• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Who Wants Nothing To Do With One Sticking?

That fella with the broken stands has had the worst luck of any person I have ever heard about. As far as portables I started with a baker, then a warren & sweat rifleman, osage then jumped to a API grand slam supreme. That stand had a great bite but some noise issues. Then went to a summit bow version climber, about 20 yrs ago. Its aluminum & 18lbs not counting the harness! I will say that stand is tricky on hard rock maple. Never had a failure on any stand yet, thankfully.
I'm sorta do what 2sloe does. I like to get to my location minimum of 1 hr before you can see shapes on the ground, not shooting light. Though its gonna be my 1st saddle season, the procedure will be the same. I always wear the thinnest base layer I can get away with and no hat. I normally sweat up quick so I like to take my time. I have found that having everything quiet @ least 45-1/2 hr before light allows you the hear what's going on. I have found I see way more deer too. As it gets colder I bought a heater body suit pack and have all that heavy wt clothing rolled up in there. I climb up into my stand and put it all on. For saddle hunting I guess I'll have to do it on the ground or do a DIY heater body bag of some type that I can get into while in a saddle @ hunting height. By the time I get to site your pretty cold so a climb up should break even and u are be warmed up enough. I really won't know till I test it out before hunting season. With that said, I have had LW sticks for 13 yrs and put muddy double steps across the tops of each. Added wt but like not stressing my knees. Now that I'll be 1 sticking I'll lose all that gear and presets. I just weighted my set up. 7.02 lbs with out the XL platform which is in route. They say 4 lbs. So we are talking 11 verses 21 on the climber. I'll take that any day over a wide climber and not having to preset stands for sticks too. LW claims their 3 stick set up is 7.5 pounds. Not after you quiet them down add a bungee to hold them tight etc, I'll just try out the 1 stick setup and see how she goes. My Sh1kar w/ double steps and a Schaefer cam will work for me. BTW the cam cleat on a 1" hollow tube verses a solid aluminum bar stock is WAY quieter if the grab the rope and just pull. That hollow tube is loud!
 
Ok I have a question for us repel folks. Other than having a prussic back up in your biner above your MR safeguard @ hunting height in case of failure, what other back up can you use as you repel down?
I'm using Sterling 9mm Canyon C-IV rope. I don't have my platform yet but did some repel tests in the yard trying to figure an easy way to grip the safeguard lever and grasp the prussic @ the same time. I have an idea but I won't discuss it yet... I would like to have a back up on the repel in case of a mechanical failure cause if you can think of it, $hit will happen.
 
I personally use canyon as well and I back up with a Beal jammy in an autoblock Prusik. I can open the madrock all the way and nothing happens until I touch the Beal jammy. Nice and smooth.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Swampdonkey, I never had a LW climber as I did not like their strap method in case your lower platform dropped. I had that happen a few times w/ my Summit but I always checked my rope every time I went above and the factory rope was really short, so I did a longer rope, ditched the boot straps but kept the boot bungee. I felt it was a huge trip hazard. My boots on the max rope length could easily slip between the diagonal bar that holds the swaged cable.
What was really interesting was the comment that LW made about the small tree stress. I knew there was a tree dia spec on all stands, but it never occurred to me that the stress fatigue weakened that aluminum casting at the bolt points.. That why we have structural engineers.. I'll bet LW does not do a passive Xray of the casting to check for voids because the casting method is so good. I have an alpha from 2005ish and luv it but that point you made was great.
 
crcusmonky,
OK I see this knot. So your saying this prussic will just slide along above your MR and it instantly grabs in a failure which I understand but how does it work with one hand on the lever and the other hand on the rope tail ???
I'm confused here.. I don't want to trust only the MR as I repel down..

