Would you whippesnappers even dare??
Equipment
Well, would ya?
I thought another post to go with the Allen bow thread!
just set an ol Baker out by the curb a couple weeks ago...the scrap guys didnt even pick it up
after another week a scrap guy stopped while i was wheeling the trash can out, he shined a light on it, I loudly said "its got some aluminum"....he took it
I still have two in the woods, both are now permanent stands. Last time I climbed with one was the late 80's! Shawn
Nope and I'm not a whippersnapper either, got a little over half a century under my belt!
I built my first Baker-style from instructions purchased for $2.00 from a magazine ad. One of those ads you clipped out and mailed in. A lot of you probably don't know what those are.
Still have it, but haven't hunted out of it for decades. Killed my first P&Y class muley out of it after climbing an aspen tree the first season I had it.
Back then we used a piece of web belt for a safety/hanging/asphyxiation device. Still have that too, but converted it to a deer drag long ago.
Man, those are luxury compared to the one's we built back in the 80's. I climbed trees using eye-bolts for steps, then chained a platform to the tree with an aluminum "V" bolted to the bottom that stuck into the tree. Never even a thought of a harness, or even a rope tied around my waist. Also used to carry a 2x8 with a V cut out of each end. Perfect crotch stand - Just climb a tree and jam it into a crotch.
This was back when I was brave and knew everything. Never fell or had a breakage or accident, but I probably deserved it.
My buddy in high school had a climbing stand made from electrical conduit. He put a fold down swivel boat seat on it so he could spin around, recline a bit, and put his feet up.
Man I thought I was walking in tall cotton when I got my first Baker about 1980!
Sure beat the hell outta sitting on a big branch and having your crotch fall asleep
Yep, the "Baker" was the biggest upgrade available in 1980. "Slip-sliding away"!
I hear they were great on smooth bark trees. Added some excitement to the hunt.
Perhaps Pat can make them a requirement for the riveting mobile whitetail hunts??
I still have splinters buried in my hands from a Baker as a kid....
Jaquomo: I am still laughing at your asphyxiation device, but I guess its better than two belts being laced together.... ;)
Oh, Kids have it so good these days....
Heck I'd try it on a telephone pole.
That stand is for sissies Kelly! My first deer was shot out of the baker that didn't have the hand climber or a seat! I had the "hug the tree and pull your feet up" version then stand until you pass out or it gets dark! Ha!
I had one back in the early 90s. Rode it down a few trees. Would make a better boat anchor than treestand.
I use may Baker regularly.......as a table/shelf when camping.
Buck, don't set your cocktail on that table to close to the tree or you'll experience alcohol abuse.
Brotsky me too. My dad taught me at age 8 or 9 to bear hug a tree.
I never had a seat climbing stand until I bought my first loggy bayou in 1989?
I remember being on slick bark trees and sliding all the way down.
Kelly, my dad showed me how it worked when I was 13 and walked away! He did say "Don't stand close to the tree or you'll go for a ride!" Sage advice that was. I survived a couple rapid descents over the next few years before I bought my first lock on stand with money I had saved up from working all summer. Good memories of that old Baker and a lot simpler times. I couldn't imagine handing my daughter a Baker and telling her not to stand close to the tree and walking away! Ha!
On purpose, I left mine in the attic when I sold the house. I sure hope they don't sue me!!!!
Not only did I used to use one, I never even wore a safety belt. More lucky than smart, for sure !
We never owned any Bakers. Luckily we knew some guys that did and listened to their stories!!!!!
Never rode one the 'whole' way down a tree. It would usually catch about halfway, and that's when you needed to be ready. The first couple of times it caught, felt like my spine was going through my head. After first couple of times was ready for the stop. I remember climbing up once in the dark, when it got light I got scared of how high I was and it took a long time to put my feet into the straps to come down because the straps were so close to the tree, and I knew what moving my weight that close to the tree meant.
The one I had is the only stand I ever had stolen. Hopefully, the culprit had directions for how to use it. I never heard of anyone falling out of a tree in the near area.
I never seen one of them, but I'm only 50... Some of you must be really old.. :)
Haha my dad has one that looks identical to that! I never had the please of using it because he thought it was better to replicate his new API climber (Mid 90's) and build me one, OUT OF STEEL! Used a motorcycle chain as a strap for the tree... Must of weighed 40 lbs
I've got a baker strapped on to the tree in my side yard. Haven't used it in years other than to climb and shoot out of at the house.
