• 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

Do you wear your leg straps

Leg straps or no leg straps

  • Yes

    Votes: 88 75.9%

  • No

    Votes: 28 24.1%
  • Total voters
    116
Chandler96

Chandler96

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2019
Messages
584
Location
Otsego, MI
I'm catching a lot of heat for not wearing my leg straps in 5 years. :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: What option do you prefer?

EDIT: I am in no way telling you what to do when it comes to your own safety. You have to do whatever you have to do to feel safe.
 
Last edited:
My used Recon didn't come with leg straps, being able to separate the two panels offers a pretty secure feeling for everything I've done in it including 2TC. Legs straps would probably help with the bottom panel riding up but I haven't decided how I would want to route them yet

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 
gcr0003 said:
Leg straps.

I don’t care if one chooses to not wear leg straps but one shouldn’t go around and tell others it’s safe, safer, or doesn’t matter etc. especially when there is no test data to support such a claim.
Click to expand...
what data and testing is done to say that leg straps are safe and needed? Some saddle companies attached their straps with a g-hook or plastic clip you feed your straps through. you know those aren't holding up someone.
 
Well I'd like to, because if your ass slips off the shelf your armpits don't hold nearly as well as you'd think.

Unfortunately Latitude equips Method 2 with purely cosmetic leg straps. The buckles slip, the gates aren't even mushroomed to stay in place, just bent wire. (just lost the gate from one of the hooks). Have to DIY something on there, I don't see why they even need to be openable/removeable as long as there's adjustment. Their response paraphrased: oops, we can send you more useless garbage when we have some in stock.

Pisses me off because the saddle is othervise quite good but I hate to have supported such ignorant ******* company.
 
Chandler96 said:
what data and testing is done to say that leg straps are safe and needed? Some saddle companies attached their straps with a g-hook or plastic clip you feed your straps through. you know those aren't holding up someone.
Click to expand...
Not sure about any data. But every full body safety harness tested to TMA standards has load bearing leg straps. And every rock climbing harness I have seen has leg straps.
I had a stick unattach from the tree. A vertical fall. Unbelievable how quick it happened. Good thing I was only two steps off the ground. I use load bearing leg straps and once I am on my first stick I am climbing with my linesman and tether attached.Screenshot_20231010_143407_Gallery.jpg
 
GeoFish said:
Not sure about any data. But every full body safety harness tested to TMA standards has load bearing leg straps. And every rock climbing harness I have seen has leg straps.
I had a stick unattach from the tree. A vertical fall. Unbelievable how quick it happened. Good thing I was only two steps off the ground. I use load bearing leg straps and once I am on my first stick I am climbing with my linesman and tether attached.View attachment 93388
Click to expand...
yes, but most saddles do not. I'm only referring to saddle hunting in this poll.
 
Chandler96 said:
what data and testing is done to say that leg straps are safe and needed? Some saddle companies attached their straps with a g-hook or plastic clip you feed your straps through. you know those aren't holding up someone.
Click to expand...
If you take a fall on a harness, leg straps take majority of the load in most cases. Without leg straps the waist belt would stop at your ribs or not at all.

What saves saddles from being completely dangerous is the bottom edge of the panel sits under your butt so even if the leg straps hold the bottom edge in contact and low enough, it's likely your weight will end up on the bottom edge of the panel.

I notice while onesticking and hanging to lift the stick, sometimes if I straddle a big tree my legs start to push the panel back and I start to creep over the edge of the panel. Very uncomfortable feeling without functioning leg straps. I'm planning to gut a rock climbing harness and apply the leg straps on the harness, just need to find some with quiet enough material. As a bonus this gives me a belay loop for more efficient SRT climbing.
 
samu said:
If you take a fall on a harness, leg straps take majority of the load in most cases. Without leg straps the waist belt would stop at your ribs or not at all.

What saves saddles from being completely dangerous is the bottom edge of the panel sits under your butt so even if the leg straps hold the bottom edge in contact and low enough, it's likely your weight will end up on the bottom edge of the panel.

I notice while onesticking and hanging to lift the stick, sometimes if I straddle a big tree my legs start to push the panel back and I start to creep over the edge of the panel. Very uncomfortable feeling without functioning leg straps. I'm planning to gut a rock climbing harness and apply the leg straps on the harness, just need to find some with quiet enough material. As a bonus this gives me a belay loop for more efficient SRT climbing.
Click to expand...
Your waist belt shouldn't move. The bridge being connected to the bottom and top of the panel is what keeps it on your butt. not the leg straps.
 
I strap up. Can’t prove they help but I can’t believe they don’t. If I fall I don’t want a waist belt bending my back in a way it ain’t s’posed-ta. Every “real” harness or saddle I’ve ever seen has load-bearing leg straps as was mentioned, and often much beefier than the ones on our saddles. My Kestrel has really nice straps and raptor buckles. I’m not saying I’d be super safe if I fell into them and they had to do all the work, but combined with the waist belt it stands to reason that the three straps together really make it all work. And I agree with @gcr0003 that you can do you, but don’t give that info out as advice (I don’t think that’s what @Chandler96 is doing in this thread for what it’s worth). I watched certain OG saddlehunter do a video on his custom tree prep belt…it’s literally just that, a belt. He tells everyone to go get one made by his Amish friend but it’s really a quick recipe for a back-breaking episode of his outdoor channel. Stick to hunting and scent control, don’t give safety tips and gear how-to’s. And he uses a two-panel, but he’s been telling people to cut the leg straps off their saddles for a long time, starting with the original AH stuff right on to his own namesake saddle from another company, advising people that leg straps are unnecessary. They might be if they’re crappy, but isn’t crap better than dead or paralyzed?
 
Chandler96 said:
Most don't come with them. i do have one with proper buckles and still don't wear them. Why would companies sell a saddle without proper buckles if they're needed?
Click to expand...
This is an important question. I find myself looking on a lot of “saddle” sites and thinking, “how can they get away with selling that?” It’s almost more like the Wild West now in this industry than it was when people were sewing their own sit-drags and sawing off lone wolf seats for Klemz platforms.
 
Plebe said:
So get a saddle with proper buckles then.
Click to expand...
Proper buckles don't help much if the other end of the strap isn't attached to hold any significant load though.
Chandler96 said:
Your waist belt shouldn't move. The bridge being connected to the bottom and top of the panel is what keeps it on your butt. not the leg straps.
Click to expand...
In nomal hang the waist belt doesn't move. If you are standing eg on a stick and the stick fails, you're falling upright and the waist belt will absolutely be yanked upwards, even biggest beer gut is quite soft in that regard. Ribcage is where it can possibly cinch up, next stop will be ground unless your jacket bunches up in a lucky streak.

It might be just Method 2 where leg straps are stitched to bottom panel. On single panel I think there might actually be more load on the straps when hanging to retrieve a stick.

One thing I find disturbing is the companies don't provide the tested MBS of the saddle parts, just some user weight limit without explanation
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top