Every hunting season somebody asks me what tree stand I use, and I always grin because I know what's coming next. Before long we'll have three or four guys around the campfire, every one of them convinced their stand is the best one ever built. That's just how deer camps work. If you've got five hunters, you've probably got six opinions.
I've been climbing trees for a long time. Long before all these fancy stands with padded seats and safety harnesses ever came along.
When climbing stands first hit the market, my very first one was an old Baker stand. If you've never seen one, picture a piece of plywood inside an aluminum frame. That was about it. To climb, you hugged the tree and shimmied your way up like a squirrel. There wasn't a safety harness. There wasn't a safety rope. There wasn't even much common sense involved. It was just you, your courage, a healthy lack of good judgment, and the ability to bounce.
Looking back, that old Baker probably slid down more trees than it ever climbed. I honestly don't know how any of us survived those days, but we were nineteen years old and thought we were bulletproof. We'd have climbed a telephone pole if somebody told us there was a big buck standing at the top.
Even with all that, those old climbing stands changed deer hunting forever. We could finally get above the brush and actually see what was happening in the woods.
Over the years I've hunted from just about every climbing stand made. Some were comfortable. Some were built like tanks. Some squeaked every time you moved. Some made enough noise climbing the tree to scare every deer within half a mile.
I've got buddies that'll swear another brand is the greatest thing ever made, and that's alright.
Everybody's got favorites.
Mine is Summit.
If you're asking where I'd spend my own money today, it's either the Summit Titan or the Summit Goliath. Being a pretty big fella, I like the extra room. I don't want my knees jammed against the front bar or my elbows banging aluminum every time I move.
Comfort isn't a luxury anymore.
It's part of staying in the woods longer.
The biggest reason I hunt from a Summit isn't because it's comfortable.
It's because it's stable.
At my age, stability means everything. When you're twenty years old you'll climb just about anything. When you've got a few decades behind you, you start appreciating equipment that makes you feel secure twenty feet off the ground.
The Summit Titan and Goliath do exactly that.
They're roomy, quiet, lightweight, comfortable and surprisingly affordable for what you get. The suspended seat lets you sit from daylight until dark without feeling crippled when it's time to climb down. The padded shooting rail gives you another place to steady yourself and folds out of the way when needed. The cushions around the frame help eliminate those little bumps and clangs that always seem to happen when the biggest buck in the county is standing thirty yards away listening.
After you've hunted from one a few times, you'll also notice how quietly it climbs. Once you learn the rhythm, attaching it to the tree and climbing becomes second nature without sounding like you're building a tree house.
Another thing I respect is Summit's commitment to safety.
Every stand comes with a full-body safety harness and climbing rope. That tells me the company cares about more than selling tree stands. They want hunters to make it home after every hunt, and that earns my respect.
The only other climbing stand I'd ever recommend for safety was the old Tree Lounge. If you've been hunting long enough, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Those things were unbelievably comfortable and incredibly safe. Unfortunately, they're long out of business as far as I know.
Today, if I'm buying a climbing stand, it's Summit.
Now let's talk about ladder stands.
Out of all the ladder stands I've hunted from over the years, and believe me, there have been a pile of them, the Big Game Hunter HD 1.5 is where my money goes. I've hunted out of homemade wooden stands built out of two-by-fours, homemade aluminum contraptions that looked like a high school shop project, and just about every store-bought stand you can imagine.
This one checks every box for me.
The first thing you'll notice is the room. That's probably why they call it the 1.5. It gives you enough space to actually move around without feeling like you're balancing on a fence post.
I'm a pretty big fella, and I don't fit into some of these tiny ladder stands very well. The oversized Flex-Tek seat and tall backrest make a world of difference. You can actually lean back, get comfortable, and enjoy the hunt instead of counting the minutes until it's time to climb down.
The oversized platform gives you plenty of room to move your feet, stand for a bow shot, stretch your legs, or simply get comfortable without feeling cramped. The adjustable shooting rail works equally well for rifle hunters and flips up out of the way for bow season.
The 350-pound weight rating is another reason I bought it. That tells me Big Game built this stand with safety in mind instead of simply making it "good enough." Add in the heavy-duty steel construction, ratchet straps, stabilizer straps, and the included full-body fall arrest system, and it's obvious this stand was designed to last for years.
I actually appreciate that they include the safety equipment instead of making you buy it separately. That tells me they're looking out for hunters, and companies that do that usually earn repeat customers.
Now, I know sixty-five pounds sounds heavy, but this isn't a public land run-and-gun stand. This is a stand you put on a food plot, travel corridor, oak flat, funnel, or field edge before the season starts. Once it's strapped down correctly, it's rock solid.
One of the biggest reasons I recommend it is the price.
If you keep your eyes open before deer season, you can usually find the Big Game Hunter HD 1.5 on sale for around a hundred bucks.
In my opinion, that's one of the best bargains in deer hunting.
I've learned something over the years.
The most expensive hunting equipment isn't always the best.
Sometimes the best piece of equipment is the one that quietly does exactly what it's supposed to do season after season without ever giving you a reason to complain.
That's exactly what these two tree stands have done for me.
If I'm buying a climbing stand, it's the Summit Titan or Summit Goliath.
If I'm buying a ladder stand, it's the Big Game Hunter HD 1.5.
Those are my picks, and they've earned their place through years of hunting, not because somebody paid me to say it.
One more thing before I let you go.
Don't forget to subscribe to HuntIQ.org.
You don't spend your hard-earned money on a quality tree stand, pick the perfect tree, hang it just right, wait all season for the biggest buck of your life, make a good shot...and then lose him because you thought you were a professional tracker.
I've hunted long enough to know that finding a wounded deer isn't nearly as easy as folks think it is. Blood disappears, leaves cover tracks, light changes, rain falls, and excitement makes even experienced hunters overlook the obvious.
For $4.99 a month, HuntIQ gives you one more advantage when it matters most.
Don't spend hundreds of dollars on a quality tree stand, thousands on your hunting equipment, and countless hours preparing for deer season...then cheap out over five bucks and risk losing the deer you've worked all year to get.
Trust me.
That's a trade I'd never make.