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My saddle Journey

Root

Root

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
620
I've known for a few years now that I wanted to step up my game and go fully mobile. Plus preset hangons and sticks start really adding up after awhile. I've read Johns and Chris's books countless times and the saddle sounded good on paper. But looking at pictures of saddle hunters made the afraid of heights side of me freak out a bit. But I jumped in and went for it.

Fast forward 40 hours hanging in the saddle and I don't forsee me ever going back. I'm hunting places I literally couldn't with a hang on and comfortably hunting 25'+ up which is higher than my normal preset hangon sites. I'm still dialing in my set up but I have to say comfort wise sitting for 6 straight hours is a breeze.

Tonight I went to a primary scrape area that I've never been able to hunt from with a hangon. _20171029_205416.JPG
Just to the right of this picture is a 6x10' scrape. Does bed out in the brush just beyond this picture. But the problem was with a hangon you could either hunt the scrape or the faint buck trail behind where this picture is taken. _20171029_205907.JPGThis is behind me where they run checking the scrape down wind. With the saddle I can go between them and hunt both. 12 does passed through tonight. One spike, a four point and one very nice ten point. The ten point was hauling through on the heals of a doe. I bleated to stop him but he never even paused. Every deer that came through at one point or another ended up down wind of me. I have to give a scentlok and the scent routine credit. Not one winded me. They should have, the milk weed was going straight to the trail behind me. Normally the first doe and fawn down wind would've blown me out of the tree.

Anyways, thanks to you guys I'm really enjoying this journey so far. Now that I'm pretty confident in my set up I'm ready to start hitting my best rut spots and getting after it.
 
One thing I forgot to mention is practice vs reality. I've practiced every shot position that I can come up with but reality sometimes can complicate what you practiced. Every time I'm in a tree I mentally run through the foot, body and bow placement that I might need for that given spot. I've always done it even in tree stands until it becomes second nature. I don't want to have to think about it in the moment of truth. But you never really know until it gets tested.

Although I didn't get a shot on the ten point, I did get the test out of the way. The whole interaction with him lasted less than 20 seconds. Because it's been raining for two days straight the deer go through without making a sound. The tree I was in is split roughly ten feet up. I had my bow hanging between the two trunks which means I have to pull it straight out before I can spin around the tree. I saw the doe running in so without a thought I swung back around the tree and pulled my bow. Then swung back around the tree and I was at full draw by the time I first saw the buck coming in. Doe passed by at the six o'clock position just as I reached full draw. If he would've stopped when I bleated I would've had the shot. I used the top of my stick and two stepps.

When it was all over I hung my bow back up and that's when it really hit me about what I just did. In a moments notice I covered 200 plus degrees twice without missing a beat. If I'd have been in a normal hangon with the deer behind me there is no way I'd have had a chance. I might not have even known they passed through.

Another thing is this was a complete run and gun style. I spent over an hour prepping the area for a few shooting lanes plus trimming the pine tree on my way up. There was a lot of chance to spread human scent everywhere around the site. Not one deer spooked or even acted alert. Out of all the scent eliminating things I've tried I'd never have gotten away with it in the past. From ozone, making my own scents from stand locations to smoking my clothes nothing ever worked like this.

I know this is long winded and that I didn't actually kill some big slob, but for the first time I can actually say wow to both the saddle and scentlok. If you're a new guy trying this out go for it. Stay with it until you get the confidence and comfort. It has taken me up to now to put it together enough to be confident in it.

The deer around here are in trouble because I think I might have a deer fever during the work week now. Cough cough....
 
Well due to a severe case of deer fever I have no choice but to do an all day sit tomorrow. First all day sit in a saddle. There's supposed to be a rain/snow mix through mid day so hopefully they will be up and moving.
 
That was an awesome read! I’m glad everything is working out for you! Keep it up
 
Well yesterday was a complete bust. Two deer sited, a spike and a loan doe feeding in the distance.

But the first all day in the saddle was great. I changed locations once other than that I stayed strapped in. It was probably the most conformable all day I've ever been in 20 years of sitting in trees.

