What don’t you like most about the JX3 Hybrid?

[kyler1945]

I’ve always been intrigued by the setup and this thread has been very informative:

Pros: It’s comfortable.
Cons: Heavy, wide, bulky, expensive, ropes and straps everywhere, the fork makes noise, too restricted to shoot, hard to lean in, have to switch out pack to use it, can’t access gear, heavy and still need a climbing method, climbing method doesn’t pack well with it.

I realize it was purposefully designed as a “What’s your bitch” thread, but people will normally highlight the things they like as well and so far that has been “its comfortable”. Not exactly an inspiring endorsement for the total package. My Cruzr XC is also very comfortable. I’ve never sat a JX3 but will assume the XC is somewhat less comfortable, but it is certainly not uncomfortable by any means. For some folks, comfort alone may outweigh all other negatives. But when I look at the whole package, the JX3 seems to miss several key metrics for a method (saddle hunting) that purports to key on being light and mobile. Additionally, when you start trying to fix the JX3’s biggest detractors, there is a good chance that you will start impinging on the one thing that sets it apart, it‘s comfort. Be interesting to see if and how it can evolve.

You’re conflating the status signal of why saddle hunting is popular (I go hard and deep and hashtag mobile!) with why john, and before him butch, built the web and hybrid.

Two completely different paths, running completely independent of each other.

The point of both the web and hybrid were to be silent, comfortable, safe way of sitting in a tree. Do you need evidence that John doesn’t care at all about what whiny saddle hunter Facebook posts say about the weight of the hybrid? I begged him to not increase the weight and to make a “skinny” version, because I thought he could sell 2-3x more to #mobile hunters than he could to regular people who want to sit all day and kill deer and turkeys. Not because I actually cared about the weight(I did), but because of the simple math - #mobile hunting was exploding and I thought he could cash in. He ignored me completely and the new version weighs about 15-20% more. And I was wrong. He’s selling way more to quiet, non forum posting deer killers than I would’ve bet on.

The difference in weight, to anyone who cares about weight in this case, is moot. 10lbs is too much to #mobile hunters. Obviously going to 12 won’t scare those people off.

The loudest voices aren’t necessarily the largest group. Even so, I started the thread because I wanted to get john some feedback from the loudest voices. I personally can take each of the things folks don’t like and deconstruct them and attempt to change their worldview. But there’s already a pile of that on the forum.

But I do think it’s important to correct the notion that the point of the hybrid is to fit into the saddle hunting phenomena. It’s not. I’ve figured out a way to make mine fit the purposes of a sneech shaped walkaholic who hunts all over the country. Very well indeed. But that’s not the norm. Most people aren’t like me. John knows his customer base well.

Im always interested in the comfort topic too. Comfort in a device to hold you in a tree is a function of two main things: your tolerance for discomfort, and the amount of surface area of your body that you’re distributing the force of gravity across.

When you say that your soft saddle is comfortable, you mean comfortable enough for you. Your soft saddle doesn’t have significantly more or less surface area than any other soft saddle. Which means your comfort (and the amount of it that wouldn't translate to other hunters) is based in large part on your tolerance of force applied to the areas it covers.

This is an important distinction, pulling these two types of “comfort” apart. One translates across every hunter. One doesn’t.

And there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the vast majority of people are not comfortable in ANY soft saddle, with specific relation to “sitting in a tree all day to try and kill deer without fidgeting around constantly and being sore the next day”.

I also can sit in a soft saddle from dark to dark. I’ve got a good system. It’s “comfortable” in that I can do it and manage to kill deer quite effectively. But it’s not comfortable in the sense of “I can spend four days straight during best hunting times dark to dark and not want to remove the lower half of my body” comfortable. The hybrid is. It is a completely different class. It’s not close.

Now, for you, it may not matter because you possess a higher tolerance for force applied to your butt and nerves than others. But in this case you are like me with my highly modified gen1 hybrid - the exception.

 

[CooterBrown]

Man I wish he had done both the updated and the Skinny version.

 

[kyler1945]

Man I wish he had done both the updated and the Skinny version.

40% of the US is obese, 9% severely obese. Demographic doing the most damage? Middle aged white dudes.

Majority of hunters are white (70%). Majority of those are men (60%).

I'd say John did the right thing in ignoring me on this one

 

[CooterBrown]

40% of the US is obese, 9% severely obese. Demographic doing the most damage? Middle aged white dudes.

