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LIVE from the saddle 2023

Well it was a bit of a show getting up in here. I one sticked this tree the last time out but was still using a versa button which is a pain. I put a cam cleat on but didn’t have time to test it. Got to the tree and it wouldn’t hold the rope. It’s a cheapie cleat from Amazon and I got what I paid for.

Fortunately I had my spare tether and foot loop in my pack so on the tree they go as the steps get thrown to the ground in disgust. Grab my repel rope/top tether and don’t have a friction hitch on it. Last time on this tree I pulled the hitch off to prevent catching in the couple Y’s on the way. Now I can’t remember how to tie an agile longhorn and have no other choice. The longhorn was done so out comes the phone to rewatch JRB’s video again. Got it on (or so I thought). Got most of the way up (best 2tc yet) and tried to adjust the agile but it was TIGHT! Made do and got into the platform. Rewatch video. I wrapped it wrong. Now dig out spare beaner, hook up spare tether, take slack out of main tether to retire knot. Pretty sure I have it now as it breaks under load but holds my tight up top. It’s not the prettiest but it’s functional.

Now we wait in 32 degrees and 10mph wind for maybe a doe to come through.
 

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casts_by_fly said:
Well it was a bit of a show getting up in here. I one sticked this tree the last time out but was still using a versa button which is a pain. I put a cam cleat on but didn’t have time to test it. Got to the tree and it wouldn’t hold the rope. It’s a cheapie cleat from Amazon and I got what I paid for.

Fortunately I had my spare tether and foot loop in my pack so on the tree they go as the steps get thrown to the ground in disgust. Grab my repel rope/top tether and don’t have a friction hitch on it. Last time on this tree I pulled the hitch off to prevent catching in the couple Y’s on the way. Now I can’t remember how to tie an agile longhorn and have no other choice. The longhorn was done so out comes the phone to rewatch JRB’s video again. Got it on (or so I thought). Got most of the way up (best 2tc yet) and tried to adjust the agile but it was TIGHT! Made do and got into the platform. Rewatch video. I wrapped it wrong. Now dig out spare beaner, hook up spare tether, take slack out of main tether to retire knot. Pretty sure I have it now as it breaks under load but holds my tight up top. It’s not the prettiest but it’s functional.

Now we wait in 32 degrees and 10mph wind for maybe a die to come through.
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Best SH post of 2023.



Also get out of my head. This is me 9/10 hunts even in presets.
 
DelaWhere_Arrow said:
Best SH post of 2023.



Also get out of my head. This is me 9/10 hunts even in presets.
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Well it gets better. Doing fine hanging out in the tree and keeping warm except for my right leg which feels weird. I shift my weight and realize my leg fell asleep because my saddle shifted and was pinching a nerve. Time to lean for a bit rather than sit. Stand up, adjust saddle, snug up tether, lean. Maybe 2 minutes later (my leg had regained feeling) I see a deer on a beeline for me. We’re in. No antlers. Perfect. Grab the bow and get ready. At 50 yards I thought I saw something on its head so I grabbed the rangefinder. At 40 yards I confirm it’s a button buck with 2” nubs. He gets a pass. Uneventful rest of the night.

Until I get down. Made it down no problem. Pull rope and everything starts sliding great. Full rope pulls through the quick link at the top and … catches quick link in Y of the tree. I take a few more steps back and the quick link pops loose and … shoots into a Y in the other trunk of this tree. Now no amount of backing up, throwing slack or anything else will get it moving. So I’ve got 40’ of C-IV hanging in the tree tonight until I can go get it tomorrow in the light. I was going to hunt another spot tomorrow afternoon but now that I have to get the rope I might as well go there again right? What’s the worst that can happen.
 
casts_by_fly said:
Well it gets better. Doing fine hanging out in the tree and keeping warm except for my right leg which feels weird. I shift my weight and realize my leg fell asleep because my saddle shifted and was pinching a nerve. Time to lean for a bit rather than sit. Stand up, adjust saddle, snug up tether, lean. Maybe 2 minutes later (my leg had regained feeling) I see a deer on a beeline for me. We’re in. No antlers. Perfect. Grab the bow and get ready. At 50 yards I thought I saw something on its head so I grabbed the rangefinder. At 40 yards I confirm it’s a button buck with 2” nubs. He gets a pass. Uneventful rest of the night.

