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Moving ladder stands…

I own a steel fab shop. When I was a young man we ran up on some cheap pipe and bought a lot. They were 21-0 tall so we built ladder stands 21-0 foot tall when we were slow. They were heavy but awesome when we got them put up. Now we are old. We have stands left where we hunted back in the day. lol.
 
muddyboots said:
I own a steel fab shop. When I was a young man we ran up on some cheap pipe and bought a lot. They were 21-0 tall so we built ladder stands 21-0 foot tall when we were slow. They were heavy but awesome when we got them put up. Now we are old. We have stands left where we hunted back in the day. lol.
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Every year, we move a bunch of our ladder stands to new locations in August. In the past, we were moving 15-20 in a 3-day weekend. Now that all of us are in our 60s, we're lucky to move a dozen in a 3-day weekend! Getting old sucks.
 
The last one I put up by myself, I thought I had it tied off pretty well that I could climb up and get straps on it. I was wrong. It's a giant oak, when I got to the top, one thing lead to another, it started to give way, and I grabbed onto a big oak limb. I tried to pull it back with my legs, but that was just a dumb desperate attempt. The thing slid away from the tree tied well enough that it didn't hit the ground, but I ended stuck in the top of that tree standing on a limb for a while.

Called for help, my wife came and saved the day. Took a while talking her through getting ropes and pullies so she could get it stood back up. I tied it off from the branch, and decided that putting up ladder stands solo just isn't worth the risk.
 
I can honestly say I've never fallen from a ladder stand (can't say the same about climbing or strap-on stands). However, I sure have had to jump from the top of a ladder a time or two when putting them up or taking them down, and that's with more than one person working.
 
My dads almost 70 now. It's either box blind or ladder stand for him so I try to keep several good ladder stands around so he has some options if he decides to go out, but there isn't much I hate more than getting getting that strap put on at the top of a ladder stand. All of my close calls have been putting up or taking down ladder stands. Even when the old man used to help me with them when I was a teenager. There just isn't much anyone can do from the ground when you're at the top besides hold a rope or 2 and call 911 if the worst happens.
 
After I get a ladder stand up against the tree I always put the stabilizer bar on and the safety straps that cross behind the tree and tie them to the ladder before I go up to strap it the the tree at the top. Those two things together help stabilize the stands significantly compared to only doing one or the other. After I started doing that I have never felt unsafe putting the top straps on.
 
I have despised putting up stands alone after a couple close calls. Honestly that's all it would take to end it all or miss a season. I used to think ladder stands were safe to put up alone when I could climb like a squirrel. lol 😂
 

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