I used to build climber's from 1/2 and 3/4 inch conduit. Some of them are still in use. They faced the tree like an old Warren and Sweat stand. I killed a lot of deer from them but they were tight.
One day when testing the strength of them, I climbed up about 7 feet and stood on the seat. My cousin jumped up and hung from the seat section at the same time. It was a pay load of 400 lbs. So, they were very strong. But man alive they were heavy. God Bless
I built one after looking at a buddies and used it for a couple of years. Sat in it all morning one day and then stepped out onto my tree spike to take it down to move it and the whole thing feel apart in my hands. Dodged a huge bullet cause those were the days when being 30+ feet in the air didn't phase me a bit.
Used one for several years with no major issues. Switches to Loc-Ons when they became available. Probably use one today if I had one....with a harness now. Squeeking was the major issue.
One of those; when I was young they didn't even HAVE trees......threads
This is a great thread.... And by the way, those things still look scary!
I guess when I was younger I was both good-looking AND smart...I avoided those Bakers like I would the plague. I never even considered one. I had a friend who lost the platform at 20' and watched it ratchet to the ground while he hung from the hand-climber. Poor guy skinned his face and wore out the front of his Trebark coveralls sliding to the ground.
I bought a man's treestand: Bucksy hang-on. Then I immediately copied and built 6 of them for myself. Somehow here I still am...lucky...and hopefully smarter yet.
I've still got an old Baker... silver aluminum, before they anodized them. I converted my hand climber to a seat climber with a kit. Killed many a deer out of it. I think it is in the barn somewhere... haven't used it in 25 years.
Randy: That crotch stand was my "go to" stand for quite a few years. At the time I thought I had the greatest invention of all time. C
Between having the elastic band slipping off your boots while climbing and having the stand slip and drop a foot everytime you adjusted your stance while in a hard-barked tree it's a wonder I am still alive. I sure liked my Baker Slim Jim at the time but these days you could not pay me to climb a tree and hunt out of one!
Oh the memories. I hunted out of one a long time ago. I was about 14 years old and weighed a solid 120. I didn't have a rope tied between the top and bottom. When I was about 18 feet up I turned around and sat down. When I sat down I didn't have enough weight to keep the blade engaged in the trunk... the bottom part slid all the way down the tree. I sat in the stand for three hours before my Dad finally came and got me. sitting for long periods of time with just your legs dangling isn't any fun. needless to say I never hunted out of it again
I used one EXACTLY like that this year in the backcountry elk hunting. Well actually yours looks to be in a little better shape. I didn't use the climber part I just used cut branches as steps then pulled the stand up with a rope.
DANG A SEAT!! That's high class. I pimped my treestand though with a piece of plywood so my feet didn't hang over the edge.
For safety, I did use a rock climbing black diamond harness and ropes this year. A few years ago, I rode it down an aspen tree all the way to the bottom while muley hunting.. it was a long hike out with broken ribs that year.
That photo is not my stand. I found it on google.
I have no idea what ever happened to it.
I'm sure my dad sent it off to Mt. Rumpke the local dump in Cincinnati.
Kelly, did they have a rope or strap from one piece to the other?
The higher you go up a tree the smaller the diameter and easier the stand works for you
The rope from the top of the climber to the bottom came free and I didn't realize it. I got up the tree, tilted my feet to pull the bottom up and watched the bottom take a ride to the base of the tree.
Spent an hour, hanging upside down on the top portion of the stand with help from my safety harness fishing until I finally hooked it in the right place with my bow string and hauled it up to me. when I got it home I swedged a cable to them. That will never happen again.
I never had the top part of the baker. I only bear hugged up and down.
I think my dad told me there was no need for the seat part because it was for lazy folks. Ha ha he really likes his summit and lone wolf both with seat climbers.
Killed my first deer using one identical to the one in the OP pic, but without the seat and seat post. I used the climber bar as a seat.
I'd owned the stand two years before I could get up the nerve to climb with it. Had somehow developed a fear of heights in my early adult years, despite spending many happy hours as a kid the pear trees along our garden or the big mulberry in my best friend's house a couple doors down. So I carried that stand into the woods and left it leaning against a tree as I went on hunting on foot, picking it up on the way out, without ever going ahead and climbing with it.
