No matter if you hunt with a climber, a ladder, a hang on, or a tree saddle, you have got to figure out how high you are going to climb your tree. Some hunters think big bucks live in the tops of the trees and climb 40 feet up or higher, others are too scared to get 5 feet off the ground. The sweet spot is somewhere between there, but what makes one stand height better than another? That is what we will find out today, but first, let me sum it all up for you.
My 200 hunter survey showed that 34.5% of hunters prefer to have their stands 16 to 20 feet up the tree, while 75.5% of responses fell between 11 and 25 feet. The determining factor was often cover and concealment from surrounding foliage which changes from stand to stand.
That was the bulk of it, but if you want to see more specifics, the benefits to high or low stands, how cover affects a stand, and how height affects your arrow, keep reading!
Survey Results
Instead of just using the height I hunt at as the standard, I thought I would let the community decide. So I posted this plain message “How high do you guys hang your treestands??” in three hunting Facebook groups and gave people a day to respond. I was able to get over 200 responses, but of course, there were also a fair amount of comedians. The internet is forever, and so is Ric Flair, so here were some of the jokers.
Jokes aside, 200 responses is a good sample size. As you might expect, I got a nice normal distribution (bell curve) of answers. I split the distances into 5 foot segments, and put answers in the segment they most closely overlapped with if users gave a range. Most of the responses fell in the 16 to 20 foot segment.
I would also like to mention that I used Facebook groups from all over the country, so we have midwest hunters, eastern hunters, Texans, and everyone in between in this survey. This is important because what is best in one area might not be in another, but we can make a broad estimate based on what is best in the most areas from this survey.
There were plenty of hunters that found success under 15 feet, and a common response from them was they went as high as they needed to to be concealed by the surrounding cover. Hunters that went over 20 feet said the same thing, so that could be a consequence of these hunters hunting in different types of trees and climates in general. Hunters that went over 30 feet usually stated there wasn’t a lot of cover where they hunted, and they compensated with height. Hunters that stayed under 10 feet usually commented about being afraid of heights.
What Is the Ideal Height for a Tree Stand?
Most hunters tend to hang their tree stands between 16 and 20 feet high. 18 feet is a good height to aim for, but height is less important than cover. You should generally climb as high as you need to to blend in with surrounding cover like branches and foliage.
Benefits of a Low Hanging Stand
So why might you want to keep your treestand relatively low to the ground? Well, there are a few advantages to that. For starters, it is a little safer. The shorter you climb, the less chance you have to fall while climbing. Plus, if you were to fall, I bet you would rather fall from 10 feet than 40 feet.
A shorter climb is also easier to do if you are older or not as fit as you used to be. If you hunt out of a ladder stand, you might choose to keep it shorter so that it is easier to put up. Lord knows those ladders (especially two person stands) are not easy to put up. Just like some of you, I have key memories of the sketchiness my dad and I did to put those stands up.
However, if you ask an avid bow hunter, they would tell you the best advantage to a lower tree stand is that it gives you a better angle to a deer’s vitals. Picture a deer standing still, 20 or so yards from your stand. On the ground you have a square shot to the box around his vitals.
Now 20 feet up the tree, that box the vitals fit into is at an angle and you can see less of it assuming you don’t want to hit the spine. Go up to 30 or 40 feet in the tree, and that same box of vitals standing 20 yards away shrinks even more thanks to the increased angle.
This problem fixes itself at longer ranges, but with a bow we generally don’t shoot too far, and making your target smaller just makes it harder to hit. Although this isn’t much of a problem for a gun hunter with a broadside shot and a high power scope.
Benefits of a High Hanging Stand
The reason we use tree stands in the first place is to get out of a deer’s line of sight. So the higher you go, the better chance you have of doing that. Although if 20 feet gets you out of a deer’s line of sight, what is the point in going 40 feet up? As long as you get some height and cover yourself well, deer shouldn’t notice you.
Although getting high up in the tree also helps your scent. The idea is that the higher you are in the tree, the more likely it is that your scent will be carried over the deer by the wind. Sure, I guess there is some merit to that, but if you just focus on your scent control routine, you should be able to fool 99% of deer no matter where the wind blows. When you are 30 feet up a tree, are you going to get down and move every 30 minutes when the wind shifts?
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However high you climb, you don’t want to be skylined. Cover is the most important thing. Climb up to where surrounding branches, trees, and foliage are. They can help keep you concealed, but you will need to mind your shooting lanes. When a lot of cover is not really available around your preferred tree, most hunters compensate by climbing a little higher in the tree.
Don’t Carry a Tape Measure, Cover is Most Important
So when people are setting up their tree stands, are they bringing a tape measure? I hope not. Any suggested height you see or choose to go with should be used more like a guideline. If you are 18.5 or 17.5 feet up a tree instead of 18 feet, nothing is going to explode. Some hunters make their haul lines a certain length, say around 20 feet, and stop climbing when that ends, which can be handy.
