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360 shooting video

I can shoot almost to 8 o clock coming from the weak side with just the toe hook and my short tether.



I’d love to see a video of this. I’m trying to picture it in my head, but not sure I understand. I think a guy may be able to bring extra strap and girth hitch one side of platform and run it around tree and connect to other side and then Cam platform down and maybe that would be tight enough to hold a couple ameristeps in place. The main reason I want to use a platform over ring of steps is so I can step on with spurs.




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One thing I remember going back and forth from ring of steps to platform was that with the ring of steps I liked a longer tether and was more of a sitter. With the platform, my tether was shorter and I was more of a leaner. I noticed the same just now for others when I was reviewing the videos posted above.
 
Tracker15 said:
I can shoot almost to 8 o clock coming from the weak side with just the toe hook and my short tether.



I’d love to see a video of this. I’m trying to picture it in my head, but not sure I understand. I think a guy may be able to bring extra strap and girth hitch one side of platform and run it around tree and connect to other side and then Cam platform down and maybe that would be tight enough to hold a couple ameristeps in place. The main reason I want to use a platform over ring of steps is so I can step on with spurs.




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I have a conference call soon but I went outside and took a quick picture. This should suffice.

Also, reaching for 8 from the weak is again a very rare, rare scenario. Take the shot from your strong side!

788f4e0de4c47e97baaeb7deb55b7ea6.jpg


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The boswell videos show you everything you need to know about "360 degree" or off side shooting.

I'll say it again but I think the 360 degree shooting ability is oversold as a benefit of saddle hunting. Yes, it can be done. Yes, different platforms make it easier than others. But it's just not practical in most situations unless you're sitting in a limbless tree with no obstructions and your deer are totally dumb to a ton of movement. I have found it also destroys good shooting form. By all means practice for weak side shooting, but I wouldn't bank on having to make those shots. And if you find yourself in a position to have to make a weak side shot more often than not your setup probably needs to be tweaked anyway.
 
BassBoysLLP said:
I have a conference call soon but I went outside and took a quick picture. This should suffice.

Also, reaching for 8 from the weak is again a very rare, rare scenario. Take the shot from your strong side!

788f4e0de4c47e97baaeb7deb55b7ea6.jpg


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Thanks


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d_rek said:
The boswell videos show you everything you need to know about "360 degree" or off side shooting.

I'll say it again but I think the 360 degree shooting ability is oversold as a benefit of saddle hunting. Yes, it can be done. Yes, different platforms make it easier than others. But it's just not practical in most situations unless you're sitting in a limbless tree with no obstructions and your deer are totally dumb to a ton of movement. I have found it also destroys good shooting form. By all means practice for weak side shooting, but I wouldn't bank on having to make those shots. And if you find yourself in a position to have to make a weak side shot more often than not your setup probably needs to be tweaked anyway.
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I can think of exactly 1 deer that I made the Weak Side Shot. It was my first muley ever and only my second or third saddle deer. I was so twisted in the tree it's amazing I made a good shot. I definitely didn't practice like I should have.

More frequently I find myself shooting the Strong Side Shot or the Top Shot.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.
 
d_rek said:
The boswell videos show you everything you need to know about "360 degree" or off side shooting.

I'll say it again but I think the 360 degree shooting ability is oversold as a benefit of saddle hunting. Yes, it can be done. Yes, different platforms make it easier than others. But it's just not practical in most situations unless you're sitting in a limbless tree with no obstructions and your deer are totally dumb to a ton of movement. I have found it also destroys good shooting form. By all means practice for weak side shooting, but I wouldn't bank on having to make those shots. And if you find yourself in a position to have to make a weak side shot more often than not your setup probably needs to be tweaked anyway.
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Interesting. What would you say the number one benefit of saddle hunting is? I'd say mobility, and that includes travel around the tree, not just moving from tree to tree. it's a good question that might deserve its own thread.