Second season, I was finally attaching it to a tree with the intent of climbing it or selling it. At that time a small buck walked by about forty yards away on a faint trail. I watched him until he was gone, then carried the Baker out of the woods and the next afternoon I was about fifteen feet up a tree closer to that trail as early as I could get there after work. Sure enough, here came that same little buck, just a couple mnutes after I had climbed up there and spent a couple more minutes prying loose my grip on the tree long enough to turn around and sit down on the hand climber bar, and pull my bow up with the string. Glad I didn't have to wait too long, as that hand climber bar wasn't much for comfort.
But I got my deer, after several years of ground hunting with few good shots and no hits....and I was hooked.
I never took much of a "Baker Slide" since I had also heard the tales and warnings about slick-barked trees. Did have the platform part leave me once when I was about 28 feet up a white oak. I renamed that Baker a few times as it seemed to leisurely rock back and forth while ratcheting its way to the base of the tree as I watched from above, dangling by my hands. Took a while, but I eventually got down without injury, by swinging in and hugging the tree with my legs and taking a new Bite with the hand climber as low as I could manage, then repeating.
I was still using it a few years alter when I accidentally called in a nice buck with it. I was going up another white oak as the sky was quickly getting lighter, and proceeding slowly to make as little noise as I could. But I wanted to make sure the stand got a good bite of the bark at each new position, so I carefully eased it into place, then "set" it which made a soft "chunk" sound.
Apparently that sound was a close enough substitute for the sound a rival buck would have made when working over a rub, because when I was about twelve feet up, I heard something approaching behind me, and watched as a nice eight-pointer came down the trail in an aggressive stiff-legged trot, with his mane standing up and "blood in his eye". He trotted right under me and on for another fifteen feet or so before stopping to look around for the trespasser. I didn't get that buck, but still remember that look he projected while coming to what he thought was going to be a fight. Kinda made me glad I was out of his reach at the time.
Good old days.
I can't believe any of us old timers managed to survive through the 70's...if I caught my son doing some of the stupid $#/+ we did, I'd have to kick hid @$$ :^)
Ha! Not a chance! The last time I used one of those I had to bear hug a tree with just the bottom platform and shredded my arms. I watched my dad have the bottom fall all the way down the tree as he sat on his hand climber. when his feet touched the ground, my laugh was short lived :).
Shot a Bear out of one AND took a ride down the tree on the same hunt. You learned to hang onto the tree with those & never trust them. I also shot a bear out of a similar type that had a Wide, thin tin band that went around the tree & like buji cords for your toes to slip in when you climbed up. Nothing like living dangerously back in the day.
I still have this Warren and Sweat Climber that I bought in 1991.
Last hunted out of it two years ago.
My chest used to have scabs on it when I was a teenager from hugging the tree. I appreciate the evolution of climbing stands more than that of the cell phone.
Spike Bull-killed many a Deer with my foot in a tree crotch or on a limb or on a downed tree trunk b/4 using a tree stand. Usually 7 or 8 feet high too. This is one of em.
You guys are crazy,those are great stands I'm standing on one right now;) I remember when i was about twelve years old going to my grandfather's house and he had my dad's old Baker on a tree in the back yard. It was the platform only no top to the thing and grandpa was showing me how to use it. Bear hug the tree and raise the platform up,well I got about 8ft up and dad seen me and came running and hollering telling me to get down. He knew the ride down all too well apparently and was chewing my grandfather out for letting me go up a tree with it. I soon found out it takes a while to climb 8ft but only a second to get back down. Tore my arms to pieces from only 8ft up. Glad dad seen what was going on before I got any higher. That was probably the last time it was ever used. I think dad threw it away after that.
Shot my first buck in 1977 using a baker mighty might.Then I upgraded with a slim jim that one is somewhere in my swamp.Then I switched to hang on stands, they sure have improved
ACrobatic: Early 70's I was still hunting on natural limbs. Lived in Altoona, Pa. I found a large oak,probably three feet in diameter& it had acorns galore, dropping all over. I propped up a dead 10" limb, and with a rope I threw over one of the large limbs I was able to go up the ramped limb, gaining access to the first limb up the tree. It was dead and about 12"-15" in diameter, and I knew it. I grabbed a limb above it, and held my weight up,testing the dead limb I was going to stand on. I even jumped up and down, this limb is dead but too big & strong to break. I pulled up my bow, hung it on a small limb, and settled into my hunt. It must have been one half hour later my comfortable stand decided to loose itself from the trunk. It went straight down like it was severed from the trunk, like the floor going out of an elevator. Fortunately, I was on the down hill side of probably a 45 degree slope. I landed on my feet, pitched forward, and head first rolled 20-30 feet. This roll broke the fall, and I came to rest picking debris out of my mouth, nose, and eyes. My former athletic abilities enabled me to absorb the weight of hitting the ground straight on. There is another of my bowhunting adventures. Good ending!
