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Made a Big Mistake Yesterday

J

JBDCPA

Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2021
Messages
75
We don't usually get cold weather here in TN until mid/late Jan to early Feb and our deer season is over the first Sunday of January. It has dipped into the high 20s low 30s and the deer are moving. I decided to take advantage and hunted yesterday. I only shoot does and bumped a group of 3, another group of 3 and one by itself getting to my spot.

I hung on the side of the tree opposite where I thought they'd come from (facing the deer and tree) so I could use the tree to hide. About 4PM 3 doe and a buck show up. Somehow I hung on the low side. The tree looked like it went up straight but the ground sloped downward behind me. I didn't think it would be that much of a difference or especially that drastic but it was a miserable hang. I fought gravity the whole sit and with so many deer around me I was lucky to get up in a tree at all so I just couldn't see moving trees or even moving to the other side of the tree.

I could sit and I could lean but adjusting anything was a pain. Whenever I stood up and had slack in my line I had to hold on or have weight on my prussik, so adjusting my prussik was almost impossible. I'm still learning this process so I'm making notes in the old memory bank. I just hate I burned a prime hunting day. Friday is my bday and my family and friends have my weekend booked and hunting isn't in there.
 
A swabish or other hitch might make adjusting the hitch easier, but may not grab quite as hard as the old school prusik. Otherwise, live and learn and enjoy the learning and time in the woods (and hopefully with family and friends too!) happy early birthday btw


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Swabisch hitch with a tender is your solution.
Maybe something like this one.
genesis3dprinting.com

Figure Aider

Introducing Figure Aiders: the product that started it all. These 3D-printed tenders enable you to effortlessly adjust the friction hitches on your tether and lineman's rope with just one hand. Crafted to be non-weight bearing, they ensure safety and reliability in your setup. There are two...
genesis3dprinting.com
 
I feel your pain. Our baby girl shares your birthday. Always falls on opening of TN black powder. Cold weather here and I won’t be in the woods. Oh well.
 
I keep a second tether for leaders. Girth hitch second tether at waist height, connect to second bridge and adjust with michiocon w/tender.
 
I keep a second tether for leaders. Girth hitch second tether at waist height, connect to second bridge and adjust with michiocon w/tender.
Old squirrel said:
I keep a second tether for leaders. Girth hitch second tether at waist height, connect to second bridge and adjust with michiocon w/tender.
Click to expand...
Leaners, stupid spell check.
 
Thanks for the happy bdays, ‘predicate it.

Dont feel too bad for me on this weekend. I guess it’s my fault for making it sound worse, although my Cruzr saddle is a new toy so you want to play with it as much as possible. Friday night is with family but Saturday and Sunday my two best friends and I are hammock camping on the lake and kayak bass fishing all weekend.

One thing I did yesterday was reconnect my lineman rope in order to lean on it and adjust my prussik. I did draw my bow that way and did not feel comfortable shooting.
 
Happy birthday! Before I retired I always took my birthday off from work for me! You should get a little time for you.
 
rutjr said:
Happy birthday! Before I retired I always took my birthday off from work for me! You should get a little time for you.
Click to expand...
I agree but I can’t complain at all. I’m very blessed. I’ve owned my own CPA firm since 1998 and married to my sweetheart for 25 years along with two awesome children 19 & 12. The four of us have a blast together. We’re not TV people and they love to hike so we might just wake up in the morning and pick a place cool to hike. We enjoy each other’s company. I couldn’t ask for much more.
 
JBDCPA said:
We don't usually get cold weather here in TN until mid/late Jan to early Feb and our deer season is over the first Sunday of January. It has dipped into the high 20s low 30s and the deer are moving. I decided to take advantage and hunted yesterday. I only shoot does and bumped a group of 3, another group of 3 and one by itself getting to my spot.

I hung on the side of the tree opposite where I thought they'd come from (facing the deer and tree) so I could use the tree to hide. About 4PM 3 doe and a buck show up. Somehow I hung on the low side. The tree looked like it went up straight but the ground sloped downward behind me. I didn't think it would be that much of a difference or especially that drastic but it was a miserable hang. I fought gravity the whole sit and with so many deer around me I was lucky to get up in a tree at all so I just couldn't see moving trees or even moving to the other side of the tree.

I could sit and I could lean but adjusting anything was a pain. Whenever I stood up and had slack in my line I had to hold on or have weight on my prussik, so adjusting my prussik was almost impossible. I'm still learning this process so I'm making notes in the old memory bank. I just hate I burned a prime hunting day. Friday is my bday and my family and friends have my weekend booked and hunting isn't in there.
Click to expand...
It's your birthday go hunting!!!!!
 
