The Best Ladder Stands For Hunting

Let’s start out by discussing the turdy point buck in the room – deer visual acuity. I’ll start right off by saying that everything we know about whitetail deer vision is best guess. It’d be cool if we could get Dr. Doolittle give a buck an eye exam and tell the world what the results are, but since that can’t happen, we have to settle for the best guess of science. From examining the eyes of deer, scientists believe deer have 20/100 vision, meaning what the buck sees at 20 feet is a clear as what we see at 100.So that helps some, but…

A deer’s pupil is far bigger than ours, and the internal structure of the eye is arranged horizontally. This means that what a deer sees peripherally is far sharper than what we see peripherally. Think that deer can’t see you just because it’s not looking straight at you? Guess again. And this structure makes a deer’s eye more attuned to movement. That’s a big factor in selecting ladder stand height.

You’ve probably heard about how deer see different colors, with most of the greens and browns being shades of gray, reds and orange as shades of yellow and blue being a big no-no as far as hunting clothing goes. I know, right now there are guys scoffing at me saying they hunt deer in blue jeans. The fact of the matter is, blues show up bright and clear, so yes, you could still be successful in jeans, but you’re either going to have to be very still, as they’ll zero in on that color, or you’ll need to be luckier than most deer hunters.

I was going over how deer see colors and my wife chimed in about camo patterns. Camo does have a place in that the different shades may not look the same to deer, but they still blend into the surroundings and the various shades and patterns break up your silhouette.

It’s far more important to worry about UV reflection than anything else, however, as studies have shown that deer can see that spectrum, or at least science believes it and it seems to hold true. A simple test for UV reflection is to use your trail camera with a IR flash. Walk past at night with your camo hunting clothes on. If you look like a giant glowing blob in your picture, use some UV-killing soap.

You’ll find ladder stands for hunting that range in heights from 10 feet up to 22 feet. WHat is the ideal height? There are several factors that come into play. On average, most hunters like taller stands, in the 15-20 foot range. Does that mean that if you choose a 10 foot stand, you’re not going to get on the deer? Absolutely not.

It used to be that deer never really looked up into the trees much. They had no reason to as the predators they were designed to avoid were always ground-based. Some researchers are now hinting that deer have started to grow accustomed to hunters being in trees, so they are extra cautious and tend to look up more. I’m not sure how much I’d buy into that, but I can say for certain that you need to be aware of your movement and don’t give the deer a reason to look up.

This brings us to a major factor in determining ladder stand height – location. Hunters who are in tall, old-growth hardwoods tend to like taller stands because there isn’t much cover 10 feet off the ground. Whereas in a stand of pines, there is often quite a bit of cover, so much so that a taller stand may actually hurt your chances.

It’s not just tree type either. You need to pay attention to the contours of the land. If you’re hunting on a slope, like a hill or ridge, You’d better have a solid idea which direction the deer will be moving from. I had a buddy that set a 17-foot ladder stand on the side of a ridge. He was so excited because with the contour of the land in front of his stand, he was actually 35 feet over the deer run he was hunting. A nice buck was on that path and he was at full draw when he heard the doe blow behind him. When he turned around, he was eye level with a doe that was walking over the ridge on the other run he hadn’t paid attention to.

I’ll admit, I’m a die-hard waterfowler. This makes me automatically want to brush in my blind, and the same can be said for my treestands. Some camo fabric and natural vegetation help break things up. For me, it’s important to have it so I can turn my head with a reduced risk of the movement being visible. 

I really like to hunt  a line between a stand of mature red pines and a thick hardwoods forest. There’s some nice open pockets on this line and I have ladder stands set up in different sports so I can play the wind. I re-brush in all the stands every season with both natural and artificial materials. I feel this is very important, especially with a ladder stand, as there is more stand there for the deer to see. It helps that I hunt private land, but the same would apply to public land, too.