Majority of hunters are white (70%). Majority of those are men (60%).

I'd say John did the right thing in ignoring me on this one hahahahah

I'm saying sell both (for the other white dudes that are not obese)

 

[Arkie]

The point of both the web and hybrid were to be silent, comfortable, safe way of sitting in a tree.

Comfort, Silence, and Versatility were the biggest thing for me with the hybrid.

Comfort, Silence and Versatility are what I’m focusing on this year.
I’ve ditched all the things that I though were cool but didn’t really work that well for me in the long run (one-sticking, 2TC, Aiders, etc..)
I’ll be packing 5 Beast Sticks with my hybrid. Yes, it’s a weight penalty, but they pack great on the hybrid and I know they’re easy and silent from the start of the season to the end.

I don’t think it’s fair to compare the Hybrid to a 2lb soft saddle.
To me, it’s a Summit Climber that I can walk 5+ miles/day with and serves some other purposes (ground chair, pack, etc..)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Vtbow]

The JX3 that I have is easier to sit still and quiet in than any other stand or saddle setup I have ever tried. I do wish there was a production Skinny version as I strongly feel it would hit a section of the market in need, and solve some of the discomfort and "Bulky" feeling to some of us narrower people. Which would in tern decrease some of the gripes that get expressed publicly.....but I believe he has done the right thing in his market research and concentrated on where his company and the current product will do best....

 

[2Sloe]

I only use mine for all day sits other wise i use a soft saddle, butttttttt I feel some of your opinions are inaccurate I'm 5'6" 160 lbs and wear a medium shirt and I wouldn't say it is any wider than my shoulders. If it is it not much. 2nd it has no more ropes than any soft saddle. straps yes ropes no. 3rd the fork noise can be fixed very easily by removing the bark in the one place where it sets on the tree( and no more noise that knee pads would make and a lot more comfy. 4th it does take some getting used to for shooting but with a ring of steps you can easily shoot 360. 5th no harder to lean in than any other saddle that has a wedding bridge. (yes amsteel bridge does lean easier) 6th i dont switch out packs. I use the same pack regardless of my saddle choice. I just hang it from the lower seat hook that is on the back frame and your good to go. I remove pack at the base of the tree just like i do with a soft saddle and use a pull up rope and use a gear hanger and hang my pack in the same place on the tree that i do when soft saddle hunting so gear access is a none issue for me. Heavier than a soft saddle for sure. I still need a climbing method with my soft saddle. I one stick with both saddles. My one stick attaches to my pack so my climbing method packs just as well with the JX3 as a soft saddle. Not trying to be ugly but you only really have 2 complaints that i see that i didnt address. One is weight and your are correct on that one the other is straps everywhere and in my opinion they all serve a purpose and if you ever tried one you would see that this is a none issue. I get to the tree and hook up my bridge and all of the straps fall into place.

I will make one correction to your comments….those aren’t my opinions. Those are the opinions of others that I pulled directly from previous comments. As I mentioned I don’t own a JX3. So the only opinion I offered was my personal assessment of the overall system based on the comments of the other actual users. While you offered solutions to most of others complaints, you offered no other Pro over a soft saddle other than comfort. As I clearly stated, that may be enough for some to override the disadvantages. Not looking to derail the thread, only offered my personal opinion based on what real users were saying.

 

[CooterBrown]

I will make one correction to your comments….those aren’t my opinions. Those are the opinions of others that I pulled directly from previous comments. As I mentioned I don’t own a JX3. So the only opinion I offered was my personal assessment of the overall system based on the comments of the other actual users. While you offered solutions to most of others complaints, you offered no other Pro over a soft saddle other than comfort. As I clearly stated, that may be enough for some to override the disadvantages. Not looking to derail the thread, only offered my personal opinion based on what real users were saying.

to me the only pro over a soft saddle is the comfort. That's why I use it for all day sits only. I just haven't figured out how to be comfortable for all day sits in a soft saddle. I have tried 4 different soft saddles. Including 2, 2 panel versions. There may be more pros than that but to me its the real reason i own one.

 

[neonomad]

40% of the US is obese, 9% severely obese. Demographic doing the most damage? Middle aged white dudes.

Majority of hunters are white (70%). Majority of those are men (60%).

