Today my best-friend Matt and I decided to go hang my Muddy Outdoors stand and the Muddy climbing sticks. I was going to take photo's of the process but we ended up having a major rain storm pass through (probablly a good thing). Season starts on October 3rd, and this is the latest that I have ever set-up a stand. A few initial thoughts Matt and I discovered while setting the stand started with the climbing sticks. The sticks are short compared to whats on the market, but for my set, they worked just fine (platform height right around 14'). The stand was set in a large maple tree and the initial problem that we had was the placement of the sticks. The climbing sticks seemed very hard to set-up as the bark was very smooth and there seemed to be a good many knots in the tree. When we set the sticks up, they seemed tight until we started climbing... then the slightest pressure pulling away from the tree would actually cause the top portion of the climbing stick to pull away from the tree and move. Set-up of the climbing sticks seemed easy enough, but we realized that they had to be set perfectly on the tree in order for them to slide down and seat into the bark correctly. Once the sticks were set-up we only had to adjust one of the sticks to get it to seat onto the tree correctly (still kind of a pain). After that ordeal, setting the stand seemed like it was going to be a breeze, but I decided to purchase the steel model because it had a larger platform. The 17lb. stand was a bit of a pain to pull into place, but the ratchet/cam strap combo actually made it fairly easy (once the weight of the stand was lifted into place). We have used Rivers Edge Bigfoot XL's before, and set-up of the stand itself was a good bit easier. After this it was time to trim some shooting lanes, this was a prretty easy task as the woods were fairly open to begin with... but we decided to cut a "hole" in a patch of x-mas trees. There was a very heavily used trail running parrallel to my stand that I wouldn't have had shots into if we didn't do some serious trimming. Luckily, we had some VERY heavy rain move in, and we decided that the trimming wouldn't affect the deer at all. Here is a view of the area.... the north-east stand set-up is a ladder stand set that my fiance will be hunting the first day. There are several fingers (from bedding areas) that lead into the opening by the stand where the deer seem to gather before heading into the corn/clover fields. My new set-up (The Muddy Stand and Sticks) is the bottom left stand. As you can see, the bedding areas (outlined in blue) surround the stand, and my Reconyx trail camerea photo's show alot of activity in the clearing just southwest of my stand. The two closest bedding areas are christmas tree patches that have been let go for nearly five years. The deer really bed in these areas, but it is nearly impossible to pin-point which section and if they are being used by bucks or does. I have personally witnessed several bucks, and doe groups hanging in these areas. The southern most bedding area is a bedding area that was very heavily used by does last year, and the north eastern bedding area is a grown up fence row that has proved to be around 50/50 for buck and doe bedding. If the weather permits, tomorrow I will be heading back to my stand to set up my climbing rope, safety harness rope, and my pull rope. I will also be putting my Reconyx in the "hole" shooting lane that we created on a VERY heavily used trail to see what is passing through. If the weather permits I will take some photo's. As far as the Muddy Outdoors products go.... the only complaint I have is the sticks... I wish that they (the four contact points) would fit better to the tree. Other than that, the stand/sticks are great, and climbing them is very easy.
