Hey everyone,
I've gleaned so much info from this site over the past year, I feel like I know some of you from reading the banter. I finally joined the forum, and just wanna express my gratitude for the generosity and overall civility of this community--some ego's occasionally but mostly positive and a lot of humble folks.
I've been saddle hunting a year now and have gone through the gamut of gear like many of you trying to cut weight and streamline. I hunt PA of course but became intrigued with saddle hunting after hunting during my yearly backpacking trip in western VA to hunt the GWNF. I kept wanting to get above the laurel to to see more where we knew bucks were cruising but didn't want to haul a stand in addition to a 55# pack where we were camping several miles in. After seeing saddles more on youtube, I took the dive. First year I shot a coyote and a buck in the laurel in VA last year, where I otherwise wouldn't have been able to see him. I was hooked. Since then, its been a love-hate thing with tinkering and trying new methods.
Currently I use an EWO ultimate one-stick with slanted scout and 2 step aider or 3 OG LW sticks or 3 Hawk minis with ultimaider and swaider. I love my Cruzr XC. For platform I like the scout on the 1-stick for short sits and the predator for longer sits or cold weather. I do find adding a couple squirrel steps helps the offside shot.
I still want to try 2TC and SRT.
I did not like or got tired of: cam buckles hitting steps (switched to daisy's), wild edge steps (just couldn't get right easily enough), LW stick stacking (I still use, but wish they stayed together better).
if you read this far, thanks for shortening the learning curve over the last year or so. I'm sure going over the same stuff for us newbs gets tiresome
I've gleaned so much info from this site over the past year, I feel like I know some of you from reading the banter. I finally joined the forum, and just wanna express my gratitude for the generosity and overall civility of this community--some ego's occasionally but mostly positive and a lot of humble folks.
I've been saddle hunting a year now and have gone through the gamut of gear like many of you trying to cut weight and streamline. I hunt PA of course but became intrigued with saddle hunting after hunting during my yearly backpacking trip in western VA to hunt the GWNF. I kept wanting to get above the laurel to to see more where we knew bucks were cruising but didn't want to haul a stand in addition to a 55# pack where we were camping several miles in. After seeing saddles more on youtube, I took the dive. First year I shot a coyote and a buck in the laurel in VA last year, where I otherwise wouldn't have been able to see him. I was hooked. Since then, its been a love-hate thing with tinkering and trying new methods.
Currently I use an EWO ultimate one-stick with slanted scout and 2 step aider or 3 OG LW sticks or 3 Hawk minis with ultimaider and swaider. I love my Cruzr XC. For platform I like the scout on the 1-stick for short sits and the predator for longer sits or cold weather. I do find adding a couple squirrel steps helps the offside shot.
I still want to try 2TC and SRT.
I did not like or got tired of: cam buckles hitting steps (switched to daisy's), wild edge steps (just couldn't get right easily enough), LW stick stacking (I still use, but wish they stayed together better).
if you read this far, thanks for shortening the learning curve over the last year or so. I'm sure going over the same stuff for us newbs gets tiresome
