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How did you get started with saddle hunting?

My dad's friend had a trophyline that he used twice and packed it away. I happened to be there when he was cleaning out his garage. I saw camo and asked what it was and he told me. I guess I looked interested enough and he said I could have it. Took it home, figured it out and got a lot of questions from friends that I couldn't answer. Lol
 
Got tired of lugging the old climber into the woods so I researched light weight tree stands, almost got a super light aluminum climber but I also discovered tree saddles, 100's of hours of YouTube on saddles, knots, arborist instructional later I got a sitdrag and realized quick I needed a real saddle
 
Hopped in a loc on I have hunted a bunch of times before and the vertigo that had been creeping up was too much. Climbed down, set up on the ground and went to searching on my phone. I had seen saddle hunting before and thought there had to be a death wish involved.

If we’re allowed to be honest, watched a lot of Greggie’s videos, but he got on my damn nerves something fierce so I ordered a Kestrel and a sitdrag, lol. Modded the sitdrag and hunted out of it until my Kestrel arrived. Sold (me, not the Kestrel....that thing is perfection).

Passed my sitdrag on to Benman and he ordered a kite. This season the sitdrag was passed on to another buddy who ordered a flex.

Now in addition to all the Herters decoys in various states of rejuvenation my office has ropes, carabiners, tubular webbing, offset brackets, aluminum posts, double steps and scooter platforms laying all over the place
 
I was tired of the clanging and banging setting up in the dark and knew there had to be something better out there.
 
A hunting buddy gave me a sit drag told me how he was using it as a seat in his climber he said it's so comfortable,this didn't work for me but I got to keep the sit drag.one day I ran across one of G2 outdoors videos on how to convert the sit drag into a saddle. Hey I allready have one of those within one week I had it ready to hunt on Saturday. used climbing spurs to go up the tree and in a few hours I had my first deer from a saddle that did it for me.a few thousand dollars and five different saddles later now i am a deadacated saddlehunter
 
My uncle let me borrow one of his Trophyline for a couple hunts back in 2017. I enjoyed the freedom of choice it afforded. I started researching on the inter webs and found Saddlehunter.com. The kestrel was poised for release around this time, so I ordered one. And the rest is history, as they say
 
Going back to memories of just absolute suffering while carrying my Loggy Bayou, trying to keep up with my dad when I was 12 years old. Sweating my balls off in my coveralls, those webbing straps digging into my shoulders so bad it felt like my arms were going to fall off. Clanging off everything, hanging up in brush. I've been a mobile hunter since day one, I can count on one hand the number of presets I've ever hunted. As I grew it became more bearable, but I always wondered if there was a better way. In college I started hunting the mountains of Central PA and suddenly 1-2 mile hikes with over a thousand feet of elevation change were the norm.

I sorta remember the old Trophylines and the first Aerohunters catching my eye way back, but they were bulky. The math didn't quite add up. You couldn't beat the weight of a climbing stand. JMO of course but I find ROS fundamentally absurd. I always intended to use some kind of platform to be able to stand on.

In 2016 after using a climber for 16 years, I learned the whole hang and hunt system with a hangon. I had an out of state hunt in Ohio where I couldn't get into a decent tree with my climber, which is rarely in issue in PA. I had been using a RC harness in the treestand since circa 2006 and already was comfortable leaning frequently.

I was on the precipice and flirting with the idea of a saddle. Once I got that climbing system down it made no sense not to. I joined on here and quickly discovered the Klemz platforms. That was the real Eureka moment. Made a platform, bought a Kestrel, and I was off to the races.
 
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I started leasing a small chunk of land and doing some research on habitat improvement. I stumbled upon a Youtube video of a guy who preset trees and used an old trohpyline in an effort to save money on hang on stands. I am cheap so I liked this idea.

I then found SH.com and was considering ordering an Evo when the rumors started about the release of the Kestrel. I pre-ordered one and three seasons later have spent enough on saddle hunting that I could have peppered my property with hang on stands. The other by-product of saddle hunting is I now hunt on public land as much or more then I hunt my own property.

