Advantages
Disadvantages
Important! When using a treestand to hunt on private land, always first obtain permission from the land owner.
Treestands give a hunter a longer range of visibility, allowing for more time to prepare for a safe shot.
Game animals can detect even slight movements, but in a treestand a hunter can move without being easily detected.
A hunter's scent remains in the tree canopy when in a treestand, not giving away the hunter’s position to nearby animals as it would on the ground.
Blaze orange is visible at greater distances in a treestand than on the ground; there a hunter's color(s) can be blocked by brush and debris.
A hunter’s shots from a treestand are at a downward angle, so the bullet or arrow will go into the ground. This element is especially important when hunting near homes and farm buildings, as it lessens the chance of stray shots harming others.
A treestand gives a hunter no protection from the wind unless it has a skirt around its platform.
Some treestands are quite heavy to carry into or out of the woods.
Setting up and taking down a treestand can be very noisy, scaring away game animals in the area.
In rainy or snowy weather, hunters might lose their footing when climbing up to or getting out of the treestand.
It is difficult to change positions or comfortably move around in some treestands.
A hunter might fall asleep in the treestand, which can result in an accident.
Many hunting incidents occur when a hunter is getting into or out of a treestand.