Most deer hunters, especially here in the South, hunt from an elevated stand attached to a tree so they visually can cover more area. Those tree stands are usually elevated six to 20 feet above ground level to allow hunters to visualize game at greater distances.
Most of the time, those elevated stands are made for one or two people and give them little more than a 180-degree field of view, which limits them from taking shots behind their stand. This is especially true for bowhunters, who need adequate room to draw the bow.
All too often, deer show up behind the hunter, making a clean shot almost impossible.
Now, Dennis Kessler, an avid bowhunter and Gulfstream employee, has designed a new tree stand that’s safe for up to four people and offers a full 360-degree access for a shot opportunity.
Kessler and his business partners, Minus Hillis and Mike Moulton, realized the need for such a product after they found themselves without a shot opportunity
when game approached their traditional stands from behind. They also realized that there was a need for a stand that could accommodate friends or parent/child hunts more comfortably than current products on the market.
“Minus actually came up with the idea of a real 360-degree-view deer stand,” Kessler said. “So the concept is his. Fortunately, he ran the idea by Mike and me, and we were able to put our heads together to construct what we believe is the most revolutionary tree stand on the market.”
Their goal was to develop a safe stand that would allow a full field of view along with additional platform space for multiple individuals to safely be part of the hunt. The result was a new stand they call the T-Minus 360.
First of all, the stand can be transported to and from a hunt by using the wheel attachments placed on the stand frame. Installing the 220-pound T-Minus 360 around the tree of choice is a two-person job, but once the stand is locked in place, it will support four people and up to 1,000 pounds.
The T-Minus 360 also addresses safety issues. It is easily adjustable to lock onto a variety of tree diameters, is easily leveled and has a bubble level on the frame to confirm the leveling.
The two-piece device locks into place and is secured with pins and a dual retractable ratchet securement system. Entry is through a door in the floor.
Because hunters like to choose how high to set their hunting stands, the T-Minus 360 can be set as low as six feet or raised to 17 feet.
Each stand comes with two height-adjustable seats that attach to the floor for greater stability, and it has optional padded shooting rails that can be raised or lowered as needed and camouflage curtains that loop over the rails for maximum coverage.
The T-Minus 360 was designed for deer and wild boar hunting, but it can be used in many other ways such as an elevated duck blind, law enforcement observation and marksmanship platforms and Zip Line platforms.
The stands are manufactured in the Savannah area. For more information, visit www.tminus360.com.