Deer Stand

For the past several years, I've used a tripod stand as my primary stand on the lease. It's been problematic at best, primarily because I refused to tie it down and a strong wind (like Hurricane Gustav) would blow it over.

So, a this past Saturday I went to the lease and disassembled the stand to bring it home for maintenance. My son determined it was beyond repair. The legs were 16 feet tall and provided a good source of recyclable steel. (All steel is recyclable), so we decided to make a base for a box stand that I could top with a lightweight box.

It's a 4X6, which means it's 4 feet by 6 feet, with 4 foot legs. All the steel is recycled from other projects, so my material cost is virtually zero. I used some of a spool of MIG wire, so I guess I should account for that.



That's my son, the stand's architect. I listened to him while we designed the metalwork and his ideas helped a lot. It's a better foundation because of his expertise.

My hunting land is predominately mixed pine and hardwood with undergrowth of yaupon. Yaupon in this area is an understory bush that grows four to six feet high. This stand will overlook a creek crossing on a pipeline, so height isn't an issue. Four feet is plenty tall for the floor and the shooting windows will be three feet higher, for a total of seven feet. That's plenty.

It'll be big enough for PawPaw and one young'un. We needed a ladder, though and my metalworking son cobbled together a nice stair, out of scrap tubing.



It's hell-for-stout and will hold everything I need to hold. The best part is, it's fairly lightweight. I can load it in the truck without assistance and it fits easily in the bed of the pickup for transport. The rest of the stand will be modular panels that I can assemble on site.

Deer season is coming.

**UPDATE** My son told me that we used MIG wire. I fixed it in the paragraph above.