I've been doing a lot of post season scouting and tree prepping on the public land I hunt lately and with that I've been trying out new climbing methods, especially bolts. I have been one stick climbing for years and decided to branch out lately to try new things. Tried spurs, didnt like them. Carbon bolts, like them but don't fully trust them. Treehopper bolts, worked great but again didn't feel comfortable with them when getting up to and over 20 feet. Wasn't really the bolts at fault, I just hate using the required lineman's belt and on the way down the treehopper bolts were really hard to pull out of the tree. So what I have settled on lately is using carbon bolts for the first 8-10 feet, then mounting my stick and using my swaider and knaider to one stick climb from there. By doing this I get up the tree faster, need less climbing iterations with the stick to get to hunting height, make less noise because I have to move the stick less, and sweat less by doing less climbing iterations. I feel safer and more productive using the one stick method because I am always tethered in, and I am not limited to a certain height because I ran out of bolts. With one stick climbing, if your using a swaider or knaider or both, the length of your stick is pretty much irrelevant, so I pack a 15 inch climbing stick that fits almost anywhere which is another huge benefit for me. Anyone else here combining climbing methods?
