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My saddle Journey

Skunked. I figured I would be. After that scramble I can see why you guys are always trying to cut more and more weight down. Four climbing sticks and two stepps are a pita to carry along with a pack and extra layers. If I'm going to keep fighting pine trees I need to be lighter and quieter.

Anyone carrying their sticks on just a shoulder strap? Pros cons?
 
Root said:
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. View attachment 3148
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. View attachment 3149This 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.
Click to expand...

What are John's and Chris's books?


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PJC said:
What are John's and Chris's books?


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Click to expand...
John and Chris Eberhart. Great books. Loads of info on scouting and prepping areas.
 
John and Chris Eberhart they wrote three books.
 
Precision bow hunting, whitetail access, bow hunting pressured whitetails.

All very good reads.
 
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Root said:
The deer around here are in trouble because I think I might have a deer fever during the work week now. Cough cough....
Click to expand...

This is quite the thread and I love it. Welcome to the world of harness hunting and you'll never look back. If the rest of the bowhunting world only knew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
By the way the 3 books were Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails in 2003, Precision Bowhunting in 2005, and Bowhunting Whitetails the Eberhart Way in 2010. Chris wrote the book Whitetail Access for the Deer & Deer Hunting publishing company and its about a full season of travel hunting and taking 5 P&Y bucks in 5 states with a total cost of $2,300 (less the tags) in 6 weeks.
 
Also did 3 DVD's in 2005 called Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails volumes I, II, and III and there each 2 hours long and have zero kills in them, all instructional.
 
I own the dvds also. It's all great. The best part is, none of it is marketing 40,000 products like the magazines and hunting shows do.

I've taken as much as I can from them. In many ways I feel like I'm brand new to hunting again and I'm having a blast.

I wish I had your experience John when I'm going mobile. I'd like to know what you'd see and set up on. The deer are here, but the other hunters screw up more of what I would think are good spots. I still don't have it figured out on how to get around them.
 
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Are the books and DVDs available on Amazon?


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My whole plan I waited for all week was blown apart last night. 20+ people showed up to hunt /hang stands on the property I was going to get into for the am. The wind was wrong for my other presets. I didn't want to just wander around in the dark on the new place. So I hunted my open topped box stand this morning for the second time this year. I used to look forward to those sits. I felt uncomfortable and exposed.

It's hail mary go for broke bold move time. At most four sits left for bow season. So
for tonight I'm going to sneak / belly crawl the snow to get into position inside doe bedding. If the wind keeps howling I have a chance.
 
_20171110_143511.JPG
Made it. 2 1/2 hours of crawling and setting up. I've seen the big boys come through here many times but I could never hunt it with a normal stand without taking all the cover off the tree
 
Well 17 deer counted. Nothing worthy of a tag that came in range. Nice eight slipped through at sixty yards.
 
Now that I can feel my body again.... That was one cold odd experience. 11 degrees out with a 15+ mph wind. To stay out of the skyline I crawled through the golden rod and brush and pop up every 25 yards and to look and wait. I spent five minutes locked eye to eye with a button buck at twenty yards before I said I'm not shooting you and my pants are starting to seep through. So on I crawled.

I glassed this tree a few weeks back and it appeared to be a easy climb. I lied to myself, the side I needed to climb was a gigantic pricker bush. I saw it about the same time I saw a gray bedded deer 40 ish yards out. So to cut it out of the way I had to lay on my side with my saw and wait for the wind to blow. It ended up being a doe that never came in. I finally get up the tree and pull my bow up. Go to drink a bottle of water out of my pack and it was frozen except for a few drops.

I was in the right spot. But that probably won't happen again until next year!
 
Well today was my last day that I could hunt for bow. This mornings sit was a bust. Wrong wind for the new property so my plan was to do a run and gun to the swamp and attempt another bedding hunt. This was all a great plan but as always I had a customer pull in the driveway unannounced. So I got stuck working on his truck for longer than I should have.

If I can I will always go hunting even if it's in a low chance spot. Since I spend most of my time hunting in pockets around other hunters I'd rather not burn them by running late. With gun season around the corner I'd rather leave no pressure in my better locations if I can't hunt them correctly.

The decision was made to go to a high traffic secondary spot and shoot a doe or a buck if it had more than four points. I have found tag soup to leave a bad taste in my mouth and I've eaten it for the last two years chancing Mr. Big.

Anyways it was 2:45 by the time I made it to my spot and got set up. At 3 I saw this seven point wandering around. I passed on him twice. The third time he walked in and stood at 25 yards the decision was made. Time to get my first deer from the saddle. The good old grim reapers had him down in 40 yards. Not my biggest buck and not one I'd normally shoot. But I'm very proud to say I've taken him in the saddle. _20171112_223505.JPG
 
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My oldest was pumped about using the trailer he helped bring back to life. Even though we haven't finished it yet lol.
 
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