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New saddle hunting what sticks?

Irondan

New Member
Joined
Jul 31, 2020
Messages
17
Over the past several years I have used a summit climber. Getting into saddle hunting this year. I do not like to use adders except for the bottom stick. I am deciding if I should look at getting 4 hawk helium 30” or try to use 5 to 6 mini sticks. I would rather have the extra weight vs aides. Safety in my mind. Hunt public land and want to be able to get into some thicker areas. Thanks.
 
I like shorter sticks and an aider. EWO, beast sticks, novix, or maybe hawk is what I would consider. 18-20” step to step is what I have preferred, but 22” wasn’t bad either and I’m only 5’7”
 
Hawk Helium minis or the Novix/Trophyline minis are a great budget/beginner recommendation. I use a double step aider on the bottom and 4 sticks and can get plenty high enough.
 
Over the past several years I have used a summit climber. Getting into saddle hunting this year. I do not like to use adders except for the bottom stick. I am deciding if I should look at getting 4 hawk helium 30” or try to use 5 to 6 mini sticks. I would rather have the extra weight vs aides. Safety in my mind. Hunt public land and want to be able to get into some thicker areas. Thanks.

How will you carry your sticks? How much foot room do you need? Do you need doublestep sticks or will single do?
 
How are you going to pack them? I ran 4 full helium's last year. Set the first. Set the second on top. Clipped the other 2 into my saddle. Climbed and set as I went. 18 foot or so is what I usually ended up at.
With more sticks you have more to clip, or just have to go up and down the tree. Also more rope or straps to tie up at the end of the hunt.
Few things to consider.
 
I want to go with a double stick. I tried the lone wolf with a hang on. Just want the added step fo climbing down at night. Looking at buying a decent backpack to carry the sticks. I usually walk in 1 to 1.5 miles into public land.
 
It’s really hard to beat mini sticks, I would much rather pack 6 mini sticks than 4 full length, going through thick stuff is so much easier with the minis, best thing to do is give us an idea of what platform you wana try if your going to even use a platform and maybe we can give you some better help, having a system that packs down small and doesn’t loosen up on the walk in is king in my opinion, especially on long hikes, open farm country or something it’s not as important maybe but beating brush and woods for a couple miles is another thing.
 
I want to go with a double stick. I tried the lone wolf with a hang on. Just want the added step fo climbing down at night. Looking at buying a decent backpack to carry the sticks. I usually walk in 1 to 1.5 miles into public land.

If you are going with Hawk either way, look how they stack.

3 minis are quite long, so you kind of lose the main advantage of minis. 6 minis is a long and wide stack.
 
I like the stacked outdoors sticks. They have good wide steps to stand on and they stick out a little further from the tree. In my mind they are as good as a mini platform


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Beast minis with cable aiders. Use 3 or 4 sticks depending how high you want to be.
X2 on this... was on the same boat... summit climber for years. Tried a few different iterations on sticks, cayg aiders, etc... love the beast sticks (though running the full size) with cable aiders... like being able to step down in the dark and know that step is there and open. Carry 4 sticks with cable aiders, 90% I'm only using 3. That being said, been toying with 1 sticking and have an SRT kit is like to utilize more.
 
As @MattMan81 said, 6 sticks is a LOT to manage on your climb.
I think you’d have to make a couple trips up and down. If you set the first 2 and then try to go up with 4 others hanging off of your saddle, I imagine you’d sound like a wind chime with the sticks clanking together.

I have the Hawk mini’s and really like them. I purchased them initially, like others to save some money(it’s pricey getting into the saddle game) and they’ve worked well enough. However, if I could do it over again, I would have bought some beast mini’s up front and just did the ‘buy once, cry once’ thing. I think the EWO’s would be a close second, but how they stack keeps them from being as good as the beast in my opinion.There are several in depth comparison videos on YouTube for sticks that I’d definitely look at as well.
 
I have used 6 diy cut-down heliums quite a bit, along with aiders to up between 35-40 ft

I stack them in a single big stack and tightly strap them together and then strap to my pack vertically for the walk or ride in

As several above have stated :
-it’s a lot to manage
-risk them clanging like wind chimes

I am climbing high in some huge pines and had a lot of limbs to get around

I carefully separate them all at the bottom of the tree and spread them out so they don’t accidentally get knocked into each other

I’m normally where deer should be able to hear while bedded and see me if they’re standing up so I stay on the backside of the tree and go very slow and scan with binos often

I do multiple trips of 2 sticks at a time

I will get more sweaty climbing up and down but it allows me to get set up without as much risk of banging metal noise that blows out the deer

On the last trip with top 2 sticks I’ll bring my platform , get it set along with my gear hangers and tether

then climb down again and get my weapon and pack

It’s time consuming and sweaty in FL heat but it has me seeing and shooting bucks


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Personally I have 2 sets of sticks. 4 full size Beast Sticks with cable aider and 4 EWO Ultralight Double Sticks 20" without any aider. Both sets work fantastic but of course I had to jump on the One Sticking bandwagon and couldn't be happier. So much more light weight and once you practice enough its a no brainer in my eyes.

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Pending on the price point and preference of the variations but I love my xop short sticks. I run a fixed 2 step aider on the bottom stick and with that I can reach 18 feet comfortably and that’s fully dressed in mid rut attire. Then if I use my cayg aider i can get 23ish. All my buddies have high end sticks but I could never swallow the pill and spend the money. The only down fall to them is the single step but if you’re looking to stay relatively cheap and want a double step one of my friends just got the trophy line double step sticks and when it’s time to upgrade I believe that’ll be the route I go
 
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