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Saddle Hunter Demographics Survey

GCTerpfan

Moderator
Staff member
SH Member
Aug 11, 2017
6,044
15,231
113
43
Garrett County, MD
And I expect these stats to be of the very active forum members....sample is very small as is the time frame...and still represents what @Nutterbuster posted....

yeah, and I would argue that our members are generally more ‘informed’ about safety, or at the least are exposed to both sides of the safety discussion more often than a large percentage of saddle hunters who have never heard of this site.
There was a day when I would have argued that the majority of saddle hunters were aware of, if not members of this site. However, recent run ins with new saddle hunters and Cruzer’ sales map made me realize that’s probably not the case anymore.
 

wihunter50

Member
Dec 15, 2020
78
121
33
48
Update based on current responses (n=56):
Average age = 42 (20-65)
Average BMI = 29 (22-40; overweight >25, obese > 30); 30% of respondents = obese, 14% = normal
Average YRS hunting = 26 (1-60)
Average YRS bow hunting = 19 (1-53)
Average YRS saddle hunting = 4.4 (1-20); 66% less than 5 yrs
% experienced an unplanned fall = 16/56 (28.6%)
% injured requiring med attention = 1/56 (1.8%)

View attachment 71765
For those interested, here's the final data based on 100 responses:
CountYRS HuntingYRS Bow HuntingYRS Saddle HuntingBMIAGE
Mean27.920.64.728.644.2
Standard Error1.31.40.50.41.1
Minimum1.01.01.020.220.0
Maximum60.053.041.042.670.0
Count100.0100.0100.0100.0100.0
Largest(1)60.053.041.042.670.0
Smallest(1)1.01.01.020.220.0
%classified as overweight or obese=83%
%with unplanned fall=26%
%requiring medical attention due to unplanned fall=2%
1664410863012.png
 

Horn

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Mar 8, 2022
3,098
4,653
113
I see myself represented well... In the 1.0/1.0/1.0 rows. Did that skew the data?

Thanks for doing this, interesting information
 

Jimdude

Well-Known Member
Jan 9, 2021
692
969
93
47
New Jersey
LOCATION
Sussex county, NJ
I had my 1stick kick out on me the first time I practiced with it in my yard. I was leaning around the tree in a dryad drey putting good side pressure on it when it kicked out. I didn’t drop vertically but I slammed into the tree pretty good. No injuries but I had a hell of a time transferring from my tether to my rappel line. Now I climb and hang from the rappel rope with the madrock at all times for easy self rescue.
In all fairness, I would never hunt from such a crooked tree as this one so I take the blame for the fall
 

krub6b

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Sep 5, 2019
1,150
1,764
113
37
Missouri
6'2" and 245 is obese by BMI. Now I'm no marathon runner or cross fit junkie, but I'm not suffering from a ****ie-do either so I disregard BMI as a meaningful measurement of anything health related

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Last edited:

sweats

Well-Known Member
Apr 17, 2018
867
828
93
41
BMI is a coarse and imperfect metric, but in my experience most people aren't realistic about the amount of muscle mass they are carrying. Yes, a bodybuilder is obese by BMI standards. However, all the people that have pointed this out to me were not bodybuilders nor resembled them. Personally, I prefer body fat percentage estimates with calipers. However, if your BMI isn't great that isn't going to be great either for the vast majority of us.

I understand this is a complex and loaded topic for many, but I think a large part of the issue is that most of us on average are overweight. We become habituated to "normal" based on what we encounter day to day. Unfortunately, for a lot of things average does not equate with good.

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Nutterbuster

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Oct 12, 2017
10,069
24,822
113
Where the skys are so blue!
BMI is a coarse and imperfect metric, but in my experience most people aren't realistic about the amount of muscle mass they are carrying. Yes, a bodybuilder is obese by BMI standards. However, all the people that have pointed this out to me were not bodybuilders nor resembled them. Personally, I prefer body fat percentage estimates with calipers. However, if your BMI isn't great that isn't going to be great either for the vast majority of us.

I understand this is a complex and loaded topic for many, but I think a large part of the issue is that most of us on average are overweight. We become habituated to "normal" based on what we encounter day to day. Unfortunately, for a lot of things average does not equate with good.

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Amen.

I've never seen somebody who pointed out that bmi was imperfect who didn't look like the kinda guy I wouldn't leave alone in a room with a snickers bar I cared for.

I say this as a guy who just spent a year or two in the obese range and who still has about 20lbs before he's back into "normal" healthy bmi. I deluded myself a fair bit with the help of a loving wife and friends who could by and large stand to lose weight.

Obese doesn't necessarily mean you have to be rolled into the electric cart at walmart. It means you're packing enough mass that your cardiovascular system is struggling and you're at risk for a plethora of health problems. You can have these problems and not LOOK like a fatass compared to the absolute units that walk among us.

Also, it's worth mentioning that ole Arny has had 3 heart surgeries.

The truth is we're fat. Incredibly fat. Fat to an unprecedented level. We found out how to really grow that corn and in a hundred years went from struggling to find military recruits that weighed enough to struggling to find some who didn't weigh too much.