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Another first saddle buck

sureshot

Active Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2020
Messages
125
Another new saddle hunter here. Thanks for all the info. I've been hunting the same public land for 19 years now. It's got some steep hills and I'm over a mile back. I switched from a hand climber to a saddle this year. Started watching THP this spring and finally saw a saddle in action. I'd read a little about them before, but didn't know what it was all about. I bought a Tethrd, so they got at least one customer from THP... Then I found this site, and my mind was blown with how much innovation you guys have been doing. I got my Hawk sticks, cut them down, made my knaider/swaider and started practicing. I also ordered rope and parts for an SRT set up. One hunt with the sticks, and I realized they were a pain to haul and set up. Then I put together the 2 tether set up. One hunt with that, and I realized all my trees are bendy, shaggy bark, and the 2 tether set up is also a lot of sweaty work for my trees. I've gone full SRT now and made a few presets after a morning hunt. I found that in the real woods, it's not as hard as the little creek bottom area behind my house because you have room to stand back away from the tree a little. I'm also rocking my sewn loop strap for holding all my gear, kydex bow and quiver hanger, and countless other ideas I got from here. I don't know how I ever bowhunted without them in the past.

Anyway, I had this guy on Halloween corralling a doe and running other bucks off by me for 4 hours, but never got closer than 45 yards. I had to sneak out to get home for trick or treating. I saw him again on Nov 7. I gave a few doe bleats, which I don't think he heard, so I gave him a grunt. He eventually worked his way to me, tearing up scrapes and thrashing trees along the way. I shot him at 30 yards and watched him fall over at about 100 yards. I carted 2 bucks out of this spot last year, and decided I had to do something different. I used my saddle gear and hoisted him up a tree, skinned him, quartered him, and packed him out. It still sucked, but not as bad. I did my version of the gutless method - the elevated gutless method. Next time, I just need to pick a little higher branches so his head is all the way off the ground.

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Congratulations, nice buck, great success story now my envy is heating up LOL
 
Very nice buck, Congrats! Good write up, thanks for sharing the story too. I like the use of the climbing gear to hang for quartering.

FWIW I carry a small climbing redirect pulley with me. I hunt alone a lot and if I shoot one way back in later in the evening I figure I can combine that with a carabiner and my rappel rope to hoist him off the ground for the night so I can come back in the morning and transport him out in the daylight without worrying about the yotes decimating him.
 
One more tip if it's not apparent to some - I attached a carabiner to the top of each rope mount. Originally I was just lifting the rope up to hoist the deer with the ropeman, but it got too hard to get him higher up. I added the carabiners up top and ran the rope through them which allowed me to pull down on the rope to hoist him up easier.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
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