- Joined
- Apr 1, 2014
- Messages
- 700
3 parts
Joining the Swingers Club (a before and after story)
For as long as I can remember, my approach to things has been a bit different from the preverbal “norm”, and my hunting methods are no exception. Back in the early nineties, my friends were buying and even building their first hang-on stands, often fastening them to a tree with a chain worthy of a warship anchor.
They spent energy, sweat, and precious time clanking, hoisting, and hanging these heavy ambush perches. All the while, I was still-hunting in the swamps and thickets and fields. Truth be told, none of us were killing deer... not yet. I was preached to about the advantages and benefits of hunting from a stand and sometimes even razzed for not conforming to the chain gangster mentality. But I was obsessed by a thought that I couldn’t yet form into words.
It was perfectly illustrated in a survival movie a few years later: “What one man can do, another man can do”. I thought, if Fred Bear could stalk and kill deer from the ground, then so could I.
In 1993, wearing army-style tiger stripe camo and toting a Martin Warthog bow with no sights, I did just that, and killed my first deer. At only 10 yards my muzzy-tipped aluminum shaft sliced through the heart of a mature doe that must’ve mistaken me for one of the randomly scattered 6 foot pines in an overgrown field. I was instantly hooked on bow hunting and more importantly, bow hunting my own way.
I got busted often and missed a lot but I never lost the excitement of that first success. Eventually however, I did start hunting from elevated stands, maybe because I fulfilled my first goal or because I saw the benefits of hunting above my quarry. I tried hang-on stands, climbers, and even wooden built permanent stands. I really hated how clunky, bulky and uncomfortable they were to not only hang, but also to carry to and from the woods. (In the final story in this article you’ll see why there’s absolutely no way I could’ve succeeded with a conventional stand or without a saddle).
From stands I killed some small bucks and a bunch of does but it wasn’t consistent and I longed to kill the kind of bucks that graced the pages of my favorite hunting magazines. I live in Michigan so those pictures were basically hornography and fantasy to me as those types of bucks just didn’t exist in the places I hunted. While more successful from stands, I missed the unorthodox, creative methods that secured me my first few deer.
So “what does any of this have to do with hunting from a saddle” you might ask? Well, because thinking outside of the box and hunting outside of the ‘industries’ norms and gimmicks and unrealistic standards, is what saddle hunting is all about. And oh, did I mention it actually works? Like, really, really well. Would you believe me if I told you that you could kill more deer, bigger bucks and be more consistently successful with a saddle and some creative thinking, than any other form of ambush hunting?
It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, because I know it to be true as I am living, breathing proof with a before and after story.
In 2006 I stumbled across a seemingly out of place book in Meijer, resting on a pile of marked- down post season hunting gear. It was titled “Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails” and it was exactly what I didn’t even know I was looking for. I couldn’t believe it when I read the back cover and the author was from Michigan! Also on the back cover was a picture of the author, John Eberhart, standing in front of a wall full of mature bucks he’d killed on public and free permission land in Michigan. Those same words once again passed through my mind again, “what one man can do, another man can do”.
I bought it and read it from cover to cover in just a few days. A reoccurring theme in the book was about doing things most other hunters aren’t willing or are simply too lazy to do, which was right up my alley. Oh, yeah, and this guy hunted from a saddle and it was such a big part of his hunting plan that he had a complete chapter in the book devoted to it. I thought, “what’s a saddle, where can I get one, and how does it work”?
My synapses lit up like aurora borealis and I scoured sporting goods stores searching for one of these “seatbelts gone wrong” as the book called it. I eventually tracked down a used one on EBay from a hunter in Colorado. After a little practice from 12 inches off the ground in an oak in my backyard and I realized this was absolutely 100% for me.
The mobility without even moving my feet, the lack of noise always prevalent with metal stands, the comfort and security of being in a half sit/half stand position... Not to mention I only needed to buy one and it would last for the rest of my life for every tree I ever hunt from. That’s a monetary game changer alone!! One “stand” that you roll up and store in your pack (or wear it) and bring with you to any of your previously prepped trees or even “fly by the seat of your pants” (pun intended) DIY freelance hunts. Size of the tree, shape of the tree, straightness of the tree, whatever, it just doesn’t matter. You hunt exactly where you need to hunt instead of only in a straight tree that’s ‘near to’ where you actually should be. “Why wasn’t everyone using one of these” I thought?
