Should I buy a portable stand and climbing stick or a climber? What are the benefits and downfalls to each set up? Thanks
my climber is load when and you have to have a tree with no limbs off of it. i find it hard to find good cover with my climber. im switching to a hang on with sticks to get around limbs and into better cover.
it depends on a few things! 1. are you hunting private or public land? 2. are there a lot of straight trees where you will be hunting?, that also depends on area, near farm fields? hardwoods? swamp? up until last year I hunted out of a climber exclusively. but I found myself hunting more for straight trees, than the "perfect" ambush tree. I switched for this season to a LW assault and LW sticks. I'm already practicing using it and setting up so I can be as effective as I am with my climber.
IMO you can put a lone wolf with sticks on any tree, but you can't a climber. So why limit your options? I was on my second season with my LW Alpha 2 and sticks, and didn't even take my summit climber out of my basement this past year.
You are definitely limited with climbers, and in areas where deer are hunted alot, it is even more difficult to find a tree that you can climb and still not get picked off. A couple of other things to think about; can you leave the stand up over night? Or must you bring it out at the end of the day? How long are you going to sit? Some stands just aren't all that comfortable for long sits. Others (like the Lone Wolf climbers) are good for getting in quietly and then leaving. How much do you want to spend? You get what you pay for. I bought several loc ons years ago for less than one good climber. Never quite figured out how to keep them from creaking (at the wrong time).
You just can't beat the versatility of a hangon. Climbers used to be easier and faster to use, but that's just not the case anymore with a good stand & stick combo like my Lone Wolf. I don't want my stand to limit the trees I can hunt from.
If mobility is a concern and you're not hunting private land, a good mobile hang-on like a LW is hard to beat. For me, I have permanent hang-ons because I hunt private ground and you get the best of both worlds (fast setup and unlimited tree options). It really depends on where you're hunting. I do have a LW Alpha Hand Climber that rarely gets used. Just no need for it in my situation where I rarely run and gun.
Tons of great advice above! I have been using my LW stand and stick combo for the past few years and never hunted out of a climber again after purchasing it! Sent from my iPhone 5S using Tapatalk
I bought a good climber for cheap and have used it for 2 years. Already starting to look for a hang on. Climbers are great but I hear hang ons are better.
Hang on and climbing sticks. The Lone Wolf are by far the top brand, but they come with a price. Overall a good investment if you plan on hunting hard.
I've got two climbers that haven't seen a tree in years. One is a Summit and the other a Tree Lounge and they don't exactly give either of those away.
I've got a Summit that I have used one time, I found with my arthritis I can't use it to get up to proper hunting heights. So I bought a small cheap ladder stand that I can put together out of the back of my pick-up, drag into the hunting spot, put in the tree by myself & hunt without affecting my arthritis too much. Even the light weight of the aluminum Summit climber was too much for me, I can't pull it up with my feet, by the time I'm 10' up I'm in too much pain to hunt.
Any of you summit climber guys wanna get rid of an un used stand this summer pm me! Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk
I've never used climbers, always thought it would be a drag carrying it out and noisy setting it up Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you are only going to have one stand, a good hang on will be much better than a climber. You can hang it on any tree a climber will work on, plus all the other live trees bigger than 8" in diameter. Generally the hang on's aren't nearly as comfortable as a Climber. Its almost like sitting on a stool compared to a recliner.
