Best Mounting Stand?

[jcompton]

 I would like some opinions on the mounting stands that the suppliers sell, which ones are the best?

[KBauman]

Not Van Dyke's.  Bought one a couple of years ago and hate it.

[bill@hogheaven]

Different strokes for different folks, I have 5 vandykes stands.

[Bill Yox]

Thats an easy question! For adjustability, the new E-Z Stand from John Morley is tough to beat. Call him at 585-243-4352. My students all use it while theyre here, either the deer model or the larger game model. The only complaints Ive heard were about compatibility with set-ups already in a studio, but John is still designing new adapting systems to address that. But the stand, and concept, on its own, is a great idea, and definitely a "best stand" choice. The alternative? Yes, I still have an old home made clunker bolted to my floor too!

[George Roof]

As Bill said, the EZ is hard to beat commercially.  YEARS ago, WASCO sold a contraption made from a school desk that my wife bought me as a Christmas present.  I hated the desk part, but dearly loved the stand.  It had a hollow base plate with a long lag bolt that went through it.  All you had to do was drill a small quarter inch hole in your form.  You could easily lift the manikin up with one arm, align the bolt and then ratchet it home to lock the form against the plate.  If you wanted, then you could use screws through predrilled holes in the base plate. 

Most of today's stands make you fumble around with holding the form while you run 4 screws through a base plate.  I'm not that coordinated and since the EZ is not designed for animals bigger than whitetail, I keep an old clunker I made copying WASCO's design.  Instead of a lag bolt, I welded a rod on the head of the bolt and bent it 90 degrees to make a crank out of it.  Now I just lift up that elk or moose on a table, move the stand up to it and wind that sucker on to the base plate.

[Woosie]

George, do you have any pics of your stand?  I have one of the stands from Van Dykes, it's OK I guess.  But I have a REALLY difficult time holding the mannikin in place while trying to drive in the 4 screws through the back.  I'd love to get something or have something made that would work a little easier **curses little girly arms**

[Wayne R]

It almost sounds like some people may be trying to hold the form up to the stand and force the screws into the plywood backing. Every form that comes in, I pre-drill 4 holes using the face plate as a template for the holes. I also put one hole one inch below center at this time if a panel will be added to the back to help in centering that later. Once I get the first screw started by hand and follow up with the drill it doesn't seem to be too difficult to attach it to the stand. I should just make a template of the faceplate on the stand, and lay it out on the back of the form to pre-drill the holes as needed. On something too big to handle I just remove the faceplate from the stand, attach it to the form before putting it back on the stand.

[George Roof]

Wayne, that may be OK for deer, but try an elk,moose, or bison. That'll break your heart and your back.  Unless that face plate removes, it ain't happening on the bigger forms.

[Matt]

I have built everyone of my stands. I now work off of 8 stands. All the lumber was taken out of dumpsters. It's unbelievable what they throw away these days. I have 2-3 of these stands set up for elk, moose, and anything else that has some weight to it.

[Wayne R]

George,

The only thing heavy I used this stand for was caribou and moose. I didn't have problem attaching the forms to the stand. I did have a problem with not being able to crank it down tight enough for the form to stay upright. If I had a steady diet of big heavy forms, Butch Bragg out of VT builds a stand that would handle these. Pete Lajoie uses his stands in his shop.

[Richard C]

Jc
 I bought mine off of Research years ago. I redesigned the face plate movement and it works great for me.

[George Roof]

Richard, will yours hold a deer?  See that big Canadian one in my avatar?  You know, the one you've had for three years now that you were doing for me as a favor?  Suppose that stand will support the mannikin and I might look forward to seeing it mounted before I die?  LMAO  You stepped right into that one.

[jcompton]

 Thanks for the replies everyone,the stand I have been using just aint working very good its homemade and there's no adjustment to it,it was just good enough to get buy. I ended up buying the one from McKenzie with the economy head, I really like the EZ stand and there's no doubt it would be the best one its just not in the budget right now.

 P.S  Somebody got busted! 

[catman]

George, While it is true you without a doubt are the all knowing, all seeing, master of time , space and dimension, your concept of big could be suspect.

[George Roof]

I apologize Phil.  In this case I should have recognized that some people don't have the vocabulary necessary to understand the terms.  "BIG" in this instance certainly wasn't intended to describe the 8 pointer that scored 143, but rather the size of the deer itself.  It was a 300 pound field dressed whitetail with a 24 inch neck I was speaking of.  I'm sure that there are some BIGGER, but this one took the largest form McKenzie sold and that's the form I supplied Richard with.  Notice, I didn't say "gigantic"?