So basically, I started saddle hunting to save money hunting my property and ended up spending a ton and rarely hunt my property. I think I made a good choice.
 
i learned of saddle hunting from a video by diysportsman a couple years ago and it caught my attention. However, i had just invested in a "light weight" (hahahaha) climber, summit open shot. so my budget for new gear was depleted. i got really into mobile hunting with that stand, but began to desire less bulk on the deep dives and unique ways that i was getting to the spots i was hunting. i began to really research the different saddles and setups, styles, gear, mods, etc...... and fell down the rabbit hole.. pulled the trigger this past winter and never looked back. im actually embarrassed about how long it took me to commit to it.
 
BTW - Green's tree saddle (early Trophyline) if I remember right came out in the early 1960s - they have been around a long, long time.
 
Hunted out of a climber for years using an upper-body-only harness that came with it. Starting dating this girl who also hunted out of a climber, but never used a harness. I bought her a full-body, vest-style harness and asked her to please use it. She then questioned the safety aspect of MY harness. So I simulated a fall 1' off the ground, and boy did it hurt. Felt like it was crushing my chest and collapsing my lungs. I cut the thing into pieces that day...

I saw some videos of folks using rock harnesses and showing how it not only prevents suspension trauma, but allows for much easier self rescue. I ordered a Black Diamond Alpine Bod. Much lighter, less bulk, more comfortable, and "safer"...at least in my eyes. At the same time, I was getting annoyed with my clunky climber and the inability to hunt the areas where the deer were because of the tree selection.

I bought a set of Helium sticks and a Millennium M7 Microlite hang-on stand. I watched videos by DIY Sportsman showing how you can hang and hunt hang-ons just as quickly as a climber. This was better, but I was still annoyed with the amount of weight and bulk I had to carry. Then I saw his video where he shows how to use the sit drag as a saddle, and the light bulb went off. Why hang 3-4 sticks and pull up 12 lbs of metal, when you can just hang 3-4 sticks, climb, and hunt?

I hunted out of the RCH/Sit Drag 2x at the end of that season and was hooked. This is the way to go...

I bought a Kestrel the following summer, obsessively practiced shooting/climbing, to the point that the aforementioned girl, (now my wife) thought I had a problem. Fast forward a couple more years, she is hunting out of a Kite and neither one of us can believe that we ever carried a bow, a backpack, AND 20+ additional pounds of clunky metal into the woods. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
 
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gameflogger said:
I bought Eberhart’s book “hunting pressured white tails” because I hunt east Texas where every deer walks around looking up. I hunted the Trophyline the first year unsuccessfully and put it down for a year or two until I got tired of only being able to hunt straight trees with no branches with the climber. When I started hunting the saddle again I discovered that I have much more luck being undetected when I wait until the deer are in my “living room” before I move at all or draw on them. Since I picked the saddle back up, my longest shot has been less than 20 yds
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Same story, started about 10 years ago with a TL Ambush. Read his other books and watched the DVDs multiple times, great information. Recently been watching Dan's Hunting Beast YouTube videos and learning a ton from him as well, not so much from a saddle hunting perspective (although Joe hunts from a saddle), more in scouting and locating deer.
 
to me , this is actually pretyy funny. I seen some video of a guy doing it, and I responded about how comfortable could a grown man be hanging in a thong? ( almost a quote), I got so much response back to the pluses that I started trolling youtube or when I talked to hunters I would ask, I was kind of in the dark,. Now I have a 3 day old saddle, muddy staggers, and am shopping for dump bags . almost have everything I need. ( I have said that line over and over)
 
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This is my first post. I joined a few months ago and have been pouring over the great information on this site ever since.

I first learned about saddle hunting after reading "Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails". Ive been using Aero Hunter Evo on and off for about 4 years with varying levels of success. I find that saddle to be bulky and only moderately comfortable. Since finding this site I've realized there are so many other options out there. I am currently working on a fleece saddle with RCH to see if it is a less cumbersome, more comfortable option. I will likely invest in a Mantis in the future.

I really love how helpful and supportive this community is toward other hunters. Lots of good info on here without all the bickering.
 
I guess I could augment my story.

I had a brief fling with deer hunting in 1986-88'ish. We hunted out of homemade (aluminum frame/plywood base) hang-ons with backpack straps bolted on and used climbing spurs. My friends all thought I was nuts for using the spurs, but it was all I knew. I also never had a real problem with them. I was using pole climbing spurs. That may be the last thing missing today. I may have to get a pair of spurs for next season. I love my Heliums, but I hate the weight.
 
I am going to try my hand at a diy fleece saddle hav gotten all the ingredients just. Need Time to complete
 
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