home built tree stand ideas

Where I work we had a guy with good attendance not show up for work one day. A co-worker called him no answer.
Next day no show either. Single guy lives alone. Some more checking in him he had gone out bow hunting. A buddy knew where he hunted and went out to his stand.
He fell asleep and fell out of the stand. He lay on the ground with a broken neck for over 24 hrs. Now a paraplegic.
It was a very strong message to many of us about tree stand safety.
 
Where I work we had a guy with good attendance not show up for work one day. A co-worker called him no answer.
Next day no show either. Single guy lives alone. Some more checking in him he had gone out bow hunting. A buddy knew where he hunted and went out to his stand.
He fell asleep and fell out of the stand. He lay on the ground with a broken neck for over 24 hrs. Now a paraplegic.
It was a very strong message to many of us about tree stand safety.

That's why I think a bline big enough to stretch out and have a nap or make a pot of coffee
The more comfortable you are the more time you will spend it the bline
It sure would be nice to have a place to hide wen it gets ugly out side

I'm thinking sumthing like this but not so big
 
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Where I work we had a guy with good attendance not show up for work one day. A co-worker called him no answer.
Next day no show either. Single guy lives alone. Some more checking in him he had gone out bow hunting. A buddy knew where he hunted and went out to his stand.
He fell asleep and fell out of the stand. He lay on the ground with a broken neck for over 24 hrs. Now a paraplegic.
It was a very strong message to many of us about tree stand safety.

Thats why I think the people that make their own stands out of 2X4's and nail them into a tree 16" in the air
are CRAZY....tree sap is acidic and eats away nails/bolts, and you never know when they will fail/break. If you
value your life, purchase a quality manufactured tree-stand, aluminum or steel...like a Summit Viper etc.
and ALWAYS....ALWAYS wear a good quality safety harness. Something like 50% of people who fall from 12" DIE...so be smart about it.
 
Thats why I think the people that make their own stands out of 2X4's and nail them into a tree 16" in the air
are CRAZY....tree sap is acidic and eats away nails/bolts, and you never know when they will fail/break. If you
value your life, purchase a quality manufactured tree-stand, aluminum or steel...like a Summit Viper etc.
and ALWAYS....ALWAYS wear a good quality safety harness. Something like 50% of people who fall from 12" DIE...so be smart about it.

In full agreement with you regarding safety concerns of hastily-built wooden stands. I myself prefer to construct my stands off-site and simply secure to a stout, healthy tree where needed. Definitely not a one-man operation but it does afford me the relative luxury of a wide, solid and protected platform. All pieces are glued and screwed, I use PL Premium and 3" green deck screws for small pieces, coated threaded bolts for structural elements. I secure the whole stand by using a heavy duty chain with a tensioner -think of mom's old clothes line- and when everything is nice and tight I predrill any structural pieces that contact the tree and lag bolt the crap out of them.

I'm a fairly big guy aand scared of heights to boot...Have used a variety of purpose made metal stands from hang-ons to climbers to ladder stands, none of them made me feel as safe as one of the better wooden homemade stands I've personally constructed. YMMV.

Here's a tip for anyone thinking of making a homemade stand. When it comes time to selecting your floor material, consider PT decking boards, can't remember the exact dimensions off the top, something like 5/8"X4" I think... Glue-and-screw them as you would on a backyard deck and leave a screws-width between them for expansion and water drainage, nice and solid and extremely long lasting.
 
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I will need to dig out some picture of some of the things I've seen secured to trees.

no way I would even climb up on them.

the one I really want to find is the double wide pallet with 2 4"x4" legs about 12' up in the tree with a second single pallet 8' higher up with 2 2"x6" holding that up.
 
The best odd one I've personally seen, was made of of 3 or 4 large wooden spools, the kind that Ontario Hydro uses to transport thick electrical wire transmission cables, stacked one on top of another with a folding camo pup tent on top...
 
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