Trendy outdoor clothing brands, heavy arrows, new broadheads, mobile hunting — many of us are consumed by recent hunting fads. We live in a world that is all about the next best thing. Life has always been this way to some extent, but social media and the speed at which today’s news spreads has changed dramatically in the last fifteen years. No doubt, trends and fads have changed the trajectory of the hunting industry as well.
The hunting industry has especially been shaken up by the recent trend of mobile hunting. With this new style of hunting has come the arrival of new personalities in the hunting industry. Saddle hunting and lightweight stand-and-stick combos are all the rage in the hunting world. Mobile hunting has its place. However, so do ladder stands, hang-on, or box blind setups.
We all know one of the first sits in a new hunting location can be one of the best times to kill a deer. Mobile hunting has captured a new wave of invigorated hunters — which is great for the future of hunting. However, much like the broadhead debate, I sense some division amongst those using mobile setups vs the more traditional hunter that utilizes ladder stands and hang-on setups. Both hunting styles are effective and deadly. Your choice in hunting style depends a lot upon your abilities, personality, budget, hunting land situation, and willingness to exhaust all options and try new things.
Personal Abilities
In the summer of 2020, I purchased a lightweight stand-and-sticks combination in hopes of doing more mobile hunting. I’m not going to lie. I hated setting up and tearing down the stand and sticks for at least the first five or six hunts. Hauling around a super lightweight hunting setup was still noisy and cumbersome compared to my usual style of silently climbing up a pre-hung tree stand set up.
As a former collegiate high jumper, even I found the mobile hunting process to be work compared to my usual hunting style. Granted, I’m not the athlete I once was, but honestly, I was quieter and more efficient with a climber when I was a new bow hunter years ago.
Things did get better with my mobile setup as the season progressed. However, I still found myself in tricky situations when hanging the sticks and stand in trees where I encountered limbs. Do I wear two lineman’s belts or only use trees with no branches? Do I rest the final two climbing sticks from loops in my safety harness while working my way up the tree hanging sticks?
There is a lot to consider when hunting mobile, and it all takes practice and lots of patience. I struggled with all this extra movement and possibility for noise, while at the same time expecting to get close to one of North America’s most skittish game animals.
For more insight, I asked Pennsylvania native Beau Martonik why he thinks mobile hunting has opened a new world of opportunities when chasing whitetail. Martonik, founder of the East Meets West Hunt Podcast told me, “I think mobile hunting brings me more success because I’m not tied down to one spot. It doesn’t mean I won’t hunt the same spot for a few days in a row, but since the season is constantly changing, it allows me to adapt to what’s happening now.”
If you’re nimble and have the go-getter personality and love the ‘work’ of hunting and surprising deer in odd places, you will love mobile hunting. Numerous companies make extremely quality tree saddle or a lightweight hang-on stand with mobile climbing sticks. The options are endless. Additionally, many of the lightweight stands are completely sourced and made in America.
If you want to make a transition to hunting with more mobile setups, I highly suggest practicing with your setup numerous times to eliminate the learning curve before it’s 25 degrees on the perfect November rut morning. Practice will increase efficiency while hanging and tearing down stands in the dark. Through the process you will learn what makes noise and what doesn’t. Believe me, the practice will be worth it.
If you’re a larger person, you may struggle with the mobility that saddle and mobile hunting requires. This isn’t to say it cannot be done but know your abilities and limitations. If you have a fear of heights, hang and hunt type of setups may not be your thing no matter how much you’re willing to work to harvest a target deer. Again, practice and repetition working at certain heights in a tree will help you get over your fear.
Some hunters consider it fun to pack in a stand and sticks or a saddle for each hunt. Others consider it a burden and too much of a hassle. I fall into the latter category. Your hunting style and stand preferences all come back to knowing yourself and your situation. You can take mobile hunting to whatever degree you want.
Your Situation
While I am intrigued and will probably give it a try at some point, I have yet to try saddle hunting. To me, it’s just another tool at my disposal if I choose to do so. I am blessed to have access to private lands that I have scouted and hunted for years. I’m not saying I wouldn’t benefit from mobile hunting more often, but I have a great idea of where I need to be during a given time of year.
If I put in my time in key spots, harvest opportunities usually present themselves. Hunting is supposed to be relaxing and fun. With that being said, I love the comfort of ladder stands and reliable hang-on setups that are hung at least 18 feet high when they’re in a prime hunting location. However, there is a danger of becoming complacent when hunting your go-to pre-hung sets. Martonik said, “When I hunt pre-hung sets, I feel more married to those locations and less likely to move when I need to.”
Don’t let that last paragraph trick you into thinking I am at all lethargic when it comes to bow hunting. When the actual hunt comes, I know the work has been done and I want to trust my locations. I scout the private lands I have access to extremely hard and go with a pre-hung stand set up in most situations. I set up my stand sites with sweeteners like mock scrapes, small social openings in the timber, and destination food plots to influence deer movement for a close encounter.
Because of my prior work and scouting, I have sky-high confidence when I slip in dead silent to a pre-hung tree stand with a perfect wind on a cold, crisp early November morning. I also hunt in extreme hill country which makes access tough with extra weight to carry in for mobile hunting. For my current situation, quiet, permanent stand sites are key to success. If a stand starts to make noise, and I can’t fix it, I don’t think twice — it gets pulled from the woods. For me, stands that squeak typically never get strapped around a tree again.
Martonik hunts a lot of public land across his home state of Pennsylvania but also travels out of state. Regarding private land, he told me, “If I had a larger piece of private land, I would hunt more mobile in the first year or two. If I found certain locations that were good rut funnels or proved to be good year after year, I would hang sets there but still leave the option to be mobile during times of the year where food and bedding is changing.”
Your situation might be drastically different. Maybe you knocked on doors for permission on 40-acre parcel but share it with other hunters or the landowner’s family. It might be two hours away and you feel as though you cannot leave your expensive hunting gear alone in the woods for a variety of reasons. Well, enter mobile hunting and a friend of your savings account.
Budget Considerations
If you’re willing to hang and hunt on nearly every trip to the deer woods, nothing beats the cost-effectiveness of mobile hunting. For around $500-$700, you can have one great setup to take you literally anywhere you want to be to hunt deer in North America.
Compare that to $200-$300 for one ladder stand or a set of sticks and a stand. If you have a handful of stand locations, permanent stand site costs add up quickly! Furthermore, if you want a few box blinds or homemade blinds, you can spend anywhere from $500 to $4,000 per blind depending on the material of the blind and whether you build your own or purchase one from a reputable outdoor brand.
Mobile hunting is usually necessary, and even required, for the public land hunter. Most states do not allow you to keep stands up overnight on public grounds. Many public land hunters I know bounce from one spot to the next within the same day. This requires efficiency and a chameleon-like adaptability that mobile hunting offers.
Conclusion
If you enjoy hunting in diverse areas on both private and public land, you will probably enjoy hunting a hybrid style by incorporating both mobile and permanent setups. Despite mobile hunting being the popular method, you see on many hunting YouTube channels, don’t be concerned about being behind the times. Just keep in mind that nothing beats a quiet entry and exit, no matter your method.
— Paul Annear is a seasoned whitetail hunter from Wisconsin and an avid user of mobile-hunting technology.
