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Nutterbuster

Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
10,069
Location
Where the skys are so blue!
It's a wonderful time to be a saddle hunter. New toys, new ideas, and a lot of new blood. Lots of people are getting those spiffy new mantises (manti?) and kestrels.

Any time you up the user base of a product, you increase the likelihood that somebody is going to get hurt. What we do is intrinsically dangerous. Gravity never takes a break, and the whole point of choosing to hunt the way we do is to get off the beaten path. Cell providers and first responders have a hard time getting in those places.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not the most safety-conscious individual, and believe in a caveat-emptor world. But every time you hang you are putting yourself in a life-or-death scenario. That should give you pause.

I've seen a few posts that give me anxiety this week. Folks hanging from stuff that isn't safe to hang from. I dont want to call anybody out, and there's no need to since we've got good-hearted members that let the "offenders" know that what they were doing wasn't kosher.

I just want to urge everybody to be safe. Buy good gear. Use it within its design parameters. Ask questions. Try everything at ground level. Inspect your gear. Inspect your tree. Let folks know where you're hunting. Don't buy gear that "should" work to save a buck.

And if you see something, say something! No need to be a jerk about it. Just let folks know if you see something that's outside SOP, and give them the rationale behind it.

I hate to be the Grim Reaper, but somebody is going to die. It's just a fact. If enough people start saddle hunting, somebody is going to take a fall. Maybe it'll be negligence on their part. Maybe it'll be a manufacturer's defect. Maybe it'll be an act of God.

I know that nobody wants to log in one day and read that one of their buddies isn't going to posting anymore, and have to live with the thought that maybe we could have prevented it.

Be safe.
 
elk yinzer said:
Good reminder. I shake my head pretty regularly. And that's just the stuff you see posted. Imagine what the lurkers are up to haha.
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That's what scares me. I do things that aren't exactly best practices. But to me there's a difference between folks discussing why they do or do not believe in load-bearing leg straps and somebody getting surprised and asking, "Why shouldn't I use paracord as a bridge?" Some folks realy just don't know, or even have a suspicion that they're doing something dangerous.
 
I'll admit theirs times when I'm in a hurry to beat the sunlight in the mornings and I just climb the trees I already have set up on my land without using a linemans belt. It's good to be reminded from time to time from other hunters about safety and how important it is.
 
Nutterbuster said:
It's a wonderful time to be a saddle hunter. New toys, new ideas, and a lot of new blood. Lots of people are getting those spiffy new mantises (manti?) and kestrels.

Any time you up the user base of a product, you increase the likelihood that somebody is going to get hurt. What we do is intrinsically dangerous. Gravity never takes a break, and the whole point of choosing to hunt the way we do is to get off the beaten path. Cell providers and first responders have a hard time getting in those places.

I'll be the first to admit that I am not the most safety-conscious individual, and believe in a caveat-emptor world. But every time you hang you are putting yourself in a life-or-death scenario. That should give you pause.

I've seen a few posts that give me anxiety this week. Folks hanging from stuff that isn't safe to hang from. I dont want to call anybody out, and there's no need to since we've got good-hearted members that let the "offenders" know that what they were doing wasn't kosher.

I just want to urge everybody to be safe. Buy good gear. Use it within its design parameters. Ask questions. Try everything at ground level. Inspect your gear. Inspect your tree. Let folks know where you're hunting. Don't buy gear that "should" work to save a buck.

And if you see something, say something! No need to be a jerk about it. Just let folks know if you see something that's outside SOP, and give them the rationale behind it.

I hate to be the Grim Reaper, but somebody is going to die. It's just a fact. If enough people start saddle hunting, somebody is going to take a fall. Maybe it'll be negligence on their part. Maybe it'll be a manufacturer's defect. Maybe it'll be an act of God.

I know that nobody wants to log in one day and read that one of their buddies isn't going to posting anymore, and have to live with the thought that maybe we could have prevented it.

Be safe.
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You’re such a sweet spirited little ole fella @Nutterbuster . No seriously, great post. I’m seeing some SKETCHY- NESS around here lately.
 
bigdave1691 said:
I'll admit theirs times when I'm in a hurry to beat the sunlight in the mornings and I just climb the trees I already have set up on my land without using a linemans belt. It's good to be reminded from time to time from other hunters about safety and how important it is.
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It's times like these, where you have done it a million times, you know what you are doing, etc, etc, etc that the accidents happen.
 
I've noticed the same things, it's getting a little scary really. The speed at which saddle hunting is becoming more common is diluting the massive amounts of time and energy that experienced guys and gals have put into making safety a priority, probably because everything was a mixed bag of hunting/climbing/diy stuff and most people that were using it already knew a fair bit about safety.
I cringe every time I see someone using a cheap carabiner or missing a stopper knot on a tether. I just hope nobody gets killed because of a lack of information, we all definitely need to speak up if we see dangerous stuff.
 
T.Clarke said:
I cringe every time I see someone using a cheap carabiner or missing a stopper knot on a tether. I just hope nobody gets killed because of a lack of information, we all definitely need to speak up if we see dangerous stuff.
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I agree 100%. With saddle hunting less than mainstream we're always innovating new methods and using DIY solutions to solve some of our needs. The more mainstream hunting approaches have already gone through most of these growing pains and have well developed and accepted practices.

I think the novelty of the approach and opportunity for innovation are what most of us enjoy on this site. We owe it to each other to be honest and try to politely point out where we think there could be downfalls to others posted ideas, not only for the OP but for those who may read the thread and try the approach.

