We recently published an article detailing the new craze of adjustable, vertical pin archery sights that you can find HERE. In that article, we touch on the fact that each type of sight has its advantages, disadvantages, haters, and fanatical followers alike. Well, the same logic can be applied to treestands. Do you prefer the rugged simplicity of a ladder stand? Maybe you are an antsy, mobile, weight-conscious hunter that loves the packability of a saddle kit? How about the merger between new and old with the tried and true climbers? Perhaps you have your own hunting property and have it strategically dotted with a dozen hang-on stands? Whatever category you fall into, or between, there is a stand for you. Let's dive in.
Basic Treestand Grades:
Let's start with a rough scoring system for each of the four types we mentioned above. Each type of stand will get a score from 1 to 4 for each category to determine overall score compared to each other style - 4 being the highest score and 1 being the least. The categories are as follows:
Weight: This takes into account the average weight you might expect to encounter when deploying this type of stand as well as how mobile and packable the style is generally.
Design: Design will explore how user-friendly a type of treestand is, how comfortable it can be, and how easy it would be to go from box to hunting.
Safety: This one is cut and dry. How safe is this type of treestand system. Yes, each stand can be as safe as the person who uses it, but there are extra steps in some cases that can broaden the level of inherent safety in each system.
Function: How effective can you be when hunting from this type of stand? Does it offer additional benefits others don't? Another way to think about this category is as the "X-Factor."
Yes, this will be a generalized ranking, so don't get too upset if you happen to have an exceptional ladder stand that packs up into your pocket and is made of ultra-light space metal or something.
Wow, who could have seen this coming? Each type of stand comes with positives and negatives in this completely unbiased scoring system that sees each type of stand end with a score of 10. Ladder stands are user-friendly but incredibly bulky. Conversely, saddles are very mobile but much harder understand and use. Climbers and hang-on stands fall somewhere in the middle of those two. Most with experience using each type might've been able to guess this outcome, but it is helpful in illustrating the point that no one stand type is inherently better than another. Each depends heavily on area, use, and most importantly the hunter utilizing said stand.
Hang-On:
Everyone is familiar (most likely, anyway) with hang-on stands. They come in a vast array of shapes, sizes, weights, and attachment systems. That being said, though, essentially all hang-on stands follow the same general outline. They are smaller, less finicky, and incorporate greater customizability than traditional climbers and ladder stands. Though they lack the pure mobility that comes with saddle setups, they are in most cases the second place in this category. They can more easily be maneuvered around difficult trees than ladders and climbers, as well.
Hang-On stands are second only to ladder stands when it comes to being utilized on private property, as their "seasonally permanent" design lends itself to a "hang it and forget it" attitude that comes with low-pressured and "no-pressured" hunting grounds.
When used in conjunction with a safety harness (quick note - everyone should be using safety harnesses of some kind regardless of your chosen stand), hang-ons can provide excellent in-tree mobility with the rail-less designs and lower overall footprint. You could easily stand, spin, and lean in a hang-on without being buffeted by any portion of the stand's body. This also comes to light when you consider that hang-on stands utilize climbing sticks, which means irregular and limby trees can still be used with relative ease - this greatly increases your choice pool when considering which tree will be your huckleberry for next season.
While the climbing stick system used with these stands can add mobility and expand your tree pool, it also detracts from the ease of use factor when compared to climbing stands and, of course, ladder stands. This means that they might not be the best choice for beginner/young hunters - a place where the ladder truly shines.
Don't forget you can get some great RTH hang-on kits such as the Run'n'Gun, Helo, and Echo packages that make building your hang-on system a breeze.
Climber:
Climbers are a staple in many areas of the country - the average hunter has interacted with countless Summit Vipers in their life. They are much more mobile than traditional ladder stands and can lead you to perhaps the fastest ascending of all the stand styles outlined within this article. They are quite simple to use and, while not as back-friendly as saddles and many hang-ons, they are infinitely more packable than ladder stands. Many who use climbing stands find themselves carrying the out while scouting and locking them to their chosen trees before the season begins. Though you can lug them around as part of a mobile hunting setup, if you REALLY wanted to, they perform best when being walked up to on opening day, rather than walked in with.
Like I mentioned above, if you know what you're doing, there isn't a stand you can ascend a free faster with. Obviously a ladder stand is basically like using a bad set of stairs, but when comparing climbers to hang-ons and saddles, there is no comparison in the speed-climbing category. As long as you have a straight tree with no (or few) branches, much like you'd find in the south, all you have to do is essentially speed-shimmy to your desired height and sit down. It really is that easy - just remember to tether your upper and lower stand halves together or you risk the disaster that is having the lower half fall out from under you, leaving you high and dry - and probably questioning your place in this world.
