luckylakes
Active Member
That fella with the broken stands has had the worst luck of any person I have ever heard about. As far as portables I started with a baker, then a warren & sweat rifleman, osage then jumped to a API grand slam supreme. That stand had a great bite but some noise issues. Then went to a summit bow version climber, about 20 yrs ago. Its aluminum & 18lbs not counting the harness! I will say that stand is tricky on hard rock maple. Never had a failure on any stand yet, thankfully.
I'm sorta do what 2sloe does. I like to get to my location minimum of 1 hr before you can see shapes on the ground, not shooting light. Though its gonna be my 1st saddle season, the procedure will be the same. I always wear the thinnest base layer I can get away with and no hat. I normally sweat up quick so I like to take my time. I have found that having everything quiet @ least 45-1/2 hr before light allows you the hear what's going on. I have found I see way more deer too. As it gets colder I bought a heater body suit pack and have all that heavy wt clothing rolled up in there. I climb up into my stand and put it all on. For saddle hunting I guess I'll have to do it on the ground or do a DIY heater body bag of some type that I can get into while in a saddle @ hunting height. By the time I get to site your pretty cold so a climb up should break even and u are be warmed up enough. I really won't know till I test it out before hunting season. With that said, I have had LW sticks for 13 yrs and put muddy double steps across the tops of each. Added wt but like not stressing my knees. Now that I'll be 1 sticking I'll lose all that gear and presets. I just weighted my set up. 7.02 lbs with out the XL platform which is in route. They say 4 lbs. So we are talking 11 verses 21 on the climber. I'll take that any day over a wide climber and not having to preset stands for sticks too. LW claims their 3 stick set up is 7.5 pounds. Not after you quiet them down add a bungee to hold them tight etc, I'll just try out the 1 stick setup and see how she goes. My Sh1kar w/ double steps and a Schaefer cam will work for me. BTW the cam cleat on a 1" hollow tube verses a solid aluminum bar stock is WAY quieter if the grab the rope and just pull. That hollow tube is loud!
I'm sorta do what 2sloe does. I like to get to my location minimum of 1 hr before you can see shapes on the ground, not shooting light. Though its gonna be my 1st saddle season, the procedure will be the same. I always wear the thinnest base layer I can get away with and no hat. I normally sweat up quick so I like to take my time. I have found that having everything quiet @ least 45-1/2 hr before light allows you the hear what's going on. I have found I see way more deer too. As it gets colder I bought a heater body suit pack and have all that heavy wt clothing rolled up in there. I climb up into my stand and put it all on. For saddle hunting I guess I'll have to do it on the ground or do a DIY heater body bag of some type that I can get into while in a saddle @ hunting height. By the time I get to site your pretty cold so a climb up should break even and u are be warmed up enough. I really won't know till I test it out before hunting season. With that said, I have had LW sticks for 13 yrs and put muddy double steps across the tops of each. Added wt but like not stressing my knees. Now that I'll be 1 sticking I'll lose all that gear and presets. I just weighted my set up. 7.02 lbs with out the XL platform which is in route. They say 4 lbs. So we are talking 11 verses 21 on the climber. I'll take that any day over a wide climber and not having to preset stands for sticks too. LW claims their 3 stick set up is 7.5 pounds. Not after you quiet them down add a bungee to hold them tight etc, I'll just try out the 1 stick setup and see how she goes. My Sh1kar w/ double steps and a Schaefer cam will work for me. BTW the cam cleat on a 1" hollow tube verses a solid aluminum bar stock is WAY quieter if the grab the rope and just pull. That hollow tube is loud!