While we are the discussion of Baker Stands, anyone for a game of lawn darts?
Back in the 90's we used Trailhawk stands, which were very similar to the Baker. They had two spikes on the back of the platform to dig into the tree and came with foot stirrups so you could pull up the stand as you hugged and inch wormed your way up the tree.
Haven't used mine in awhile but years ago it was the go to stand for quick hunts. Only took a ride once on an ice covered trunk as I was getting ready to get down. Slid all the way to the bottom, attached to the stand, thankfully. My gloves however were left stuck to the trunk 20 feet up.
2nd time using one in 79 was on a poplar tree.....did not work out so well. You need bark LOL
Man one with a seat......moving on up. I thought the ones with boot ropes was cool.
Oh my, that pic makes me hurt!
I never had the top climber, only relied on tree hugging. When the bottom would slide down, trying to stop by hugging the tree would shred my forearms. I preferred wild cherry trees because of the rough bark. I was carrying it over my back once and fell, the point clubbed me in the head.
The one with the steel band that went around the tree was called a climbing squirrel. I preferred that over the baker, but still had some scares with it. One time it slid down the tree and my bow was still up on a hook. I was too scared to climb up to get it for at least an hour.
The original photo is a Baker Mighty Mite! I had one of those plus two Baker Deluxes. A friend had the Slim Jim. I added extra length plywood to my Deluxe to make it the same length as the Slim Jim. The carpeting I added was of two different colors so as to have a "warning track", as the front part would NOT support all your weight. But, it added length for more comfortable sits. I had a hand climber or two, but found them to be more trouble than they were worth. Always have climbed using the hug tree & inch up method; even with Loggy Bayou's today.
I endured a couple of slides down trees with the Bakers, one of which resulted in a broken side rail when the stand stopped at the bottom of the tree. I was never hurt seriously in the slips, but did bruise my arms and hands and ego! I called Baker about the broken rail and they sent me a new rail set. Apparently manufacturing had a hole in the arm to access a rivet for the folding brace where it broke, and this was a weak point. Of course, I waited a few months and called again. This time, they asked for the broken rails to be sent back. I did that and received a second set, which I used to produce a second "Deluxe-Slim Jim"!
I still have both of them, although they haven't been used in a couple of decades.
When I moved 2 years ago, I put the Mighty Mite on the curb along with a steel climber someone had given me and a couple of home-built stands I had never used. Within 30 minutes a guy stopped and asked if they were for sale. I replied, that NO, they weren't for sale, BUT he could have them! Told him just to forget where he got them because it was "use at your own discretion"!
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I still have 2 of that type up in the rafters .
Lots of good memories come to mind seeing that picture - some good memories of being a teenager and hitting the woods every afternoon after school.
There are also few painful and scary ones.
Painful - Of the day I was practicing in the back yard on a pine tree (during the tree-hugging, pre-seat climber days) and had it drop about 4 feet just as I was loosening my grip. I had a scabs on my belly, chest, both arms and my chin for several days from that little incident.
2 scary memories come to mind - One was climbing up a metal stand one cold November morning and having the thing frost up after I got up in the tree. I was scared to move for a while until the sun finally hit it and melted the ice.
Then there was the time I decided to climb a Hickory tree, which was the only straight tree I could find in the spot I wanted to hunt. I knew it would be hard to get the stand to bite, but was young and foolish enough to try it anyway. It let me get about 6-8 feet up before it decided to come all the way back down in rapid fashion. I decided to just use it as an elevated ground seat that day!
Like many others, I never used a safety strap back then. The Lord really protected me in my youthful ignorance when I think of all the hours I spent in one of those things, yet never fell!
Same here on the safety belt. My first few years I never used one. Thought I was bullet proof. Finally met some buds wouldn't hunt without them so they convinced me. Back then it was belts, which can also kill you, but it was better than nothing. Now I don't hunt unless I'm wearing my Tree Spider. Get a little bit older; get a little bit smarter....
The Safety Belt that came with my Warren and Sweat Climber is shown in my post above.
They really were a joke.