1616856406342.png,
 
No really the Prusik or backup is below madrock. I hook my autoblock to my lineman’s loop on my right side, I’m right handed. I always keep the autoblock under a little tension . If the madrock fails you may not notice since the autoblock is ready to take load. You can try it at the ground. Hook up madrock like normal, attach autoblock to lineman’s belt, then open lever on madrock. You shouldn’t move. Then slide you hand on top of autoblock to move.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have some sterling 6mm TRC, I'll try it, THANKS
CrcusMonky,
The attached is the old way I did it.. Yep, What you said worked perfect even with slack. I just placed an order with EWO yesterday.... damn it... I needed 4' of 6mm TRC not 3.5' like I used in the test.
3.5' works but just not perfect to do the 5 wraps with double loops and double fisherman knots.
If I got a beal jammy which length did you get 50 or 60CM??
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0230.jpg
    IMG_0230.jpg
    343.9 KB · Views: 64
Last edited:
I used a 35cm. I can take pic later perhaps. And it’s no wrinkle for me, I am just saying what I do, which was also demonstrated in stags in the wild rappelling video. Just like I use and autoblock but by no means is that the only appropriate knot. I use the autoblock below for the ease of rappelling. The autoblock above would certainly prevent fall if there was a failure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
bowhuntr09 said:
I always carry my SRT gear as well as my one stick. The methods are light enough that I can easily carry both and have options no matter the tree I pick.
Click to expand...

I’ll be doing this in the upcoming season as well. I went in blind a couple of times with only a single stick as I had no presets there for SRT. I kicked myself later as twice I found the perfect tree in the perfect spot. They were both giant oaks that I could not climb with a stick. Not however had limbs I could have easily thrown a throw ball over even in the dark and then climbed SRT.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
bowhunter09,
Yes I read that but I believe the reason is for a person below a climber feeding the rope out and in the event of that climber falling to the last anchor point catches and the person below gets yanked off their feet some as the dynamic rope stretches and the rope slips some in the belayers hand as they hold fast w/brake hand or If you had a beal jammy in use in this situation on the brake side the MR would/could be damaged and fail. The madrock is designed for dynamic rope per the website but the instructions just say rope.
The backup prusik in our case is only backing up a catastrophic MR failure. Not sure it really applies in our repel situation or am I missing something? If you release the braking lever completely in a drop test with static rope w/some serious slack I could see where it could damage the device. I don't condone anything that is not to spec but I'm gonna cover my $ss in a fall. In my pic the prusik was above the MR and not on the brake side.

EDIT: I looked again @ madrocks website and they have removed the word dynamic rope and only state rope and also state For rescue / rigging use: 8.1mm to 11mm rope diameter, For climbing use: 8.9mm to 11mm rope diameter.
On the Data sheet provided with the device it only states 8.9-11mm w/ a pic of rope.. but goes on to say " the safeguard is designed to use the dynamic belay system and requires the rope to slide through the device to absorb the shock".
 
Last edited:
luckylakes said:
bowhunter09,
Yes I read that but I believe the reason is for a person below a climber feeding the rope out and in the event of that climber falling to the last anchor point catches and the person below gets yanked off their feet some as the dynamic rope stretches and the rope slips some in the belayers hand as they hold fast w/brake hand or If you had a beal jammy in use in this situation on the brake side the MR would/could be damaged and fail. The madrock is designed for dynamic rope per the website but the instructions just say rope.
The backup prusik in our case is only backing up a catastrophic MR failure. Not sure it really applies in our repel situation or am I missing something? If you release the braking lever completely in a drop test with static rope w/some serious slack I could see where it could damage the device. I don't condone anything that is not to spec but I'm gonna cover my $ss in a fall. In my pic the prusik was above the MR and not on the brake side.
Click to expand...
Did you ever have that prusik above lock up where you could not release it? I have. That prusik can carry your full weight with none on the MR and then you have to climb up to release it. If you do, I hope you didn't throw your one stick to the ground, or you may be in trouble until you can figure out how to climb up. You might need a backup ascender. A Ropeman and foot strap would work. Edit: I just forgot what I did once. Reach down for the rope below you and tie a figure eight at foot level. Stand on that to unweight your prusik and get it loose.
 
