The only tree in my yard is a huge oak tree that is not a climber. I can climb on my flat roof to practice shooting at a downward angle, but I don't have a way to practice shooting from a saddle. I got to thinking about old telephone poles and putting one of those in the yard to climb for practice and I think that will work. Anyone ever do something like that? I'm wondering how deep I need to sink it to be solid and area of concrete to use.
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Climbing and shooting from saddle practice
- Thread starter TexasCountyMo
- Start date
Check with your local electric company on depth they place those poles. Bear in mind for your purposes the pole wouldn't need to be as long as most typical electrical installations and they will have a guy wire holding reverse tension on the pole. Probably an auger dug 4 foot hole for 25 foot pole should be fine if compacted properly.
Can you get a rope over a branch of that oak tree? if you can get it close enough to the trunk so you can put your feet on the tree or your platform that should let you practice. You don't have to get 15' up to get a feel for shooting from the saddle.
Unfortunately no. The lowest branch is about 20' from the ground and there's a treehouse too. Love the tree, just too big to climb.
Get one of those heavy yellow ratchet straps that will fit around the big tree and put a big oval screw link in it at the right height and then hook your tether to that.
How deep will depend on two things, 1- what class pole is it? (That will tell you the diameter of the pole at its largest point.
2- how tall are you wanting the pole to be for your climb and practice. When we set them in the field it’s 10% of the pole length plus 2’ so if you decide to purchase a 25-30’ pole it’ll need to be 5’ in the ground. 20’ would be 4’. If you dig the hole to a tight- ish variance, dig it deep enough and then tamp the soil with a 2x4 as you back fill the hole, you’ll never need concrete. We never concrete them in because concrete will trap moisture and cause the pole to rot out. If you go with an old utility pole be sure it’s CCA and not the old creosote kind. Also check with surrounding utilities (they often will sell old poles they’ve replaced at discounted rates.
I practice shooting from every kind of tree imaginable at every height possible. When I’m hunting I want to choose the perfect location, not the perfect tree. For practice I often seek out the most difficult and oddball trees so that I get good at working with adversity.
there must be a way you can easily get set up for practice in your one and only tree.
For me the limiting factor is being in a location where the strap for My platform will reach all the way around the trunk. During this offseason I plan to find a much longer strap.
what kind of climbing method(s) are you using?
there must be a way you can easily get set up for practice in your one and only tree.
For me the limiting factor is being in a location where the strap for My platform will reach all the way around the trunk. During this offseason I plan to find a much longer strap.
what kind of climbing method(s) are you using?
Attachments
This^^^ if you can get a platform or single stick attached to get off the ground, it’s as high as you need. Surely you can get a rope around the tree (unless it’s a monster)to use as a tether and hang from your bridge. I do like the pole idea , it seems a little overkill though