Ironglow,
I've built and hunted off tree stands for whitetails my entire life. Here is what I've found.
Ten feet high for your platform is a good height. If you get up that high, then your scent will be carried off high in the wind. You will actually have deer walk around and browse under your stand, totally oblivious to you.
Higher than ten feet is scary, particularly for older folks. It is a long climb up, and if you go much higher than that, then death or paralysis is a likely end to any fall.
I don't build stands so that I can "see father." Heck, I can stand on a log at an edge of a field and see 200 yards. I use stands so that that the deer can't see or smell me.
I also go put a semi-circle of attraction scent down on the ground, 50 yards out from my stand, in the most open shooting area. At the midpoint around that semi-circle, I put a little stick in the ground, about one foot tall, and tie a little green rag around it, soaked in the attractive lure. When deer wind the scent, they come in, land in the semicircle somewhere, put their nose to the ground and follow the scent to its strongest point, being that soaked rag.
I can't tell you how many deer I've killed, while they are just standing there with their nose right on that rag.
Best of all, when they are working that scent, they are absolutely not looking for you.
Hope this helps.
Mannyrock
