Water Bottle Throw Ball?

[John RB]

Well, I saw @MattMan81's classifieds inquiry into a throw ball. He's probably not the only one testing the @John RB waters.

So I thought I'd get some throw ball and line discussion going.

I know John uses a coil of 50' throw line with a 16oz ball. His shopping list links a package with 3mm line.

@mtsrunner was using dynaglide (1.8mm) and a cube bag, @Bango Skank the same line with a 12oz ball. Others liked Samson ZingIt 2.2 mm w/14oz bag, they make 1.75mm as well.

@bj139 goes in for 300lb test Dyneema fishing line and a 12oz bag.

@Treehopper2 shared a neat trick to just toss your rope over limbs 16-20'. No balls needed.

Looking around arborist sites it's all over the board, except they all seem to agree the Harrison Rocket is a premium design.

Anyway, one arborist claimed to have good results with a water bottle tied to his throw line. I wonder if that's worth a try, given it could be repurposed twice. Once to drink, once to pee into.

Seems small diameter line allows a lighter throw ball, but is more likely to snap and possibly tangle? Thicker line pairs with heavier weights, and kept short is maybe manageable sans cube? Water bottle is, well, idk, clever?

Well, what's the wining combo?

I just stumbled on this thread. Two things:
1.I made a throwball video this weekend. I will upload it tonight to the JRB Tree Climbing Channel. You're gonna love the part about my DIY throwball.
2. Despite having reinstalled Tapatalk on my phone, I am getting zero notifications if someone replies to me or mentions me. If anybody knows how to fix this, please send me a personal message.

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[John RB]

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[Burk]

I use a 12oz throw bag from Wesspur with blue Zing-it 2.2mm. I flake it into a shopping bag and roll it up to fit into a pouch. I did have to practice my 2TC climbing Saturday to retrieve the throw bag that was hung up in a tree behind the tree.

 

[dalton916]

Throw bags/bottles/etc just don’t strike me as stealthy.

 

[Plebe]

Throw bags/bottles/etc just don’t strike me as stealthy.

Most of these guys are presetting paracord, so that's not an issue.

I'm one who isn't. I'll do just fine with it. It's like anything else in hunting, gotta be smart about it.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

It can be used fairly quietly. A lot of it depends on how good you get using the throwball and also the types of trees you have. I set up about 30 feet up a giant white oak last November going in blind with a throw cube and Ddrt and had 3 does come in under me not 20 minutes after I set up. I was waiting on a buck, so they got a pass. I left a paracord loop in the tree and came back and hunted it again later. I used it mostly for presets.

 

[Blacksmith]

I dont use this system for hunting but for cutting trees I use a baseball w/a small hole drilled thru it and a pc of 550 tied in a loop thru the ball. Hook my line to the loop and have never had it hang up.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

It can be used fairly quietly. A lot of it depends on how good you get using the throwball and also the types of trees you have. I set up about 30 feet up a giant white oak last November going in blind with a throw cube and Ddrt and had 3 does come in under me not 20 minutes after I set up. I was waiting on a buck, so they got a pass. I left a paracord loop in the tree and came back and hunted it again later. I used it mostly for presets.

Definitely. To me the throwball going through the trees sounds no different than a squirrel rustling about. If you miss and it hits the ground, it sounds like a mid sized dead branch falling. These are noises that deer hear year around.

 

[Plebe]

Definitely. To me the throwball going through the trees sounds no different than a squirrel rustling about. If you miss and it hits the ground, it sounds like a mid sized dead branch falling. These are noises that deer hear year around.

Even yesterday when I was testing, the thump of the waterbottle wasn't much louder than some sort of tree nuts or maybe cones that were occasionally dropping. My rustling of leaves and sticks seemed to be more commotion.

I'll likely have snow when I use this setup.

But it's not all about noise. My hunting strategy factors in what I know about how deer use the area. If a deer isn't around (yet) to hear a noise, I'm not unstealthy making a noise.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

The real issue I ran into was limb height. I bought 75 feet of Predator rope and I can't count the times I went out to set paracord loops and the limb was just 5 feet too high to allow me enough rope to pass over the limb and give me about 5 feet of slack to tie off on. Most of the big woods trees here have to grow tall due to competition from their neighbors and don't branch or split until they are 40 feet at minimum. Get away from big woods and go into swamp we have "trash trees" like telephone poles or short scrubby bushes.

John's video above is really good. One of the best I have seen on throwball use for hunting. I saw some tips on there that made me want to get out the throwball and try some more throws. I think I could do with a heavier line like he used for sure. The one I have tangles mercilessly.

If I were going to use Ddrt again I would definitely buy 120 feet or rope.

 

[MattMan81]

I found using the thumb to finger cross wrap like I did for my pull down line keeps my line manged very well. I pulled out 10' and drop it on the ground, and when I tossed the ball it came right out of wind up. Now if I missed and had to re throw.. sticks became a factor or my big feet. Probably where one of those baskets come in handy.

 

[Fl Canopy Stalker]

The real issue I ran into was limb height. I bought 75 feet of Predator rope and I can't count the times I went out to set paracord loops and the limb was just 5 feet too high to allow me enough rope to pass over the limb and give me about 5 feet of slack to tie off on. Most of the big woods trees here have to grow tall due to competition from their neighbors and don't branch or split until they are 40 feet at minimum. Get away from big woods and go into swamp we have "trash trees" like telephone poles or short scrubby bushes.

