Saddling my kid up

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

It’s fast-approaching: my daughter’s first hunting season! She is 7 now and nipping at my heels to go out with me. I have a small pop-up blind so we can sit together and just get her some experience in the woods (hopefully seeing critters). Eventually, maybe this season depending on her growth spurts, I’d like to get her into a tree with me. Anyone recommend a particular make/model of saddle or have experience making saddles for sub-70-pound kids? I hunt out of a Kestrel and I can’t see making a switch myself, but I also can’t see her using something of a similar size without some serious thread-therapy undertakings. To be somewhat cheeky but altogether serious, I would pay a pretty “fair” price for a legitimate Kestrel clone in a Youth Med/Lg (not looking at @Fl Canopy Stalker or anyone)…

Also, ANY tips and tricks from dads with hunting-buddy daughters are more than welcome!

 

[inarcher711]

CGM modified some small adult size saddles a few years ago for me. My girls were 8 & 7 at the time I bought them. I believe they make a youth size saddle starter kit now. As far as tips go, I don’t push them at all to go. When and if they’re ready, they’ll tell me. When we’re climbing in the yard I always go over and stress safety. They’ve done a really good job making they’re own checklist and routines.

The Pygmy Rattler Starter Kit | Custom Gear Modifica

The Pygmy Rattler is an extra small version of our Sidewinder Saddle. Made with the same quality materials and craftsmanshipo as all of our saddles, the entire kit has been downsized for the petite person, or for youth supervised by adults. The kit comes with:1. Pigmey Rattler Saddle2...

www.customgearmodifications.com

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[MattMan81]

I had my daughter with me in a tree few times last year. I can't get her to "go" in the woods yet. But working on it. @JCLINE84 made me a saddle the kids swing around in the yard with. Wouldn't hesitate to elevate someone with it.
When I hunted with her I used sticks. I went up, then set a rope thru a tether with my belay device on it and hooked it to my saddle. She would climb and I would keep the rope tight just in case. Tie in when at height so she maintained 100% tie off. Repeat going down. I think we can both do a DRT climb this year. I can climb up, lower it down and she can repeat. I can use the tail end to kinda belay as a back up.
CGM makes good stuff as well. I wouldn't hesitate to aquire one of those.
My son is 8 as well and wants to get out as well. My only concern is he moves way to much in a saddle. I don't think he will sit still! He will be swinging around the tree.
I sit slightly higher so if she had to shoot around me she could.
Practice the set up in the yard. It adds an extra fiddle factor.

 

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

CGM modified some small adult size saddles a few years ago for me. My girls were 8 & 7 at the time I bought them. I believe they make a youth size saddle starter kit now. As far as tips go, I don’t push them at all to go. When and if they’re ready, they’ll tell me. When we’re climbing in the yard I always go over and stress safety. They’ve done a really good job making they’re own checklist and routines.

The Pygmy Rattler Starter Kit | Custom Gear Modifica

The Pygmy Rattler is an extra small version of our Sidewinder Saddle. Made with the same quality materials and craftsmanshipo as all of our saddles, the entire kit has been downsized for the petite person, or for youth supervised by adults. The kit comes with:1. Pigmey Rattler Saddle2...

www.customgearmodifications.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome stuff! Thank you. Gonna look into this.

 

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

I had my daughter with me in a tree few times last year. I can't get her to "go" in the woods yet. But working on it. @JCLINE84 made me a saddle the kids swing around in the yard with. Wouldn't hesitate to elevate someone with it.
When I hunted with her I used sticks. I went up, then set a rope thru a tether with my belay device on it and hooked it to my saddle. She would climb and I would keep the rope tight just in case. Tie in when at height so she maintained 100% tie off. Repeat going down. I think we can both do a DRT climb this year. I can climb up, lower it down and she can repeat. I can use the tail end to kinda belay as a back up.
CGM makes good stuff as well. I wouldn't hesitate to aquire one of those.
My son is 8 as well and wants to get out as well. My only concern is he moves way to much in a saddle. I don't think he will sit still! He will be swinging around the tree.
I sit slightly higher so if she had to shoot around me she could.
Practice the set up in the yard. It adds an extra fiddle factor.

Love this. Thank you.
My daughter can sit still pretty well, but she can flap her gums with the best of ‘em. I have been working on staying “ninja quiet” with her. Also, I hadn’t thought too hard about who sits higher than who; good tip for sure.

 

[Zero One Actual]

Contact Dane at Dryad saddles also.

