John, I definitely see your point, and a lighter, quieter, leg strap might be a viable option down the road. It was definitely discussed in the process along the way.
However, the buckles are bombproof when it comes to safety and ease of use. And the most important point is that they make the Kestrel easy to take on and take off--even for someone who has never laid their hands on a saddle before. There was a quite a bit of discussion during development to get to the Kestrel--including input from members on this forum--discussion of what would work the best versus ease of use. The difference between designing a saddle that can be marketed to anyone, including someone who has never used a saddle or even hunted from an elevated position, and designing a saddle for an experienced saddle hunter is huge.
That said, the Kestrel is the safest, lightest, most comfortable, and most user friendly saddle ever mass produced. Is it the lightest? The quietest? No. But there are compromises that have to be made for safety and simplicity of use. Will it bring more people to saddle hunting? I certainly hope so.
