Like you said I use both. I am lucky to have access to 500+ acres of private land. At this time I have 9 treestands, 6 permanent ground blinds and 2 elevated box blinds. The one I like the most is the one with the perfect wind that day. I do seem to use the blinds more once it gets cold. I have heat in 4 of them. I do enjoy the treestand experience. More of a predator there I guess. But the blinds are nice. I can get away with lots of movement. I have had deer within 30 yards many times and could stand up, put on my coat, sit down and the deer never know. I can bring youngster with me too for the same reasons. I can also listen to the Packers games. I do find that I pick up bad habits in a blind though.
I find myself using a ground blind more and more, you cant always find a suitable tree but you can always find the ground..lol I also think that over the years we have been conditioned to think we need to hunt out of a tree... The first 20 years I hunted tree stands for gun hunting were illegal in my state..
treestand, 12' high but most of the time about 8'. like roger rothaar told me "hunt the first row of cover". less trimming and more concealment. plus more challenging and safer than the nose bleed heights I used to hunt.
neither... Ambush from the ground using what cover is available. We don't have many trees here. We are constantly moving around so a blind would be a pain. We are also setting up right by bedding areas. Setting up a blind would be tough to do since it is very open here. The other bow hunters ( which is almost everyone else ) in my area use both tree stands and blinds. They all bait to try to bring the deer to them. I don't bait, but if I did, I would use a blind more then a tree stand with our terrain. Blinds are getting a lot more popular around here. Tim
also when you have a wife that loves and wants to hunt with you but hates tree stands you put out lots of pop up ground blinds. I had to forgo a lot of solo time in a tree this year to hunt with my wife, and I loved every minute of it..
My wife plans to come with me this year (my first year hunting myself) so I imagine I'll be going with a pop-up Blind.
once during the gun season this past year I got her in a buddy stand but she did not feel comfortable getting in and out once in it she was OK, there would be no way she would stand and shoot a bow out of one..
No doubt, my preference is a tree stand. I hunted more out of a blind this year than I ever have. It has it's advantages, but it just doesn't feel the same as hunting from a tree stand.
getting back on topic I love my climber and use it a lot... but there is nothing being on eye level with the deer..
I actually plan to do some stalking this season as well. I have 250 acres to hunt .....just gotta watch out for the black bears lol