I cannot speak for John..... But everything I have ever heard from him would lead me to believe he does not modify his saddle because of comfort issues. He certainly don't modify them for safety reasons. He modifies them to be more effective hunting tools. And I totally agree with what he does after having tried it myself. And I have tried almost every saddle ever made to include the original aerial hunter and the new Kestrel… and to date the most effective hunting saddle I've ever sat in has been my modified version of the G2 sit drag.
Spot-on Dave
Use what's most comfortable to you.
As you well know Dave, almost all harness users that are uncomfortable in them, are likely using them wrong in some manner. The height you hook-up the lead, the potential lean of the tree where hooked up, how deep or shallow the seat is, how high the seat comes up your lower back, how low the seat goes down into your thighs, the fabric make-up of the seat, how you drape in the seat, how you adjust the seat from time to time, your step placements around the tree and how upright or leaning forward you sit while hunting. Any one of these things can create discomfort and I'm sure I forgot some things as well.
Hey guys, help me out with other things that can potentially create discomfort.
What I'm trying to get across here is that a harness offers so many advantages over any form of conventional stand whatsoever that curing whatever issue or issues you have by asking questions on this site, will up your success rate immensely.
As I've written many times in articles and said innumerable times in seminars, on podcasts, and to whoever would listen, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that a minimum of 50% of the bucks I've taken since 1981 when I began exclusively hunting from a harness, would not have been taken. It's that big a deal when you've scouted and hunted as many new properties as I have. I lose permission all the time and get new and being able to freelance and prepare as many locations as I have and only have one stand (harness) to hunt them all from, conventional stands just wouldn't have got it done.
I looked at a few of my old log books and I've hunted well in excess of over 100 properties.
Now if you own property and am going to hunt it for the remainder of your life, stands might be OK, but you still lose the 360 degree mobility advantage, the visual of stands and especially ladder stands (which I believe draw visual attention from mature bucks in heavily pressured areas), the advantage of using the tree as a blocker, comfort and the advantage of having a ton of locations while only using one harness.
Just saying