buckwalleye
Member
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2018
- Messages
- 63
This is my first season saddle hunting. It's a big adjustment for me...and honestly I'm not totally in love with it yet. I'm hoping this platform will be the game changer for me.
So what we have here is the seat section of my lone wolf alpha hand climber. My first hunts in the saddle I was using it as it comes....with the traction belt. It just wasn't working out. Any kind of side stepping and it would want to kick out on me. And it never felt secure enough even if just leaning or going into a seated position directly facing the tree. I ended up putting a screw in step with the traction belt going around it, and that did seem to help. But this sucker is rock solid now.
So I ordered 2 versa buttons, tree bracket, and strap from lone wolf. 1 1/4 aluminum bar stock, and a couple scrap aluminum angle pieces i cut as the brackets. Drilled and tapped on the platform to give adjustment for various tree angles. I wasn't sure how the welds would go, but thankfully it went good. Had to mill out the tree bracket to get it to that 1 1/4 of the bar stock. Also cut that little back piece out in order for the bar to pivot flat. I got about $50 in this DIY. And if I ever want to use the climber as a climber, it's still able. The brackets are welded to the under side of the seat. And IMO, the bottom of the seat is better to stand on because the other side has a raised edge where the seat cushion butts up to. This weighs in at 4.4 lbs.
Where to put my feet was, and still is, the biggest issue for me. I bought a set of wildedge stepps and tried using 2 as my footrest as a run and gun set up. I feel like that weak side shot is almost impossible this way. The bridge on the saddle is just right in the way. The only possible way, for me, to pull off a week side shot is to fully stand on a platform with your back to the tree, and loosen your tether. I dont know how you guys get weak side shots off with a ring of steps or a few wild edge stepps as your platform. (Or hunt for any length of time comfortably!)
I defintaly need more hands on time with those wild edge stepps too. They're a pain in the a** for me right now. And man, they do a suprising amount of damage to a tree. I may be looking for a set of spurs in the future, but for this season I'm just going with what I got. Money adds up quickly in the saddle!!
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
So what we have here is the seat section of my lone wolf alpha hand climber. My first hunts in the saddle I was using it as it comes....with the traction belt. It just wasn't working out. Any kind of side stepping and it would want to kick out on me. And it never felt secure enough even if just leaning or going into a seated position directly facing the tree. I ended up putting a screw in step with the traction belt going around it, and that did seem to help. But this sucker is rock solid now.
So I ordered 2 versa buttons, tree bracket, and strap from lone wolf. 1 1/4 aluminum bar stock, and a couple scrap aluminum angle pieces i cut as the brackets. Drilled and tapped on the platform to give adjustment for various tree angles. I wasn't sure how the welds would go, but thankfully it went good. Had to mill out the tree bracket to get it to that 1 1/4 of the bar stock. Also cut that little back piece out in order for the bar to pivot flat. I got about $50 in this DIY. And if I ever want to use the climber as a climber, it's still able. The brackets are welded to the under side of the seat. And IMO, the bottom of the seat is better to stand on because the other side has a raised edge where the seat cushion butts up to. This weighs in at 4.4 lbs.
Where to put my feet was, and still is, the biggest issue for me. I bought a set of wildedge stepps and tried using 2 as my footrest as a run and gun set up. I feel like that weak side shot is almost impossible this way. The bridge on the saddle is just right in the way. The only possible way, for me, to pull off a week side shot is to fully stand on a platform with your back to the tree, and loosen your tether. I dont know how you guys get weak side shots off with a ring of steps or a few wild edge stepps as your platform. (Or hunt for any length of time comfortably!)
I defintaly need more hands on time with those wild edge stepps too. They're a pain in the a** for me right now. And man, they do a suprising amount of damage to a tree. I may be looking for a set of spurs in the future, but for this season I'm just going with what I got. Money adds up quickly in the saddle!!
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
