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Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine Serving Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania & Northern West Virginia
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Treestand
Test Results OVO Staff
In August Ohio Valley Outdoors held it’s second annual treestand test, conducted with the OVO Readers and staff to get their opinion of several different aspects of climbing, lock-on and ladder stands. The question put before our readers were: ease of attaching a treestand to a tree, the stability once attached, for climbing stands, and the climbing ability of the stand. In the case of a ladder stand we also considered the ease of installation to the tree, support bracket, and again, stability once attached. The general questions asked about all treestands to our readers was their opinion of the size of the platform, the weight of the treestand, the portability of the treestand, the comfort of the seat, the ability to shoot from different angles from the treestand and the ease of transporting from a hunting site. This year the OVO treestand test showed a large addition in number of manufacturers participating. Seventeen treestands representing 16 different manufacturers were involved in this year’s test. The results of this year’s test showed of the eight climbers that were tested the Viper Treestand by Summit was listed with the overall highest score. Out of a possible score of 225, the Viper scored 200. The next closest to the Viper was the Old Man Treestand, with an overall score of 179. Of lock-on treestands, the API Baby Grand rated the highest out of a possible score of 200; the Baby Grand was rated 175 by readers. Second highest rating was a stand called the Crows Nest, with a rating of 164. Of the three ladder stands, the Telestep Treestand rated a score of 211 out of a possibility of 250. In specific categories the readers rated the Easy Way lock-on stand their favorite in size of the platform. The API Baby Grand received the most favorable rating as far as weight. The most portable was rated by readers as the Viper. The most comfortable with two perfect scores were the Viper and the Easy Way treestands. In the ability to shoot from different angles scoring the top score was the Crows Nest, and the easiest to transport, according to readers, was the Gorilla treestand The highest overall score for a ladder stand was the Insta Tree Stand. A few stands arrived late for our test and it is hoped that OVO staffers and readers can spend a little time testing these stands and report back in the November/December issue. We would like to thank all the manufacturers who sent us products. These manufacturers include Summit Treestands, Tree Lounge, North Star, Tiger Claw, Cougar Claw, Old Man Treestands, Gorilla, API, CrowsNest, Easy Way, Insta Tree, Big Oak, Screaming Eagle, Hideout and Rivers Edge. We would also like to thank the readers, OVO staffers and Leetonia sports club for their help in our second annual OVO treestand test. OVO looks forward to expanding even further with our treestand test next year and to have more readers have the opportunity to spend a day trying different treestands For more information on the stands provided for the year’s test please contact: Cougar Claw by TGM Inc. 9559 S. Hickory St. Foley, AL 36535 251-943-1902
Braun-Woodke Products, LLC 8462 Scetion Line Rd. Harbor Beach, MI 48441 989-479-0280 easywaytreestand.com Insta Tree Hunting Stand 1511 DeLanglade St. Kaukauna, WI 54130 920-759-0314 autolifttreestands.com Ol'Man Tree Stands 32 Rasbery Lane Hattiesburg, MS 39402 800-682-7268 ol-man.com Rivers Edge/Ardisam 1360 1st Ave. Cumberland, WI 54829 800-450-3343 ardisam.com Hide Out 14 N. Western Ave. Tonasket, WA 98855 509-486-0520 hideouttreestand.com Gorilla Treestands 3476 Eastman Dr. Flushing, MI 48433 877-685-7813 gorillatreestands.com The Crow's Nest Stnads, Inc. 10102 Balsam Dr. Wausau, WI 54401 715-675-2743 crowsneststand.com North Star Tree Stands 2351 E Bear Lake Rd. Hillsdale, MI 49242 517-439-1313 northstartreestands.com Tree Lounge 8630 Wallace Tatum Rd. Cumming, GA 30040 800-233-0459 treelounge.com Summit Specialties, Inc. P.O. Box 786 Decatur, AL 35602 256-353-0634 summitstands.com M.J.R. Screaming Eagle P.O. Box 96 Ovando, MT 59854 406-793-5599 API Outdoors P.O. Box 1432 Tallulah, LA 71282 800-228-4846 outlandsports.com.
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