• 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

Climbing big trees

spiker34

spiker34

New Member
Joined
May 25, 2020
Messages
36
So I haven’t been really impressed with the size of trees I can get into with stock straps on my hawk sticks and predator platform. Curious as to what others use to get into those bigger trunked trees that will obviously hide you a lot better. Also, had the idea of looping a daisy chain through the loop at the end of my strap and basically doubling the length of it pretty easily with minimal extra weight. Any thoughts on doing that? Thanks in advance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Big trees are a pain to climb with sticks. You’ll spend a lot of energy getting the ropes around.
Have you looked into DRT for big trees? Pretty slick and fun way to get up and down. I have some big trees prepped for DRT with paracord.
Look up NY Saddle Hunter on YouTube if you haven’t already. They have a bunch of good videos on how to climb this way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
spiker34 said:
So I haven’t been really impressed with the size of trees I can get into with stock straps on my hawk sticks and predator platform. Curious as to what others use to get into those bigger trunked trees that will obviously hide you a lot better. Also, had the idea of looping a daisy chain through the loop at the end of my strap and basically doubling the length of it pretty easily with minimal extra weight. Any thoughts on doing that? Thanks in advance


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Friend of mine did a strap mod and carried a weighted clamp with him to clamp to the end of the rope to help the swing around bigger trees, still a pain but helped. Only need one clamp and just clamp it/un-clamp it as needed.
 
PJC said:
Big trees are a pain to climb with sticks. You’ll spend a lot of energy getting the ropes around.
Have you looked into DRT for big trees? Pretty slick and fun way to get up and down. I have some big trees prepped for DRT with paracord.
Look up NY Saddle Hunter on YouTube if you haven’t already. They have a bunch of good videos on how to climb this way.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

No I didn’t know about that climbing method but it looks pretty slick from what I just looked up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: PJC
HuntNorthEast said:
Friend of mine did a strap mod and carried a weighted clamp with him to clamp to the end of the rope to help the swing around bigger trees, still a pain but helped. Only need one clamp and just clamp it/un-clamp it as needed.
Click to expand...

A clamp works well when your feet are still on the ground and you can walk the rest of the rope around the tree. It’s the rest of the sticks that get tricky.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
HuntNorthEast said:
Friend of mine did a strap mod and carried a weighted clamp with him to clamp to the end of the rope to help the swing around bigger trees, still a pain but helped. Only need one clamp and just clamp it/un-clamp it as needed.
Click to expand...

I really like the idea of the weighted clamp


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It depends on the situation and the tree. If it’s a massive tree all the way up I will use spurs. If it has a huge trunk that splits into several smaller trunks I will use bolts to get me to the split then climb sticks.
 
PJC said:
A clamp works well when your feet are still on the ground and you can walk the rest of the rope around the tree. It’s the rest of the sticks that get tricky.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
You may have misunderstood, you put the weighted clamp on the throw end to help the whip around the tree. It also plows through small brush as if you were to climb a cedar or similar.

I think is was a modded welding spring clamp (welded a split hex nut in the jaws to round clamp the rope). Been a while since I've seen it to be honest. The threads of the nut when clamped helped hold the rope better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PJC
EricS said:
It depends on the situation and the tree. If it’s a massive tree all the way up I will use spurs. If it has a huge trunk that splits into several smaller trunks I will use bolts to get me to the split then climb sticks.
Click to expand...

Does using bolts count as screw in steps? Because I’ve thought about that but figured I couldn’t because I can’t use screw in steps on public land.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: PJC
spiker34 said:
Does using bolts count as screw in steps? Because I’ve thought about that but figured I couldn’t because I can’t use screw in steps on public land.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yup


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I replaced my muddy sticks rope with 8’ length rope, replaced my original JimStepp Stepps rope with 8’ from wild edge, got the strap extensions from lone wolf for my buckle straps and got the 8’ Tethrd versa strap. And I carry longer tether and lb for this possible occasion.

I always want to be prepared to climb huge trees if need be.

That said, in my areas, either it is overkill or what I have will not come close to the huge trees I encounter.

I think the limiting factor is my arms wingspan and my ability to get rope/strap around tree and to my other hand. And if I conquered that, how effective would I be staring at a huge diameter tree during hunting.

The best I have found is the muddy pro rope, lay it against the far standoff and whip it around the back of the tree while holding the stick at the other end and hopefully to my other hand.

