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Hawk Helium Bridge Material? Unfortunate response from Hawk

V

vf171ohio

New Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2021
Messages
4
So I know Hawk has a bad reputation with a lot of folks but I wanted to give them a try. I'm a new saddle and bow hunter (haven't even been out yet) so I don't have a lot of experience with either. After taking a test climb (with a friend there in case anything went wrong) I got real interested in knowing the bridge material that comes with the Helium saddle is so I sent an email through their site asking what material the bridge was made of. Short answer, they don't know. HTF is that an okay answer?
my understanding is that most other saddles have an Amsteel or Dymeema rope bridge.
Needless to say I'll be adding my own bridge in the coming days.

I wanted to share, not to bash them but to let others know who may be thinking they have an Amsteel or Dyneema bridge. Don't assume anything.
7A05A98B-658B-4380-BFC6-232149D33E81.png
 
Unfortunately that’s not surprising coming from a large corporation whose only connection to their products comes from the marketing and accounting departments. You’d be better off grabbing a saddle from one of the smaller manufacturers. I can’t speak for the others but I use an Aerohunter saddle; I called them up and literally had a 45 minute conversation with Deb about material choices and sizing/fit.
 
I’m not sure, but it looks and feels like amsteel. It’s been holding me good, but I have a back up……redundancy is your friend.
Not sure they even know what you’re talking about either. Stand? It took some getting used to but I feel good about it…..trusting he amsteel took some getting used to
 
It appears the Customer Service Team member you exchanged emails with is not fully trained on appropriately replying to customers.

She missed a key sentence, which is unfortunate.

A corrected reply from GSM Outdoors is below:

Hello Phillip,

Thank you for contacting GSM outdoors.
Unfortunately, we do not have any info on what material these stands are made of.
We can, however, assure you these stands are made of the highest grade Chinesium available to mankind.

Kind regards,
GSM Outdoors.
 
Hunter260 said:
Why would you even bother responding if you were just going to say I don’t know. Also saying stand instead of saddle makes it seem like they really don’t know what’s going on
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I agree. That concerns me just as much. They make stands but my question was about the saddle bridge specifically.
 
So my experience with hawk..... I threw the ropes away, emailed hawk with no reply. Then the bridge was fraying bad so I cut it off (rather tough to my surprise) and put an Amsteel ez bridge on from custom Amsteel products. So after that mess I emailed again still no reply. SOOOO I left some nasty reviews where possible. I bought it as a first saddle because it was a good entry price for the learning curve but now after replacing every component of the hawk kit minus the junk uncomfortable flat panel saddle I’m fairly certain I coulda bought a Cruzr Xc cheaper
 
vf171ohio said:
So I know Hawk has a bad reputation with a lot of folks but I wanted to give them a try. I'm a new saddle and bow hunter (haven't even been out yet) so I don't have a lot of experience with either. After taking a test climb (with a friend there in case anything went wrong) I got real interested in knowing the bridge material that comes with the Helium saddle is so I sent an email through their site asking what material the bridge was made of. Short answer, they don't know. HTF is that an okay answer?
my understanding is that most other saddles have an Amsteel or Dymeema rope bridge.
Needless to say I'll be adding my own bridge in the coming days.

I wanted to share, not to bash them but to let others know who may be thinking they have an Amsteel or Dyneema bridge. Don't assume anything.
View attachment 59170
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I bought one when they first came out just to see if it was any good. Without saying anything negative, I will just say I returned it to the store the following day (it didn’t even make my saddle wall collection) but the bridge is undoubtedly UHMPE which is basically a generic amsteel. It’s made from either dyneema or spectra fibers. A large corporation’s “home office” isn’t likely to know much about the product line that one of their companies make. They just receive a packet to turn into their insurance companies for review. Also sometimes the product material is considered proprietary so they wouldn’t give you any information regardless unless it was a lawyer request during a civil suit.
Getting back on subject, I love amsteel bridges but for me, I have to have an adjustable bridge. I like my bridge really short when I am walking and climbing, and I like to lengthen it at height (how much depends on the lean of the tree). So even if you stick with the hawk saddle, you can easily find a replacement bridge if it would make you more comfortable. Or you can always DIY your own. If you need any help, ideas, ect all of us on here would be happy to help out. Merry Christmas
 