With a platform, I would think it is harder to tweak the setup on the fly. With a ring of steps I just rotate around the tree and take my treestrap with me if I find I'm set up at first with deer travel that favors my weak side.

I agree with you d rek the videos I linked cover 360 shooting with a ring of steps ( I'm biased because I was there for the filming of all three of them though--full disclosure). I'd like to see a video similar for a platform.

One thing that I haven't heard is the down fall of practicing shooting from a saddle at shooting height. If you want to get a lot of practice, it's a major pain without a partner to pull the arrows, move the target, and to clip the arrows to a quiver and a pull up rope. Otherwise you get a lot of lineman's belt practice.

Swampsynper, noticed what you noticed too. I've got my treestrap way above my head as high as I can get it, sometimes I even set up my ring of steps, set my tree strap high as I can, come back down and lower my ring of steps 12-18 inches so I have even more rope to work with.

BassBoysLLP: No chiggers where you're at, I guess. My feet would be smoked if I hunted out of flip flops here.
 
@Sparrowhawk The first thing I did after practicing from hunting height was buy an extra dozen arrows. I climb up, shoot 12 or so at 3 to 4 different targets and locations. Then climb down and call it a day. Do it again next time. Customarily I shoot 3 arrows and retrieve, shoot 3 arrows etc But I think 12 shots is plenty at a time.

To answer your other question, I think the # advantage is comfort ( I have a terrible back), then mobility around the tree then access to trees that I had a hard time hunting prior to my TL.
 
BassBoysLLP said:
And yes, I'm known to hunt from flip flops in the early season.
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Sparrowhawk said:
Interesting. What would you say the number one benefit of saddle hunting is? I'd say mobility, and that includes travel around the tree, not just moving from tree to tree. it's a good question that might deserve its own thread.

With a platform, I would think it is harder to tweak the setup on the fly. With a ring of steps I just rotate around the tree and take my treestrap with me if I find I'm set up at first with deer travel that favors my weak side.

I agree with you d rek the videos I linked cover 360 shooting with a ring of steps ( I'm biased because I was there for the filming of all three of them though--full disclosure). I'd like to see a video similar for a platform.

One thing that I haven't heard is the down fall of practicing shooting from a saddle at shooting height. If you want to get a lot of practice, it's a major pain without a partner to pull the arrows, move the target, and to clip the arrows to a quiver and a pull up rope. Otherwise you get a lot of lineman's belt practice.

Swampsynper, noticed what you noticed too. I've got my treestrap way above my head as high as I can get it, sometimes I even set up my ring of steps, set my tree strap high as I can, come back down and lower my ring of steps 12-18 inches so I have even more rope to work with.

BassBoysLLP: No chiggers where you're at, I guess. My feet would be smoked if I hunted out of flip flops here.
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Mobility (being able to go in further with less equipment, or simply less heavy equipment to haul) and not being constrained to the type of tree you hunt both vie for #1 on my list. When we talk about 360 shots I think of that more as 'maneuverability' than 'mobility'.

RE: Practice from hunting height. I know it seems backwards but really you can learn more from 3 arrows than you can 30. I started doing this a few years ago when I really got into micro tuning my bow. I noticed that the higher volume of arrows I packed in my quiver the more I tended to rush shots since I was also in a hurry to make the next shot because I knew I had 10 more arrows to shoot. When I started bareshaft tuning and only had 1 bareshaft arrow to shoot I really slowed down my shot process and really made my shots count. Now I try to only shoot with 3 arrows in my quiver. It's amazing how much better you'll start shooting when you aren't rushing shots just to get through all the arrows in your quiver. The same applies at hunting height. Take 3 arrows. Go slow. Practice good form in the tree and making good shot execution. It will be way more beneficial than taking 30 arrows.
 
