Ladder stand skirt yes or no

[luberhill]

I thought these were mesh but the one I received is solid 

Do you guys use these ?

Do they flap around in the wind ?

[BizCT]

NYC Skirt Season is always amazing.

[Nomad]

I wear longjohns and pants ,but I’m a he/him .

[Nytracker]

I'm not big on skirts ... im too hippy makes my butt look big .

[Nytracker]

I have never used a skirt on a tree stand . Never needed  it that I was aware of . My wife had a tree stand with a skirt and roof . Blocked the wind  kept the rain off and I'm sure blocked her moving in the stand . She tends to fidget after about 15 minutes on stand .

[luberhill]

33 minutes ago, Nytracker said:

I have never used a skirt on a tree stand . Never needed  it that I was aware of . My wife had a tree stand with a skirt and roof . Blocked the wind  kept the rain off and I'm sure blocked her moving in the stand . She tends to fidget after about 15 minutes on stand .

Yea that’s my issue too,

Thought it may hide some of my movements but it may be in the way too or a pain getting into the stand .

 Seems like in the wind it would be flapping around ..

Ive been under skirts  before but but not this type

[rob-c]

1 hour ago, luberhill said:

Yea that’s my issue too,

Thought it may hide some of my movements but it may be in the way too or a pain getting into the stand .

 Seems like in the wind it would be flapping around ..

Ive been under skirts  before but but not this type

If you installed now so the deer can get used to it flapping around , I’d say do it . Once the deer did get used to it you may find you could get away with a little extra movement . 

[luberhill]

52 minutes ago, rob-c said:

If you installed now so the deer can get used to it flapping around , I’d say do it . Once the deer did get used to it you may find you could get away with a little extra movement . 

I can put it up tomorrow 

[Judoka95]

I have the burlap camo skirting around my permanent stand which is only 10' up. It hides a lot of movement from my son and the deer don't seem to care.

[luberhill]

56 minutes ago, Judoka95 said:

I have the burlap camo skirting around my permanent stand which is only 10' up. It hides a lot of movement from my son and the deer don't seem to care.

But yours is probably fastened so it can’t move right ?

This is tied on the shooting rail and just hangs off it .

Ill put it up and watch my trial cam to see how the deer react 

[mowin]

3 minutes ago, luberhill said:

But yours is probably fastened so it can’t move right ?

This is tied on the shooting rail and just hangs off it .

Ill put it up and watch my trial cam to see how the deer react 

Can you use Velcro or some rope to fasten it down to the bottom. Has to be some way to rig it up.   I had a stand several years ago that the skirt was fastened top and bottom. I left it on over the winter and the critters chewed it to shreds. 

[luberhill]

6 minutes ago, mowin said:

Can you use Velcro or some rope to fasten it down to the bottom. Has to be some way to rig it up.   I had a stand several years ago that the skirt was fastened top and bottom. I left it on over the winter and the critters chewed it to shreds. 

I really dont have a place to fasten it to , and if I did it would be a PITA to get under it 

[Paula]

I use the little zip ties on the bottom, the top had Velcro to secure it to the railing. 

[Judoka95]

27 minutes ago, luberhill said:

But yours is probably fastened so it can’t move right ?

This is tied on the shooting rail and just hangs off it .

Ill put it up and watch my trial cam to see how the deer react 

Mine is only fastened to the top rail with the overlap in the front at the ladder. It flaps in the wind. I had the leafy style netting on it originally but it broke down in two years. 

[wolc123]

I like solid weathered barnwood “skirts”, nailed to pt 2x4 frame the best.  I have experienced an increase in mature buck kills, since I started using them.  They make a great gun / crossbow rest, safety enclosure, wind break, and hide my fidgeting motion (especially with the smartphone) from the deer.  

 

I killed (3) 3.5 old bucks from behind those, over the last (5) years, all from decks less than 8 ft high.   None of them had a clue that I was there.  The closest two were about 15 yards away when arrowed.   Last year’s took my 16 ga slug from about 40.  
 

When it comes to mature bucks, hiding your motion is very important, unless your deck is up real high.  That’s ok for the young single guys, but I am a lot more comfortable down low.  

 

I can’t imagine hunting behind a fabric skirt, flapping in the breeze.  It seems to me, that it would focus the deer’s attention on you.  

