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API Sticks: to cut or not?

ekelsey15

ekelsey15

Active Member
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
Messages
106
I have a set of API sticks. I was thinking about cutting them down this summer and adding an aider, drilling them out, etc. Would I better off buying an aluminum post and changing out the pieces?
 
If you think you want the packability then cut them.

No need to buy more aluminum, just alter what you have


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Cut em!

Super easy to do n much easier than the helium’s. Especially since they come disassembled in the box. Just cut and drill a hole.

If you wanna drill all the weight reducing holes then that obviously takes some extra effort.

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Do the holes make that much of a difference? I've seen a few posts around that made it sound like it wasn't worth the hassle to drill them.
 
ekelsey15 said:
Do the holes make that much of a difference? I've seen a few posts around that made it sound like it wasn't worth the hassle to drill them.
Click to expand...

3 oz on a 24 inch stick. 3.5 with a deep countersink. I wouldn’t do it without a press


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ekelsey15 said:
Do the holes make that much of a difference? I've seen a few posts around that made it sound like it wasn't worth the hassle to drill them.
Click to expand...

It was worth it to me. Sure it takes some extra time and effort to do. In the long run the time spent making the sticks the way you want will be a drop in the bucket compared to the time you spend hunting with them.


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Mschmeiske said:
What length did you cut them too and How much do those sticks weigh together?
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This is how I do it. Cut exactly at 24”. I weighed them before and posted in a thread but I don’t remember exactly off the top of my head I’ll see if I can find it. I weighed them drilled vs non drilled and against a set of helium’s.

My steps on one stick had a little wobble side to side with weight applied so I took them off and doubled up some duct tape and put it kinda like a washer in the channel that seats around the stick. Seems to be holding up well.



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Poor mans beast stick (Pictorial)

I started on mine today too. Only did one stick to make sure I was happy with it before going too far. Pretty time consuming but I think it's worth it.
saddlehunter.com

A lot of info in this thread.


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API stick weight?

Have a real world weight on unmodified sticks as they come from the factory? Just the stick weight is Fine since I will be doing the rope mod. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
saddlehunter.com

Some more weight info in here.


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Yeah, be certain if the step length you need before you do too much drilling. 22 inch step was great for me until it was 13 degrees and I had thick clothes on. I had enough room to bring my top step down 3/4 inch to make the step a little easier with late season bulk. Just something to think about before you get too permanent


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shwacker said:
Yeah, be certain if the step length you need before you do too much drilling. 22 inch step was great for me until it was 13 degrees and I had thick clothes on. I had enough room to bring my top step down 3/4 inch to make the step a little easier with late season bulk. Just something to think about before you get too permanent


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Click to expand...

Yup, I noticed the same thing. Glad mine are 20" step to step.
 
I have the API sticks. Right now I am leaving them full length. I have an old rifle sling around the ends and carry against my back which seems to work ok. I just cant bring my self to cut up $100 set of climbing sticks, maybe I'm a cheapskate.

Anyway, question for everyone. The sticks stack on each other using the tree grabber piece. The grabber has some electrical tape maybe that allows the sticks to stack tight. One of my sticks electrical tape or whatever it is is screwed up and the one stick doens't sit tight against the next stick. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
 
robertreed711 said:
I cut mine and don't regret it one bit! I went a bit shorter than most and am happy with the results.

Click to expand...

I did mine like this but used the existing middle step hole for the versa button. It's probably a bit too high but I used them 8 times this season in addition to my test runs in the summer without any problems. I'm thinking about making them even shorter and if I do that I'll re-evaluate the distance from top step to button. If I was starting from scratch I'd probably lower it like this though.
 
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