d_rek said:
I'll say it again but I think the 360 degree shooting ability is oversold as a benefit of saddle hunting. Yes, it can be done. Yes, different platforms make it easier than others. But it's just not practical in most situations unless you're sitting in a limbless tree with no obstructions and your deer are totally dumb to a ton of movement. I have found it also destroys good shooting form. By all means practice for weak side shooting, but I wouldn't bank on having to make those shots. And if you find yourself in a position to have to make a weak side shot more often than not your setup probably needs to be tweaked anyway.
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I strongly disagree with this. I set up all of my trees with the most probable shot coming on the strong side. In the thick stuff I hunt the deer can take one trail one day and another the next, there is just no way to predict exactly where they will go. I have shot many deer because of my ability to move around the tree to my weak side.
 
redsquirrel said:
I strongly disagree with this. I set up all of my trees with the most probable shot coming on the strong side. In the thick stuff I hunt the deer can take one trail one day and another the next, there is just no way to predict exactly where they will go. I have shot many deer because of my ability to move around the tree to my weak side.
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What are you like a site admin or something?!?! You think you can just 'strongly disagree' with me!! :mad:

But that's totally fair. I don't want to discount that benefit entirely or anyones experience using said benefit, I just think it's oversold is all. I have practiced '360 degree' shooting when I used hang ons too. Just like with a saddle it can be done with some effort. But it again it's just not something I personally bank on. If your hunting situation calls for it more often than not i'd start firing warning shots at your deer so they know they're going in the wrong direction.
 
@Sparrowhawk I demonstrated all the shot selections from a platform in the video I posted on the first page. DaveT did as well. We didn't actually pull the trigger, but I think that's just a formality, right?

Shooting 360 from a platform is actually easier than I showed it in the video. I was making exaggerated movements for the camera.

Another limitation of pivot style platforms is tree diameter. With large diameter trees you lose the Top Shot unless you add a couple extra steps on your strong side. But I don't encounter that scenario very often when I'm mobile. As a general rule, if I can attach a climbing stick at the ground, the tree will be small enough at hunting height to shoot 360. When I hunt really large diameter trees, they're almost always preset with a ring style platform.
 
d_rek said:
What are you like a site admin or something?!?! You think you can just 'strongly disagree' with me!! :mad:

But that's totally fair. I don't want to discount that benefit entirely or anyones experience using said benefit, I just think it's oversold is all. I have practiced '360 degree' shooting when I used hang ons too. Just like with a saddle it can be done with some effort. But it again it's just not something I personally bank on. If your hunting situation calls for it more often than not i'd start firing warning shots at your deer so they know they're going in the wrong direction.
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That's what it says next to my name :p
 
redsquirrel said:
I strongly disagree with this. I set up all of my trees with the most probable shot coming on the strong side. In the thick stuff I hunt the deer can take one trail one day and another the next, there is just no way to predict exactly where they will go. I have shot many deer because of my ability to move around the tree to my weak side.
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Not to be a kiss-up, but you hit the nail on the head here. Deer survive in my neck of the woods by living in the thickest stuff they can find. I look for sign like everybody else, but I've killed 3 rack bucks on public land by asking myself "Where could I camp for a weekend and not have somebody walk up on me?"

Once you get in the thick, wet stuff, anything could happen. Deer move with 0 regard to established trails, wind direction, etc. This is especially true during the rut, when a big buck from "out of town" doesn't know to use the local routes. It isnt at all uncommon for me to setup one way, have a deer come out on my weak side, and swing my tether to hunt 180 from where I was facing.
 
@Sparrowhawk I personally only climb once and shoot a dozen arrows at two targets. Right now I’m using a ring of wild edge steps but any ring style platform makes practice easier. Not the shot itself but if I want to turn a 6:00 shot into a 2:00 shot no need to move the target just move yourself and your tether around the tree until the target is in the 2:00 position.
 
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No doubt biggest benefit is maneuverability. This can be realized with any platform system. The ability to move your body around the tree creates shot opportunities by utilizing opening unavailable from static position.

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