John's video above is really good. One of the best I have seen on throwball use for hunting. I saw some tips on there that made me want to get out the throwball and try some more throws. I think I could do with a heavier line like he used for sure. The one I have tangles mercilessly.

If I were going to use Ddrt again I would definitely buy 120 feet or rope.

The NY saddle hunter guys do the best videos about throw ball use to me. It’s very instructive and the close ups and set ups are great.
I watched his video last night. It was detailed. But there’s no way down here you could lay your line on the ground and throw because there are so many small branches and vines (that stay leafy and green) that you’d spend 30 minutes clearing the area you wanna throw from. A cube or a fold out mat work great. I’ve heard a water bottle pouch does pretty good for rope management as well although I’ve never tried it. Throw cubes pack down so small, I just hang it on my pack strap and go. I barely even notice it’s there

 

[NMSbowhunter]

The NY saddle hunter guys do the best videos about throw ball use to me. It’s very instructive and the close ups and set ups are great.
I watched his video last night. It was detailed. But there’s no way down here you could lay your line on the ground and throw because there are so many small branches and vines (that stay leafy and green) that you’d spend 30 minutes clearing the area you wanna throw from. A cube or a fold out mat work great. I’ve heard a water bottle pouch does pretty good for rope management as well although I’ve never tried it. Throw cubes pack down so small, I just hang it on my pack strap and go. I barely even notice it’s there

Yes, the NY saddle hunter guys did a top notchy video also. They are the ones who go me into Ddrt. I still love rope climbing. I just find it hard to use here due to my trees. I really liked that John set up his video under a tree with a lot of brush and trash. This was pretty realistic a scenario and one that I don't think newbys consider. I sure didn't. A throw bag is essential around here also. I bought a small draw string bag off Ebay or somewhere to carry a spare throw ball, a throw line and 75 feet of paracord. This was my lightweight scout bag. It gave me everything to set up one tree.

 

[John RB]

The real issue I ran into was limb height. I bought 75 feet of Predator rope and I can't count the times I went out to set paracord loops and the limb was just 5 feet too high to allow me enough rope to pass over the limb and give me about 5 feet of slack to tie off on. Most of the big woods trees here have to grow tall due to competition from their neighbors and don't branch or split until they are 40 feet at minimum. Get away from big woods and go into swamp we have "trash trees" like telephone poles or short scrubby bushes.

John's video above is really good. One of the best I have seen on throwball use for hunting. I saw some tips on there that made me want to get out the throwball and try some more throws. I think I could do with a heavier line like he used for sure. The one I have tangles mercilessly.

If I were going to use Ddrt again I would definitely buy 120 feet or rope.

I am not sure how you're climbing and what ya needed the 5ft of rope for, either an SRT basal anchor or a Tail and Blake's on a DRT system, but either way, you can put a 75 ft rope over a 42 ft crotch and still climb it if ya convert it to a JRB system. Ya just climb the first few feet MRS, but pulling on one side and then the other until there's enough room to put on your footloop. But yeah, that's why i typically carry 30m - 100ft.

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[NMSbowhunter]

I am not sure how you're climbing and what ya needed the 5ft of rope for, either an SRT basal anchor or a Tail and Blake's on a DRT system, but either way, you can put a 75 ft rope over a 42 ft crotch and still climb it if ya convert it to a JRB system. Ya just climb the first few feet MRS, but pulling on one side and then the other until there's enough room to put on your footloop. But yeah, that's why i typically carry 30m - 100ft.

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The 5 feet of rope is the amount I need to tie into a carabiner and then tie the Blakes hitch and have enough tail to tie a stopper knot. A lot of the time I would pull the rope over and have both ends of the rope about foot over my head. It was just not enough rope left over after going over the limb to tie to.

 

[BTaylor]

The 5 feet of rope is the amount I need to tie into a carabiner and then tie the Blakes hitch and have enough tail to tie a stopper knot. A lot of the time I would pull the rope over and have both ends of the rope about foot over my head. It was just not enough rope left over after going over the limb to tie to.

Lots of folks havent seen the kind of timber we hunt. They arent used to needing a full choke and high brass loads to kill skwerl consistently out of the top of a pecan tree.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Here is a picture I just pulled at random of an area I hunt. These are just normal big woods trees. Tree A's limbs in the foreground are not visible in this picture but are at least 45 to 50 feet up. It's just a 30-to-36-inch diameter pole until then. Tree B in the background is a hackberry and it has the same thing going on. The limbs and branches are a good 45 to 50 feet easily. This is just what average, run of the mill trees in the big woods look like around here. They get tall to compete with their neighbors. The canopies also choke out smaller trees from growing so you are left with big trees and shrubs under them.

 

[bfriendly]

When researching throw ball setups, it was a no brainer to make something out of stuff I had when I saw someone else’s slingshot setup. So I made one too. Slingshot on a short rod with fishing reel, shooting lead weights! That thing works absolutely perfect for presets!
Can’t find a pic right now….but there are a bunch of users here.