I'd say John did the right thing in ignoring me on this one

Rhetorical comment here - aging obese fellas climbing up with a climber, a ladder stand or fixed ladder to a hang on makes sense to me, but en masse packing mobile sticks in and climbing safely up to where they set up their JX3 is harder to imagine. Given the effort required I’ve got to think they lean slightly toward the fitter in the larger demographic but maybe I’m not giving everybody enough credit. I wouldn’t hand this setup to my uncle and say have at it.

 

[CooterBrown]

Rhetorical comment here - aging obese fellas climbing up with a climber, a ladder stand or fixed ladder to a hang on makes sense to me, but en masse packing mobile sticks in and climbing safely up to where they set up their JX3 is harder to imagine. Given the effort required I’ve got to think they lean slightly toward the fitter in the larger demographic but maybe I’m not giving everybody enough credit. I wouldn’t hand this setup to my uncle and say have at it.

Its lighter than most climbers and one sticking up is very easy but im only 43 and not very obese.

 

[kyler1945]

Rhetorical comment here - aging obese fellas climbing up with a climber, a ladder stand or fixed ladder to a hang on makes sense to me, but en masse packing mobile sticks in and climbing safely up to where they set up their JX3 is harder to imagine. Given the effort required I’ve got to think they lean slightly toward the fitter in the larger demographic but maybe I’m not giving everybody enough credit. I wouldn’t hand this setup to my uncle and say have at it.

I know at least 5 people who use old steel ladder sticks (the kind that fit in each other) and place 10-20 of them out on private land in off season, and bounce around with their hybrid. They're all huge fellows. All seem to climb just fine.

I'm willing to bet there are 10x hunters like them, than there are hunters like me.

I don't disagree with you in the abstract that climbing trees is dangerous, and that there's way too many people doing it who shouldn't.


This isn't a judgment, only an observation - have you seen the number of posts here by people weighing 250+lbs? And our membership is just a tiny snapshot. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of really obese people climbing trees. Not saying it's good or bad. But the subset of that that use a hybrid or a saddle is small. It's within the group you're mentioning. Who are already doing the climbing.

 

[Plebe]

You’re conflating the status signal of why saddle hunting is popular (I go hard and deep and hashtag mobile!) with why john, and before him butch, built the web and hybrid.

Two completely different paths, running completely independent of each other.

The point of both the web and hybrid were to be silent, comfortable, safe way of sitting in a tree. Do you need evidence that John doesn’t care at all about what whiny saddle hunter Facebook posts say about the weight of the hybrid? I begged him to not increase the weight and to make a “skinny” version, because I thought he could sell 2-3x more to #mobile hunters than he could to regular people who want to sit all day and kill deer and turkeys. Not because I actually cared about the weight(I did), but because of the simple math - #mobile hunting was exploding and I thought he could cash in. He ignored me completely and the new version weighs about 15-20% more. And I was wrong. He’s selling way more to quiet, non forum posting deer killers than I would’ve bet on.

The difference in weight, to anyone who cares about weight in this case, is moot. 10lbs is too much to #mobile hunters. Obviously going to 12 won’t scare those people off.

The loudest voices aren’t necessarily the largest group. Even so, I started the thread because I wanted to get john some feedback from the loudest voices. I personally can take each of the things folks don’t like and deconstruct them and attempt to change their worldview. But there’s already a pile of that on the forum.

But I do think it’s important to correct the notion that the point of the hybrid is to fit into the saddle hunting phenomena. It’s not. I’ve figured out a way to make mine fit the purposes of a sneech shaped walkaholic who hunts all over the country. Very well indeed. But that’s not the norm. Most people aren’t like me. John knows his customer base well.

Im always interested in the comfort topic too. Comfort in a device to hold you in a tree is a function of two main things: your tolerance for discomfort, and the amount of surface area of your body that you’re distributing the force of gravity across.

When you say that your soft saddle is comfortable, you mean comfortable enough for you. Your soft saddle doesn’t have significantly more or less surface area than any other soft saddle. Which means your comfort (and the amount of it that wouldn't translate to other hunters) is based in large part on your tolerance of force applied to the areas it covers.

This is an important distinction, pulling these two types of “comfort” apart. One translates across every hunter. One doesn’t.

And there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the vast majority of people are not comfortable in ANY soft saddle, with specific relation to “sitting in a tree all day to try and kill deer without fidgeting around constantly and being sore the next day”.

I also can sit in a soft saddle from dark to dark. I’ve got a good system. It’s “comfortable” in that I can do it and manage to kill deer quite effectively. But it’s not comfortable in the sense of “I can spend four days straight during best hunting times dark to dark and not want to remove the lower half of my body” comfortable. The hybrid is. It is a completely different class. It’s not close.

