I don’t like heights. I don’t like to climb into treestands more than 12’ off the ground. Besides that, figuring my height (5’10”), if I were to stand in a treestand 12’ off the ground, my movement (bending only my right knee because I shoot left-handed and only my arms to draw my bow and come to true full draw) would be about 17’ off the ground if I were standing to shoot, and about 15.5’ off the ground if I was seated. That’s high enough for me and high enough to hide most movement. I will already have positioned myself or used some aid to negate any breeze that exists.
Therefore, the treestand I hung at the head of a deep draw, in a bit of a saddle, was well placed. It was just 9½ feet off the ground. I climbed into the stand by screwing in about five steps so that I could easily step from the top step onto the treestand. I had placed my stand about 18 yards off the trail that crossed the ridge through that shallow saddle.
There was no air movement. It was a warm, still, early-November Saturday afternoon — great time and conditions to tag a deer. I put the stand in place at 3:00 p.m.
Less than 15 minutes later, the buck came around the bottom of a hill just off the end of a standing corn field and started up the end of the draw, topping out about 20 yards before he got to my stand. He was, I’m sure, looking for love, but definitely in the wrong place.
The buck trotted past my stand and paused to look down an
