Our Permanent Stands

[Brush Creek]

Here is what we have been building. Most of these work with one kid and one adult in them as well. They also are small, well hidden and a little higher than most of our portables. Have shot some great bucks out of these small hidden permanents. We have 7 of them on our 300 acres and will add at least one more this summer.

 

[Riggsgwp->]

Those small permanents are great but get dangerous with time. I'm sure you are careful but having kids in those would make me nervous.

 

[Brush Creek]

All are green treated and lag screwed and nailed in. Adults go in first.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Yep - those built-ins are nice, but they need to be SERIOUSLY checked each year. Wind swaying the trees, rot, etc. can really loosen things.

 

[wiscwhip]

My permanent stand was very similar to the one in the second photo, except it was between 2 individual trees and not on a split trunk. I don't know if that would make the loosening issue worse or not? We thoroughly checked the lags when we put our fall plots in, because we were already disturbing the area. Rechecked them the weekend before rifle season when I took my bucket seat out to the stand.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I learned a few things from my first built-in stand some years ago. No more zinc plated lags and screws. STAINLESS STEEL only. No rust probs. Also, that stand was nailed and lagged in between 4 close oak trees, arranged in a square pattern. The wind swaying the trees tore everything loose in a year's time. Next re-build I drilled slotted holes in the support timbers so the swaying wouldn't tear out the hardware. Used boiler washers and didn't tighten things down gorilla-tight so there was some " slide " to the supports.

Edit: Stands STILL must be checked each year before using. Not advocating for built-ins, I use portable ladder stands almost entirely.

 

[wiscwhip]

All are green treated and lag screwed and nailed in. Adults go in first.

We bought the pressure treated, along with painting it as well. We used camo netting all the way around that was attached to the top set of boards. Helped to get away with a bit more movement which was nice. It also had the permanent wooden ladder. The next generation stand was going to have corten steel tubing for the main tree attachments and "upper rails" along with a corten access ladder. All holes for tree attachment and deck board attachment would have been pre-drilled as well. I would second the SS hardware as well.

 

[biglakeba$$]

We have zero permanent stands in trees and I like that a lot. Everything we have now are on stilts. We have a dozen ladder stands but they are easy to move as necessary.

Permanent stands in a tree is a death trap in my opinion. Way too much movement and unknown results over the years.

 

[Brush Creek]

Putting them in one tree that splits up high reduces almost all swaying. That and treated lumber is very important. Oldest stand is 7 years old and still solid. Annual check ups too.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Our prob. with split trees is the splits are usually so high up, 35 ft. or so, that we wouldn't be able to see down thru other tree limbs. We're in thick woods, not open field areas. ( where this stand was located ). Most of our woods are tall, straight hardwoods with the splits occurring way up in the trees. Built - ins are usually made between 3 and sometimes 4 trees just so we can see over low brush & laurel, but under other low-hanging tree limbs depending on the slope. But I agree with you Brush Creek - one tree would be better as far as swaying goes.