Antique Climbing stand

[10pointman]

Originally Posted by fullcredit

I remember the Baker's too---and the wingnut problem with several stands. When the Baker first came out, I decided it would be easy to build one of those, so I did--even the hand climber/seat part. Sounded like a fine idea. Took it to Wattensaw for it's maiden climb. Got up the tree, sat down, and the bottom fell to the ground. I don't remember for sure how I got back down, but I do know that when I did, I took the stand off the tree and threw the whole thing into the creek!

Did'nt ya'll have rope back then?

I tie the two halves together with polyblend rope(4-5 ft.)

[Mr. Chitlin]

Originally Posted by 10pointman

Did'nt ya'll have rope back then?

I tie the two halves together with polyblend rope(4-5 ft.)

You learn things like that after the first time the bottom part gets away from you.

[10pointman]

Originally Posted by Mr. Chitlin

You learn things like that after the first time the bottom part gets away from you.

I was getting in one of my stands this year and I noticed their was'nt a rope on it, Crapp! I went to a different stand that day.I ain't shimmying unless there is no other choice.
The bottom has fallen with me but the rope caught it,One on each side is really the best way.

[Hobbshunter]

If I lose all the gear in my backpack... no big deal.
If my truck breaks down... ruined hunt.
If my weapon breaks... ruined hunt.

If my treestand breaks... ruined life!

I save money on a lot of things, but treestands are not one of them!

Now, I'm sure some of those old stands are safe as can be, but a lot of them arent! One guy at the office was giggling as he was telling me his old Amacker bends when he sits on it, but he just didnt have any money to get a new one. I told him to sit on the ground before he breaks his dang neck.

[spookk]

I have one that looks just like the one in the first photo, Mitch White of Malvern, built them.

[sparrowridge]

Yeah,

I'm sure that's an Amacker. I used to have one of those.

[ARGROUNDSWATTER]

The early Bakers didn't have a top part to tie to the bottom part. I never used one but have heard many funny stories.

[10pointman]

Originally Posted by ARGROUNDSWATTER

The early Bakers didn't have a top part to tie to the bottom part. I never used one but have heard many funny stories.

Aw heck! It was a one-peice?

[bett_lou]

Did y'all know Mr. Amacker is from Tallulah and the plant is here? It's not Amacker's anymore. It's API now. Paul Meeks bought Amacker out.

[duckhunter2-2007]

I love this thread. When I got my first Baker the first time out I climbed a nice hackberry tree in Hurricane bottoms. Unfortunately I wasn't afraid of hieghts. When I got to around 16' I stopped, looked around and decided that was a good height so, with my feet still in the straps, I bounced lightly on the stand to be sure it was dug in good. Well I took an express elevator ride to within 18" of the ground. When the stand stopped I fell backwards onto the ground with my feet still stuck securely in the straps. My shirt and jacket where over my head and that was probably the only thing that saved me from wearing my face off on the trunk of that tree. After struggling for what seemed like ten minutes but was probably only a few seconds, I freed my feet from the straps and pulled my clothes back over my bleeding torso. My finger tips were all either blistered or bleeding. I sat down on a log and picked a few knots of hackberry bark out of my chest and then gathered my things, excluding the Baker, and started my walk out of the woods. After walking nearly a quarter of mile my penny pinching conscience made me turn around and go back after the death trap. I used for a couple of years and took a couple more rides but none quite as dramatic as the first one. After the Baker was thankfully stolen at Wattensaw I acquired an Amacker two piece climber. The only problem was it was the model that you sat facing the tree and I was a bowhunter. I devised a plan to climb the tree facing it and when I got to where I wanted to hunt I would reach down and remove the foot part from the tree and bring it up and reattach it above the seat, then I would stand on the seat and sit on the foot part. NOT SAFE!!! So one morning about 45 minutes before daylight I'm going through my process and I dropped the foot part. I went ahead and pulled my bow up and tried to hunt. I had some does come by and tried to get a shot but it just didn't work out for obvious reasons. Luckily my hunting buddy was hunting down the slough from me so when he came out I whistled him over and talked him into putting the rest of my stand on my pull up rope and I climbed down while he rolled on the ground laughing. Apparently the good Lord was becoming concerned for my safety because when the deer came by and I boched the shooting opportunity I prayed that someone would just steal this stand too. The next time I left it on a tree it was stolen. After that I got a TSS Sniper climbing stand. One of these days I'll tell you the story about that one.

[southeasthog]

Originally Posted by 10pointman

I bought this stand from a friend of mine about 10 yrs ago.
They don't make em like this anymore!

[IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG]

Buck720 and I had some exactly like that one. We went in walmart, took one out of the box, went over to hardware and grabbed a tape measure. Then proceeded to take measurements and write them down. We had people giving us funny looks. Even a couple of employees. When we finished, we packed it back up and put the tape measure back on the shelf. We went back to the welding shop and built our own. Buck720 did all the welding because I wasn't that great of a welder and didn't want it to come apart on the way up. lol Mine was stole about 12 or 13 years ago but Buck720 still has his. I killed a 9 point off of it 2006 actually. Ours weighed in at around 35 pounds.

[4hunting]

Originally Posted by ARGROUNDSWATTER

Yep Huntindoc, back in the day you could tell at a glance who was using a Baker climbing treestand.







They didn't have any buttons left on the front of their shirts and jackets.

You got that right! We called them Widow Makers& it was well deserved. Allmost made made a widow out of my wife with one of them Baker's. Was up about 20 foot plus & stood up to turn & take a shot at a nice buck coming in from behind me & went sailing down a tree about 10 feet before I was able to stop my fall by bear hugging the trunk as I fell. The only thing that saved me was I had turned & was facing the tree when it kicked out from under me. Had to have 10 stitches put in my chin, my left ears allmost re-attached because the bark on the tree came real close to removing it from my head & I still have a place to this day on the left side of my face where I have no whiskers that grow because it ripped out all the hair folicals that stayed with the skin that is most likely still in the bark on that tree, but what hurt the most is the fall destroyed my most prized possession at the time, my brand new Kodiak Magnum bow. Sucker looked like it had bomb attached to it when it hit the ground!

[Gutshooter]

definitely and Amaker. I got one for Christmas, in 1990. I still got it. And yeah, its heavy. And yeah, its noisy, but in the day, that cold aluminum seat was considered a Cadillac.

[ARBwhntr]

Back in the '70s, there was a guy in Greenbrier that made climbers like that old Amacker. Never used one, but had friends that did. Some of them liked 'em a lot, others cussed them.