I did have two minor issues. One- when changing locations I forgot to pull the drawstring tight on my dump pouch and lost my tether. Luckily I noticed it pretty quick and I only had to backtrack a couple hundred feet. Two - I was layered up for the first time and had hip punch issues. Quickly solved because it was from tucking layers into my pants and had them bunched up on my sides.
 
As another new saddle hunter, its good to hear folks going through the same things! Keep it up!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
Coming from a tree stand it never really bothered me how large any of my packs were. Now I'm to the point where something needs to change. Between carrying 4 sticks and 2 stepps and the bag always seeming to be in the way its time to rethink it. To me the smallest pack I can get away with and the sticks on a strap seem to be the quickest, quietest and fastest through the woods. I'm going to cut down what I pack to just whats needed and stop trying to have a camp out in the tree.

So I'm down to: knife, hand, foot, stick on heat packs, 30' of 550 cord, 1 gallon zip lock bag, grunt call, rattle bag, doe can, water, socks and a small multi tool.

Now I need a smaller pack. I've been eying this one.
https://www.ozarksource.com/maxpedi...MItv_p-bag1wIVSLjACh2MqQ0QEAkYASABEgJplPD_BwE

What do you guys think?
 
Well my bow season just took a big hit.
_20171102_223224.JPG
Just came home to 3+" of water flooding into my basement. Looks like my big weekend hunting plans have turned into my big excavating plans. Outside of my wife and kids it takes a lot to keep me out of the woods. But seeing my kids toys floating isn't good. I'm hopeful my kids wooden crane I built survives.
 
That sucks! I hope you get everything worked out!
 
Root said:
Coming from a tree stand it never really bothered me how large any of my packs were. Now I'm to the point where something needs to change. Between carrying 4 sticks and 2 stepps and the bag always seeming to be in the way its time to rethink it. To me the smallest pack I can get away with and the sticks on a strap seem to be the quickest, quietest and fastest through the woods. I'm going to cut down what I pack to just whats needed and stop trying to have a camp out in the tree.

So I'm down to: knife, hand, foot, stick on heat packs, 30' of 550 cord, 1 gallon zip lock bag, grunt call, rattle bag, doe can, water, socks and a small multi tool.

Now I need a smaller pack. I've been eying this one.
https://www.ozarksource.com/maxpedi...MItv_p-bag1wIVSLjACh2MqQ0QEAkYASABEgJplPD_BwE

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...
I have a small sling pack similar to that. The only down side for me is when you have to duck and go through brush. It does not stay put. It always wants to swing and the strap rubs your neck when it does. I am looking at going with a little larger pack and having the 2 shoulder straps.
 
Well my sump pump discharge line was broken and clogged. Which burned up my sump pump. We lost a lot of stuff. Wrecked most of the doors and molding.

_20171103_211227.JPG
Thankfully I got my dad to come up and help so I could get it all done. All new pump, lines and drain tile. Bunch of money and a 17 hour day later my mind can start drifting back to big bucks chasing does.
 
For the bag couldn't you sew on a waste strap to keep it at your side? That was my original thought and the strap would also be how I attach it to the tree.
 
g2outdoors said:
Man that's brutal.

Sent from my Galaxy S8.
Click to expand...

It is what it is. I'm just glad I caught it when I did. When the funds allow in going to plum in another pump and discharge so it can't happen again. The wife is taking it pretty hard.
 
Wife kicked me off the mop at 2:45 and I was told to go hunting. So I thought well I'll do a run and gun because I don't have time to walk to far. Hahaha that was a poor choice. I'm only three sticks up. I had to mutilate a pine tree to get this high. I'm in an intersection of trails in the down wind side of doe bedding. With really thick pines behind me.
 
_20171104_164106.JPG behind me is one faint trail. Hopefully they don't come that way because I stink.

_20171104_164133.JPG
Only one real shooting lane.
_20171104_164233.JPG
This one I screwed up on. It took me over an hour to fight this pine tree. It over grew the back side of my tree. I have a feeling I'll probably get skunked tonight. Live and learn.
 
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