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Wisconsin SaddleHunter Meetup - Rescheduled for August 22nd

The screen shot on their website says Madison but when you go into the google drive file it’s west bend.

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I could be talked into a West Bend meetup. Lived 90% of my life there. I’m near Green Bay now.
 
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Did the survey and looking forward to it.


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I reached out to Tethrd to see if they might want to partner up on this. Just want to make sure they are good with other saddle manufactures being represented there so the participants can try a variety of saddles.

I also had an offer from Marc W to possibly host it on his wooded property in Montello as another possible location.

30 replies to the survey so far...
 
Deer Fest in july will have the Tethrd people on hand for demos and other activiries. So thats a source. West Bend in the end of July.

See the survey above everyone.
 
Imo end of July is too late. Would be nice to have this early enough so people could order things they try at the meetup and have it in time to practice before the season. Seemed like a lot of companies had a 10 week lead time last year so having it before July makes more sense to me.
 
Fellow Wisconsin saddlehunters, here are the summary results of the meetup survey.

# of respondents: 32

Q1: Would you be interested in attending a WI saddle hunter meetup?
Yes - 24
No - 0
Maybe - 8

Q2: How many years have you been saddle hunting?
0 years - 12
1 year - 14
2 years - 3
3 years - 2
4 years - 0
5 years - 0
13 years - 1

Q3: Where are you located? had respondents from all over Wisconsin as well as a few from Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.
Q4: How far are you willing to travel to attend a meetup?
0-50 miles - 7
51-100 - 13
101-150 - 6
151-200 - 2
201-250 - 1
As far as i have to - 3

Q5: How many other non saddlehunter members will you be bringing with you?
0 - 1
1 - 10
2 - 4
3-5 - 0
not sure - 2

Q6: Select the months in which you would be able to attend a meetup?
April - 20
May - 21
June - 27
July - 21
August - 18
September - 9
depends on work schedule - 3

Q7: What type of meetup would you prefer?
Saturday morning - 8
Saturday afternoon - 16
Saturday full day - 19
Sunday morning - 3
Sunday afternoon - 7
Sunday full day - 4
2 day camp overnight - 3

Q8: What would your food preference be?
Bring your own - 10
potluck - 11
food is not necessary - 6
organizer provide food but I will chip in - 3
flexible - 2

Q9: Would you be willing to sign a waiver?
Yes - 32
No - 0

Q10: Do you have a saddle?
Yes - 24
No - 7
I have one on order - 1

Q11: What kind of saddle do you have? Mantis (medium) - 2 , Mantis (large) - 3, Mantis (x-large) - 2, Trophyline - 2, Kestrel (size 1) - 1, Kestrel (size 2) - 1, Kite (size 1) - 1, Flex - 1, H2 - 1, Treehopper - 1, Sit drag - 3, JX3 - 3, fleece - 2, Guidos Web - 1, Other DIY - 10

Q12: Will you bring your saddle for others to try?
Yes - 26
No - 3
Maybe - 3

Q13: What climbing method do you use? Hawk Helium - 5, Beast sticks - 3, Sticks (brand not mentioned) - , WE Steps - 4, LW sticks - 2, Muddy Pro - 2, SRT - 2, DRT - 1, DIY Sticks - 3, Primal steps - 2, Bolts - 1, Squirrel Steps - 1, Cranford woopie sling steps - 1, Cranford screw in - 1, Spurs - 1, Preset ladders - 1, hand climber - 1

Q14: Will you bring your climbing method for others to try?
Yes - 27
No - 0
Maybe - 5

Q15: What type of platform do you use?
DIY - 6
Predator - 15
ROS (various types) - 4
WE Perch - 1
Ridge Runner - 1
podium - 1
Lone Wolf - 2

Q16: Will you bring your platform for others to try?
Yes - 26
No - 3
Maybe - 3

Q17: Do you want to bring items to sell or trade?
Yes - 8
No - 5
Maybe - 19

Q18: Would you only attend if shooting from saddles or hunting was part of the meetup? I would attend either way - 100%

Q19: What activities would you want to participate in?
Saddle equipment demos - 30,
saddle hanging practice - 22
climbing equipment demos - 28
climbing practice - 23
platform demos - 26
platform practice - 19
self-filming equipment demos - 12
target shooting from the ground - 13
target shooting from a saddle - 22
evening campfire / socializing - 18
food / drinks - 17
 
So to start narrowing this down, our target will be:

  • A full day on a Saturday
  • The focus will be saddle, platform and climbing method demos and practice. We appear to have a good selection of saddles, platforms and climbing methods across those that expressed interest in attending.
  • If possible, we will try to find a location where we can shooting from a saddle
  • We will target May, June or July for the event (yet to be finalized)
  • Food will be bring your own or potluck style (yet to be finalized)
  • I am looking at SE Wisconsin for the location. Out of the 32 respondents, 5 individuals didn't provide detailed enough info to determine location and I couldn't find their usernames on the saddlehunter map. Of the other 27 respondents, SE Wisconsin was within the range they were willing to travel for 22 out of those 27. Sorry if SE Wisconsin is outside of your range but I'm going with keeping it in range for the majority. We can always move locations in the future.
  • I haven't gotten a response from Tethrd yet regarding getting their products for demo. We have them pretty well covered already for existing available products and they will be coming to West Bend at the end of July for their Teach-n-learn series so not sure if I'll be able to get my hands on a Phantom or not for our gathering.
 
Was off work for MLK day today so spent a little time looking into possible locations. What I’ve learned so far is Waukesha county parks consider a meetup like this as a special event. I submitted a proposal to see how it plays out but looks like I’ll be looking at a $100 fee at least as well as required $1M liability insurance policy for the day that would run another $125ish. The Parks board is reviewing my request and will respond in a week.

I also confirmed with the DNR that archery practice is not allowed on state managed properties (unless the property has a designated practice range) so that would eliminate any shooting activities from the meetup.

Also narrowing in on possible dates but expecting the location to factor in:
May 9
May 23
June 6
July 11
July 18

Stay tuned...
 
Couple of updates... continued looking at locations. Every village or city park I checked has ordinances against climbing trees so those options have been eliminated.

I should be getting a proposal back from the Waukesha county parks board this week.

Still have not heard back from Tethrd corporate or @g2outdoors on my inquiries about borrowing new products to allow those to be demoed.

Anyone in SE Wisconsin have access to private land that would be interested in partnering with me on this in the event the public options all fall through?
 
Ive checked here in Janesville with our parks director. We have no rules on tree climbing. If we had a group event, there would need to be a permit application. Formality. We have several big parks that are wooded with assorted tree types. No shooting of bows in town... obviously.

Janesville and Beloit have plenty of other things for visitors and family. Restaurants, brewery, wineries, lodging, food trucks, and so on.
 
I must have missed this meetup thread before, but I am interested in WI meetup. I live in Madison on UW campus. I know of some public land nearby, but drilling into trees or using spikes will be an issue on public. I think it would likely be an issue on any public land, no matter what city we go to, right? Aren't the restrictions on puncturing the trees regulated by the DNR and therefore would be an issue statewide? I could be wrong about that. If someone has better info, definitely correct me.

Anyways, I have a kestrel, amsteel rope mods, beast sticks, LWCG sticks, predator platform, squirrel steps, ghillie suit, self-filming gear, and lots of other gear. I am in the market for spikes and rappel gear too, so I may have that by then as well. Needless to say, I have a bit of a gear addiction, I'm sure others here can probably relate! I'm happy to bring everything though and let others give my stuff a try.

I also use my saddle gear for wildlife photography in the offseason and I'm planning to use it to self film next year too, so if anyone is interested in checking out my mirrorless camera with a big supertelephoto lens and the different camera supports for shooting off the ground and up in the tree I can bring that too. It's like hunting year round, except sometimes you only have the camera instead of your bow, that is what got me into it. If anyone is interested in that sort of thing let me know otherwise I'll leave that stuff at home.

I dont care what food people choose, and I can pay in or bring some food/beer whatever people decide. Thank you to those who have done the organizing, looking forward to it!
 
First off, thanks for the PM suggestions a few of you have sent my way. Few pics of the location (Menomonee Park in Waukesha County) that I am narrowing in on... I am meeting with the park foreman on Feb 17th to go through details. This location will provide shooting opportunities on the range but not from the trees. I did attach my predator platform at ground level to one of the 4x4’s of the shooting tower last year. This location allows climbing of trees as well and I think there are a few that should be suitable for demos across the street from the range.
 
Just noticed this thread and thanks for putting this together. I am very interested in going! This was my first year hunting out of a saddle (sit-drag diy) and I absolutely loved it. Took a nice 12 pointer on public land during gun season! A little bit of a learning curve, and I am sure I would get better connecting with you all. And I would love to try out some saddles to see what I might like.
 
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