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Anyone gun hunt out of there saddle?

My first saddle hunt was this weekend and I had my 12ga. Worked great. I laid it across the bridge. To pull it up I removed a cartridge from the barrel and tied a rope around the stock.
 
dalton916 said:
Quit watching hunting videos. A saddle is just another stand so grab your damn gun and go climb a tree.

I have a feeling bow hunters are like the guys that bought the Mantis. Once the mantis guys hunted out of it a few times they realized it was awful, but that’s not what they read.....are they the defective 1 in a 1000??? Can’t have folks you don’t even know thinking you suck at saddle hunting so they joined in the fanfare online and suffered in person.

Guys new to hunting want to kill deer. If you’re new and continually not killing deer it sucks. All they’ve seen on tv and YT is bow hunting so they go that route not wanting to be out of the loop. But they don’t kill anything so they adopt phrases like “passed” and “encounter” and “target buck” and “mature” and “a buck I call ______” to justify their lack of success. Inwardly they’re not enjoying themselves.

Finally, the Mantis crowd is provided with a new model and they all pounce “because it’s the new model, gotta try it” while inwardly they’re ecstatic because they’ve been given a socially accepted way out of their suffering. They post their Mantis for sale and as soon as it’s out of their hands you start to see the truth creep in......”never could get comfortable” , “sucked”, “hip pinch”, etc......

Don’t fall into that trap. If you want to kill deer and learn HOW to kill deer in the process then take a gun. The relief of knowing you might actually kill something in itself is liberating. Go do you. If you want to kill a deer then kill a deer. Once you kill a few with a gun it will sink in that it’s not that hard so a bit of the anxiety subsided and you realize you don’t have to shoot it as soon as you see it. You have a gun in your hands, the deer is dead, it’s now just a matter of where it’s going to die. This allows you to spend more time with deer in front of you and that’s where you learn them. And learn yourself.

Now that your wife/husband has renewed faith in your ability to provide if you decide you want to go back to bow hunting then start (gun hunting) setting up with a 30 yd restriction self imposed. Not saying you can’t shoot a deer at 80 yards, but setup to kill the deer at 30 and in. When this gets to be second nature then transition back to the bow.

Even after going back to the bow, every now and then grab your gun and go climb a tree and lay the smack down just to remind the deer, and your spouse, who the damn real boss of the woods is......
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having a bad season??? Whheeewww that was tense
 
@swampdonkey, I’m not anti bow at all. Killed my first deer with the a bow in 1992 and have killed a mountain of them with one since then. That was the second time I ever bow hunted. I was successful at it because I had already killed a few truckloads of deer with a gun before that, starting in 1975.

Admittedly, the states I hunted around here have LONG gun seasons....
 
swampdonkey said:
Long comment to embrace gun hunting and refute current trends.

That being said, 32 years of hunting and I have been MORE successful using a bow than a rifle/shotgun to hunt deer. Id gather the majority would have the same experience.

Most bowhunting seasons are longer, less crowded, less pressured deer, season coincides with the best rut activity, and the weather is more amicable in the early season to spending longer periods in the woods for less experienced hunters. After that you get the late season in which all you have to do to find deer is find the food and the snow will typically tell the story on what food source is hot. Not to mention 90% of hunters have hung it up for the year so you once again get to hunt the deer as they naturally move.

Most of the deer ive shot gun hunting have been pressured by the millions of other orange clad one week a year hunters out there which means throw most traditional hunting strategies out the window and hunt the pressure. Meaning hunt where the pressure is going to put the deer not where the deer would want to be if left to their natural patterns. Thats a recipe for inconsistent success.

Now to answer this guys original question. Ive essentially used my saddle to replace my treestand harness for BOTH bowhunting and gun hunting as it gives me more options in the tree. Meaning, i sometimes hunt off my top stick with my saddle for short hunts, i sometimes bring my platform and hunt a little longer, and I also still hunt out of fixed hang on stands and my LW hand climber WITH my saddle. I find the stands to still be the most comfortable way to hunt and much prefer them to using just a stick or a comparatively tiny platform with a saddle as you have to spend all day putting weight into the thing. That is NEVER comfortable for an all day sit, anyone tells you they were comfortable with their ass/hips crammed into a saddle for 12-14 hours i think is most likely fibbing or theyre 18 yos old with the same mentality i had at that age that caused me to continue playing a high school football game with a broken hand. With a stand or climber you can lean like you would with a traditional saddle set up but when your ass/hips get sick of that you can actually turn around and sit down or just stand on your stand without leaning into the saddle at all. Its the best of both worlds and how i have been doing all day sits the last 2 years.
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I agree with almost all of what you said, but noticed you are in Wisconsin (have hunted there too), and your observation about bow vs gun success is definitely a regional thing. Our gun and muzzleloader seasons are as long or longer than bow and we do not have an orange army that only invades the woods for just a week, like up there. Ours is more of a steady flow of orange and the deer adjust enough that it doesn't ruin the entire rest of the season. That is what @dalton916 is getting at.

At the end of the day, more new hunters should stay and learn at ground level anyway. Stands and saddles are not necessities, just additional tools.
 
dalton916 said:
Quit watching hunting videos. A saddle is just another stand so grab your damn gun and go climb a tree.

I have a feeling bow hunters are like the guys that bought the Mantis. Once the mantis guys hunted out of it a few times they realized it was awful, but that’s not what they read.....are they the defective 1 in a 1000??? Can’t have folks you don’t even know thinking you suck at saddle hunting so they joined in the fanfare online and suffered in person.

