I am thinking about ordering a pair of carbon fiber geckos and have a few questions. I currently have bashlin aluminum’s with pole gaffs. Do the new geckos have a lot of flex in them? I weigh around 230. The tree gaffs on the geckos seem kinda long at 2 7/8 inches. How well do you guys that have the geckos like the long tree gaffs? Thanks for any help.
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Geckos
- Thread starter Ryan R
- Start date
Arkrider
Active Member
If you're purchasing them new from a retail company, ask for the pole gaffs instead of the tree gaffs.
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Arkrider
Active Member
Tree gaffs are only good for thick/heavy bark trees. They aren't comfortable because they'll position your foot and leg out and away from the tree further. This creates additional torque below the knee. I've learned this the hard way so let me save you some time and discomfort. Also, tree gaffs can be more dangerous to use because of the length and angle of the gaff. They're just much easier to accidentally stick your leg or foot especially for those of us that aren't arborist by trade.
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I haven't spent significant time in my Geckos yet. When I do, I'll respond back.
My understanding from consulting arborist resources is you can climb MOST trees in pole gaffs. But not all. Thick/looose bark trees are tough and possible dangerous by increasing chance of gaff-out in shorter pole gaffs. Because you need that length to hit hard wood. Kind of common sense. The comfort factor of pole gaffs comes from getting your center of gravity closer to the tree and decreasing the length of that lever.
So it comes down to game theory in a way, right? You can climb any tree in tree gaffs. You will be more comfortable climbing most trees in pole gaffs. Are you willing to accept the loss of comfort to be able to climb any tree you encounter? Or are you willing to bypass certain trees for the comfort in thin barked trees? For me I hunt so many of a certain kind of thick barked tree that I couldn't accept that tradeoff so I went with tree gaffs. Not sure that the brand of irons and pads is going to make any difference in that decision but I can't see how it would.
So it comes down to game theory in a way, right? You can climb any tree in tree gaffs. You will be more comfortable climbing most trees in pole gaffs. Are you willing to accept the loss of comfort to be able to climb any tree you encounter? Or are you willing to bypass certain trees for the comfort in thin barked trees? For me I hunt so many of a certain kind of thick barked tree that I couldn't accept that tradeoff so I went with tree gaffs. Not sure that the brand of irons and pads is going to make any difference in that decision but I can't see how it would.