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Hawk 20” Sticks and Amsteel Daisy Chain...HEADS UP

Sheldon

Sheldon

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2018
Messages
591
Got mine in recently. Like the sticks and wanted to try them with some 1/8” amsteel daisy chains. If you have used them before you are familiar with the fact they never seem to match up as well as you’d like (my experience anyway). First climb had 2 of the 4 kick out coming off the top step. Perhaps I’ve made crappy daisy chains but had the same experience with the Leverage minis which are similar design.

I use a 35’ tether and Safeguard and rappel down so not the end of the world but something to keep your eye on....going to try them with rope mod next.


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I haven’t had them kick out, but they sure don’t bite the tree well even after setting them like you would with other sticks I’ve used. With that being said I’ve had them on two trees with different type bark using 7/64” daisy chains. Gonna try some accessory cord tomorrow and see if a rope mod and/or EWO versa strap works better.


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kick outs on daisy chains are more common than with other attachment methods i think. but that is a bummer to hear, when i had my helium i was impressed at how well it bit into the tree and held, sometimes it took a good amount of force to dislodge them. have they changed the standoffs for the shorter sticks?
 
I had the same issue with the daisy chain on a heluim mini. Just not sure yet that its me, cause I'm new at this or if it was the brand new telephone pole that I tried it on. Gonna keep at it and try it on a real tree before I make my decision. Just in case what rope are you guys using for a rope mod with a stock helium button?
 
I haven’t had the 20s kick out worse than the full size, using 7/64 daisy chain. Seems to happen sometimes if your weight isn’t straight down on them. I guess I’ve just gotten used to it (with full size) and don’t weight them at a funny angle or put all my weight on one bottom step from the side. If I get the daisy chain tight enough and a good set, they don’t usually move after I’ve had all my weight on them.
 
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Interesting. I'm using the amsteel rope mod. Never had a single issue with my cut down sticks from last year. I haven't climbed with my new stock 20" Helium sticks but they appear to have the same standoffs to me so I didn't see a reason to even try them.
 
I had same issue with my leverage minis. I took grinding wheel and put groves in the standoffs so they bite better. Hasn't happened since.
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Suppose I should have added that I used the same daisy chains on a set of cut down API sticks and had no issues.


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Can someone compare the full size (maybe even a few year old) Heliums to the new 20" to see difference in geometry or standoff sharpness? My full size Heliums sometimes embed in the tree and stay there without even a rope attached.
 
I had the same issue on a smooth bark tree. The stick does not set as well on slippery bark trees when the tree is not really straight. Got me really spooked. Not sure if it was the amsteel daisy or the specific setup. Smooth bark seems to be very springy with amsteel.
 
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