Until I get down. Made it down no problem. Pull rope and everything starts sliding great. Full rope pulls through the quick link at the top and … catches quick link in Y of the tree. I take a few more steps back and the quick link pops loose and … shoots into a Y in the other trunk of this tree. Now no amount of backing up, throwing slack or anything else will get it moving. So I’ve got 40’ of C-IV hanging in the tree tonight until I can go get it tomorrow in the light. I was going to hunt another spot tomorrow afternoon but now that I have to get the rope I might as well go there again right? What’s the worst that can happen.
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Man! I’m not alone afterall!!!
 
casts_by_fly said:
Well it gets better. Doing fine hanging out in the tree and keeping warm except for my right leg which feels weird. I shift my weight and realize my leg fell asleep because my saddle shifted and was pinching a nerve. Time to lean for a bit rather than sit. Stand up, adjust saddle, snug up tether, lean. Maybe 2 minutes later (my leg had regained feeling) I see a deer on a beeline for me. We’re in. No antlers. Perfect. Grab the bow and get ready. At 50 yards I thought I saw something on its head so I grabbed the rangefinder. At 40 yards I confirm it’s a button buck with 2” nubs. He gets a pass. Uneventful rest of the night.

Until I get down. Made it down no problem. Pull rope and everything starts sliding great. Full rope pulls through the quick link at the top and … catches quick link in Y of the tree. I take a few more steps back and the quick link pops loose and … shoots into a Y in the other trunk of this tree. Now no amount of backing up, throwing slack or anything else will get it moving. So I’ve got 40’ of C-IV hanging in the tree tonight until I can go get it tomorrow in the light. I was going to hunt another spot tomorrow afternoon but now that I have to get the rope I might as well go there again right? What’s the worst that can happen.
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Sorry it was such a rough go today. Hopefully the deer gods have smiled on you and you find success tomorrow! Stranger things have happened lol. Good luck! Don't get discouraged I think plenty of us have had our days like this too
 
Thanks gents. This year I have branched out into 2tc and one sticking. I’ve only done each a couple times so I don’t have the routine down yet like I do sticks. There is still something to fight through each trip. That said, the fact I could pivot to a 2tc, had everything I needed ready, and got a hunt out of it is good progress. The hunting part is the easy part for now.
 
Blacksmith said:
My grandson shot a doe last eve w/my 45/70. I like it for kids better than the gut wrenching 12 ga. Shot went through the L. front shoulder and out the R. rear ball joint. Ruined one strap and loin but he was happy w/it.View attachment 96035
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He looks proud as hell to have that deer down. You love to see it!
 
73c367c71af2e7f946114f736a73abd6.jpg


55F on last day of Nov in northern IN? Ok, ill go
 
Take two. Wasn’t going to hunt here again but my rope stuck in the tree last night so I had to come get it. New rope on the one stick meant it held just fine going up the tree today. I think 2tc was faster yesterday but it’s much of a muchness. I was ground to nocked arrow in 15 minutes then had to get my knee pads on and swap repel rope for tether I climbed with. Sitting comfortably about to watch jrb’s video for the exploding hitch so my rope falls straight and not into this crotch again.

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casts_by_fly said:
Take two. Wasn’t going to hunt here again but my rope stuck in the tree last night so I had to come get it. New rope on the one stick meant it held just fine going up the tree today. I think 2tc was faster yesterday but it’s much of a muchness. I was ground to nocked arrow in 15 minutes then had to get my knee pads on and swap repel rope for tether I climbed with. Sitting comfortably about to watch jrb’s video for the exploding hitch so my rope falls straight and not into this crotch again.

