At the Ranch - Whitetail: Bowhunting on the Ground Versus Treestand

You can see here that I’m in a treestand and we’re just wrapping up the morning hunting here in Nebraska. In this video, I want to talk about bowhunting from the ground versus a tree stand. There are a lot of differences and in some instances, hunting from the ground might be a better option while in others hunting from a treestand might be. I personally prefer hunting from a treestand as much as possible. Some big advantages from hunting in treestands include being able to see further distances and with that, you can cover a lot more area. When you’re in a ground blind or if you’re hunting from the ground, your shooting can be more limited whereas from a tree you can cut shooting lanes and stuff like that.

There are a few of downsides of hunting from a treestand. One is that it can be a little harder to control your wind. If you’re hunting from a ground blind, you can open specific windows to help control your wind, but if you’re hunting from the ground – without a blind – then it’s the same thing as being in a treestand.

Another upside of being in a treestand is that you can get away with more movement. When you’re hunting from the ground you’re going to be at eye level with deer, so you’re gonna have to be able to move less to be able to pull off a shot. When you’re hunting from a treestand, you’re above the deers eyesight, so usually you can get away with a little more movement in a tree.

Another thing to note is that when you are hunting from a treestand you always want to make sure you’ve got a safety harness on which is something you don’t have to worry about when hunting from the ground. You always want to be hooked up to the tree so that way if you do happen to fall from a treestand, you know you’re not going to fall all the way to the ground.

Last thing I want to touch on is when you are hunting from a tree stand you are shooting from an angle, so if you’ve never practiced shooting from an elevated position, I’d highly recommend that. Shooting from angles can kind of change exactly how you’re going to have to shoot and your windows get smaller, especially the higher you get up.