JBDCPA said:
I agree but I can’t complain at all. I’m very blessed. I’ve owned my own CPA firm since 1998 and married to my sweetheart for 25 years along with two awesome children 19 & 12. The four of us have a blast together. We’re not TV people and they love to hike so we might just wake up in the morning and pick a place cool to hike. We enjoy each other’s company. I couldn’t ask for much more.
Click to expand...

Setup to hunt. Give them your GPS coordinates. Tell them where to start and have them hike to your location. Boom... Family deer drive...err, uh... Game of hide and seek. Or maybe it's "seek a hide"...I dunno, but you could definitely spin this to your advantage. :p
 
JBDCPA said:
We don't usually get cold weather here in TN until mid/late Jan to early Feb and our deer season is over the first Sunday of January. It has dipped into the high 20s low 30s and the deer are moving. I decided to take advantage and hunted yesterday. I only shoot does and bumped a group of 3, another group of 3 and one by itself getting to my spot.

I hung on the side of the tree opposite where I thought they'd come from (facing the deer and tree) so I could use the tree to hide. About 4PM 3 doe and a buck show up. Somehow I hung on the low side. The tree looked like it went up straight but the ground sloped downward behind me. I didn't think it would be that much of a difference or especially that drastic but it was a miserable hang. I fought gravity the whole sit and with so many deer around me I was lucky to get up in a tree at all so I just couldn't see moving trees or even moving to the other side of the tree.

I could sit and I could lean but adjusting anything was a pain. Whenever I stood up and had slack in my line I had to hold on or have weight on my prussik, so adjusting my prussik was almost impossible. I'm still learning this process so I'm making notes in the old memory bank. I just hate I burned a prime hunting day. Friday is my bday and my family and friends have my weekend booked and hunting isn't in there.
Click to expand...
Happy Birthday! Gravity what a pain. I've been on that side of the tree before and I'm sure I'll be on it again. It limits your ability to move and it can reduce your "good" shot options, not to mention comfort.
 
Weldabeast said:
Live and learn....the more trees u climb the better u get at picking the good 1s...
Fri with the family then go hunting and get new friends
Click to expand...

This is the truth. I have a tendency to not get high enough. My first saddle and Public land buck was Columbus day. Misty crappy rain and about 3:30 here comes this buck from my left side. He came out of a thicket at about 20 yards. I grab the bow and the release but by then he is 5 yards. Sees me and blows, runs 20 yards behind a tree. While this is going on I drew in case he stopped. His vitals were behind a pine tree where he was 20 yards broadside, he actually stepped back to peek from behind the tree and that was it. The tree was good but I needed to get higher.

Wednesday evening I was on a steep hill hunting a sliver on my private land. The hill forced me to get higher than I normally do, but I am getting used to that now. Found a really good double tree and got up to like 25 feet since I was expecting them to come from the uphill side. Had a buck come behind me in my downwind path. Think I was high enough that my wind was going over the top and not settling where he was.

Since saddle hunting, my tactics, game plans, and hunting styles have shifted. I am seeing 10x more deer than I use to. I use to just find a tree and go for it. I am now taking more time to really find the best tree and it seems this has worked out to my advantage more than once. I have gotten halfway up and realized this is not going to work well to find a better tree.
 
n6dlh said:
This is the truth. I have a tendency to not get high enough. My first saddle and Public land buck was Columbus day. Misty crappy rain and about 3:30 here comes this buck from my left side. He came out of a thicket at about 20 yards. I grab the bow and the release but by then he is 5 yards. Sees me and blows, runs 20 yards behind a tree. While this is going on I drew in case he stopped. His vitals were behind a pine tree where he was 20 yards broadside, he actually stepped back to peek from behind the tree and that was it. The tree was good but I needed to get higher.

Wednesday evening I was on a steep hill hunting a sliver on my private land. The hill forced me to get higher than I normally do, but I am getting used to that now. Found a really good double tree and got up to like 25 feet since I was expecting them to come from the uphill side. Had a buck come behind me in my downwind path. Think I was high enough that my wind was going over the top and not settling where he was.

Since saddle hunting, my tactics, game plans, and hunting styles have shifted. I am seeing 10x more deer than I use to. I use to just find a tree and go for it. I am now taking more time to really find the best tree and it seems this has worked out to my advantage more than once. I have gotten halfway up and realized this is not going to work well to find a better tree.
Click to expand...
I will do the same thing myself. I'm so used to a climber that I'll look around and if I feel I need to go higher I just keep going. My achilles heel is carrying sticks in, hanging sticks, taking sticks down and carrying them out. I've gotten a lot better at it and streamlined it much more now, but what i still need to be conscious of is the gap between my sticks. I have 4 sticks, prefer to carry only 3, and I will short change myself some heighth not paying attention to my stick gap.

I'm very flexible so I can step high but I find myself not paying attention. I'll put a stick "x" high and think it's good and rarely compensate for it sliding down 6-7" when it bites. I'll get on my platform and look down and it looks like one big stick. LOL!
 
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