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New guy here

C

capttrae

New Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2014
Messages
2
Mornin y'all, I've been hearing about tree saddles on Archery Talk for the last year or so, which has got me to thinkin that it might be a good idea, I mainly bowhunt, and am looking for a way to be more mobile, so that's what led me here. Few questions.
1) how does a tree saddle work?
2) is it safe? I've always hunted out of climbers
I've got some ideas about how to climb a tree w/o my climber but I want to run it by y'all. I was thinking about getting a linemans belt (never used one) some tree spikes that you strap on (never used them either) having my saddle on as I climb the tree, when I get to where I want to get, attach the saddle to the tree, get my bow hanger put in pull my stuff up and go from there. Am I on the more or less right track? Also I've heard about some ppl haveing difficulty you know answering the call when wearing a tree saddle?
Thanks any information.


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Welcome to the site!

For starters the company that made tree saddles, trophyline, is out of business. The 2 companies that are currently making hunting saddles are guido's web and New Tribe. New Tribe has just released a new version of their saddle that came out last year, the Aero Hunter Evolution. A lot of people, myself included, are really excited about this saddle. Mine is coming next week and I can't wait to try it out. I have never used a guido's web, but from what I hear they are very comfortable, but very bulky. I think they are about double the weight of a tree saddle.

A saddle works by hugging around your hips and butt. You have a line, called the tree strap, which you hook around the tree above your head and attach to a "rope bridge" on your saddle. The result is once attached you hang off the tree and stand on some sort of platform or tree steps. Check out this video here by Boswell, you can get a visual on what I am talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8fCh1kN5P8#t=20 The saddle is light compared to a tree stand and gives you the ability to shoot 360 degrees around the tree. It can be used to be light and mobile, a lot of people use a set of lone wolf climbing sticks for this purpose, some use cranford rope steps.

As far as safety, my personal opinion is that there is no safer hunting system. When I am set up and hunting I am in contact with the tree 100% of the time through the tree strap. You would really have to try to fall out of a saddle in order to fall out. If I use my lineman's belt going up and down I am always attached to the tree. I feel safer in a saddle because of that tight connection to the tree. On the few instances that I have hunted out of a hang on in the past few years I actually have to catch myself from falling a couple times as I lean out. Maybe that is because I am used to my saddle.

I would suggest using either pre set trees with tree steps or using the lone wolf sticks if you want to be mobile as opposed to the tree spikes that you strap on. I have not heard anyone with good things to say about them...

Answering natures call... #1- No problem. I have a pee bottle and use it all the time. #2 I gotta get out of the tree but I would do the same in any stand.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any more information. Hope you decide to get a saddle :cool:
 
A tip I've used for answering the call is using a zip lock freezer bag with about 3 or 4 handfuls of unscented clumping kitty litter.


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fawnzy said:
A tip I've used for answering the call is using a zip lock freezer bag with about 3 or 4 handfuls of unscented clumping kitty litter.


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Click to expand...

Kitty litter is a good idea. I guess it would add some weight though. I use ziplock bags all the time too if I am not using a bottle. I always double up on bags.... it is not fun when your bag breaks and you get back to the truck with a wet bag... :oops:
 
The kitty litter works well. Sometimes it's good for two rounds. It's semi solid and seems to support the bag fairly well.


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fawnzy said:
The kitty litter works well. Sometimes it's good for two rounds. It's semi solid and seems to support the bag fairly well.


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Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks for the tip :cool:
 
capttrae said:
Mornin y'all, I've been hearing about tree saddles on Archery Talk for the last year or so, which has got me to thinkin that it might be a good idea, I mainly bowhunt, and am looking for a way to be more mobile, so that's what led me here. Few questions.
1) how does a tree saddle work?
2) is it safe? I've always hunted out of climbers
I've got some ideas about how to climb a tree w/o my climber but I want to run it by y'all. I was thinking about getting a linemans belt (never used one) some tree spikes that you strap on (never used them either) having my saddle on as I climb the tree, when I get to where I want to get, attach the saddle to the tree, get my bow hanger put in pull my stuff up and go from there. Am I on the more or less right track? Also I've heard about some ppl haveing difficulty you know answering the call when wearing a tree saddle?
Thanks any information.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Hey Capttrae,

1) The guys below already answered it.
2) Very safe - the only stand I've actually fallen asleep in and woke up to shoot a deer in. Out of all the stands I've owned or been in, it's the safest by a long margin.

AFA your question about a climber for the saddle, I made one using my LW Handclimber seat as the foot base and used it for a season. If you're curious as to all the components, I could break it down for you, but it really wasn't overly complicated.

It DID have some issues; the main one being that without some pressure on the seat, it wanted to take off down the tree as it just didn't have enough mass to hang out on it's own. Another problem was that you were pretty much locked into that side of the tree, and shooting around the tree from that vantage as you couldn't put any side/side force on the platform to swing around the tree. Another thing was that while vertical climbing wasn't TOO hard, you had to essentially push off the tree to get enough room to tip the platform to climb with it. A minor thing, but still stuff you had to figure out on the tree as you were going up.

In the end, I found the LW steps to be the best option for me. I could still get up to a decent height, and the weight penalty was offset by safety/ease of use on trees I wanted to be in.

As for nature - I go at the truck before going in, and if I haven't seen deer in 3-4hrs, I'm down the tree and moving to a new spot (which is a great time to go again if duty requires).
 
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