Guys new to hunting want to kill deer. If you’re new and continually not killing deer it sucks. All they’ve seen on tv and YT is bow hunting so they go that route not wanting to be out of the loop. But they don’t kill anything so they adopt phrases like “passed” and “encounter” and “target buck” and “mature” and “a buck I call ______” to justify their lack of success. Inwardly they’re not enjoying themselves.

Finally, the Mantis crowd is provided with a new model and they all pounce “because it’s the new model, gotta try it” while inwardly they’re ecstatic because they’ve been given a socially accepted way out of their suffering. They post their Mantis for sale and as soon as it’s out of their hands you start to see the truth creep in......”never could get comfortable” , “sucked”, “hip pinch”, etc......

Don’t fall into that trap. If you want to kill deer and learn HOW to kill deer in the process then take a gun. The relief of knowing you might actually kill something in itself is liberating. Go do you. If you want to kill a deer then kill a deer. Once you kill a few with a gun it will sink in that it’s not that hard so a bit of the anxiety subsided and you realize you don’t have to shoot it as soon as you see it. You have a gun in your hands, the deer is dead, it’s now just a matter of where it’s going to die. This allows you to spend more time with deer in front of you and that’s where you learn them. And learn yourself.

Now that your wife/husband has renewed faith in your ability to provide if you decide you want to go back to bow hunting then start (gun hunting) setting up with a 30 yd restriction self imposed. Not saying you can’t shoot a deer at 80 yards, but setup to kill the deer at 30 and in. When this gets to be second nature then transition back to the bow.

Even after going back to the bow, every now and then grab your gun and go climb a tree and lay the smack down just to remind the deer, and your spouse, who the damn real boss of the woods is......
Click to expand...
We can all agree a gun is easier to shoot accurately and effectively than a bow or crossbow, right?

I'm always confused why people seem to think this be any different if you're in a saddle.
 
mattsteg said:
We can all agree a gun is easier to shoot accurately and effectively than a bow or crossbow, right?

I'm always confused why people seem to think this be any different if you're in a saddle.
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Some people can't freehand shoot. Not that you can't brace on something with a saddle but it's a bit more awkward for weak side shots
 
Shh.....don't tell the gun hunters around here that they would be more successful if they thought like a bowhunter (they'll start killing the big bucks I want). Most let their weapon dictate their hunting style ("my 7 mm rem mag will reach out to 500 yards, so I better go watch this huge field that no decent buck would walk out into during daylight in the middle of firearm season on public land").
 
SNIPERBBB said:
Some people can't freehand shoot. Not that you can't brace on something with a saddle but it's a bit more awkward for weak side shots
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When you say "can't freehand shoot" - can they freehand shoot significantly worse than they can shoot a bow? That seems unlikely.
 
mattsteg said:
When you say "can't freehand shoot" - can they freehand shoot significantly worse than they can shoot a bow? That seems unlikely.
Click to expand...

A bow is easier to shoot offhand because it braces itself (like someone using a rifle sling correctly for offhand shooting so it locks the shooter). Also, the distances are much shorter with a bow so any wobble is less severe in effect. Most people can offhand shoot a rifle well enough at 30 yards to kill deer all day. For example, I can shoot a bow much, much better than I can a pistol offhand (but some of that is down to practice and longer sight radius).
 
raisins said:
A bow is easier to shoot offhand because it braces itself (like someone using a rifle sling correctly for offhand shooting so it locks the shooter). Also, the distances are much shorter with a bow so any wobble is less severe in effect. Most people can offhand shoot a rifle well enough at 30 yards to kill deer all day.
Click to expand...
Right - so you agree that most people are clearly more effective shooting a rifle offhand than a bow.

It's not like deer detect your rifle and automatically stay further away.
 
mattsteg said:
Right - so you agree that most people are clearly more effective shooting a rifle offhand than a bow.

It's not like deer detect your rifle and automatically stay further away.
Click to expand...

Yep, lol....I misunderstood you. Need more coffee.

Can't wait to get in my saddle right near some doe bedding with my new MP15 loaded with heavy for caliber soft points. Should make a mess at 60 yards.....
 
This is a weird thread..sorry guys.

If you can't hit a paper plate standing still offhand at 100yrds with a rifle open sites or scope doesn't matter...you have no business being in the woods. Other than that, use whatever tool in a saddle, stand, blind, on the ground that is legal and works for you.
 
Yeah keyboard deer slayers had to put there expert advice in and derail from the OP question... @Vtbow
 
To address the OP- yes it can be done, I think easier than shooting a bow.

Folks definitely forget, or simply don’t know, the regional differences around the country. Here in the South, you have a typical firearm season from Oct-Jan/Feb.. Some parts of SC, gun season opens in Aug/Sept. And these seasons were “typically” originally firearm seasons, so in recent times it’s been changed to usually archery only, muzzleloader, then gun.

A one week firearm season, or late muzzleloader season, is as foreign to me as a 3-4month firearm season would be to some of y’all..

It also seems, in some cases, the bow hunters in most of the “restricted” or short season states, never gun hunt, whether that’s due to a correlation with those states also being stricter on guns in general, or the individual not being a gun owner.. You want to see some “elitist” mentality? Go on over to the “big archery forum”.. some of the folks there get downright prickish about bow vs gun..


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