A New Deer Stand

September 2011

The original stand was built in 2001 using salvaged framing material from the old house on my brothers farm. Deer season of 2010 I had to toss another sheet of plywood on the floor before I had guts enough to walk on it. Well that and a piece of rope to pull 2 end posts back together.

A summer storm finished it off.

It felt kind of like loosing a family pet. My daughter killed her first deer from this stand, my granddaughter deer hunted from this stand for her first outing. Not to mention the hundreds of pounds of deer that I shot from this heap of lumber.

Somewhere I had scratched a tally on it but couldn't find it in the wreckage.

My brother and me set new posts and put the framework up for the decking. We got everything plumb and square with the world but of course that is a moot point when using CCA. 3 days after you stop putting in screws and bolts, it goes where it wants anyway.

We moved the stand about 8 feet north, 8 feet west and 2 feet higher with intention of improving visibility. Otherwise the location is as good as it gets for me anyway. It gives me a huge area to watch with the potential for shots up to 200 yards.

It would be 2 weeks before I could get back up to the farm to work on it but I rounded up some more lumber and headed that way. My friend Wes arrived shortly after I did and we worked until dark.

I don't know why it seems to take so long on these projects. We never stopped moving it's just a slow process I guess. Then of course there is never really a set of blue prints either. Working with a portable generator and the frame rail on the utility trailer as a saw horse ... well, you get the idea.

Let's just say we won't submit it for the parade of homes tour. But after taking so many deer from the old stand that looked like hell, I'm more than certain the deer don't care what it looks like.

2 more weeks passed by and me and Wes finished it just ahead of dark thirty. I still have a door to install but worst case scenario I can hunt without it.

This stand has garage down below for the 4 wheeler and I put the ladder on the back to further reduce the chance of being spotted by deer as I climb into the stand.

Of the many luxury features and options discussed, the one that did make it was the urinal/piss pipe. A piece of 1.5 inch pvc that drops into a hole in the ground that is full of gravel and capped with dirt. Of course the pvc was white so some rust colored primer took care of that.

I put a "coffee table" in my last stand. It was nothing more than a 10 inch piece of plywood hung from the wall to make a shelf for a beverage and a handgun. However when my brother built his stand his "coffee table" had to be bigger and he was sure to point it out to me at first opportunity. He used a 2x8 2 feet long. So this time around my lovely wife picked up an actual living room end table at a garage sale for me to use between the chairs in the stand. Of course if will be a pain in the backside when there are 3 chairs in the stand but the point is that it's a nicer table than my brothers and he doesn't know it's there. He will be at the farm this weekend and no doubt swing by the stand for a final inspection. I should have mounted the trail cam up there just to get a picture of the look on his face.

I thought about mounting a light switch near the ladder and a ceiling fixture. A doe bell was another idea that was tossed around.

Of course it's 1/4 mile to the nearest power line.

All in good fun!

Last Modified: Tuesday, September 27, 2011 7:25 AM