Revisions to ur system

[Andrew920]

Last year was my first year bow hunting and saddle hunting so seems like I’m changing pretty much everything.
1. New sight for my bow. Dual trac hopefully will have me fiddling less than my old single pin slider.
2. New Latitude carbon ss sticks
3. New pursuit platform
4. New way of shooting in the off season. Joined a 3D league, so I’ll mix that with just plain old marksmanship practice on bag targets.
5. Upgrading my cold weather gear to Sitka Fanatic
6. Upgrading broadheads from V2 Strikers to Evolution Outdoors Jekyll Dangerous Game for hopefully better blood trails.
7. Got a madrock and rappel rope

 

[CZMark]

I bought a Wood saddle, will be my go-to this year. Also bought a new Linesman's belt and some hitch cords. Finally, I'm re-fletching my arrows with Q2 Rapt-X vanes.

The only thing I planned to purchase were the vanes, the others were "impulse purchases". Really, I needed another saddle like a hole in the head, but I think the Wood saddle was a good purchase.

 

[Lucky13]

I bought a Ridge Runner 2.0... I have no idea if I'm going to like it but it will be a back up for my Fix.
My love hate relationship with filming hunts will continue but this year things will be drastically trimmed down to my cell phone on the pocket arm and a gopro. Everything else is dialed in. Its taken me years and lots of cash to feel that way but I'll be going into this season with confidence in all my gear. The next few months I'll be shooting my bow and looking forward to seeing trail cam pics.

 

[HuskerInIowa]

I bought a Ridge Runner 2.0... I have no idea if I'm going to like it but it will be a back up for my Fix.
My love hate relationship with filming hunts will continue but this year things will be drastically trimmed down to my cell phone on the pocket arm and a gopro. Everything else is dialed in. Its taken me years and lots of cash to feel that way but I'll be going into this season with confidence in all my gear. The next few months I'll be shooting my bow and looking forward to seeing trail cam pics.

Always curious about filming; is the hate you focus too much on getting the camera right and less on the hunt itself?

 

[Lucky13]

Always curious about filming; is the hate you focus too much on getting the camera right and less on the hunt itself?

That definitely plays a part but for me it's more of lugging all the weight of everything in and out. Then there's the extra movement, batteries going dead, rain, editing, etc.. The past few years it starts out strong then as the season wears on I find myself leaving the camera at home.

 

[coolhand78]

This is my 5th year saddle hunting, and always tweaked, upgraded, or modified a few things each year. I climb with Wild Edge stepps, now with a knaider, because I value their packability and versatility. Changes/upgrades I've made over the years included switching to the Predator platform from a ring of stepps, upgrading my Mantis with a Cruzr adjustable bridge, using the Latitude Gear Strap which makes everything more convenient, the PSH attachment for my Predator, and switching to 8mm ropes. My only change this year is finally switching from the Mantis to a Wood Deluxe saddle. I made due with the Mantis for years, and the adjustable bridge made a big difference. However, I'm already confident the Wood is my most significant upgrade yet. All day sits will be a piece of cake.

 

[Weldabeast]

I have 5 arrows to build but they aren't changing. I added a dedicated blood trailing light. I added a tender that lives on my saddle i us while rappelling. Got some new liner socks.....the system hasn't changed....just constant refinement/fine tuning. I just replacing components/consumables. It's nice to have the system dialed and well practiced. Makes for a much smoother, more enjoyable hunt season

 

[Horn]

How are the Shikar minis for u?

I haven't used them a ton yet, mixed bag right now. I have one with a scout and cam cleat, the other 2 double steps and a versa button. Both from the classifieds.

The scout with cam cleat is harder to set, not impossible but it doesn't get really tight so it's not very stable. Sketchy in my opinion. The jury is still out on that one.

The double steps with a normal platform strap is awesome! Easy to set tight, nice bite and is stable. The OOAL aider is pretty nice. No complaints, I'll probably end up with another one like this.

 

[deertrout]

For me its-
1.) Switching from 4 sticks to 1
2.) Switching from mission to edp platform
3.) Repurposing a tripod leg into a stake for my whitetail decoy instead of the full length stake I was using so it collapses down small enough to fit in my platow pack.
4.) Upgrading my K2 pack to a K4

 

[Nosaj]

This will be my 4th season hunting from my saddle and I think I finally have things dialed in, wait I take that back, I bought new boots. I am going away from my mucks and trying something with more support and a stiffer sole.
I was this close to not buying anything new....where is that saddle hunters support thread

 

[TheBlindCat]

1. Latitude SS sticks from my mini beast sticks.
2. I haven’t had a shot on an animal with my Herters long bow and being not center shot and 65lbs unrealistically shouldn’t shoot 12 yards with it. I’m much better with my Kodiak Magnum so I can take that 20 yard shot but would like to keep it to 15 yards.
3. Switching back to a bow mounted quiver. Started with that my first year but feathers kept getting wet even with a fletching cover. My Alpha tube quiver is great, it’s just fiddly mounted on the side of a backpack. It’s either mounted too high and hits brush or too low and makes setting the bag down akward. But the Gateway waterproofing powder seems to work well and I’m going to try Ozarks “Water poof”.
4. I’m going to try hunting off the ground some with a Pac Seat and Sapper Kill suit. I didn’t do enough active scouting in season last year. I’m going to try a bit more roving, scouting good tree locations during season while carrying the chair.