 

[shmelton]

When I started hunting with my Pop, at 4 yrs old, he just had a 1/2” rope tied into a permanent stand built in a BlackJack Oak. He’d tie a bowline around me, climb to the top and pull me up GI Joe sleeping bag and all. The stand was more like a treehouse than a stand. It had a big platform in between 3 trunks, and your seat was a 2x6. That was 1984, when safety belts, or harness weren’t even a thought. If I fell he knew I’d bounce, lol. That was also back when if a buck had horns he got shot, and does couldn’t be shot except on thanksgiving weekend, or the week between Christmas, and New Years.


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[dj1975232]

I having been looking at something similar for my 9yo. My plan was to hang a hang on in the same tree as me in my saddle so we could use the same sticks and I could stay close to him. These answers present some more options. He can’t sit still either though.

 

[thedutchtouch]

My girls are 5 and 7 so interested in this as well. Going to give the popup blind a try this year but hope to get them up on a tree at some point in the next few years as well. Once they can sit still, and understand how to keep themselves safe. Until then we are starting on the ground, inside something

 

[MattMan81]

Love this. Thank you.
My daughter can sit still pretty well, but she can flap her gums with the best of ‘em. I have been working on staying “ninja quiet” with her. Also, I hadn’t thought too hard about who sits higher than who; good tip for sure.

What made sense to me was for the shooter to be lower. My daughter was 13 last year. So she was on the crossbow. Obviously your set up will change how you sit and what works.

 

[Kevin2]

I had my kids rock climbing on walls to 75 feet or so when there were 5 and 7, but they were being belayed by a professional. I didn't get them off the ground hunting until they were 13 and 15 I think. They had both been bow and gun hunting since ages 5 and 7 or so by then. My wife was a nervous wreck WHEN both kids were asking to hunt out of trees, and she threatened me with death if something happened to them! I did all the research AND got the safest gear at the time, then practiced several times with both kids at ground level AND then increasing in height at home before heading out hunting. I personally set lifelines in advance before going up into the trees, used rock climbing harnesses, this is 13-14 years ago. Had each kid hooked up to the life line by me personally AND then a self rescue auto belay device stuck onto the front of their harness JUST incase they fell. It would lower them to the ground.

Be careful. No 2nd chances.

Kevin

 

[CharlieTN]

The CGM setup is quite sweet, plus when she outgrows you, you should be able to sell it quite easily.

I started my daughter, a bit older than yours, out with a rock climbing harness and a custom built sit-drag that I started with. It worked very well for her to try it. She had only hunted lock-on stands to that point so I wasn’t sure she would like it and I had the sit-drag style saddle.

I would climb up first and pre-set everything, including a safety line for her to be attached to with a friction hitch the entire time. She learned to climb up the sticks and move the hitch up as she went then it was her tether while at hunting height. I’m hoping to get her to one-stick climbing next year and she will be setup to rappel then.

By the way, I have the climbing harness and sit-drag style saddle for sale if you’re interested. She’s inheriting my old saddle as I upgrade to the CGM cobra.

 

[Camelcluch]

My son was 6 or 7 and well under 70# when I found him hanging upside down in a Phantom. I would be very confident putting him in that to hunt from.

 

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

My girls are 5 and 7 so interested in this as well. Going to give the popup blind a try this year but hope to get them up on a tree at some point in the next few years as well. Once they can sit still, and understand how to keep themselves safe. Until then we are starting on the ground, inside something

Absolutely what I was thinking (and what I told my wife). Of course, the ultimate goal is that she can decide which way she likes to hunt the best, and safest, while getting to experience the best the woods have to offer.

 

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

What made sense to me was for the shooter to be lower. My daughter was 13 last year. So she was on the crossbow. Obviously your set up will change how you sit and what works.
View attachment 89360

I’ve only been 2/tree on one occasion, with a vet friend of mine who suggested this orientation also. We actually were both shooters, but I had a compound bow and he had a crossbow, so he was below me in the area on my weak side so there was almost no possibility of my weapons endangering him. Thank you for this, looks like you two have a blast out there.

 

[Iron_llama]

Maybe there's a climbing gym you can take MiniDelaWhere for a daddy/daughter activity, or with Girl Scouts or whatever. Get her comfortable with ropes and climbing with a coach or instructor who isn't Dad, and see how she does. When the time comes to switch to saddles, maybe belay her up the tree instead of having her climb totally solo. Who knows, she might pick up recreational rock or gym climbing.

 

[DelaWhere_Arrow]

My son was 6 or 7 and well under 70# when I found him hanging upside down in a Phantom. I would be very confident putting him in that to hunt from.

I see kids in Tethrd saddles all the time on IG and I thought they run smaller overall than the AH models. Good to see positive confirmation of that!

 

[Bdwilliams]

Just getting the kids in the woods is important. There's a lot that can go wrong with being elevated. I'll have my boy in a ground blind with me this year with no plans to get in a tree any time soon. Plenty of deer have been killed from the ground.