mprooch
Active Member
Disclaimer: I'm a new saddle hunter, but not new to ropes, knots, climbing equipment, etc. Granted, it's been many, many years since playing with climbing equipment. I've slowly been acquiring SRT gear to RADS/yo-yo and was dead set on getting any one of the popular capture devices figuring I'd go with friction knots, rappel down with a figure 8, etc.
Saw beal birdies on sale somewhere and figured why not try it. Just played with it in the yard for an hour and it's amazing. It's so easy to go up and down and it's kinda nice not to have to change over anything or use a separate tether. Even taking my time, it seems so much faster and less effort than setting up four sticks. I do hear what others are saying about picking out spots and challenges of catching limbs/girth hitching trunks when out on hunts. I can see that and it being a challenge to stay quiet. I definitely will spend the off season putting up some preset loops. I'm also leery that I can always get my SRT rope to be at the 'right height' so will keep a tether in my kit, just in case it's needed.
Planning on building a one-stick set up this winter, too. Figure having both in your arsenal can't be a bad thing, but unless there just aren't trees suitable for SRT, I can't see going up and down any other way. I'm not ultralight obsessed but having a kit that weighs this little is going to be awesome.
And for the safety officers that will chime in: Tying in an overhand on a bite below and using a kleimemheist above the birdie at hunting height and will tie into an autoblock attached to lineman's loop on descent. Based on what I saw in the yard, I'm not sure that's all necessary. I'm using 10.5 mm glider climbing rope. Ascending on a petzl left hander with a premade foot loop. Didn't have any issues with the birdie catching damn near immediately when testing it out at ground level but I like to not make noises like splat or other similar sounds if falling uncontrollably from 18+ feet.
Just a little bit of the season left here. Looking forward to trying it out in the field here soon.
Saw beal birdies on sale somewhere and figured why not try it. Just played with it in the yard for an hour and it's amazing. It's so easy to go up and down and it's kinda nice not to have to change over anything or use a separate tether. Even taking my time, it seems so much faster and less effort than setting up four sticks. I do hear what others are saying about picking out spots and challenges of catching limbs/girth hitching trunks when out on hunts. I can see that and it being a challenge to stay quiet. I definitely will spend the off season putting up some preset loops. I'm also leery that I can always get my SRT rope to be at the 'right height' so will keep a tether in my kit, just in case it's needed.
Planning on building a one-stick set up this winter, too. Figure having both in your arsenal can't be a bad thing, but unless there just aren't trees suitable for SRT, I can't see going up and down any other way. I'm not ultralight obsessed but having a kit that weighs this little is going to be awesome.
And for the safety officers that will chime in: Tying in an overhand on a bite below and using a kleimemheist above the birdie at hunting height and will tie into an autoblock attached to lineman's loop on descent. Based on what I saw in the yard, I'm not sure that's all necessary. I'm using 10.5 mm glider climbing rope. Ascending on a petzl left hander with a premade foot loop. Didn't have any issues with the birdie catching damn near immediately when testing it out at ground level but I like to not make noises like splat or other similar sounds if falling uncontrollably from 18+ feet.
Just a little bit of the season left here. Looking forward to trying it out in the field here soon.
