Sally showed up at my doorstep yesterday so we hung out for a bit. . .
To be honest if I didn't already know that she was diy project you could have passed her off as a commercially made saddle and I wouldn't have doubted it. Very nice craftsmanship throughout, kudos
@always89y!
So after easily passing my initial safety inspection and hang at ground level to warm up and get to know her, it was time to put her to work. I dressed her up with my gear just as if I was going hunting and took her to my practice platform 22' up for some real world testing. She performed flawlessly during my shooting and I found her very comfortable while leaning and sitting. She stayed in place the entire time too, I didn't have to reposition her once. I rappelled a few times and one stick climbed a couple of trees and was impressed at how comfortable the design really is. If Sally was ever orphaned I would welcome her to my home with open arms.
I have no legitimate complaints about the saddle but there are things I will change to better suit me when I get around to cloning this clone. I have little use for the comfort channels on the bridge loops. They did change the pressure on the straps a bit but the saddle is so comfortable I would never move the bridge once I found my sweet spot so I will not add them to my clone. My pet peeve is tight molle loops and unfortunately for me all of my current saddles have them too. I prefer "loose" loops that allow me to place and remove biners easily while I'm leaning or sitting. I've also grown accustomed to running two bridges on my saddles which to me makes the adjustable length bridge seem like a gimmick. I'm not one who needs infinite adjust-ability in my gear, once I find what I like it's pretty much set for life. While I was in the tree I did run into an issue with the prussic coming into contact with my tether biner stopping my rotation due to the bridge being adjusted too short. No big deal during practice time but had that happened while Mr. Big came in. . . Yeah, I like the K.I.S.S approach, short bridge for rappelling, longer for hunting and besides I'm not a fan of having to manage that excess length of tether. I'm 5'10" and 165#'s so the bridge loops were too long for me which probably accounted for the biner/prussic interference and I had the belt adjusted as small as it could go and it still wasn't tight enough to keep the saddle from slowly sliding down while walking around but it was fine while hanging. I would need to order a smaller sized Sally. . .
Overall, if I purchased this saddle sight unseen would I be happy with the product, hell yeah! It's a great saddle that's well made and has a lot of nice features, some I like and some I would change which is the nature of us saddlehunters, to modify and personalize equipment to what works best for each of us.
Thanks
@always89y for giving me/us the opportunity to spend time with Sally. You did a great job with her and I look forward to your next creation!
Unless otherwise instructed, I will reach out to the next in line (rakbowhunter) and send her out by Thursday the latest.