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Piece together or buy the kits offered?

R

RickyBobby

New Member
Joined
Jun 2, 2019
Messages
15
After reading many threads on here I come to realize there are tons of choices of gear. I am wondering for my initial setup, should i piece together or buy one of the saddle kits from the manufacturer?
Kits from say, aero hunter...seem to offer most everything needed to get started. Then upgrade from there (ropeman 1 seems to be a popular choice).
Is there anything (besides stand/steps) that would be essential to compete these kits?
 
I think you will be well served with what Aero Hunter or Tethrd have in their starter kits. You will need some way to get to hunting height and there are a lot of choices Sticks, Wild Edge steps, Treehopper drill with bolts on and on it goes, it's nice to have choices. If you are not sure if saddle hunting is for you, you might want to watch the classifieds and save some money on gear. Whatever you decide welcome aboard.
 
Echo what Slydog said. I think you'd be better off getting a kit. Then you can figure out what you like and don't like and go from there. You can always sell the tether and linemans belt later to fund your upgrades.
 
I spent a lot of time on this site, YouTube and a couple of archery magazines. I finally decided on Areo Hunter and WE steps. I did buy the kit because I felt for a beginner this would have everything I would need to get started. Only have so much cash to spend at one time on this so buying the essentials. Next year expand to platforms, rope an etc.
 
Last year was my first season. I bought everything from tethrd and a set of WE stepps. I dont regret anything. It was expensive but here I am a year later and I dont have to buy a single piece of gear for the upcoming season.

As far as the ropeman 1...buy it. It's awesome for a linemans belt as a begginer. The tether doesn't get adjusted much so you could always put that one on hold.

If theres something you dont like you can easily sell it in the classifieds. If it's high quality stuff you can usually sell it for very close to your original purchase price within a day or two.
 
I order the WE steps about 3/4 weeks ago.
I still plan on using my climbing stand some. But certain places on public land... It doesn't work well or it's just to heavy for anything more than a mile walk. If I can cut the 17+ lbs down to ten or so, and not have this giant stand hanging on my back...it's worth the try.
Since my birthday coming up, it is also easier to send the wife a website of the kit, verses the individual pieces. So with y'alls advice, that is now my game plan.
 
Another vote for buying the kit.
1st off, it will be something that has been proven from a safety standpoint. When a noobie starts putting together his own mods, there's a chance that what he's trying to accomplish has been tried already and proven not to work for some reason or another.
Another reason to get the kit is if you find out saddles are not for you, a unaltered kit will be much easier to sell.
Many mods are great but IMO, mods should emerge and evolve as saddle experience progresses.
That being said, buying something like a Ropeman 1 is a good idea. They tend to become hard to get from time to time. If you wait until, say September to try to get a R1, you may have a lot of trouble finding one. If you get it now, there's nothing that says you have to use it right away. Put it in your box of stuff until you are comfortable to safely use it, then you'll have it. If you decide you don't want it, you should have no trouble selling it. BTW, don't remove labels, safety tags, etc until you decide to use it. Removing tags makes it harder to sell as "new" later.
 
I just went through this myself and actually said "man I wasted a bunch of time I should have just gotten the kit". I thought I would save a lot of money, and at the end of the day I have spent right about what a kit would have cost. One positive was I did learn a lot more by piecing the components myself. Had I just bought the kit I would have no idea on the strength ratings required, what size a prussik should be in comparison to the size of the rope that it is on, where to get the ropes, etc.
 
Wasp said:
I did learn a lot more by piecing the components myself. Had I just bought the kit I would have no idea on the strength ratings required, what size a prussik should be in comparison to the size of the rope that it is on, where to get the ropes, etc.
Click to expand...

This!!!! This right here is why I pieced together my stuff vs buying a kit.
 
NikoTheBowHunter said:
This!!!! This right here is why I pieced together my stuff vs buying a kit.
Click to expand...

At the same time you can still learn all of that while hunting from a complete safe set up purchased from one of the companies without the added pressure of a mistake in that learning process getting you hurt.

Most people won't have a problem peicing together their own stuff but I have seen too many references to Paracord bridges and prusiks to make that recommendation to anyone new to saddle hunting.
 
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