Pye, who guided deer hunters for years in his native North Carolina before moving to Oklahoma to work for ARC, has used plenty of ladder stands, and for two big reasons.

"The majority of ladder stands are put up on the edge of food plots or fields," he said. "Eighty percent of the time, when you're hunting in a ladder stand, you're overlooking a place you want to watch.

"But the other thing is, a lot of older hunters like to hunt out of ladder stands because they're easier to get into. It's an easy, convenient stand to use. You can put them up just about anywhere, and you can sit on 'em all day long.

"Now, they're making ladder stands with shooting rails that go all the way around the stand, and they've gotten to where they're a lot more comfortable than they used to be."

The shooting rail is a big advantage that ladder stands have over most fixed-position stands -- where shots are either taken offhand or with the rifle barrel resting against the trunk of the tree, shooting behind you, as it were.

So why doesn't everyone have ladder stands, or use them in all situations?

"The main drawback with a ladder stand is that you can only go up so high," Pye said. "Most of them are made to get you anywhere from 8 to 18 feet high -- maybe 20 feet. And it has to be pretty much a perfect tree. You need a tree with no branches that will stick out and get in the way of the ladder. You need to make sure the ground around the tree is good and level, and when you put up a ladder stand, you need to make sure that you've got the steps at a good angle.

"Any tree without branches can be a perfect tree for a ladder stand -- about the only one you can't use is a crooked one. And I've put them up on telephone poles and hunted there before."

Typically, the metal ladders break down into several sections, making them -- along with the platform -- reasonably easy to carry into the woods, as long as you're not having to carry it a great distance or on a daily basis.

Setup is a little more time consuming than fixed-position stands, except that the steps are built in. And in most styles, hunters have the option of hunting seated or standing up.

CLIMBING STANDS
Pye has a tremendous love of climbing stands.

"They're my favorite type of tree stand of all," he said. "They're lightweight, super safe, and you can gun hunt or bowhunt out of them. You can climb as high on the tree as the tree will allow you to climb, and anymore, you don't have to worry. The fear factor is no longer a question in a good climbing stand."

Climbers generally come in two parts -- platforms for your seat and your feet. They can be made from any number of different light but strong materials -- allowing you to carry them in and out of the woods on a daily basis without having to be a weightlifter. Hunters "shinny" up the tree using both platforms until they get to the desired height, then they secure them to the tree, sit down and wait on a big buck to stroll past. They are among the most comfortable of all portable tree stands, thanks to padded seats on many models.