A big hang-up on climbers is something that I just touched on in that last paragraph - the need for a straight and clean tree. Sure, having to prune a few small branches on your way up might not ruin your hunting spot, but the tree does need to be straight and it cannot have large branches between the ground and your chosen height. This will certainly limit your tree pool, but in most cases a good climber tree isn't all that far away.
The craze sweeping the nation. The mobile hunter's dream come to life. The "realize-it-is-actually-sort-of-complicated-and-maybe-not-worth-it-for-the-kind-of-hunting-you-do" treestand style. Whatever you think about the saddles+platform+many_ropes hunting systems, there is no arguing they are the hot item nowadays. Is this maybe spurned on by the hunting influencer community? Yeah, it definitely is to a degree, but very few things become popular without at least some merit - at least as far as products are concerned. The pure mobility factor alone would be enough to lure a good few hunters over to the saddle side, and not just the lightweight and micro nature of the system, either. Not only is a saddle, platform, and stick system lighter than any of the other systems, it also provides a setup that can easily be incorporated into and onto many hunting backpacks. I personally run my entire saddle system with the Mystery Ranch TreeHouse 16 - and that is not a very large hunting pack.
Of course with such a small system there are bound to be some drawbacks. Sure, it fits in your pocket and you can probably run it sideways in a douglas fir and still manage to shoot an 8-pointer. No one is arguing against those points. However, the saddle system utilizes the most pieces of any system by far - and this leads to it being the most complicated of those outlined within this article. The standard, no frills saddle setup requires each of the following: saddle, saddle platform, platform attachment strap, 4x climbing sticks, 4x climbing stick attachment straps, tree tether system, and lineman rope. Does it all still pack down smaller than pretty much anything else? Yes, but it is many more items to keep track of and keep organized. With a ladder stand, for example, you would need one of each of the following: ladder stand, tree strap. That is at least a couple fewer items.
With the increase in moving parts, if you will, the saddle system takes a bit longer to understand and get comfortable with when compared to each of the other systems outlined here. You need to have each part be easily accessible to you while climbing. You need to use the lineman's belt to keep yourself secure while climbing and placing sticks along the way. You need to secure the platform to the free and lock it onto position. You need to transfer yourself to the platform and attach your tether to the tree and adjust it to the appropriate length. Some remove the lineman rope at this point and some choose to keep it - most remove it but you can choose to keep it attached for an extra layer of security. Is this a lot more than simply climbing a ladder and sitting down? Yes. it is. The benefits are quite remarkable, though.
If you want the ultimate in control and mobility while in the tree and on the ground, and you are an active and avid hunter diving deep into the back country whenever you get the chance, a saddle is the perfect choice. If you head out a few times a season on your small piece of private with the chance a buck walks out in front of you, then maybe think more about one of the other three options.
Ladder:
There is nothing I could say that would increase your level of respect and reverence for the classic ladder stand. Many of us probably took our first deer from one. Heck, a good portion of us might've gone hunting for the very first time in a double-wide ladder - like the Millennium L225 - with our dad or grandpa sitting at our side. Whether it was a shiny store-bought variety or something your uncle worked up in his garage with rebar and old steel framing, few things can match the historical and often personal significance of the good ol' ladder stand. Can they be as heavy as the truck you drove in on? Yeah. Are they are mobile as your hunting cabin? Sure. Do you get the best mid-morning naps in them? Absolutely.
The added benefit that you might not ordinarily get with other stand types is that ladder stands generally include shooting/safety rails. These keep you secure in the stand and can be very useful in resting bows and rifles when shooting/not in use.
Taking yourself, your family, and maybe your friends out to help hang a ladder stand is an important step in the development of a hunter. Is it hard work? Sure. But, if it was super easy it wouldn't have nearly as much of a story, or as much of a sense of accomplishment and adventure - and that's where the real magic lives.
Closing:
For those of you who have been hunting for years, did this article convince you to stray from your previously trodden treestand path and think about trying something new? No? Well, for those of you just getting into hunting and wanting to learn about what might best suit you, I hope this little article helped. Like I stated throughout, no one system is objectively better than any other. It is simply about what type of hunting you do, about where you hunt, about how much effort and time you want to put in, and about whatever else you deem to be paramount in your hunting experience.
Just maybe don't take your 9 year old out in a tree saddle for their first hunt.
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In case anyone has any gripes with anything written in this article which leads to the writer being questioned; Hello, I am the author and I have used each of these stand types multiple times over the last decade and a half and any hint of subjective opinion you may find here comes from a place of experience. If you happen to disagree, and find luck going against anything written here, more power to you. It IS about everyone's preference, in the end.