[rob-c]

8 hours ago, luberhill said:

I really dont have a place to fasten it to , and if I did it would be a PITA to get under it 

You could weight the bottom , grab some zip ties and pick up some quarter size stones and loop pouch the bottom of the netting in spots and zip tie the stones  in . 

[2012_taco]

I don't use the skirts but a friend has black landscape fabric around all his home made ladder stand/platforms. He leaves them up all year, no problem.  If you want to fasten the bottom of your skirt and have a metal stand why not try magnets?  They will hold the fabric in place and you can move them to get in and out of the stand. jmho

[grampy]

Don't have skirts on any of our ladder stands. But wherever possible, we put the stands in hemlock or pine trees to keep lots of cover around them. Cover is the key!!! Always try to have branches or some kind of cover around the stands to break up your outline, and cover some of the movement. On trees where it is more exposed, just tie a big bundle of branches and or brush to the tree behind you. This really helps!!! And you can enter and exit the stand no problem!

[Robhuntandfish]

Agree with Grampy. 

[grampy]

38 minutes ago, Robhuntandfish said:

Agree with Grampy. 

Sweet looking set up's there my friend!!!

[phade]

3 hours ago, grampy said:

Don't have skirts on any of our ladder stands. But wherever possible, we put the stands in hemlock or pine trees to keep lots of cover around them. Cover is the key!!! Always try to have branches or some kind of cover around the stands to break up your outline, and cover some of the movement. On trees where it is more exposed, just tie a big bundle of branches and or brush to the tree behind you. This really helps!!! And you can enter and exit the stand no problem!

Add to that, if you snip branches while leaves are green, they tend to stay on the branches well into the season. We use this alot to break up silhouetting. 

[wolc123]

17 minutes ago, phade said:

Add to that, if you snip branches while leaves are green, they tend to stay on the branches well into the season. We use this alot to break up silhouetting. 

Prior to the barnwood siding on the 3 ft walls around my blinds, I used old wood snow-fence.  I would weave leafy branches thru that each seasons.  They definitely held them leaves longer when cut green.  It looked good but was labor intensive and never produced a deer for me.  It also had to be redone every year. 
 

One of the issues with the leafy branches is that it takes a lot of leaves to block out everything behind them.  When a deer looks up and catches light and shadows moving behind the leaves, it puts them into a state of high alert.  Not a huge deal with a gun, but very likely leading to string-jump / wounding with an arrow.  

[phade]

11 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

 

One of the issues with the leafy branches is that it takes a lot of leaves to block out everything behind them.  When a deer looks up and catches light and shadows moving behind the leaves, it puts them into a state of high alert.  Not a huge deal with a gun, but very likely leading to string-jump / wounding with an arrow.  

I can't say I've seen that, ever, personally. You use the leafy cover to create the shadow effect of light and dark. That is what open pattern camo mimics in the tree canopy with light and dark tones. Predator, EVII, US digi camo, etc. Not only is it not very likely, but it works reliably in places where open view can be partially obscured to make the shot bow or bazooka.

[grampy]

28 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

Prior to the barnwood siding on the 3 ft walls around my blinds, I used old wood snow-fence.  I would weave leafy branches thru that each seasons.  They definitely held them leaves longer when cut green.  It looked good but was labor intensive and never produced a deer for me.  It also had to be redone every year. 
 

One of the issues with the leafy branches is that it takes a lot of leaves to block out everything behind them.  When a deer looks up and catches light and shadows moving behind the leaves, it puts them into a state of high alert.  Not a huge deal with a gun, but very likely leading to string-jump / wounding with an arrow.  

Kinda difficult to put barnboard siding on a ladder stand! The topic here is ladderstand skirts.

All ya really need to do is just break up your outline a bit. 

[wolc123]

14 minutes ago, grampy said:

Kinda difficult to put barnboard siding on a ladder stand! The topic here is ladderstand skirts.

All ya really need to do is just break up your outline a bit. 

True, but the solid fabric skirt might be more effective up in a stand than just leafy branches. A combination of both would probably be best.  I remember what a pain those leafy branches were, the year or two that I used them, woven thru the snow fence.   
 

Down on the ground, I can see how leafy branches alone would be more effective.  I used some to break up and blend in the edges of a cheap popup blind recently.  I’ll let you know how that works after September 10.