Man climbing power pole with climbing stand! (pics!)

Looks like a good place to test one out tho!! No limbs to get in the way. Relatively same dia. Who knows, maybe it was a "Hey, can I test the tree stand out before I buy it?" thing.

Reminds me of a true story…..

Way back when, I was trying to book a bear hunt in Ontario with a guide/outfitter for a bunch of us bowhunters from southern Indiana. He said he would not take bowhunters as a bowhunter once shot several bears and didn’t kill any of them. I said no problem but if you change your mind call me back. Two weeks later he called and said he had two groups of gun hunters cancel on him and he would relent and take us IF we swore we were good shots. We all shot 3D pretty regularly and yes we were above average.

Long story short he took us. When he showed us around to his baits he said he would guarantee us that we would see bears on these baits. We started picking out trees to hunt out of that were within 15 – 20 yards of the baits. We would say,” This looks like a good tree”. He asked”, Are you going to hunt right there”? and we said "yes". He said, ”I take it back you wont even see bears”.

Long story short we killed 3 bears the first two nights. I killed mine the first night. The third night he and his 20 something son met me at the bar/restaurant at the motel we were staying at. After a couple beers he asked “Tell me your secret how you are killing those bears hiding behind those trees that close to the bait”. I laughed and told him we were in climbing treestands when we shot the bears. He had never heard of such a thing so we went out back behind the motel and I demonstrated on a telephone pole using my Baker climber - yes it was that long ago. He told his son to try it. Well the son got up about 10 foot and that was far enough for him. You that used the Baker know it can be as tough to come back down as it is to go up with them. The son was stuck. No matter how I coached he could not come down. The dad got frustrated and found a 2" X 4" X8’ and started beating on the bottom of the stand. It came down alright with son getting his belly rubbed raw by the telephone pole. It looked like hamburger with splinters in it.

Afterwards I told him he needs to tell all his hunters to bring climbing blinds. He said “No way. They will kill all my bears”. He did not want 100% success as his area was limited..

True story...

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Great story WW! I sure don't miss my old Baker stand!

LOL...reminds me of the incident my nephew still recalls with laughter when he and my son, both about 14 then, were trying out my Scary Ol' Baker out in the front yard. Actually, my son was trying it out and trying to convince the nephew of the ease and safety. My boy boogied up the utility pole without much difficulty to a height of around twelve feet, then took the "Baker Slide" descent back to the grass level, still standing on the platform, barely. But he was also using the accessory hand climber, which followed along in apparent sympathy with the platform and gently conked him on the head just as he was regaining his composure at ground level.

Lessons learned...the nephew was several years older before he began using climbing stands, and my son waited until I'd replaced the Baker with a hang-on and steps before going up again.

But thirty plus years later, the memory brings laughter, at least to my nephew, maybe less so to my son 8^)

Those old Bakers were part of lots of memories, for good or bad.

I had somehow developed a bad case of fear of heights as a young adult, despite spending many happy hours in the neighborhood trees as a younger kid. Finally tired of watching white tails waving goodbye as a stalking bowhunter and bought a used Baker and climber. Killed my first deer on the first time I climbed with it. I was shaking with fear at fifteen feet, and took maybe five minutes to get turned around facing away from the tree, and another five or so to get settled on the seat and get my bow and quiver pulled up and prepared to shoot. About five more minutes and I was drawing on a small buck. I was hooked, and considered a tree stand to be an absolute necessity for a few years afterwards.

I had one of those too, very comfortable, but I sold it and bought a Doc's recliner, same principal, but sits closer to the tree and is a bit lighter, like it much better than a TL.

I had to replace my dusk to dawn light off a telephone pole I had it mounted to. I used my Summit climber. It was much safer than a ladder in the front end loader of my tractor.

Well at least the weathered utility pole has been inspected, core-treated, & no danger-pole tag attached.