View attachment 96054

View attachment 96053
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well the night started well and went downhill. After settling in and sorting the ropes the woods was fairly quiet. Perfect light wind-enough to be consistent and in my favor but not so much to add a chill or much noise. About 45 minutes in I hear that darn squirrel in the thicket to my 6 o’clock. He was there all night last night and I heard him a while tonight. Something made me turn around, just to confirm it was him and sure enough there’s a deer at 50 yards barely creeping in.

side note, when you decide to look behind you, turn left (for a right hand shooter) and not right. I turned right, saw the deer, and was pegged. I needed to now turn 360 degrees, grabbing my bow on the way and I wouldn’t know if the deer was watching me. Luckily for me, there was a significant brush pile and a tree between us plus the deer had no clue I was there.

that same tree line was the path the deer took to get to me. I wasn’t sure which way it would come but I could swing from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock now and have shot windows. The deer made it to 30 yards concealed from me but coming straight on. At 25 yards I thought I saw nubs. He stopped at 22 yards enough I could confirm with the rangefinder that my eyes were telling the truth. When he stopped again at 15 yards broadside I could see the little nubs and knew he was going to walk away. He proceeded to walk through every shooting lane I had from 7:00 to 12:00 on my strong side, all inside 30 yards and all downwind of me. I could have shot him multiple times and he was clueless. When he hit 50 yards something spooked him (not me) and he took off, but weirdly he ran about 200 yards, turned around, ran back at me, turned around again, and took off. Weirdest thing I’ve seen this season. of course that was the only deer of the night.

Once shooting light was done, that’s when the fun started. I packed everything up, dropped it all to the ground, and started down. The repel was great. Hit the ground, undid everything, and started pulling my rope. Prior trips I was hooking the pull down rope next to my quick link but on the running end, not where it’s knotted to the quick link. This time I hooked it right to the knotted side of the ql. The first pull took a little to get it moving and that was fine. It slid down the tree into a crotch but not hung up. There was more friction though so I pulled a bit harder expecting it to start to slide. No, my non weight bearing mini caribeaner broke. Now I’ve got a repel rope in an unknown crotch hooked to an unknown degree of safety, a pull-down rope on the ground that’s about useless, and it’s dark. At least this time I have a usable one stick and a pair of tethers. I decided to 2tc my way up and down and skip repelling. Got hooked to the tree And started moving. About 10’ up I put my weight on the foot tether and my foot went down an extra 6”. Weird. Tether must have slide down the tree. slide it back up, weight on it and watch it- does move but my foot does. The distal on my eye to eye hitch cord was slipping. Not a ton, but just a little. Took late to back out now. Take it easy, keep the slack out of my tether and it will be fine. Retrieved the rope and started down. Made it halfway down (I was 25’ up at hunting height) and the distal was slipping more. At 10’ off the ground I could feel the distal sliding so I sat back down a bit, tried again and it seemed to hold. I slid my top tether down and the distal gave way a bit more. Enough to balance the weight between both tethers. Now my legs are fully straight and I can’t put more weight on them but my ropeman on the top tether is weighted too. The right move would have been to pull my legs up, sort the distal, and reposition. I took the other route, given the height off the ground and fact I was tethered in and pulled the ropeman wire. Turns out with a little effort you can break a ropeman loose that’s under some load. Fortunately the foot tether held and I quickly sorted things out. At that point the drama was done for the night.

I think I’m finding that 2tc is pretty quick and easy compared to where I was before. I’m sure with more reps I’ll sort out one sticking too. Not sure which I like better yet, but I’m always going to have 2tc gear in the bag for every trip. Too useful not to.
 

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casts_by_fly said:
Turns out with a little effort you can break a ropeman loose that’s under some load.
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That is a more than a little concerning for all you mechanical device people here...

Glad you're all good. I would inspect that Distel carefully. Can't say without seeing it but sounds like the cord was glazed, the hitch was tied or dressed incorrectly, or the cord was improperly sized on the rope. Idk. Just wondering from far away.
 
Marmuzz said:
That is a more than a little concerning for all you mechanical device people here...

Glad you're all good. I would inspect that Distel carefully. Can't say without seeing it but sounds like the cord was glazed, the hitch was tied or dressed incorrectly, or the cord was improperly sized on the rope. Idk. Just wondering from far away.
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Just so what I’m saying is clear, the ropeman wasn’t going to break on its own. It was happy as a tight little clamshell gripped on the rope. I pulled very hard on the wire release to crack it open. I also only had about half my weight on it. It was doing its job well.

