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In a bigger hard woods with trees that might not have many low hanging branches for cover, the higher you can place your tree stand the better. Often times 20 feet is the benchmark.

The higher you get in the air, the smaller the window you'll have at the vital zone on a deer. If you're up 30 feet or more, it's a very narrow sliver of the lungs and heart that you can realistically aim toward and hit. These steep angles are also notoriously tough on shooting form and often produce hits off the mark.

Given the desire to be high enough to stay out of sight and blow scent over nearby deer, but not so high as to negatively affect shots, I generally aim to set my stands between 17 and 22 feet. But this is not hard rule—I'll always adjust based off the best available cover in the tree.

So maybe you want to hang a stand at 12 or 15 feet. That's okay, so long as you have cover. Put your stand in the middle of some branches to break your silhouette. One of my favorite tricks is to find several trees growing close together and hang my stand in the middle of them to help with concealment.

0:30 1:49 How High Should Your Treestand Be? | Cabela's Deer Nation YouTube Start of suggested clip End of suggested clip You still have a higher likelihood of hitting both lungs. And making a good quick clean kill. SoMoreYou still have a higher likelihood of hitting both lungs. And making a good quick clean kill. So really it kind of comes down. To individual individual tolerance of heights.

I would recommend climbing at least 20 feet. The biggest thing is climbing a tree where you can have plenty of break up cover. If you have good break up cover you really don't have to be that high.

All you have to worry about is making sure there are adequate shooting lanes where you anticipate the deer to be moving. In a bigger hard woods with trees that might not have many low hanging branches for cover, the higher you can place your tree stand the better. Often times 20 feet is the benchmark.

Finding the right tree is the first step in placing a good tree stand. Trees around 18 inches in diameter or larger seem to work best. They're sturdy enough to support your body weight and wide enough to hide your shoulders. Thinner trees will expose your outline.