The key is to go as high as you need to. That means you should go as high as the surrounding cover. If you go 30 feet up, and the cover starts at 15 feet, you are just going to block your own shots. You want to blend into the trees, not just hanging on the side of one.
You can probably get away with just hanging there and being still on most properties, but on a few properties, deer will literally look up in the trees for you. Those heavily pressured spots require a little more effort. You can use surrounding branches, other trees, and even the trunk of your own tree to break up your outline and keep you hidden. Just make sure you have clear shooting lanes.
If you hunt from a tree saddle, you can easily use the trunk to keep you well hidden. Plus, you can still shoot 360 degrees around you if you get good. If you aren’t super familiar with saddle hunting, check out this article I wrote for beginners. It will help you figure out if saddle hunting is for you, and tell you how to get started.
The Higher You Go, The Farther Your Arrow Travels
Another point I wanted to make was that the higher you climb, the longer your arrow is going to be in the air. Now this requires a little basic trigonometry, but hopefully you can trust me and my Georgia Tech degree to do that.
If you can picture you in a treestand and a deer standing about 20 yards away as a right triangle, the hypotenuse or diagonal distance from you at the top of the triangle to the deer at the bottom of the triangle is longer than the horizontal distance from the base of your tree to the deer. If the deer stands still, and you climb higher in the tree, that diagonal distance increases even more, but the horizontal distance stays the same.
This is not a ground breaking discovery I made. People in the bow hunting world have been talking about this for decades. Most of the conversation has been centered around our aim, and if that change in distance was enough to make our practice shots on the ground different from our shots in an elevated stand. The answer is that it can make a difference if the shot is short, but it doesn’t make much of a distance past 10 yards.
Although the longer your arrow stays in the air, the more energy it loses, the higher chance you have of the deer jumping the string, and the higher chance you have of hitting something that isn’t your deer. Ideally, we want our arrow in the air for the shortest path possible. So here is a quick graph showing just how much your tree stand height can affect that diagonal distance from your bow to the deer.
As you can see from the graph, the higher you get in the tree, the longer your arrow is in the air. The calculation here is just the absolute value of the horizontal distance from the base of your tree to the deer minus the hypotenuse (diagonal distance). What this graph really shows is how much that is impacted at short range shots. At longer ranges, you can see the difference is minimal.
The added distance (1 to 2 yards) at 20 yards is not going to make a difference in your shot at all. Although I just wanted to point this out because it can make a big difference for shots under 10 or 15 yards. Plus, if you are one of those guys that want your arrow to be as fast as possible and have the largest energy transfer into the deer as possible, a lower stand height is ideal due to the shorter arrow path.
The Perfect Stand Height
The truth is that there is no perfect stand height. There are some generalizations we can make based on the survey. Most of the time, you will be just fine with a stand between 16 and 20 feet. Although the most important factor is cover. You should worry less about the exact measurement from your treestand to the ground, and more about how visible you are. In reality, you can kill a deer while laying on the ground, and you can shoot them from 100 feet in the air if you want to, just make sure you wear a safety harness!
Sister Post | 3 Lightweight Climber Tree Stands for Mobile Deer Hunting
A sister post is another post that I have written that follows along with the same topic as the one you just read. After reading this article, you will probably like this next one even more! Here is a little teaser…
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Climber stands are a versatile tool that every hunter needs from time to time. I have used climbers that I have left in the woods around a tree for months, and I have also put climbers up and taken them down in the same hunt. After doing that too many times on my Michigan hunt, I decided I needed a lighter climber stand…Keep Reading
Best Lightweight Climber Stand for Bowhunters
The *Keep Reading* is the best lightweight climber tree stand I found specifically for bowhunters. This 15-pound climber stand is…Keep Reading
Thank you for reading my article! I hope you enjoyed it, and if you have any questions or feedback, please send me an email at Patrick.Long@omegaoutdoors.net. If you want to learn more about me or Omega Outdoors, visit my About Page. Otherwise, I hope you have a great day, and check out some of my other articles while you’re here!
If you did a quick search on google for how high you should hang your deer stand, hopefully, these sections will pop up and answer your question. If you want a better answer, I suggest you check out my survey results at the top of this article.
Is 10 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
10 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 10 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.
Is 11 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
11 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 11 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.
Is 12 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
12 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 12 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.
Is 15 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
15 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 15 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.
Is 18 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
18 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 18 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.
Is 20 Feet High Enough for a Tree Stand
20 feet is high enough for a tree stand. Your stand height is less important than your cover. You should climb as high as the surrounding cover like branches, smaller tree tops, or foliage. If you can get ample cover at 20 feet high and still have shooting lanes, that’s the perfect height for you.