I’m sure we have all had a history with stands that had some questionable engineering. What was yours?

Thinking back, there was some early v bar climbers that were pretty sketchy and uncomfortable. But the worst had to be a 20’ wooden ladder stand on an old club I was in. I can still remember It had a bounce to the ladder the last time I ever attempted to climb it. I made it up but wasn’t comfortable enough to even sit. I eased back down and sat on the ground.

About 35ft up 2 2x8s in fork of tree...we called it the crows nest it was very sketchy getting from the tree to platform....had to get a 40ft extension ladder to get my uncle down one night that came up from Florida to hunt one weekend 🤣 thinking back my dad was a dumbass for building that stand the way he did

My dad built a wooden stand in a tree about 16 ft of ground but tree grew out of ground and turned at a 45 degree angle. Had wooden 2x4 on tree trunk for steps. I got in that stand one day long time ago and wind picked up and that tree was moving in circles thought the tree was going to break and fall. Was no such thing as safety harness back then. I couldn’t get out of that tree fast enough.

About 20-25 ft up to the top of a holly tree. Shook like crazy. Had to have squirrel in ya to make all the steps and limbs that twisted around the thing. Then the 1x4 platform leaned like it was wanting to dump you out the whole time. Can’t believe no one ever got hurt from that one. Two other sketchy ones too but that one was scary sometimes.

some dumbass in a club repaired a ladder stand with a 2x2 piece of wood. the part that has teeth that you ratchet to the tree had busted the welds so he drilled holes and bolted an untreated 2x2 on it, I got up in that thing and had no idea until i heard the 2x2 crack no telling how many times I sat in that thing with a rotten 2x2 holding me 15ft up. Im lucky it didnt break with me in the stand i was about halfway up the ladder when it decided to go.

I got in my dumbass friends lock on one time that the ratchet strap had failed to hold tension over years of use and when I stepped into the platform it spin around 90 degrees with me on it. I was prolly 25ft up and puckered. I gingerly got back down immediately. I also sat in a ladder stand with no strap. The tree grew around the teeth of the stand and held it that way.

The old Baker type climbers were absolutely dangerous. I experienced this first hand with a drop from a tree starting at about 16'. It stopped about 3' from the ground and bounced me out through the woods like I was coming off a diving board

My father built a wood tree stand dang near in the top of a tall oak tree next to a clear cut on our place when I was a teenager. I don't know exactly how high it was but I routinely climb to 30 feet in my climber these days and it was way higher than that. We used to joke that if you had sat in it with a shotgun and buckshot a deer directly beneath you would have been out of range. Looking back I can't believe any of us ever climbed into that thing. I sure wouldn't now.

I don't know what kind they were but the first climbers I ever saw my cousins brought with them from Mobile. This would have been early to mid 80's. They were some dangerous SOB's. They would slip and slide down the tree in a heartbeat.

If this is what they call a Baker style climber then yeah, this is what my cousins had. Damn death trap.

Anyone using wood on a stand nowadays is asking for pain. Anything made of wood will rot. Especially if its left in the woods.

Macon County #1 - I was probably 12 or 13. Three 2x4's nailed in the fork of a tree about 25 feet off the ground. Steps were railroad spikes with nailed with the spacing for a grown man. Once I was in, there I sat until dad came and got me down. Could really on stand in the stand.

Macon County #2 - 15 foot tall metal scaffold that was used in a Russell Mill plant. No real ladder, so dad had to help me climb up. Stand was placed on an angle so you had to stand on the high side or it would feel like it was going to tip over. When you got on the platform on a cold, frosty morning you had to either grab the railing, which was freezing or you would slowly slide down to the lower side. So the option was always, slide down and work you way back to the high side, repeat, repeat, repeat until the frost melted.

Barbour County - Best Stand - Bag chair on top of a peanut combine. I could have done jumping jacks on that thing and the deer wouldn't have paid any attention.

We had one my dad built in the forks of a chinaberry I think. The platform ended up something like a triangle covered in tarp material. 2x4's nailed to the tree going up very difficult to climb. We called it the spider man stand.

Man I’ve been in some many sketchy home made stand. One with 2x4 steps with only one nail so they’d spin like a wind mill if you weren’t center. Been in some that you used limbs to climb instead of steps. Some that you have to swing from back of the tree to the front to get in stand. I’ve also been in stands that were made to be hard to get into so other wouldn’t hunt them. I don’t use any of these stands any more. If I can’t use a safety harness on a stand I’m not using it.

When I think of some of the stands I've been in and how high I climbed in my youth, I feel lucky to be alive.

A friend of mine had a wood platform about 35 feet up in a oak tree years ago with a old office chair tied to it. I sat one time in it, no more.

some of the early lock-on's from Wal-mart weren't so much sketchy as they were just terrible to use ... we had one we nicknamed "Ole Rickitty" -- once you sat down, you could not move or it'd make a loud "SCREEETCH" sound -- the seat was made out of something like the webbing used on old aluminum chairs (but worse!) & it was rough on the arse on long sits ...

The last 2 clubs I hunted in I found Baker stands still sitting on the tree from years ago. I looked around for skeletal remains and didn't find any so I guess they weren't worth the trouble to take when the members left the club and no one else wanted them either.

Hunted a spot before that I found an old wooden stand in, thought to myself man that's way up there. I hunted that area for several years before I noticed the other wooden stand near it, I bet its 60 feet off the ground and out on a limb of a big oak tree. I need to take a picture of it, one would have to be dedicated or stooooopid to climb up to that one.

When I was a kid, There was a tall water oak in the swamp behind my dad's house. Not sure how high but it was way up there. He had cotton spindles going up to a fork in the tree, then a board in the fork. That wasn't high enough. If he got up to the next split in a limb, he could have a shooting lane about 400 yards. He was out of spindles, so he used 4 16penny nails together to get up the rest of the way. He thought that was a little hairy so he tied a rope up there to hold onto. We also had another stand in a knotted up, hollow, leaning beech tree. We called this the ugly tree. We actually had screw in steps in it. He fell out of that tree and broke his ankle.