you know by knowing your woods and the deer habits in those woods. which aren't the same everywhere. nh is the second most forested state in the country. meaning deer pretty much bed anywhere they want. feed where ever the mast is which is more or less everywhere.

its related to deer densities. places with liberal seasons, such as wherever you are from, have higher deer densities and normally more agriculture so deer a more patternable. not so here in nh. deer will cycle trough in cycles of 3 to 7 days so thats alot of sitting in sterile woods. shooting 3 to 6 deer a season ain't the same as shooting a mature buck with only 1 tag in your pocket. its easy to burn out a stand. no ones scent control is good enough and guy can't help but leave scent behind. sit one to many days in a row or scent it up and the older wiser deer will avoid the area. so the result is multi stands, in multi location, for different food sources, at different times of the season, with different weapons. with all the variables and low deer densities how can one stand low to the ground or below the line of sight of a deer serve all? it can't.

nothing wrong with a ladder stand except most are to short, for my liking based on the mountain sides and bow range, but there places that nothing else will work.

if one ladder in one place year around works for you, great, but it won't work like that everywhere.