Tree Stands – uphill or down?

For those of you who have stands on hillsides – do you sit facing uphill or down? (ladder stand for example?)

Just curious on your thoughts? I prefer facing up hill for a few different reasons…

I usually have it so I face the deer trail.

I guess most of mine after I thought about it faces more sideways or cockeyed so I can shotot both up and down hill if need be. Sometimes the main trail is below sometimes above. So I guess BOTH.

For me, predominant wind is what I go by, my nose into it.

big G

I try to use the tree as cover for a better shot if I can. It all depends on where the best shot is and where I think they will be coming from. I’ve got two stand sites where im hunting and one is sideways faceing a trail that goes up and downhill. The other site is a junction of a couple trails with rubs near by so when I go up here soon to recheck my cams it all depends on whats being worked. No matter which way I’ll be faceing I’ve got a 40 yrd shot faceing eigther way. Maybe the corn will be picked in both fields and I’ll be able to tell where thier movement is more active. It all depends on what thier doing at both stand locations where im at.

One stand I have set up is facing quartering downhill. I feel the deer uphill have a better chance of seeing me than the deer downhill , facing downhill allows me to use my tree for cover but I can still shoot uphill. This particular spot I also know that more deer use the downhill trail, setting up above gets me higher. It is also important to consider the angle of your arrow when shooting at a deer downhill, it may be a much steeper angle that it looks
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As far as a ladder stand goes I guess I would bring a shovel

depends if ya shoot left or right handed then quarter it so your harness dosnt screw ya up for the shot,works well for me ,I dont like to be facing dead into the trail because more then likely a big buck wont be right on it anyways, if he comes in he will use the thicker area.It kinda sucks being in the bottom of a hill,but in one of my spots its got a spring in it so on hot days its a killer other then that its a tough place to hunt with them able to look straight at or down at ya.