Fl Canopy Stalker said:
I bought one when they first came out just to see if it was any good. Without saying anything negative, I will just say I returned it to the store the following day (it didn’t even make my saddle wall collection) but the bridge is undoubtedly UHMPE which is basically a generic amsteel. It’s made from either dyneema or spectra fibers. A large corporation’s “home office” isn’t likely to know much about the product line that one of their companies make. They just receive a packet to turn into their insurance companies for review. Also sometimes the product material is considered proprietary so they wouldn’t give you any information regardless unless it was a lawyer request during a civil suit.
Getting back on subject, I love amsteel bridges but for me, I have to have an adjustable bridge. I like my bridge really short when I am walking and climbing, and I like to lengthen it at height (how much depends on the lean of the tree). So even if you stick with the hawk saddle, you can easily find a replacement bridge if it would make you more comfortable. Or you can always DIY your own. If you need any help, ideas, ect all of us on here would be happy to help out. Merry Christmas
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I agree with all you said above. It is concerning though that they don't at least advertise the bridge as being made of UHWMPE or at least let people know that is the material when asked. I get it though, "big company" = "black hole" a lot of times when it comes to getting information for a lot of reasons. I have a couple alternatives on the way to try out, both from smaller companies specializing in saddle hunting.

Again, my intent was to just share information since a lot of what is said is opinion (which is fine also). This is "straight from the horses mouth". If it is wrong, it is on them. As a consumer of their product I have no reason to believe that what is in the email is incorrect though. They apparently do not know what their stuff is made of. As an engineer for a large company, I know better though. Why they couldn't tell me is anyone's guess as you mention above.

I'm looking forward to trying out the new bridges when they get here and getting out in the trees soon. This looks like a great place to learn and share information with other like-minded people.
 
So you are gonna use the Hawk saddle though right Ohio? I’m very happy with mine and I’ve come to trust the bridge. The bury did poke out the side so I pulled it out further, trimmed it down at an angle and milked the outer back over it.ACAC8004-2A98-47B1-87AC-6A46F9F22D7F.jpegif you look you can see my second redundant bridge. I got rid of that carabiner too. Now when I hook up that bridge, I just run the carabiner end through that prussik. The factory bridge is definitely larger than my 1/4” backup. Probably gonna make an adjustable one soon.
 
my only experience with hawk customer service is i ordered a tree umbrella directly from their site, it took over 3 months to get here (this was 3 years ago, before covid), i had contacted hawk several times before to inquire about shipping with no response, when it got here the box was ripped and the umbrella was used/dirty....i sent it back mostly because it didn't function well
 
raisins said:
my only experience with hawk customer service is i ordered a tree umbrella directly from their site, it took over 3 months to get here (this was 3 years ago, before covid), i had contacted hawk several times before to inquire about shipping with no response, when it got here the box was ripped and the umbrella was used/dirty....i sent it back mostly because it didn't function well
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That sucks. All their products I have I’ve gotten off Amazon, at lower prices than their website offered. Hope I never have to deal with their customer no service.
 
vf171ohio said:
Bfriendly, yep I'm going to use the saddle for sure. I'll just have a backup bridge on it now.
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So far I’m really happy with mine, but I haven’t used the pillow liner thing in a while. I’ve used it with no issues in the past though. I made a backup bridge out of my canyon elite first, but like the amsteel type stuff much better all the way around for anything just about. It’s not expensive and a simple video will show you how ez it is to splice etc.. now if I could just get another shot at a deer!
 
I just ordered the hawk saddle and I new to the saddle hunting game been hunting since I was a kid I'm 33 now but can you remove the bridge on the hawk and replace it with a better one or what do I need to do to be safe
 
Jess89 said:
I just ordered the hawk saddle and I new to the saddle hunting game been hunting since I was a kid I'm 33 now but can you remove the bridge on the hawk and replace it with a better one or what do I need to do to be safe
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I’d cut it off and put an adjustable bridge on so you can make it somewhat comfortable. I had an Amsteel ez bridge from custom Amsteel products on mine and it really helped
 
It needs to be heat treated. Place it on the ground (somewhere safe, duh.), pour a gallon of gas on top and throw a match. Step back and let it burn for about 5 or 10 minutes. It should be well improved.
Wait, on second thought use two gallons of gas. You know, to be safe.
 
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