I’m trying to reduce the amount of rope and tangles I need to manage in my setup. I love mobile hunting but the endless options and time/money investing in different things that end up not being for me can make it feel like a grind. It may also be partly due to the fact that it’s late season and messing with paracord and daisy chains isn’t fun in 20 degree weather.
I started with 4 sticks with buckle straps until I encountered a tree too wide for the straps and was told to try daisy chain amsteel (I forget who makes it). It’s long enough to get around bigger trees. This was fine until I knocked a stick off climbing down and had to bear hug the tree and inch down with my lineman’s rope. That was the last time I climbed down on sticks using amsteel. Went out and bought 3 beast sticks and a 3 step aider for the bottom stick and invested in a rappel setup so I have the option to one stick or climb multiple sticks and not have to worry about climbing down. This is where I’m at now. I’m still using the amsteel daisy chains on my sticks and don’t have to worry about sticks kicking out climbing down but now I have to deal with managing multiple ropes and fidgeting with a million things. I think in the early season it isn’t bad but once the rut comes in and temps start to get cold it’s a pain in the *** managing the amount of stuff I’m using. I wanted to list my climbing gear and see if anyone can help me come up with a better plan on reducing the amount of rope and fidget factor.
- 3 beast stick minis with amsteel daisy chains used with a 3 step aider that I use for the bottom stick to climb multiple sticks or to one stick. Using daisy chain to one stick kind of sucks so I’m looking into possible beast stick mods.
-rappel line, quick link and madrock. I’m fine with keeping this.
- 35’ paracord with S carabiners on each end that I use as a multi purpose rope to haul my bow up/down on one end and hook into my tether locker to retrieve my rappel line. This is almost always a nightmare to deal with because regardless how I roll it up it almost always gets tangled. I tried smaller width dyneema line for this but it knotted up just as much and the smaller diameter made it more of a pain to untangle. I really need to use a new method to haul my bow/retrieve my tether.
-tethrd predator platform + 3 treehopper steps on an ocb strap. Most likely going to eliminate the platform as a primary method and run more steps or possible ditch all my sticks for an EWO ultimate one stick that I run with my ROS.
I really think my biggest issue is my climbing method/stick accessories and my means of hauling my bow/retrieving my line. I apologize for being so long winded I just wanted to include what hasn’t worked for me with what in currently using to give you a better idea of what I could do differently. Any input would be appreciated!
I started with 4 sticks with buckle straps until I encountered a tree too wide for the straps and was told to try daisy chain amsteel (I forget who makes it). It’s long enough to get around bigger trees. This was fine until I knocked a stick off climbing down and had to bear hug the tree and inch down with my lineman’s rope. That was the last time I climbed down on sticks using amsteel. Went out and bought 3 beast sticks and a 3 step aider for the bottom stick and invested in a rappel setup so I have the option to one stick or climb multiple sticks and not have to worry about climbing down. This is where I’m at now. I’m still using the amsteel daisy chains on my sticks and don’t have to worry about sticks kicking out climbing down but now I have to deal with managing multiple ropes and fidgeting with a million things. I think in the early season it isn’t bad but once the rut comes in and temps start to get cold it’s a pain in the *** managing the amount of stuff I’m using. I wanted to list my climbing gear and see if anyone can help me come up with a better plan on reducing the amount of rope and fidget factor.
- 3 beast stick minis with amsteel daisy chains used with a 3 step aider that I use for the bottom stick to climb multiple sticks or to one stick. Using daisy chain to one stick kind of sucks so I’m looking into possible beast stick mods.
-rappel line, quick link and madrock. I’m fine with keeping this.
- 35’ paracord with S carabiners on each end that I use as a multi purpose rope to haul my bow up/down on one end and hook into my tether locker to retrieve my rappel line. This is almost always a nightmare to deal with because regardless how I roll it up it almost always gets tangled. I tried smaller width dyneema line for this but it knotted up just as much and the smaller diameter made it more of a pain to untangle. I really need to use a new method to haul my bow/retrieve my tether.
-tethrd predator platform + 3 treehopper steps on an ocb strap. Most likely going to eliminate the platform as a primary method and run more steps or possible ditch all my sticks for an EWO ultimate one stick that I run with my ROS.
I really think my biggest issue is my climbing method/stick accessories and my means of hauling my bow/retrieving my line. I apologize for being so long winded I just wanted to include what hasn’t worked for me with what in currently using to give you a better idea of what I could do differently. Any input would be appreciated!