Now, for you, it may not matter because you possess a higher tolerance for force applied to your butt and nerves than others. But in this case you are like me with my highly modified gen1 hybrid - the exception.

I disagree that it is all about surface area. JX3 offers a cushion for a reason...

Firmness and hard edges. The JX3 does a good job of managing them, but it's part of the comfort equation.

Likewise, soft saddles have lacked enough structure to resolve squeezing and pinching.

A padded saddle seems to be the ticket, imo. I like it better than the JX3, for comfort, minus knees to the tree.

 

[kyler1945]

I disagree that it is all about surface area. JX3 offers a cushion for a reason...

Firmness and hard edges. The JX3 does a good job of managing them, but it's part of the comfort equation.

Likewise, soft saddles have lacked enough structure to resolve squeezing and pinching.

A padded saddle seems to be the ticket, imo. I like it better than the JX3, for comfort, minus knees to the tree.

If it's too firm, the surface area the force is spread across evenly will diminish. We don't disagree on this.

Maybe John will be mad at me for saying this - but the cushion does little to distribute/absorb force more evenly. It does a fantastic job of cutting down on heat loss through your bum when it's windy - which my foggy memory tells me is the main reason it was offered initially.

Mesh too tense - you get a wooden chair. Mesh too loose, you get a dryad. There's a balance, based on what I can see, the hybrid strikes really well.

In the end, it boils down to distributing the force of gravity to the user's liking. Hybrid and soft saddle are in two different leagues in this regard. Part of the reason for this is the added surface area of the seat back.


Curious of your padded saddle journey. I started with a sit drag, with one, then two, then three layers of 1/2" thick padding (the foam for garden knee pads or seat cushions). At no point did it get more or less comfortable than just the sit drag. This was because the force of gravity was not distributed evenly, with more of it pulling the sides together creating hip pinch. Adding padding to a treesuit, or onehair tree seat, or preachers seat, or the old guido's web, did help. I gave up on the pursuit because I got a Hybrid.

 

[2Sloe]

You’re conflating the virtue signal of why saddle hunting is popular (I go hard and deep and hashtag mobile!) with why john, and before him butch, built the web and hybrid.

Two completely different paths, running completely independent of each other.

The point of both the web and hybrid were to be silent, comfortable, safe way of sitting in a tree. Do you need evidence that John doesn’t care at all about what whiny saddle hunter Facebook posts say about the weight of the hybrid? I begged him to not increase the weight and to make a “skinny” version, because I thought he could sell 2-3x more to #mobile hunters than he could to regular people who want to sit all day and kill deer and turkeys. Not because I actually cared about the weight(I did), but because of the simple math - #mobile hunting was exploding and I thought he could cash in. He ignored me completely and the new version weighs about 15-20% more. And I was wrong. He’s selling way more to quiet, non forum posting deer killers than I would’ve bet on.

The difference in weight, to anyone who cares about weight in this case, is moot. 10lbs is too much to #mobile hunters. Obviously going to 12 won’t scare those people off.

The loudest voices aren’t necessarily the largest group. Even so, I started the thread because I wanted to get john some feedback from the loudest voices. I personally can take each of the things folks don’t like and deconstruct them and attempt to change their worldview. But there’s already a pile of that on the forum.

But I do think it’s important to correct the notion that the point of the hybrid is to fit into the saddle hunting phenomena. It’s not. I’ve figured out a way to make mine fit the purposes of a sneech shaped walkaholic who hunts all over the country. Very well indeed. But that’s not the norm. Most people aren’t like me. John knows his customer base well.

Im always interested in the comfort topic too. Comfort in a device to hold you in a tree is a function of two main things: your tolerance for discomfort, and the amount of surface area of your body that you’re distributing the force of gravity across.

When you say that your soft saddle is comfortable, you mean comfortable enough for you. Your soft saddle doesn’t have significantly more or less surface area than any other soft saddle. Which means your comfort (and the amount of it that wouldn't translate to other hunters) is based in large part on your tolerance of force applied to the areas it covers.

This is an important distinction, pulling these two types of “comfort” apart. One translates across every hunter. One doesn’t.

And there is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the vast majority of people are not comfortable in ANY soft saddle, with specific relation to “sitting in a tree all day to try and kill deer without fidgeting around constantly and being sore the next day”.

