This is an Amacker Timb-R-Lock I bought new in 1987 and is still going strong. It's spent the vast majority of its life in only four or five trees. Do you have one with a history?

Posco,
Replace those cables if you haven't already done so. If you haven't it will dump you one day soon.

That's a good point. I've replaced the bolts once but not the cables. I'll do that.

Reason I say that is b4 I retired I worked 2 hunting incidents where one or both of those cables broke when hunter stepped on platform. Down they went. Ambulance ride. The cables rust in a hidden location where they attach to platform at eyebolt or other manner.

May I add those safety ropes and harnesses are worth your life or a severe injury

Made my own Baker style climber 40+ years ago.
Old seat belt for boot loops.

Hug the tree, pull up feet/ platform, rinse and repeat.

After a few years, made a handclimber to.make things easier and have a place lean back.

Worked great.
Until the day I was ALMOST up a pine and the platform slipped off my boots.
Had never crossed my mind to tie the two together.

Hugged tree for about 2 minutes until I realized there was only 2 ways down.
Fall, or semi controlled descent.

I chose the latter.

Left a lot of my forearm skin, my best flannel shirt, and both nipples, smeared down that 20 foot of pine....

There's a reason OSHA will cut an extension cord and govt contracts almost require all new ladders and cords. Overkill yes, but better than the alternative.

One reason why I've pretty much stuck to climbing stands. My hands and eyes are on it everytime before it even goes to the woods.

Dad, at 82, is now pretty much blind or ladder only but some of the cheap rigged up stuff in years past scared me to just stand under much less sit in.

I'm in an oldie tonight.

no deer but saw a Nice beaver

I have only hunted from a ground blind with my 300 lb, now 265 lb self. Them things ain't safe, and they seem a lot colder way up there in the jet stream.

Just pieced my old aluminum one back together that was damaged in the shed fire it was outside and but was hit with a chunk of metal from a mapp gas cylinder that blew up in the building. I finally just cut the bad part out and one step is a bit shorter but the deer don’t seem to notice it.



I

I started deer hunting at 13 with a bow and no stand and no adult to take me. Got a ride to my cousins in the
country from my grandfather and we walked from his house. I climbed trees and sat in forks. Killed 3 deer like that, when I was 15 (1995) my grandfather and dad went in together and bought Me a loggy bayou For x Mas. Man was I up town. Yes I still use it and smile thinking about my grandfather every time. I bout 2 summits for the boys and sometimes I will use one of those. It's more comfortable when set up and easier to climb with but it's much heavier and bulky to get through the woods with. Also the summits is less secure and can slip on me. With the loggy when it's in place it's not moving.

Grandpaw has been dead for years but he is with me every time I use that stand.

Need a like button!

I had an old friend that I hunted and fished with a lot. I learned things about hunting, trapping and fishing from him (my dad taught me a lot too).

He built lock on stands out of 3/4" square tubing. I still have the one he built me. It will never be hunted out of again but it is a part of him.

I also have the Lone Wolf climber (1st generation with the angle aluminum arms) and several traps he gave me.

As far as Loggy Bayou, gave dad one of their climbers for Christmas one year when I was in college. We call it "The Widow Maker". Never used it much as a climber because it would slip on the bark, no "teeth" to bite in

I founded out the hard way . I was lucky I’ve always wore a safety harness and it paid for itself that day . I had just settled in around 15 minutes before daylight after dropping my youngest one off in his stand . Then right at daybreak I could hear a buck grunting coming over the ridge so I stood up preparing for the shot , as soon as he crest the hill I got him to stop . I slowly eased the rifle up then the next thing I know , I was swinging like a piñata at kids birthday party . He stood there looking at me like what the $&@“ is that , for a brief second I know I heard him laughing then he just walked off down the trail . I was able to pull myself back up and stand on some limbs for the next few hours . I still got the cables hanging in the barn , when I get back in I will post some pictures , if I can find them .

I built a portable many years ago. The stand was put in a tree and has never been taken down. It gets checked over yearly and loosened as the tree grows. Excellent place to hunt during the rut. Its probably been in that tree 20 plus years.

Not to hijack, but a collection of pictures featuring old wooden tree stands would be kind of neat to compile. Before they are all gone.

My brother and I would carry 2”x12” x 1’ with V notches cut in the ends. We would drop them into crotches of trees and stand on them while bow hunting. Killed a lot of deer that way. That would be early to mid 80s and I don’t remember seeing any portable stands in trees back then. All were wooden home made with 2x4s pounded on trees for ladders. And most of them pretty sketchy. I hunted under more of them than I did out of them. Lol

I hunted out of some pretty sketchy wooden stands myself. I remember one at nosebleed height in a ancient pine tree overlooking a big swamp. Always optimistic but I never saw a deer out of it.

It’s amazing how high some of them ol dudes are. Must not have been a fear of heights back then. Not to mention the rickety ways of getting into them. 2x4s and RR spike combo ladders. Lol

Nailed it.

I found that it is colder up in a tree stand also.
I find that its harder to rotate around for a shot behind you too.
I have hunted from mostly home made treestand/platforms in my time.
After a couple of years I quit using tree stands.
I like sitting on the ground leaning against a tree.
i can bring along a old sleeping bag to pull up to my chest, put my hands in a muff and I'm roasty toasty ready for an all day sit.
Its much more comfortable and safer.

There is something in the human mind that thinks the farther we can see the better.
I'm good with small shooting lanes and letting the deer come within 10yrads or less when I sit in the thick brush.