PRODUCT REVIEW
Every year I try to find a few things that are going to make
my deer season better, products that will make it easier,
safer, or just make me more effective as a hunter. I found
one of those gems this year with the Tree Stand Buddy.
The Tree Stand Buddy is a “quick-attach slide-mount system
for hang-on tree stands”. It is a bracket system that allows
you to use your one favorite hang-on tree stand in all of your
favorite spots. You simply attach the Tree Stand Buddy
bracket to your stand, and then strap receivers to all the
trees you plan to use during the season. When you are
ready to hunt, you slide your tree stand onto the receiver,
attach the tree stand manufacturer suggested strap and
climb aboard.
Because you take your stand in and out with you, the Tree
Stand Buddy also protects your investment. How many
tree stand seats have you donated to squirrels? All of
my stands have some kind of rodent damage. Apparently
squirrels can’t make a proper nest for themselves without
some part of a tree stand
seat, or all of it, in it. And
why do they chew the plastic
coating off of the support
cables? That has to taste
FOR terrible right? Speaking of
CK
the support cables, have
CLI DEO
I
you had a rusted one snap
V
under your weight yet? I was
hunting with the Rackmaster
in one of his spots a couple
of years ago when that
happened to me. We were
videoing that night so I
brought a second hang-on stand to place above his. I went
up the tree, got into his stand, and then hung mine above
it. I then climbed back down and the Rackmaster went up.
He got into the first stand then climbed up into the camera
stand I had just hung. Everything was going as planned
so I climbed back up to get settled in. I was up there for
a minute or two when without warning one of the support
cables popped. He says the look on my face while I was
trying to figure out if I was falling or not was priceless.
To say it was scary would be an understatement; to say
I needed a change of underwear might be closer to the
truth. We still hunted that night, I had a piece of rope in
my pack that I used to secure the platform, but we pulled
the set for repairs when it got dark.
The Tree Stand Buddy system is made of eleven gauge
steel with interlocking grooves so that it totally locks up
when any weight is placed on it for a solid, squeak free
connection to the tree. The system makes hanging a stand
much safer as well. Once you strap the receiver to the tree
you hoist your stand using the hoist loop on the receiver.
This means you never have to carry your stand up a tree,
you pull it