunts higher than ALL of us!

Isn't that right, Jimmy?...

LOL. That one time yeah with the Russian mushroom pickers blowing up my spot.

Never again lol

[Micah]

All situational. My setups can be anywhere from 6’ - 20’ but I probably average around the 8-12 range.

Tree type and size, cover and wind dictate where my ambush point is and where I need to be. The more I hunt using beast tactics the more I find myself in trees I would of never dreamed of back when I started hunting. Like being on the edge of a swamp and the only trees available are the smaller 5” in diameter type and you might get 6-8’ up.

Trees on edge cover are rarely straight up and down like big mature open hardwoods trees. So those edge cover trees that grow all crazy I find myself not that high. I was using a Lone Wolf Climber but switched to the beast stand this year and man you can get that hang on stand in so much more places than a climber. Edge trees are harder to hang a climber on then open woods.

When I started hunting I thought you had to be 25-30’ up in open woods. Also had no idea how important wind was. Now each year goes by and find myself going lower and lower but each spot is completely situational.