 

[Jammintree]

I have a number of pieces of gear that I’ve upgraded.

i built USA rope mods for my climbing sticks and addd a D loop tender.

I’m in the process of searching for a pack with more carrying capacity and comfort. I Have a really nice day pack currently and love how it’s layed out, but once the weather gets cold it’s just not big enough to carry everything in a reasonable way - there’s only so much stuff you can strap to the outside of your pack before you start getting hung up on every stick In the woods.

Going in to this season, one of my goals is to be more deliberate and methodical in my approach and pursuit. I plan to only go to spots when the conditions are prime for success. And if there are days when I can hunt and the conditions aren’t ideal I will either stay home and get things done or go somewhere completely new.

 

[BTaylor]

It doesnt seem like most are big changes, more fine tuning for efficiency or reducing weight. For the first year in a long freaking time I cant say that. I have or am making a lot of changes that include:
How and where I boot and e-scout
How I plan to hunt
Where I plan to hunt
One for sure and likely 2 out of state whitetail hunts. Havent done that in 20 years or more.
What I will be hunting from - modified mission and modified windwalker
Had @always89y build me some new belt pockets for my pack - they are perfect for what I wanted
Some modifications to how I climb depending on what I am going to hunt from
Transitioning to a couple of new hitches (on the tree and on the rope both) is likely
Going to spend a fair bit of time hunting mountains this year rather than just the hills and river bottoms I am used too
Switching from 3 under to using 3 different crawls, 20 and under, 25 and 30 yards.
Will have a dozen cams on public for long soaks, never had more than 1 or 2 cams out and 99% of that was on private
Will be utilizing a data collection spreadsheet for pics and hunt observations
Building some new arrows

Pretty much scrapping the way I have hunted for over 40 years and starting over nearly from scratch. And honestly have not been this excited for an upcoming season since I was a little kid.

 

[Weldabeast]

I'm thinking really hard about paying for 1 of those apps like onx or equivalent .....I can remember areas from last year I want to revisit but can't remember exactly where they are on the map. I asked my hunting partner and he know right where it is with a pin dropped.....that's valuable info....hard to remember all of ur spots once u really start learning those woods

 

[Horn]

I'm thinking really hard about paying for 1 of those apps like onx or equivalent .....I can remember areas from last year I want to revisit but can't remember exactly where they are on the map. I asked my hunting partner and he know right where it is with a pin dropped.....that's valuable info....hard to remember all of ur spots once u really start learning those woods

Have you tried Google maps? I'm not sure how he did it but a friend sent me a pin to a hunt spot that came up in Google maps. Might be free?

 

[BTaylor]

I'm thinking really hard about paying for 1 of those apps like onx or equivalent .....I can remember areas from last year I want to revisit but can't remember exactly where they are on the map. I asked my hunting partner and he know right where it is with a pin dropped.....that's valuable info....hard to remember all of ur spots once u really start learning those woods

Caltopo is free, get it. And pair it with either Onx or Spartan Forge. I like both but am preferring SF the more I use it. Cheaper too.

 

[Weldabeast]

Sending pins on googles is easy and I've gotten pins that are from some apple/iphone thing I don't know what it was....

I use a free app that will record tracks and allow 3 pins and I can save 3 tracks. Useful for a weekend hunt....but when he pulls up his maps there's hundreds of pins from different woods he's hunted in the past. The way our quota system works u may go years in-between being able to hunt certain wma. Remembering spots from 4 years ago on a wma u may have only hunted once or twice is difficult. Shoot....the spot im trying to remember is in my favorite wma I have the most time in...I should be able to go right back there from memory but when u got 30-40 good spots to remember on that property sometimes they mingle and merge in the mind....." I member theres a spot over yonder but is it the palmetto flat or the persimmon trees? Dang I can't member.".... "Yeah, that island was full of sign....member, we walked all those islands and that was the only 1 with any deer sign....which island? Hhmmmmm, maybe that 1...or maybe it was that 1...it had a creek by it, I think member"

 

[Madgrad02]

IMO, OnX or an equivalent is worth the money.

 

[Weldabeast]

That would be a fun off season challenge.....but everybody would have to be honest....drop a pin based on memory on a map and screen shot and post for us to see....then go to the spot u had in ur memory and see how far off u were

 

[BTaylor]

Sending pins on googles is easy and I've gotten pins that are from some apple/iphone thing I don't know what it was....

I use a free app that will record tracks and allow 3 pins and I can save 3 tracks. Useful for a weekend hunt....but when he pulls up his maps there's hundreds of pins from different woods he's hunted in the past. The way our quota system works u may go years in-between being able to hunt certain wma. Remembering spots from 4 years ago on a wma u may have only hunted once or twice is difficult. Shoot....the spot im trying to remember is in my favorite wma I have the most time in...I should be able to go right back there from memory but when u got 30-40 good spots to remember on that property sometimes they mingle and merge in the mind....." I member theres a spot over yonder but is it the palmetto flat or the persimmon trees? Dang I can't member.".... "Yeah, that island was full of sign....member, we walked all those islands and that was the only 1 with any deer sign....which island? Hhmmmmm, maybe that 1...or maybe it was that 1...it had a creek by it, I think member"

That problem you describe isnt going to improve either.