I am running the Shikar-mini. Originally I had mounted the scout to the bottom, as I’ve seen many do. It worked well, as long as I put a separate OCB around the stick just under the cam cleat, which was my plan anyway in order to use a couple of steps in conjunction with its the scout. If I didn’t put the strap, it wouldn’t take side pressure at all but would kick out. For clarity sake, I’m running a cam cleat mounted over the existing versa button hole and 7mm rope.
I moved the platform up to the top and quickly decided I didn’t like it up there on the Shikar Mini. No matter how tight I sat the stick or attached the rope, the top of the stick would pull out away from the tree about 1/2” or so. In my best estimate the really short length of the Mini was a major part of the problem. It allowed too much leverage on the bottom of the stick which caused that standoff to really sink in deep when I tried to stand on the top of that short little stick. I was hoping it would allow me to simply set the stick and hunt without having to always put on the OCB but I have to remember that these little Mini’s weren’t designed for that. I don’t doubt that a longer stick would work much better with the platform on the top and actually be more stable as long as you sat the stick very well.
With all of that, I have switched the platform back to the bottom and just plan on always using the OCB strap and a couple of steps. That combination is very stable and I love the versatility.