I also can sit in a soft saddle from dark to dark. I’ve got a good system. It’s “comfortable” in that I can do it and manage to kill deer quite effectively. But it’s not comfortable in the sense of “I can spend four days straight during best hunting times dark to dark and not want to remove the lower half of my body” comfortable. The hybrid is. It is a completely different class. It’s not close.

Now, for you, it may not matter because you possess a higher tolerance for force applied to your butt and nerves than others. But in this case you are like me with my highly modified gen1 hybrid - the exception.

The JX3 may be a totally separate path than saddle hunting in your mind, but commenters were clearly making JX3/saddle comparisons so I’m not sure that is a common view. It is called a “hybrid”. Hybrid of what two things? You made a pretty extensive argument on comfort, although I had already freely admitted that comfort was it’s Pro and that it was more comfortable than my XC. I just didn’t see anyone offer any other significant Pro other than comfort and I think that’s factual statement.

to me the only pro over a soft saddle is the comfort. That's why I use it for all day sits only. I just haven't figured out how to be comfortable for all day sits in a soft saddle. I have tried 4 different soft saddles. Including 2, 2 panel versions. There may be more pros than that but to me its the real reason i own one.

Yep, that’s the point I was making and I even stated that for many, that might be all they are looking for. Comfort is high on my list for sure, but I prefer a more balanced solution rather than one that sacrifices in numerous areas all for the sake of one. That was my opinion, which was designed to provoke thought not vitriol.

 

[kyler1945]

The JX3 may be a totally separate path than saddle hunting in your mind, but commenters were clearly making JX3/saddle comparisons so I’m not sure that is a common view.

That was my opinion, which was designed to provoke thought not vitriol.

The opinions are appreciated, and you're right - the whole point of the thread. Please keep them coming.


I'm not disagreeing that people make comparisons to soft saddles. I'm stating my opinion that this is probably the reason for the majority of mismanaged expectations about the hybrid. And a large reason a lot of people don't end up trying it. I think it is important for people to understand the story behind why it was designed, how it was designed, etc. I've been after John to give people that perspective. But it's a matter of fact - the web was completely separate from the few saddles that came out around the same time - there was no overlap in concept or user base. The hybrid was being designed, and the idea for the company forming before the Kestrel/Mantis saw the light of day. They are not separate in my mind alone - the people who brought the concepts to life didn't even consider soft saddles in the design phase.

The company certainly does themselves no favors in my opinion, by hitching their wagon to "saddle hunting". If I were marketing it - I'd be pitching it as the realist's answer to the notion that most people can be comfortable enough in a soft saddle to be effective hunters. This is implicit in the offering, but I'd be much more plain about it.


You are very correct in your assessment that eliminating all of the factors that keep people from using the hybrid, would in the end eliminate it's value to the user. You can, however, make a lot of tweaks (see my gen1 modification thread) and get it much more streamlined and lightweight. I can't see this being a viable money maker. Having said that, I didn't think we'd see the day that hang on stand would cost 1000.00, or a 2lb cast platform and soft saddle and rope combo would reach 1000.00. Those days are just around the corner. Maybe a custom hybrid or more sizes will come to make sense....

 

[Plebe]

If it's too firm, the surface area the force is spread across evenly will diminish. We don't disagree on this.

Maybe John will be mad at me for saying this - but the cushion does little to distribute/absorb force more evenly. It does a fantastic job of cutting down on heat loss through your bum when it's windy - which my foggy memory tells me is the main reason it was offered initially.

Mesh too tense - you get a wooden chair. Mesh too loose, you get a dryad. There's a balance, based on what I can see, the hybrid strikes really well.

In the end, it boils down to distributing the force of gravity to the user's liking. Hybrid and soft saddle are in two different leagues in this regard.


Curious of your padded saddle journey. I started with a sit drag, with one, then two, then three layers of 1/2" thick padding (the foam for garden knee pads or seat cushions). At no point did it get more or less comfortable than just the sit drag. This was because the force of gravity was not distributed evenly, with more of it pulling the sides together creating hip pinch. Adding padding to a treesuit, or onehair tree seat, or preachers seat, or the old guido's web, did help. I gave up on the pursuit because I got a Hybrid.

Try the Blackbelt.

But I'm keeping my JX3 because it eliminates the knees to tree problem, and it's pretty nifty despite some of my criticisms of it.

