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Tradbows and Saddles - your preferred set up.

I shoot a 62 inch Firefly longbow. What Tom said earlier about shooting vertical is helpful advise. I only have to cant the bow on tight angles. I like my tether tied off as high as I can reach then my bridge about chin height. I feel less restricted when moving around this way.
 
DanielB89 said:
No offense intended here for anyone, but has anyone who has given an opinion here actually harvested a deer with their tradbow in a saddle?
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Both taken last year wearing a Kestrel, Predator platform and Treehopper bolts.
Its very likely I would not have been in the trees I chose if it weren't for that gear.
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DanielB89 said:
AWESOME! I killed a couple with my compound last year out of mine, but that's just not the same.

Mind sharing where their positioning was(clock face) at the time of the shot?

Congrats!
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Thanks.
The doe was @ 9 o'clock (my strong side). The buck was @ 4 o'clock which is not an easy shot for me unless I'm on a platform. Both were double lung shots and went down within sight. Doe went 70 yards, buck went 55 yards.
 
@DanielB89 this will be my first year hunting with traditional archery gear. Honestly I’ve been interested in it for over a decade but put it off because I’m not that great with a compound. Our season comes in in two days. If I haven’t killed a doe by the end of next week it will be 100 percent me falling apart and screwing up the shot and absolutely no fault of my gear, be it saddle or bow. By Saturday morning will be my 9th day in a row of climbing a tree with a bow in my hand and I feel more confident going into this weekend then I ever have. That said I have a long history of falling apart at the shot, rushing shots, and just bad stuff happening. The very first deer I ever drew a bow on the bottom limb broke before I even got to my anchor. That started a five year trend of where if it could go wrong it would. Second shot on deer I hit my pack with the string emptying it and not even coming close to the deer. Third deer was quartering away shooting old style mechanicals and the arrow literally skipped off the deer. Then I got better and my luck got better.
 
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Allegheny Tom said:
And absolutely no offense taken, but I'm curious...
Did you think we were full of crap? :)

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I"m yet to harvest a deer from one from a saddle with a trad bow, but did hunt out of one last year, and I probably have 1000's of arrows shot from a saddle with a trad bow into foam. its the same motions, and muscle memory to me, doesn't matter what I'm shooting at. I believe it was @100rollie who told me to get up the the tree and throw a bunch of tennis balls around and shoot at them and repeat. random distances, random angles. It was the best think I ever did to get comfortable shooting out of a saddle with my trad bow.
 
I am full of crap but have shot my recurve enough off of a ring of steps this week that I see no benefit to switching to a hang on. I try to surround myself with cover and couldn’t shoot 360 out of any of my setups. I haven’t tried the tennis ball approach but one thing about a ring of steps is you can setup a target and work your way around the tree. So I will start with a 12:00 shot and shoot a dozen arrows. All the way around the tree. I’ll shoot two. Move my tether around, rehang my bow and repeat. I can’t change the distance of the target without climbing down. Right now I’m shooting a dozen a day and putting the target in a different place each day.
@Allegheny Tom is the man when it comes to saddles and trad gear. He could probably do well with a slingshot if he wasn’t so hard up against head shots. We can’t agree on everything but I try to take his advice about saddle hunting with trad gear.
@Vtbow knows his stuff too but he hunts deer where they should be listed as endangered. There are several others her that have been successful as well.
 
Vtbow said:
I believe it was @100rollie who told me to get up the the tree and throw a bunch of tennis balls around and shoot at them and repeat. random distances, random angles. It was the best think I ever did to get comfortable shooting out of a saddle with my trad bow.
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Im fortunate that I have several black walnut trees in my yard. Those nuts are slightly smaller than a tennis ball and they make great targets.



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DanielB89 said:
No offense intended here for anyone, but has anyone who has given an opinion here actually harvested a deer with their tradbow in a saddle?
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Oh yea - and there was a post with trad saddle kills posted on this site a while back....Me personally I have killed 3 deer with the trad bow and saddle...2 with tree suit and one with a Guidos...But my actual hunt time with the saddle has been limited and back a few years and I'm just now getting back into it with the flex...I don't really see the issue with the saddle and trad bow, unless you cant your bow a lot - and I cant my bows a little with no problem - I did very little practice shooting with my trad bows using the saddle as it just wasn't an issue for me....

