The Best Tripod Deer Stands for 2023 (2024)

FAQs

What is the best tripod stand for deer? ›

#1 Best Overall: Millennium Treestands T-100 Tripod. The best overall tripod deer stand is the Millennium Treestands T-100 Tripod. This tripod deer stand weighs only 36 pounds and is made from aluminum. It's designed specifically for hunters and can hold up to 300 pounds of weight.

Ladder stands are likely the safest option out there, but their mobility factor doesn't rank near the top. They are the most cumbersome to transport and install, but with higher-end models, their comfort is unmatched.

An area that offers both, planted and natural food sources is an excellent spot for a permanent stand. Trails are a good location for permanent stands especially where multiple trails converge and can be covered from the stand. Deer prefer certain travel routes.

A month is better, but if the stand is up for at least two weeks prior to you hunting it, I think the deer will be moving past it without stopping to stare at it all the time. Another important aspect of ladder stands has to do with where you place them.

Often times 20 feet is the benchmark. This will get you up high enough to be out of direct line of sight for any deer in the area and is not so high that a hunter feels uncomfortable climbing to and getting into the stand safely.

The most stable angle of tripod legs is 60 degrees to level ground. If the legs are too steep it can tip over. If too wide the legs can slip on dirt or surfaces.

A study of Vermont and North Carolina bowhunters revealed the following: 74% of the accidents occurred when climbing up or down or when installing or removing a stand. 7% of tree stand hunters surveyed had an accident in the last 10 years.

A mature high-country mule deer buck is one of bowhunting's most formidable challenges. Some would say that a mature mule deer buck is the most difficult critter to take with a bow and arrow.

While the end of daylight is always a shrinking target, what I focus on the most is how long I actually plan to sit. During all times but the rut, I like to plan for a solid, 3 hour sit.

Deer Move All Day - As a rule of thumb, most hunters know that deer move the most during the mornings and evenings. However, when sitting all day there is an opportunity to see deer throughout the entire day, this is especially true when the rut is in progress.

Is it worth sitting in deer stand all day? ›

All Day Sit Ingredients

When the conditions are perfect, sitting in an all day treestand can be anything but, a waste of time. However, if you are sitting in the wrong tree at the wrong time, you will be missing great opportunities somewhere else.

More often than not, a deer will smell you before seeing or hearing you when you're in the tree stand. One of the most tried and true hunting tips is to play the wind when you hunt. If you're always downwind, they can't smell you. But sometimes you can't avoid it.

What is this? Deer move most at dawn and dusk. End of story. Like taxes and death, you can count on two things when talking about mature bucks: they move most at dawn and dusk, and during the rut.

Whether the stand itself spooks deer is up for debate. I don't think it matters much, but deer can see them, and deer are curious. They will look up at them. Like pop-up ground blinds, I like to give deer time to get used to a ladder stand before I hunt it.

They can pick out short (blue) and middle (green) wavelength colors, but they're less sensitive to long wavelength colors such as red and orange. “They're essentially red-green color blind,” said Brian Murphy, a wildlife biologist and the CEO of Quality Deer Management Association.

By using the cover of darkness to access your stand, you can arrive and climb preferably, roughly 5-10 minutes prior to shooting light.

Overhunting stands can be a serious problem for a bowhunter. It can turn a great spot into an average one. It can bump deer, push deer and pressure deer like no other. That's why it can't happen.

What is the Keyword Tripod Rule? The Keyword Tripod Rule is a simple rule you can follow when selecting the focus keyword for your page. It reminds you of the three most important factors you need to consider in your keyword research – popularity, rankability, and relevance of the keyword.

Is a tripod more stable than four legs? ›

Three legs are always more stable.” This assumption is correct, as a tripod is always stable on uneven ground. However, there are a few drawbacks in having 3-legged table designs. Tripods have a toppling stability problem and not a wobbly table problem.

Remember… Avoid using permanent stands made of boards nailed or screwed onto trees. Permanent tree stands are eyesores that upset people who enjoy the woods but don't hunt. They also cause significant damage to trees and become unsafe after a short period of time because of weathering, rotting, and tree growth.

Since you're elevated in the tree stand, when you aim and shoot at a deer a given distance away, the arrow actually travels a slightly shorter distance horizontally across the ground, meaning it doesn't have quite as much drop as your sight is calibrated for. As a result, the arrow hits slightly higher than your aim.

Not only wasn't this buck spooked by the smell human urine, but he was attracted to it — big time! This whitetail season, I recommend that you skip carrying a pee bottle into the treestand or worse, hiking through the woods just to relieve yourself away from the stand.

The . 30-30 rifle has arguably killed more whitetail deer than any other single cartridge … with the round's popularity still quite high, it's doubtful it will be unseated any time soon.

308 Winchester is certainly the most successful short-action big-game hunting round in history. It's been used worldwide on everything short of dangerous game and is a perennial favorite among whitetail hunters.

