3lilpigs
Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2021
- Messages
- 43
Disclaimer: I'm a newbie. I dig SRT climbing when I can pre-set, and I like my WE Stepps. And beyond that, I've only ever hunted from ladder stands or on the ground. So my experience is limited. But these things are a game changer for me.
The bad: They're kinda pricey, when you look at the three pieces of material. A little machined aluminum, a little amsteel, a buckle. $23.99 if you buy it pre-made, $15.61 if you do the assembly work yourself. Not entirely unreasonable, but $240 = a 10-step set = approximately 15-20 feet up a tree. And right now the pre-made ones are out of stock, so you can only buy the DIY kits. And while the DIY is easy work, holy CRAP is it tedious. 29 or 30 locked brummels and two 8" buries for each step. I have seven made so far. Each one takes a little bit less than an hour now that I've got it down. People who struggle with "DIY" should probably just forget it. In fact, unless you're a skinflint like me or have some other design in mind for the amsteel sling, the extra money for the pre-made version is more than worth it. And that's the only bad thing I can say: it took more money and time than would be perfect.
The good: It's light. It's quiet. It's easy. It's small. On trees with crumbly bark that made it difficult to use my WE Stepps, these things did fine. In my neck of the woods, Live oaks and Slash or Longleaf pines dominate. My Stepps don't do well when the tree bark is over an inch thick and all too happy to break loose. After watching several videos and using some new (to me) methods, the Pioneer Steps were ridiculously easy. Aside from maybe SRT climbing in a pre-set tree, this was the fastest that I've ever gotten up to hunting height. It was definitely the easiest. In fact, even my wife was able to easily use them. I had previously introduced her to the Stepps and SRT climbing. She did OK, but struggled. With the Pioneer Steps Minimalist system, she easily got up the tree and back down. I'm not really sure how to convey how excited I am about these things. They're just so ridiculously easy to carry and deploy.
Not good, not bad, but you should know: Watch the dang videos. There's a bit of a knack to these things that's super easy if you know the tricks, but I could imagine someone trying them with no prior direction and having a REALLY bad time. They do swing out to the sides a bit if you don't use them right. And the guy in the video tends to use the center of his boot (in the arch of his foot) on the steps, but I did better using the balls of my feet. Also, I had to use and trust my linesman's belt more than ever before. I struggled a little at first, because I was hugging the tree to climb and then leaning out into the belt. But by just hanging onto the belt and flipping it up the tree, I was able to use only my legs to climb. Much easier. Another thing-- some climbing methods including the WE Stepps have "cheat codes". With a little more work using the Cain or Modified Cain (or other) method, you can get 2-3 times the height gains from each move. I can't imagine getting more than about 2 feet from each Pioneer step, and that's if you're quite tall or limber. You WILL need one Pioneer step for each step up the tree.
Overall: If you can't tell, I'm in love with these things. I fell in love with them watching the initial videos, and was amazed to learn that they are every bit as easy as they're portrayed in the vids. My fingers hurt from hours of putting them together, and my wallet hurts from buying something that I had to spend so much time putting together. Other than that, I feel like I'm running up trees now. I'll definitely keep at least one WE Stepp to hold my Perch platform. And there's gonna be a wiggly tree or two each season that justifies keeping the other 7 Stepps in my set. But if I can't single-rope my way up a tree, I'm going to Pioneer up.
The bad: They're kinda pricey, when you look at the three pieces of material. A little machined aluminum, a little amsteel, a buckle. $23.99 if you buy it pre-made, $15.61 if you do the assembly work yourself. Not entirely unreasonable, but $240 = a 10-step set = approximately 15-20 feet up a tree. And right now the pre-made ones are out of stock, so you can only buy the DIY kits. And while the DIY is easy work, holy CRAP is it tedious. 29 or 30 locked brummels and two 8" buries for each step. I have seven made so far. Each one takes a little bit less than an hour now that I've got it down. People who struggle with "DIY" should probably just forget it. In fact, unless you're a skinflint like me or have some other design in mind for the amsteel sling, the extra money for the pre-made version is more than worth it. And that's the only bad thing I can say: it took more money and time than would be perfect.
The good: It's light. It's quiet. It's easy. It's small. On trees with crumbly bark that made it difficult to use my WE Stepps, these things did fine. In my neck of the woods, Live oaks and Slash or Longleaf pines dominate. My Stepps don't do well when the tree bark is over an inch thick and all too happy to break loose. After watching several videos and using some new (to me) methods, the Pioneer Steps were ridiculously easy. Aside from maybe SRT climbing in a pre-set tree, this was the fastest that I've ever gotten up to hunting height. It was definitely the easiest. In fact, even my wife was able to easily use them. I had previously introduced her to the Stepps and SRT climbing. She did OK, but struggled. With the Pioneer Steps Minimalist system, she easily got up the tree and back down. I'm not really sure how to convey how excited I am about these things. They're just so ridiculously easy to carry and deploy.
Not good, not bad, but you should know: Watch the dang videos. There's a bit of a knack to these things that's super easy if you know the tricks, but I could imagine someone trying them with no prior direction and having a REALLY bad time. They do swing out to the sides a bit if you don't use them right. And the guy in the video tends to use the center of his boot (in the arch of his foot) on the steps, but I did better using the balls of my feet. Also, I had to use and trust my linesman's belt more than ever before. I struggled a little at first, because I was hugging the tree to climb and then leaning out into the belt. But by just hanging onto the belt and flipping it up the tree, I was able to use only my legs to climb. Much easier. Another thing-- some climbing methods including the WE Stepps have "cheat codes". With a little more work using the Cain or Modified Cain (or other) method, you can get 2-3 times the height gains from each move. I can't imagine getting more than about 2 feet from each Pioneer step, and that's if you're quite tall or limber. You WILL need one Pioneer step for each step up the tree.
Overall: If you can't tell, I'm in love with these things. I fell in love with them watching the initial videos, and was amazed to learn that they are every bit as easy as they're portrayed in the vids. My fingers hurt from hours of putting them together, and my wallet hurts from buying something that I had to spend so much time putting together. Other than that, I feel like I'm running up trees now. I'll definitely keep at least one WE Stepp to hold my Perch platform. And there's gonna be a wiggly tree or two each season that justifies keeping the other 7 Stepps in my set. But if I can't single-rope my way up a tree, I'm going to Pioneer up.