The distal I do need to check. I’m sure it was my choice of ropes as I had just thrown this one together. It was 8mm accessory cord with 6mm eye to eye from ewo. The eye to eye was only 18” long so my choice of hitches was limited. I grabbed it with a previous order and it wasn’t long enough for my original plan so I put it to this use. I figured a super grippy knot would account for fewer wraps. maybe I ditch it for this and use some real rope. Seeing how much I’m liking 2tc now I might want to put together a better quality set.
 
casts_by_fly said:
well the night started well and went downhill. After settling in and sorting the ropes the woods was fairly quiet. Perfect light wind-enough to be consistent and in my favor but not so much to add a chill or much noise. About 45 minutes in I hear that darn squirrel in the thicket to my 6 o’clock. He was there all night last night and I heard him a while tonight. Something made me turn around, just to confirm it was him and sure enough there’s a deer at 50 yards barely creeping in.

side note, when you decide to look behind you, turn left (for a right hand shooter) and not right. I turned right, saw the deer, and was pegged. I needed to now turn 360 degrees, grabbing my bow on the way and I wouldn’t know if the deer was watching me. Luckily for me, there was a significant brush pile and a tree between us plus the deer had no clue I was there.

that same tree line was the path the deer took to get to me. I wasn’t sure which way it would come but I could swing from 3 o’clock to 9 o’clock now and have shot windows. The deer made it to 30 yards concealed from me but coming straight on. At 25 yards I thought I saw nubs. He stopped at 22 yards enough I could confirm with the rangefinder that my eyes were telling the truth. When he stopped again at 15 yards broadside I could see the little nubs and knew he was going to walk away. He proceeded to walk through every shooting lane I had from 7:00 to 12:00 on my strong side, all inside 30 yards and all downwind of me. I could have shot him multiple times and he was clueless. When he hit 50 yards something spooked him (not me) and he took off, but weirdly he ran about 200 yards, turned around, ran back at me, turned around again, and took off. Weirdest thing I’ve seen this season. of course that was the only deer of the night.

Once shooting light was done, that’s when the fun started. I packed everything up, dropped it all to the ground, and started down. The repel was great. Hit the ground, undid everything, and started pulling my rope. Prior trips I was hooking the pull down rope next to my quick link but on the running end, not where it’s knotted to the quick link. This time I hooked it right to the knotted side of the ql. The first pull took a little to get it moving and that was fine. It slid down the tree into a crotch but not hung up. There was more friction though so I pulled a bit harder expecting it to start to slide. No, my non weight bearing mini caribeaner broke. Now I’ve got a repel rope in an unknown crotch hooked to an unknown degree of safety, a pull-down rope on the ground that’s about useless, and it’s dark. At least this time I have a usable one stick and a pair of tethers. I decided to 2tc my way up and down and skip repelling. Got hooked to the tree And started moving. About 10’ up I put my weight on the foot tether and my foot went down an extra 6”. Weird. Tether must have slide down the tree. slide it back up, weight on it and watch it- does move but my foot does. The distal on my eye to eye hitch cord was slipping. Not a ton, but just a little. Took late to back out now. Take it easy, keep the slack out of my tether and it will be fine. Retrieved the rope and started down. Made it halfway down (I was 25’ up at hunting height) and the distal was slipping more. At 10’ off the ground I could feel the distal sliding so I sat back down a bit, tried again and it seemed to hold. I slid my top tether down and the distal gave way a bit more. Enough to balance the weight between both tethers. Now my legs are fully straight and I can’t put more weight on them but my ropeman on the top tether is weighted too. The right move would have been to pull my legs up, sort the distal, and reposition. I took the other route, given the height off the ground and fact I was tethered in and pulled the ropeman wire. Turns out with a little effort you can break a ropeman loose that’s under some load. Fortunately the foot tether held and I quickly sorted things out. At that point the drama was done for the night.

I think I’m finding that 2tc is pretty quick and easy compared to where I was before. I’m sure with more reps I’ll sort out one sticking too. Not sure which I like better yet, but I’m always going to have 2tc gear in the bag for every trip. Too useful not to.
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Dude, I’ve been there so don’t take this the wrong way but you really need to get your system ironed out at home. You have had way too many slip ups, oopsies, learn on the fly, etc. thanks for sharing your experience, but be safe. Hit someone up from on here to come give you a quick run down if you need to.

I’d want to have 6+ flawless climbs with each method under my belt before hitting the woods for a hunt. You’re gonna keep fighting with gear and it’ll take away from your hunt. Worse you could get seriously hurt. Take a day and learn your systems then go back out and hit it. Or don’t, but be careful lol.
 
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