I put my stands where I have the best cover usually. My favorite stand is at 12' and I have never gotten busted out of it. Just make sure you got sufficient cover and height isn't that important then.
I have a stand that is about 8 foot off ground and killed two does out of it this year. I say like Justin did. It all depends on your cover!
I will go out about mid day tomorrow and re-evaluate I may move it to the other tree. It is only about 5 yards farther shot. 15yd from the trail. It has more cover and I will be able to see the deer without having to turn around and make any noise. I think I may have said th ecurrent tree is 15yd from the trail but, I meant 10yd. As far as standing goes, I practice sitting and shootint just incase I have too but usually I stand 60-70% of the time on stand. If it is normal for the deer to come through at say, 4:00pm for example, I will stand up around 3:30pm and I can usually stand for at least an hour at a time before I feel like I need to sit for 20min or so. The other tree has more back cover also. As for the wind, I will be able to hunt it when the wind is blowing in from the south east all the way around from the north. Unless of course the are coming in from the south then it will be North east. I get my trail cams next Tues, A guy that I know just upgraded and is giving me two Moultre cameras. I am also buying one next week as well. I plan on puting one on this mineral station and one on the trail about 50yd to the south of my stand.
Thanks for the halp guys. Some of you mentioned go as high as I am comfortable. One problem with that one. If there is enough tree, I feel comfortable climbing as high as the tree will allow me. I took a climer up to about 50' last season to glass an area I thought was a bedding area. If there would have been more tree, I would have went higher. Not a bit of fear or a sign of bring uncomfortable. So I have to judge on keeping the shot angle in the good, distance from the trail, back cover and tree.
Don't forget, you can hang the stand on the opposite side of the tree too if you can't find the cover you'd like. You'll just have to stand and shoot to either side of the tree.
I prefer to be anywhere from 25-30' up in the tree. Our deer are shot at with guns from August 15th through January 1st. They have learned to look up. If you're 12-15' up you can count yourself busted. When in Illinois I noticed a lot of those guys don't climb very high at all, or set their lock ons very high. Its cause the deer up there look at you and say "what is that funny looking thing in that tree? Oh well, must just be a really big squirrel." Stupid Midwest deer.
