• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Saddles changes in near future

JumpingVampire

JumpingVampire

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
236
What would you like to see changes in the near future for saddle hunting? It could be anything from anybody. For example I would like to see if lone wolf would ever come out with it's own. I would like to see a bearing supported saddle that has a crazy idea for a full 360 shoot. Where you could lean facing away from the tree instead of the tree in front of you all the time. It would be cool if a platform was able to 360 the entire tree too. Carbon fiber platform would be even lighter as well as carbon fiber sticks to climb with.
Alright rant over haha
 
More choices, continued innovation.

More platform choices. I'd like a larger platform a la the Assassin (Lone Wolf did foray into saddles, somewhat, before its what the cool kids did). Even some smaller "treestands" a la the windwalker which are compatible with saddles. I can see myself always having at least 3 different platform sizes depending when and where I am hunting

Continued evolution by the existing players and hopefully more entrants. Kite and Mantis are both great saddles but both still some flaws, or at least personal preferences I don't care for. I think for that, being able to build an a la carte saddle with customizable features would be great. It really wouldn't take much to be able to offer different bridge length/material, buckles, etc.
 
Lone wolf already came out with their version of a saddle and it failed. The two most popular saddles on the market were designed by saddle hunters that’s why they are growing in popularity. We have had some guys working on carbon sticks. A platform that goes all the way around the tree is a ring of steps. Anything bigger would take away everything we wanted to leave behind when switching to a saddle. Leaning away from the tree all the time would cause GI and breathing problems.

All that said if you think it would work don’t let me discourage you. Make it then sell the idea to lone wolf.

One thing I would like to see is more saddle specific accessories. They are coming. What is available to saddle hunters has grown in the last couple years and now with the surge of new saddle hunters I expect more gear in the next few years.
 
JumpingVampire said:
What would you like to see changes in the near future for saddle hunting? It could be anything from anybody. For example I would like to see if lone wolf would ever come out with it's own. I would like to see a bearing supported saddle that has a crazy idea for a full 360 shoot. Where you could lean facing away from the tree instead of the tree in front of you all the time. It would be cool if a platform was able to 360 the entire tree too. Carbon fiber platform would be even lighter as well as carbon fiber sticks to climb with.
Alright rant over haha
Click to expand...

You mean you aren't supposed to lean facing away from the tree? I thought that's what super long bridges were for? Duck under the bridge and end up with it behind you. All the cool kids are doing it these days, better jump on the back bridge bandwagon :)
 
Jasper2 said:
You mean you aren't supposed to lean facing away from the tree? I thought that's what super long bridges were for? Duck under the bridge and end up with it behind you. All the cool kids are doing it these days, better jump on the back bridge bandwagon :)
Click to expand...
Maybe that’s why the linesmans loops are so far back on the original kestrel. If you put the seat on your front side the linesmans loops are in the right place.
 
Us minimalist saddle users already grab the tether, unload our weight and turn 90 deg and lean back into the saddle. This allows us to rotate another 90 before saddle to tether bind and we are now facing away from tree. Wouldn't be comfortable for very long though.

I'd like a platform with side wings.
 
EricS said:
Maybe that’s why the linesmans loops are so far back on the original kestrel. If you put the seat on your front side the linesmans loops are in the right place.
Click to expand...
Am I the only fella on here who feels like the kestrel loops are perfectly serviceable? Maybe it's my petite, hour-glass figure. ;)
 
I love the absolute simplicity of the system. I love that if you want, you can actually easily make one yourself. Saddles are truly perfect. Even something like a sitdrag is perfect. Changes are really personal preferences. Now, as far as getting up the tree.........well that is a worthy discussion. Although I am so close to perfection there as well :)

Packs are an interesting discussion though. I flip flop on this one. I have a fairly roomy pack. I can fit my steps in there and strap my clothes. It is a heavier pack but has plenty of support. I am toying with the idea of light but a pack with good support in general trumps light. But I am up for a healthy discussion about it and I am oh so close to pulling the trigger on a thread injector.
 
Last edited:
Nutterbuster said:
Am I the only fella on here who feels like the kestrel loops are perfectly serviceable? Maybe it's my petite, hour-glass figure. ;)
Click to expand...

Jasper2 said:
The location is fine for me as well. They could be a tad larger but I actually prefer them over the mantis because of the way that I run my LB.
Click to expand...

Kestrel 1.0 was a touch back from ideal.

My Kite was better by a couple inches.

The nice thing about the AH design is the loops are indepedent of the bridge. So you can clip something to the bridge and the loops stay right there at waist level.

On the Mantis the linemans loops are integrated into the bridge. I would often have to fish around for them because they weren't where I expected them to be in the dark. Minor annoyance but putting them head to head it was the opposite preference of what I expected based on the hype.
 
elk yinzer said:
Kestrel 1.0 was a touch back from ideal.

My Kite was better by a couple inches.

The nice thing about the AH design is the loops are indepedent of the bridge. So you can clip something to the bridge and the loops stay right there at waist level.

On the Mantis the linemans loops are integrated into the bridge. I would often have to fish around for them because they weren't where I expected them to be in the dark. Minor annoyance but putting them head to head it was the opposite preference of what I expected based on the hype.
Click to expand...

Agree 100% on the Mantis loops "moving around". I think some of this may be due to the material used. While I like the material, it is not near as rigid as the AH loop. As you said, minor issues I love both saddles and I'm glad we have commercially available options these days. Competition breeds innovation.
 
The current commercial option of Kite, Kestrel, Mantis, and JX3 serve the market well. And the predator is close to perfect.

I’d like to see a company pick up on the eonpow design and improve it for our purposes. Also, a step that’s as good as the old ameristeps would be great.
 
Nutterbuster said:
Am I the only fella on here who feels like the kestrel loops are perfectly serviceable? Maybe it's my petite, hour-glass figure. ;)
Click to expand...
Actually I don’t mind the location. I wish they were a little bigger but the location isn’t terrible. I like to use my tether as a secondary linesmans belt but hook it into the bridge loops. On the kestrel you don’t have to worry about the carabiner hooked into the linesmans loops making noise against the one hooked into the bridge loops. Plenty of separation is a good thing.
 
Honestly I'd like to keep it the same. The more choices there are the greater room for error in the field. Let's face it we all have that one buddy who hunts that cant even tie their shoes let alone a figure eight or prussik. If things get easier to use and dont require the knowledge of knots and ropemanship we are going to see an increase of injuries. Just my $.02.
9b3cc64003f76c9329adb79fd8a7944b.gif


Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top