On the flip side we should also be open and accepting to any constructive safety concerns posted about ideas we have presented. We may not personally chose to follow the suggestions but we need to keep in mind that others may be following in our footsteps and if an idea has potential flaws it is owed to them to let those be voiced so we all can make our own informed decisions.

As with @Nutterbuster, I'm not always the most safety conscious individual but if I get hurt doing something I know has risks thats all on me. If someone else were to get hurt trying something I had presented or, failed to point out a potential for risk in then I would feel aweful. Please everybody be safe and take the safety concerns to heart. Remember these concerns are not personal either way, we're just trying to look out for each other.
 
I’ve completely converted my old man into a safe hunter over the years. He used to climb trees with homemade screw in steps, no harness, no back pack, gun over the shoulder and leaning on branches as a seat!!

I still remember the first time he showed me one of his setups, all I could think was wow, how has he not been injured yet!

Ended up buying him a harness, climbing sticks, backpack etc. He's let go of his archaic ways and now almost all his gear I’ve bought for him as gifts. It’s nice knowing he’s safe out there.
 
RavenHill said:
I’ve completely converted my old man into a safe hunter over the years. He used to climb trees with homemade screw in steps, no harness, no back pack, gun over the shoulder and leaning on branches as a seat!!

I still remember the first time he showed me one of his setups, all I could think was wow, how has he not been injured yet!

Ended up buying him a harness, climbing sticks, backpack etc. He's let go of his archaic ways and now almost all his gear I’ve bought for him as gifts. It’s nice knowing he’s safe out there.
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I'm probably a contemporary of your dad :blush:. . . there are still those of us around who lived through the growing pains involved with the evolution of modern treestands. I thinks that's part of the draw to saddle hunting for me. It takes me back to my early hunting days when I was trying to find a "better" means to hunt from a tree.
 
I personally feel that we do some really dangerous stuff and try to do it as safely as possible. Some of our climbing methods are pretty far out there. The saddles themselves are super safe. It’s funny @Nutterbuster last year we were still arguing about ropeman safety and whether or not we should back it up. Some even run a backup tether. Now it’s stuff like paracord bridges. It really scares me what isn’t being asked or types. With some of the rope choices I wonder what some of these guys are using for carabiners. I really hope everyone will study up and be safe. If I had unlimited resources I would send everyone that signed up a saddlehunter starter pack. Sadly since I joined this site resources have become more and more limited. Just for old time sake I blame @g2outdoors :)
 
Thanks for starting his thread. I have seen some stuff recently that really scares me and it’s amazing how guys jump right on it as a good idea. I’m all for innovation and trying new things but please use some common sense. If it seems sketchy it likely is.
 
Generally speaking it’s harder to fall out of a saddle setup than it is to fall out of any treestand. I think the easiest way to slip up is climbing without a lineman’s rope or tether hooked up. But that same rule applies to treestand hunting as well.


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Awesome post. Anytime we leave the ground there is a risk. Try always to have 3 points of contact while climbing and always be connected to the tree with linesman belt or tether. Accidents happen fast I known one day I'm at work and before noon I was behing life flighted to a hospital luckey to be a live. It only takes a split second for something to go wrong. We all need to try everything we use at ground level more than once. Check are equipment before each use , check your knots, check your carabiners, stitching on your saddle. Please don't take anything for granted. Life is to short.
 
Some of the things I've done to get in a tree and what I did once there, I would never consider doing today. That was long ago, when we "didn't know any better". These days there is literally no excuse for hunting precariously. I've been saddle hunting since the Anderson treesling days and I can tell you that the good old days of saddle hunting are upon us. While I was in my time warp, hunting out my Bulldog, the world went by around me. After I discovered the newfound excitement over saddle hunting, I realized some things had changed since I began hunting from a saddle. So I got on the net and read. Hunted and pecked and read some more. Until I found everthing I needed to safely update my system. Back in the day we kinda had an excuse, because informational resources were limited. But these days, with the internet there is no excuse. One of the mose helpful tools ever invented by man is right at your fingertips. It's called the world wide web. USE IT! The way we hunted years ago, would leave most today trembling. I still shudder at the thought sometimes. Also, just because something is manufactured by a legit company does not garuntee that it won't get you killed. Of all of the ways I've gotten in a tree over the years you'd think that wad of 20p nails Sleepy drove in the tree for steps or those aluminum easel handles from the scrap bin at work would have gotten one of us. But nope, back before anybody even knew what a "lifeline" was, I had two folding tree steps fail on me, on two separate occasions. One was a Dr. O's. The other an Amacker. One fall tore me up pretty good and nearly castrated me. Luckily, I was caught by my britches, long johns and boxers, and left hangin on the 2nd step off the ground. I bring those intances up, to let you know that not only our DIY stuff can get you killed if guidelines are not followed, so can properly used manufactured items, if precautions are not taken. Hunt safe and go ever chance you get!
 
With saddle hunting becoming more popular the risk of someone getting seriously hurt or killed is going to increase. How many people see a post on social media and think that looks cool, go to the home depot to buy some garbage to hang from. Unfortunately not everyone exposed to saddle hunting will visit this forum. My fear is that when people do start getting hurt or worse on public land, saddle hunting will be deemed unsafe and banned. I also think that if it were to ever become an issue, the saddle manufacturers are going to have to stand together and not be bickering. They should probably start sooner than later, before the problem presents itself.

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