Melanistic deer are less common, the rarest of the rare. The first one observed and recognized by an American scientist was in 1929. Of the millions of whitetails that have been shot by hunters in the modern era, only a handful of black deer have been documented.

Sitting all day in a tree stand is one of the most taxing, yet successful, deer hunting tactics. But once October winds down in the North and Midwest, the weather cools off and bucks start to show signs of rutting behavior – that's when you want to start thinking about an all day sit.

Hunt a stand one time and, on average, bucks will avoid it for three days. Bucks also changed their behavior relative to food plot use in the stand area. At the onset of hunting season, bucks visited the food plots one of every three times the stand was hunted during legal shooting hours.

Short answer is, no. I've had several bad experiences with bucks I've shot at last light and left overnight. If the meat didn't flat out spoil, it sure tasted funky. I won't leave a buck out now if the temperature is 40 degrees or above.

Why do I never see deer from my stand? ›

If you're not seeing deer, you might be reaching your treestand too late and leaving too early. Get settled at least a half-hour before you expect deer to move. That means arriving before first light in the morning, and at least an hour before dark in the late afternoon. For evening sits, plan to walk out in darkness.

Each year, more and more deer hunters are discovering that sometimes the best hunting strategy is to abandon the stand, get on the ground and go after your deer. Walk-and-stalk hunting can put a deer in your rifle sights if you follow the guidelines.

Try to be in your stand and ready to go at least an hour before shooting light, which often means leaving the truck a solid 2 hours before shooting light. This gives you time to cool off from that extra-long hike, get your gear ready and let the woods settle back down before the sun peaks over the horizon.

Mature bucks in pressured areas are very nocturnal, even during the rut, and this midday movement pattern is often their only point of vulnerability.

Some suggest hunting the same stand repeatedly is a good thing, even if some hunters are adamantly against it. It's simply logic, really. While deer do exhibit patterns, this doesn't always mean they do the same thing every day.

It might seem monotonous or repetitive, but the primary reason to sit all day long is — it's the rut. You never know what will happen this time of year. You can go a day without seeing anything, or see 50 deer and the biggest buck of your life.

So what does a deer eat? Deer will primarily eat browse (woody portion of leaves and stems), forbs (broad-leaved plants), mast (acorns, apples, etc), and grass. Although these are the main foods deer like to eat, the quantity of these different foods differ throughout the year and the region you are hunting.

Finding Buck Beds

If you see four or more beds in a circle, it's likely a doe bedding area. If you see a single solitary bed, or maybe a few beds more spread out, this is likely a buck. The presence of multiple rubs near a solitary bed is another indication you've found a buck bed.

Treestands are used in trees. Some trees allow you to hook the treestand on to them and then climb in the treestand. Tripods are used on the grounds. You can place them and climb on in.

What tripod does Steven Rinella use? ›

Long favored by Steven Rinella as the best all-around and most durable tripod, the Outdoorsmans Standard Tripod is perfect for standing, sitting, and balancing on boulders or truck beds, and has the adjustability of a three-section design.

A tree stand height of 10 feet will be high enough for killing deer. Other variables such as wind, thermals, cover, and time of year will affect each individual hunting scenario. However, the total height off the ground of a tree stand is completely dependent on the personal preference of the hunter.

A monopod isn't as stable but restricts movement much less than a tripod. If you need to be mobile, a monopod is the best bet. You're not stuck in one location. Plus, you can still support the weight of some big lenses and get light protection against camera shake.

How to Choose the Right Tripod Height. Here's a handy way to find out how big of a tripod you need: Your Eye Level minus the height of your camera's viewfinder minus the tripod head (base plate) height = correct tripod height.

A good average weight for a travel tripod should be 3 lbs (1.3 kg). Look for a carbon fibre tripod which tends to be lighter than the aluminium ones.

For landscape photographers, a ball head or pan-tilt head would probably be best. If you're a wildlife photographer using a long lens, then I can't recommend a gimbal head enough. They are more expensive, but buying a gimbal head was probably one of the best purchases I made as a photographer.

Military units have relied on the Harris bipod for years with heavy use in some of the harshest environments in the world. That's not to say that it's unheard of to see a broken Harris, but it's rare. The spring-loaded legs and simple push-button release make height adjustments quick and easy with one hand.

The MOD7 HOG Saddle is currently a standard issue item in the US Marine Corps with every M40A5 sniper rifle. It is now used by elite shooters in virtually every branch of the military and most government agencies in the US and around the world.

Much of the time-honored work of such photographic greats as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston were shot from a Ries wooden tripod.

If I am only hunting the afternoon hours during the rut, I often try to settle in 4-6 hours before dark if hunting a heavily wooded cruising location, and closer to 3-4 hours prior to dark if hunting a food source.