I did buy rappelling gear, and if that rappelling works, I may buy ascenders to SRT the huge trees (only if I can get it preset with paracord). Not going to take a Throw ball into the woods during actual hunting days.

I don’t think the limiting factor is gear, but is our physical capabilities.
 
I use SRT for everything. It works for 6 foot diameter trees which most other methods do not. I cannot do DRT with the hip thrust method if I am hanging in free air. SRT, no problem. Here I am climbing a big tree.
Girth hitched around tree for no limb trees.
All this stuff to climb SRT weighs 6.5 lbs. All I need except the platform.
 
Last edited:
bj139 said:
I use SRT for everything. It works for 6 foot diameter trees which most other methods do not. I cannot do DRT with the hip thrust method if I am hanging in free air. SRT, no problem. Here I am climbing a big tree.
Click to expand...

If the rappelling works out for me, I may try to entice you up my way to preset huge trees with paracord for SRT and a SRT training session. Or maybe meet you closer to your home area (Nockamixon).

Yeah, there are great used sewing machine sales here, yeah, that’s the ticket.
 
Option 1: Replace the straps with a long piece of rated 8mm accessory cord or amsteel (Rope Mod)
Option 2: Learn how to SRT climb if there are branches you can throw a line over/around
Option 3: Buy a set of these and climb like the squirrels do...

1598016089629.png
 
sojourner said:
If the rappelling works out for me, I may try to entice you up my way to preset huge trees with paracord for SRT and a SRT training session. Or maybe meet you closer to your home area (Nockamixon).

Yeah, there are great used sewing machine sales here, yeah, that’s the ticket.
Click to expand...
I would love to do that. Since I quit my job at Lowes I am a little lonely and have been killing time making sewing and climbing videos. I am not a very steadfast hunter. I just like to hang from a tree on those sunny October afternoons and snooze away. No danger of me stealing your hunting area. I can snooze anywhere. Close to home is best even if I never shoot the big buck. I should set a few preset cords in my area as well. I just got my second two anterless licenses so I have three now. I have to start eating all the food in the freezer. I may end up with more venison than I know what to do with. I think I will use orange masons twine for my presets for economy. If I set enough of them I might be able to find one. I had trouble finding my one preset camo paracord loop last year. :D
 
Last edited:
bj139 said:
I would love to do that. Since I quit my job at Lowes I am a little lonely and have been killing time making sewing and climbing videos. I am not a very steadfast hunter. I just like to hang from a tree on those sunny October afternoons and snooze away. No danger of me stealing your hunting area. I can snooze anywhere. Close to home is best even if I never shoot the big buck. I should set a few preset cords in my area as well. I just got my second two anterless licenses so I have three now. I have to start eating all the food in the freezer. I may end up with more venison than I know what to do with. I think I will use orange masons twine for my presets for economy. If I set enough of them I might be able to find one. I had trouble finding my one preset camo paracord loop last year. :D
Click to expand...

We should meet up. I still have to work, so there’s that. But when the weather cools down, it would be good. I am busy at work until second week of Oct. No worries here about stealing places. I hunt public in PA and it is for all of us.

I have my 3D tag and going to the courthouse on Monday to get my OTC 5C tag. Then I’ll be set for PA buck or doe.
 
sojourner said:
We should meet up. I still have to work, so there’s that. But when the weather cools down, it would be good. I am busy at work until second week of Oct. No worries here about stealing places. I hunt public in PA and it is for all of us.

I have my 3D tag and going to the courthouse on Monday to get my OTC 5C tag. Then I’ll be set for PA buck or doe.
Click to expand...
I have three 5C tags. One side of lake Nockamixon where I hunt is 5C. The other side is another number. I could have shot at least two doe last year if I wasn't snoozing but I only had one tag and all the 5Cs were sold.
 
To piggyback on this thread, how do you tether into big trees? My current situation is a huge sycamore looking over a 3 acre thicket. There is a small cedar tree right next to it that I can climb and get onto the sycamore limb. Tether is not big enough but even if it was it’d be hard to get around the tree.
 
Unshackled said:
To piggyback on this thread, how do you tether into big trees? My current situation is a huge sycamore looking over a 3 acre thicket. There is a small cedar tree right next to it that I can climb and get onto the sycamore limb. Tether is not big enough but even if it was it’d be hard to get around the tree.
Click to expand...

If on private, I'd take a page from John Eberhart and screw in some T-hooks to use instead of trying to tether around the whole tree.
If on public, I'd take a page from... (see above) ... and try not to get caught :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top