Here's the last one I killed out of the saddle(Guidos with this one) with trad back in 2010....

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EricS said:
I am full of crap but.......
@Allegheny Tom is the man when it comes to saddles and trad gear. He could probably do well with a slingshot if he wasn’t so hard up against head shots. We can’t agree on everything but I try to take his advice about saddle hunting with trad gear.
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Wow, you really are full of crap! LOL.
I ain't the man. I don't make a pimple on the rear end of a lot of guys on this site.
But thanks for the compliment, though.


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I forgot you asked about positioning at the shot - the buck in the pic was in a rut walk and walking from left to right straight in front of me when I saw him. I had to quickly 'swing' to the left to clear the tree and shoot him - best I can remember he was about 20 yards. 60" recurve.

A doe I shot I waited until she was to my left and in front of me at about 10 yards...Using the tree suit on this one...66" longbow...

The other doe I shot I had seen her and several others in the back of a green grassy field the day before....I checked and saw there was some clover mixed in with the grass and that's what the deer were browsing on. I climbed a pine tree right next to the trail they were using to enter the field - the area behind the field was planted in pines - but I could only get about 10 or 12 foot high because the pines were not very big, but I was basically surrounded by branches....Anyway, she was a smart old doe and it took some time for her to get where I could once again 'swing' very slowly to the left so I could shoot her at less than 10 yards....66" longbow..The pic is where she fell - I spined her and she dropped on the spot - you can see in the background the type of trees I was hunting out of...

doetwo2004small.jpg

I'm right handed by the way...All of these I was using a ROS because platforms had not even been considered back then....
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Wow, you really are full of crap! LOL.
I ain't the man. I don't make a pimple on the rear end of a lot of guys on this site.
But thanks for the compliment, though.


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And @Allegheny Tom is humble too :)

I just flail my way through everything. It was throu h the help of other guys in here that got me comfortable.
 
Longbowwally said:
I forgot you asked about positioning at the shot - the buck in the pic was in a rut walk and walking from left to right straight in front of me when I saw him. I had to quickly 'swing' to the left to clear the tree and shoot him - best I can remember he was about 20 yards. 60" recurve.

A doe I shot I waited until she was to my left and in front of me at about 10 yards...Using the tree suit on this one...66" longbow...

The other doe I shot I had seen her and several others in the back of a green grassy field the day before....I checked and saw there was some clover mixed in with the grass and that's what the deer were browsing on. I climbed a pine tree right next to the trail they were using to enter the field - the area behind the field was planted in pines - but I could only get about 10 or 12 foot high because the pines were not very big, but I was basically surrounded by branches....Anyway, she was a smart old doe and it took some time for her to get where I could once again 'swing' very slowly to the left so I could shoot her at less than 10 yards....66" longbow..The pic is where she fell - I spined her and she dropped on the spot - you can see in the background the type of trees I was hunting out of...

View attachment 16461

I'm right handed by the way...All of these I was using a ROS because platforms had not even been considered back then....
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And this dude is totally legit!
I find trad hunters to be less bs-ers than most. After all most non trad hunters expectations of a hunter with a stick and string are pretty low.
 
I can’t remember everyone. Ole @DaveT1963 hunts with trad gear when his physical condition allows. @WHW has killed more deer with trad gear than anyone I know of. He has definitely kept better records than most. He’s relatively new to saddle hunting but could probably give a good perspective on saddles and trad gear.
 
Starting with the Tree Suit, and Trophyline, then Kestrel, and Anderson, I've been fortunate to take a lot of deer with trad gear. I've only shot trad. since the eighties. What has worked for me is a short bridge of 24" or less, and a low tether height. Most of all the large platform of my Assassins. The small platforms or ring of steps never worked for me. BUT it's just a personal thing, there are lots of guys who love both.
As stated above the best thing I do is practice all summer shooting my judos at buckets of golf balls thrown from every direction from the tree. Because of this. I feel confident at every shot I take at a deer out to 30/35 yards will result in another European mount and freezer meat!
 
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