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Another saddle accident

raisins said:
wow....i'll be curious about type of carabiner and how that is possible.....but of course first reports are not always accurate
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I bought my tether and lineman's belt from Tethrd when I first got into saddle hunting. The screw gate on one of those carabiners (kind of a rose gold color with a gold gate) started acting up and screwing past the stop point. I've since replaced all biners I got from that order with Petzl biners (with the red open indicator) and retired those Tethrd ones to non-life supporting uses. It freaked me out since I couldn't tell who the manufacturer was and that it so quickly had issues. Being so many people are getting into saddles, and people being cheap, who knows what could have happened here!
 
Looks the post is gone. I read it when it went up. Tethrd carabineer that the guy didn't lock. He fell when he went to pull up his bow. He's claiming carabineer gate failure. I'm a little skeptical based on his admission that the carabineer wasn't locked...
 
Empostarr said:
I bought my tether and lineman's belt from Tethrd when I first got into saddle hunting. The screw gate on one of those carabiners (kind of a rose gold color with a gold gate) started acting up and screwing past the stop point. I've since replaced all biners I got from that order with Petzl biners (with the red open indicator) and retired those Tethrd ones to non-life supporting uses. It freaked me out since I couldn't tell who the manufacturer was and that it so quickly had issues. Being so many people are getting into saddles, and people being cheap, who knows what could have happened here!
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I hear ya on being cheap, I’ve done it. One of the reasons I’ve backed off. I just didn’t feel safe with my setup so I called it off. I gave in to the YouTube peer pressure and cut corners to get in a tree as quick and inexpensive as I could. I had a guy on a YouTube channel tell me saddle hunting was worth the expense to do it. I feel we should be telling people it’s worth the expense if you can afford safe gear. I’m afraid with the cost of saddles, supply issues, and an influx of cheap gear this will become a trend.
 
Ckwilli said:
I hear ya on being cheap, I’ve done it. One of the reasons I’ve backed off. I just didn’t feel safe with my setup so I called it off. I gave in to the YouTube peer pressure and cut corners to get in a tree as quick and inexpensive as I could. I had a guy on a YouTube channel tell me saddle hunting was worth the expense to do it. I feel we should be telling people it’s worth the expense if you can afford safe gear. I’m afraid with the cost of saddles, supply issues, and an influx of cheap gear this will become a trend.
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Yeah, I understand the want to get into a tree as fast and cheap as possible, but not at the expense of safety. And there's always people trying to get into the latest trends to make a buck, which usually means getting into it as cheaply as possible. And being that the larger population lives paycheck to paycheck, often going the cheap route is it for a lot of people.

Cool thing is, you can always hunt from the ground on a bucket until you can save the funds to get the proper gear for climbing. As some other threads point out, you don't need to be in a tree to hunt successfully.
 
Empostarr said:
Yeah, I understand the want to get into a tree as fast and cheap as possible, but not at the expense of safety. And there's always people trying to get into the latest trends to make a buck, which usually means getting into it as cheaply as possible. And being that the larger population lives paycheck to paycheck, often going the cheap route is it for a lot of people.

Cool thing is, you can always hunt from the ground on a bucket until you can save the funds to get the proper gear for climbing. As some other threads point out, you don't need to be in a tree to hunt successfully.
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100% agree. I’ve gone back to buckets and ladder stands. I’ll even break out my climber now and then. I tried to DIY saddle hunting and failed miserably but thought I needed to continue using my setup to justify what I had spent. Now for my humble confession, I’ve fallen twice. Both times were from low heights and I didn’t get banged up too bad. Once I got pinned to the tree and wore myself out trying to extricate myself. I hyperextended a knee and that was the extent of my damage. It could have been way worse. I decided to hang it up for now.
 
I think you can get into saddle hunting reasonably and safely. It's lack of knowledge and user error that is the biggest issue with equipment and safety. However, accidents and failures do happen. A high quality carabiner can be purchased at a pretty low cost.

At this point, everything is speculation. The details are yet to be disclosed. Once we know the truth, we can make educated conclusions.
 
Said he snapped his biner. When asked for a pic, I believe he said it was still up in a tree and he was either at or seeking medical attention. Something like that.

These events should be a wake up call for all those who are chasing light weight or “coolness” at the expense of safety. And a sober reminder for all of us that complacency kills.
 
KYRanger said:
I think you can get into saddle hunting reasonably and safely. It's lack of knowledge and user error that is the biggest issue with equipment and safety. However, accidents and failures do happen. A high quality carabiner can be purchased at a pretty low cost.

At this point, everything is speculation. The details are yet to be disclosed. Once we know the truth, we can make educated conclusions.
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I’m not trying to argue or disagree but I would like someone to define “reasonable.” I’ve been told this many times and that’s exactly what made me try to diy my setup. I saw reasonable as what a decent hang on stand would cost because that’s what I was replacing. Now reasonable for someone else may be $500 or more. I could never get in on a used saddle because 1) cost and 2) they get snatched up pretty quickly. So what I came up with was “reasonable “ for me but obviously almost got me hurt. I think we owe it to ourselves, and the community, to be more deliberate in discussing gear and gear life.
 
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