 

[kyler1945]

You made a pretty extensive argument on comfort, although I had already freely admitted that comfort was it’s Pro and that it was more comfortable than my XC.

Time spent in places where deer and turkeys live = dead ones. More time = more dead ones.

The point of this device is to not be the reason for decreasing the time spent. It accomplishes this by making it more comfortable to be there.

I'm not throwing the "comfort" thing out casually. I'm convinced if we had a cheap way to show hunters a heat map of pressure due to the forces of gravity, and hip pinch, and core muscle usage, and spinal pressure, it would be an easy sell. The catch all is "comfort". I know there's math and science behind the pitch. But we'd spend more on showing the work than we could make selling a comfortable saddle.

Yes, you can get away with less comfort. Everything is a tradeoff. The hybrid unapologetically says "I'm heavy, but you won't leave the woods because your butt hurts". So long as people expect it to do that but also weigh 2lbs, and cost 235.00, they will be disappointed. I'm not saying you do, but the gap between reality and expectation has proven wide with the hybrid...

 

[kyler1945]

Try the Blackbelt.

But I'm keeping my JX3 because it eliminates the knees to tree problem, and it's pretty nifty despite some of my criticisms of it.

Knees to trees - also an uncomfortable distribution of force...due to gravity...

 

[2Sloe]

I disagree that it is all about surface area. JX3 offers a cushion for a reason...

Firmness and hard edges. The JX3 does a good job of managing them, but it's part of the comfort equation.

Likewise, soft saddles have lacked enough structure to resolve squeezing and pinching.

A padded saddle seems to be the ticket, imo. I like it better than the JX3, for comfort, minus knees to the tree.

Yes, I read a post some time ago and the poster (I think it was nutterbuster) argued that consistency of materials was the key to comfort. Saddle straps are hard, mesh is soft and stretchy and that creates discomfort. I’ve seen complementary arguments that solid panel saddles are more comfortable than mesh saddles due to that issue. Made a lot of sense to me. Obviously some feel the coolness of mesh is a acceptable trade off in comfort over a sweaty solid panel saddle. By the same token, the ESS offers constant support and coolness, but it would seem from users comments that it is not very user friendly and comes with a significant learning curve. The JX3 would seem to offer consistent support across the bottom and is no doubt key to it’s comfort.

 

[2Sloe]

The opinions are appreciated, and you're right - the whole point of the thread. Please keep them coming.


I'm not disagreeing that people make comparisons to soft saddles. I'm stating my opinion that this is probably the reason for the majority of mismanaged expectations about the hybrid. And a large reason a lot of people don't end up trying it. I think it is important for people to understand the story behind why it was designed, how it was designed, etc. I've been after John to give people that perspective. But it's a matter of fact - the web was completely separate from the few saddles that came out around the same time - there was no overlap in concept or user base. The hybrid was being designed, and the idea for the company forming before the Kestrel/Mantis saw the light of day. They are not separate in my mind alone - the people who brought the concepts to life didn't even consider soft saddles in the design phase.

The company certainly does themselves no favors in my opinion, by hitching their wagon to "saddle hunting". If I were marketing it - I'd be pitching it as the realist's answer to the notion that most people can be comfortable enough in a soft saddle to be effective hunters. This is implicit in the offering, but I'd be much more plain about it.


You are very correct in your assessment that eliminating all of the factors that keep people from using the hybrid, would in the end eliminate it's value to the user. You can, however, make a lot of tweaks (see my gen1 modification thread) and get it much more streamlined and lightweight. I can't see this being a viable money maker. Having said that, I didn't think we'd see the day that hang on stand would cost 1000.00, or a 2lb cast platform and soft saddle and rope combo would reach 1000.00. Those days are just around the corner. Maybe a custom hybrid or more sizes will come to make sense....

I agree and I think you are correct that there is a significant opportunity for the manufacturer to achieve a better balance with the JX3. I think as Cooter alluded to, there are solutions to lesser problems and I understand that is major focus of your effort here. But there are a few drawbacks that are kind of important to a large sector of the hunting community that are best addressed at the manufacturer level. It really is about balance. We all know that nothing is perfect, everything has drawbacks and advantages. Most people understand this, but are looking for that balance and I definately thing there is opportunity here for the manufacturer. It would seem that the manufacturer may be perfectly satisfied with what he has and has no desire to take the product further. You seem to have a passion and I can see that you are attempting to do the leg work to present to the manufacturer to try to spur future development. Good on you.