tree saddles

[the turkey guy]

DeanoZ i love to hear what you think so far.

[Xplorer]

I have to use public hunting lands for my hunting due to loosing the farm land I had permission for in previous years. Due to that, I can't use screw in steps. I like to have something to make hunting "way back" in the corners of the public land where no one else wants to be. Does anyone have any suggestions in regards to easily portable climbing devices so this might be a more viable way of hunting. It's gotta be better than hunting from the ground.

[DeanoZ]

Xplorer, if your talking about some alternate means of getting up the tree in order to use a saddle you can also try the strap on steps...I've never used them myself, but heard they work well...you could also try climbing stiks and ladders I guess but IMHO that sort of defeats the portability of the saddle.
 
TG...so far I've only managed to strap the saddle around one of the columns I have in my basement, lol...but I have to say it was a great primer in how to wear it and the different positions to recline and shoot from...my next step is to try it from a tree at a buddies house where I can shoot from it...but so far so good...I've also got a couple trees in mind to hang it from for a late season winter bow hunt in a couple weeks.

[DeanoZ]

ok all had a chance to try out the tree saddle on an actual hunt.  I'll preface my comments and review with the fact that my time is limited and the season is rapidly drawing to a close, so setting it up and hunting from it all took place at once..not exactly the preferred method according to the directions.  I started by screwing in my steps, which proved to be more difficult than originally anticipated and took me well over an hour just to get to my desired height.  I tried predrilling the holes with a cordless screw driver but that proved difficult in trying to climb the steps and carry the drill, so I ended up screwing them in by hand, part of the reason why it took so long.  Also the spacing in between my steps was too high, need to go with more shallow spacing for future reference.  The tree I chose was probably too big...I could just barely get my arms around the tree and not only did that make climbing difficult it also did not allow for enough slack to hang low enough in the saddle and get 360 degree mobility around the tree.  Just setting in the 4 platform spikes at your desired height was difficult (I only was comfortable setting in 3).  When all was said and done I was exhausted and wore out and I still had to climb back down , get changed over into my hunting duds, climb back up and fasten the saddle to the tree again.  By the time I did that I had an hour of hunting light left, so i said screw the changeover, tethered my bow to the come-along and back up the tree i went..as is..that took another half hour to climb and get settled in.  Once I was strapped in though it was pretty comfortable and I had good range of motion...just not the 360 I needed.  Unfortunately i did not see any deer, although I'm not surprised...my clothes were sweaty and quite honestly i was making quite the racket just getting the tree setup.  So for this particular evolution I give my efforts a C-.  Was not a complete failure, but there is certainly more to it then originally advertised.  I'm quite certain there are other ways to do this, so I'd be interested to hear from Turkey Guy and others on where they think I went wrong?  I'm not giving up by any stretch, I'm quite certain it works as advertised, I just need to get around the logisitics....mainly 1) Stick with trees no larger than a foot in diameter 2) Set screw-ins closer together no more than half a knee length perhaps 3) Get a tether or holster for the cordless drill 4) Consider climbing sticks to set Screw-in steps.  Back to the drawing board for now I guess!!! [8|]

[Xplorer]

Picked mine up on Saturday. Gonna wait till spring (warm weather) to try mine out. This Saturday is the last day of the season & I'll wait till next season before I use it for a actual hunt

[the turkey guy]

deanoz Sorry to hear it took you so long. and i think you want to hear more how i set up. ok first thing get your self a retrackable dog leash at the pet store and put a clip to hook it to your saddle. any thing you want to get up just clip it on, ie. drill etc.. i personally just screw them by hand. as for a tree, i look for the tree i want big or small, but i know what you mean by big tree being hard to get the strap around.  but if you use the other supplied strap it's a lot easier because you have two hands free to put the stap on . next year try to set up 2 or 3 fixed saddle trees were you leave your steps in and have one set of steps for run and gun set up's. the other thing i do alot of is just after i'am done hunting one site i normal see something a buck going to the same spot 2 or 3 times then i figure where i want to be. i walk over when it's later, sat midday, put my step in, get set up, and come back the next day or two and hunt it. but the biggest thing is just keep at it you will get the hang of it. and again if you want to talk call me, love to help rob.

[DeanoZ]

Hey TG, was hoping you'd chime in so thanks...and no apologies, I have a feeling I'm just not approaching this correctly.  I was in fact using the safety strap so I would have my hands free when i was climbing and screwing in the steps, but it was awkward at times.  i think your right though I just have to get used to it and I'm sure after a couple times it will go smoother...how you can run n gun or setup on the fly is beyond me..it would take me a couple hours to do that!  I'll use a retracting line in the future...I used to have one but it broke..makes sense though.  I'll go out again in another week for my last hunt and attempt another setup in a different spot.  By the way ahve you ever used the saddle for Turkey hunting?

[the turkey guy]

hay my friend no i have never used it for turkey hunting but i bet you could, glad to hear that your going to stick with it, trust me every time out you will get better and better at using it. the first few times i was right were your at. let me know how it goes and any question let me know thanks and looking forward to hearing rob.

[reeper0697]

Any new updates on these?

[DeanoZ]

ORIGINAL: reeper0697

Any new updates on these?

 
Unfortunately I just have not had enough time to get out and play with it some more...i was doing some post season scouting yesterday and was goign to try and set it up then, but we ran outta time...but I still believe this is the way to go vice traditional stands and like TG said I think its just a matter of getting out there and setting it up a few times.  I'll be going out next weekend and I'll try to set it up again.