luckylakes said:
I read everyone's post's.
I'm almost 66, 6', 200lbs, in decent shape.. and 1st yr saddle hunter. I was running our roof @ age 3 and climbing trees. Was I ever scared, never. Should I have been, maybe. I would never advise or condone this but quite frankly I have used a set of 3ea LW set of sticks for 13 yrs. and rarely used the linesman rope on my 20yr old ole summit harness while climbing except to hang a stand or step onto a fixed stand wrapping that ole prussic tether around a tree 1st. I was never worried. During the past 6 yrs I did buy some muddy double steps and DIY them to the top of each stick to be less stress on the knees while hanging the next stick or stand. I did pass out once after finish setting a stand about 15 yrs ago w/o a any harness but that will be a different post.
I have only climbed a tree once with a borrowed phantom with ropemans on the lineman, tether and set up a predator XL in less that 10 min. @ 20 ' w/ zero direction other to show me a 1 minute how to adjust the harness. It was so 2nd nature and easy to get to climbing height I was dumbfounded. After that initial setup w/months of research later I ordered recon's for my young neighbor and myself. Friday I got my repel gear from EWO. Neighbor is using a LW 3 stick set up. I'm going to repel right outa the gate. I have zero apprehension about 1 sticking. I'm done dragging stands, bulky sticks setting them all up just to tear them all down @ season's end on public.
I agree with Kyler1945 & J_D views. For me on state land it all comes down to stealth against other hunters and deer, weight, ease of set up, keeping a narrow profile as possible trying not to touch any vegetation, getting in & out as quiet as possible. I'm going from 3 LW's to a single Sh1kar 1 stick w/cam cleat, double steps and a 2 step aider. Plan to order an EDP or a XL as soon as I test a couple things. I have total confidence as a seasoned hunter/outdoorsman, my style and abilities to 1 stick. I have carried those LW sticks or my Summit climber on public many many yrs. Saddle hunting and what ever method you choose to climb gives ya an edge to see more.. are there issues, yes, can you overcome them, depends personally.
Since 1988 when I started deer hunting and climbing trees with a baker in FL I never had to climb down a tree to take a #2 but have used a pee bottle tons of times. I'm certainly not going to eat bacon, sausage, or ham 1st thing but usually will have a coffee and then something light and bring trail mix, jerky etc for the remaining day. I know my gut..
Now its gonna be lots of practice with bow and pistol long before I ever hunt..
I
Click to expand...
This is my first year in a saddle too and have almost the same set up….Sh1kar, recon, and EWO squirrel steps for a ring of steps in addition to the monarch. Have you practiced much or hunted of your set up yet? The teeth on my Sh1kar make a lot of noise digging into the tree as I shift weight. They are like razor blades, and I’m wondering if filing them down might help.
 
Chopper070 said:
This is my first year in a saddle too and have almost the same set up….Sh1kar, recon, and EWO squirrel steps for a ring of steps in addition to the monarch. Have you practiced much or hunted of your set up yet? The teeth on my Sh1kar make a lot of noise digging into the tree as I shift weight. They are like razor blades, and I’m wondering if filing them down might help.
Click to expand...

no way i'd use sticks with really sharp edges, too easy to cut yourself, an expensive jacket, or your bow string

i've only had a hawk helium kick once when i tried to climb a stupidly thick tree with shaggy bark...my fault, and the hawks aren't sharp

i'd get a little stone and chamfer the edges
 
Everyone had their preference and as a community of like minded gents there’s no way any of us can put down anyone’s method of getting up a tree. Me personally I just started one sticking and I’ll never look back. I take forever with sticks and fiddling with aiders. I built my own stick bought all my ropes and in half the time I can get up AND down the tree. Everyone’s different and everyone’s agility is going to dictate what they can and can’t do. I seriously think one sticking is easier. (I have a beat to crap body from years of motocross) so that said I really think anyone who wants to do it can do it
 
Good on you boys doing 1 stick. I've been saddle hunting since 2016, started out by replacing my tree spider safety harness with a rock climbing harness while using LW sticks and assault platform. Graduated to stepping off the platform to shoot around the tree. Then tried ROS with sticks, then replaced sticks with stepps and then tried LWHC and tether a few times until settling on predator platform and SRT before 1 stick was a thing.

Very content with SRT and not looking back. SRT is very safe, especially compared to these other methods where you are introducing slack into the attachment system as part of the process. Climbing trees via any method has risks but my take is if arborists aren't doing it to climb trees for a living then neither am l. The other thing is everything I need fits in my backpack, so relatively easy to navigate through the woods and swamps. My carry weight will be a few pounds heavier than what I'm seeing here with 1-stick system, but to me the safety factor and relative ease of SRT with 3/1 mechanical advantage is well worth it. With sufficient practice setting the climbing line or a preset paracord with throw ball is a minor inconvenience. When actually hunting I'm going to presets 99% of the time anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top