Joining the Swingers Club (a before and after story)
For as long as I can remember, my approach to things has been a bit different from the preverbal “norm”, and my hunting methods are no exception. Back in the early nineties, my friends were buying and even building their first hang-on stands, often fastening them to a tree with a chain worthy of a warship anchor.
They spent energy, sweat, and precious time clanking, hoisting, and hanging these heavy ambush perches. All the while, I was still-hunting in the swamps and thickets and fields. Truth be told, none of us were killing deer... not yet. I was preached to about the advantages and benefits of hunting from a stand and sometimes even razzed for not conforming to the chain gangster mentality. But I was obsessed by a thought that I couldn’t yet form into words.
It was perfectly illustrated in a survival movie a few years later: “What one man can do, another man can do”. I thought, if Fred Bear could stalk and kill deer from the ground, then so could I.
In 1993, wearing army-style tiger stripe camo and toting a Martin Warthog bow with no sights, I did just that, and killed my first deer. At only 10 yards my muzzy-tipped aluminum shaft sliced through the heart of a mature doe that must’ve mistaken me for one of the randomly scattered 6 foot pines in an overgrown field. I was instantly hooked on bow hunting and more importantly, bow hunting my own way.
I got busted often and missed a lot but I never lost the excitement of that first success. Eventually however, I did start hunting from elevated stands, maybe because I fulfilled my first goal or because I saw the benefits of hunting above my quarry. I tried hang-on stands, climbers, and even wooden built permanent stands. I really hated how clunky, bulky and uncomfortable they were to not only hang, but also to carry to and from the woods. (In the final story in this article you’ll see why there’s absolutely no way I could’ve succeeded with a conventional stand or without a saddle).
From stands I killed some small bucks and a bunch of does but it wasn’t consistent and I longed to kill the kind of bucks that graced the pages of my favorite hunting magazines. I live in Michigan so those pictures were basically hornography and fantasy to me as those types of bucks just didn’t exist in the places I hunted. While more successful from stands, I missed the unorthodox, creative methods that secured me my first few deer.
So “what does any of this have to do with hunting from a saddle” you might ask? Well, because thinking outside of the box and hunting outside of the ‘industries’ norms and gimmicks and unrealistic standards, is what saddle hunting is all about. And oh, did I mention it actually works? Like, really, really well. Would you believe me if I told you that you could kill more deer, bigger bucks and be more consistently successful with a saddle and some creative thinking, than any other form of ambush hunting?
It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, because I know it to be true as I am living, breathing proof with a before and after story.
In 2006 I stumbled across a seemingly out of place book in Meijer, resting on a pile of marked- down post season hunting gear. It was titled “Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails” and it was exactly what I didn’t even know I was looking for. I couldn’t believe it when I read the back cover and the author was from Michigan! Also on the back cover was a picture of the author, John Eberhart, standing in front of a wall full of mature bucks he’d killed on public and free permission land in Michigan. Those same words once again passed through my mind again, “what one man can do, another man can do”.
I bought it and read it from cover to cover in just a few days. A reoccurring theme in the book was about doing things most other hunters aren’t willing or are simply too lazy to do, which was right up my alley. Oh, yeah, and this guy hunted from a saddle and it was such a big part of his hunting plan that he had a complete chapter in the book devoted to it. I thought, “what’s a saddle, where can I get one, and how does it work”?
My synapses lit up like aurora borealis and I scoured sporting goods stores searching for one of these “seatbelts gone wrong” as the book called it. I eventually tracked down a used one on EBay from a hunter in Colorado. After a little practice from 12 inches off the ground in an oak in my backyard and I realized this was absolutely 100% for me.
The mobility without even moving my feet, the lack of noise always prevalent with metal stands, the comfort and security of being in a half sit/half stand position... Not to mention I only needed to buy one and it would last for the rest of my life for every tree I ever hunt from. That’s a monetary game changer alone!! One “stand” that you roll up and store in your pack (or wear it) and bring with you to any of your previously prepped trees or even “fly by the seat of your pants” (pun intended) DIY freelance hunts. Size of the tree, shape of the tree, straightness of the tree, whatever, it just doesn’t matter. You hunt exactly where you need to hunt instead of only in a straight tree that’s ‘near to’ where you actually should be. “Why wasn’t everyone using one of these” I thought?
