Saddle Hunting

[Gun&BowSD]

Used a saddle for a number of years now. Will never go back. Have trees prepped on multiple sides of spots, never limited by wind direction.

 

[DBHAWTHORNE]

I have been using a CRUZR the past two years. Great saddle. I still prefer treestands if hunting ground i have exclusive access to but you can't beat a saddle for getting mobile.

 

[largerack]

I went to a saddle for 90% of deer hunting on public. I have a latitude 2-panel saddle and their carbon sticks with a sub 3lb platform. The entire setup is around 12lbs. A lot of times I am carrying the sticks and platform bundled in one hand and my bow in the other or on my shoulders. Everything else is organized in order of use in two pouches on the saddle (left side and right side). It is an insanely mobile setup compared to hiking in with my lone wolf on my back. At the end of the first season I was four sticks up with bow hung sitting still hunting in about 20 minutes from the base of the tree. Same for getting out. Hunting to walking out in about 20 min. That is going "slow" and being very careful and always attached to the tree.

There are some cons that took some getting used to for me, off the top of head:

- weak side shots require more movement, so practice and be prepared.
- getting busted from movement with deer from behind. You can see 360 degrees from saddle, but generally you are not looking behind you. In a stand you are blocked by the tree, but you can't shoot there anyway so it feels like a con for saddle, but in reality you actually have more opportunities.
- fidget factor. There is so much ability to adjust for comfort that I often find myself adjusting things after several hours. You'll get it figured out after some time in the saddle. It can be too easy to move around a lot in the beginning.
- being skylined, be conscious of sun direction
- adding / removing layers can be a pain, especially when hiking in when temps are below freezing and down to single digits. Again takes some practice figuring out a system that works for you. I hunted several days this season with wind chills below zero just fine. But you must have a system with some practice.
- Bino harness / hand muff and bridge all kind of in the same place. Not sure what everyone is doing for this. Most times I don't use a Bino harness, but I did change to a lower profile FHF gear from Alaska Guide Creations for the saddle.
- putting on boot blankets or artic shield once you are up is doable, but takes a little practice.

 

[mtfallon]

First season hunting out of the saddle, also used my climber and hang-on depending on the situation. I rediscovered my hatred of multiple sticks on a mobile setup and once I tried one sticking I quickly knew it would be my go-to method of gun hunting from now on. I still haven't got comfortable on weak side bow shots out of the saddle but will practice more this off season. Net net after a full season is that I'm sold on one sticking for gun hunting where I can get up 30ft+ if I feel like it with less than 10lbs of total gear (I used a 12" EWO stick with UP platform about 4lbs with everything) and a super slim profile that allowed me to still hunt into new areas, and easily shoot a gun offhand wearing everything.

 

[Felix40]

I gave it a good honest try.

Things I liked
-less bulk to carry in
-it’s fun to swing around

Things I didn’t like.
-hard to put on rain pants. This by itself was enough to make me give up on it. I got soaked because of it.
-wearing a holster pinches the crap out of your hip
-you end up shooting toward/around the tree so a tree with a bunch of branches can end up being harder to shoot out of. In a stand all you need is one opening to shoot away from the tree.
-the 360 shootability is a lie. You have to make tons of movement to swing all the way around the tree or get your bow up and over the tether.
-your profile is way bigger because you are leaning out away from the tree. You can’t hardly put your back against the tree and shoot.

These days I like to just use 3 sticks and an ultralight stand. Carrying 17 lbs really makes no difference compared to 7lbs. I can hang the stand in minutes with very little effort. I can climb up and down at will (compared to 1 stick). Honestly, if I need to be super mobile and lightweight I will just sit in a stool on the ground. I think a lot of the saddle stuff looks way cooler on tv than it actually is in real life.

 

[nosajnh]

I have hunted out of my saddle for 4 seasons and my alu summit has hung on the wall ever since. There are several reasons why a saddle works for me. The big ones are mobility on the ground, flexibility in the tree and that 99% of the hunting I do is on public most of the . The first 2 seasons I hunted out of tethrd Phantom and that was pretty good however it took a couple sits in the beginning of the season to get in "saddle shape" which is similar to getting into saddle shape for riding a bike regularly, there are new pressure points that after a couple sits your body gets accustomed to within reason. After 2 seasons I found on the long sits (over 4 hrs) I was getting a lot of hip pinch so I changed to an Overwatch Orion single panel saddle with a pleat and pleat adjusters and it was much more comfortable. This season I would routinely sit for 9 hrs and had 3 or 4 dark to dark sits and I am 54 years old. I started out with 2-4 hawk helium sticks the first season then switched over to a 1 stick climb and rappelling down. The 1stick/rappel method gives you more flexibility. There are several different climbing options and saddle designs so saddle hunting can be 1,000 shades of grey. My 1stick has a small platform on top so if I am going to hang for 4hrs or less I will just use my 1stick for a platform. If I am going to hunt longer I will bring my platform as well. When I setup with my 1stick and my platform I will have them 90-100 deg. from each other which will give me 300+ degrees of a strong side shot with some movement.



Having the tree between you and an incoming deer is a positive however deer do not always come in the way you expect. When I think that there is a good chance of deer coming in behind me I try to have a tree behind me to provide cover. I also try to set up so my blind side (back) is down wind.

I did have 5 does come in from behind me on my weak side this year. In this setup I expected the deer to follow a run that crossed in front of me and the wind was blowing across me from my strong side to my weak side. The deer did not see me because I had a hemlock close behind me. I was looking forward and out of the corner of my eye I picked up movement and they started walking into my field of view and into my wind. The closest one was directly below me at my 4 o'clock and the furthest one was 15 yds away at my 2 o'clock position . I was standing on my platform with my 1 stick platform at about my 10 o'clock. I drew my bow behind the tree from them and at the same time the one below me must have got a whiff of me and jumped, the other (4) froze, I pivoted to my 1 stick platform at full draw and shot the old doe that was second in line at what would have been about my 3 O'clock but was now at my 11 o'clock. The old doe knew something was up when the one deer jumped but couldn't get a lock on me because the tree was now between her and me as I pivoted to my 1 stick platform.

As others have mentioned above there are down sides to saddle hunting however for my style of hunting they out way the negatives.

 

[bigbuckdj]

The saddle is basically a harness that’s tied off from the front. I “saddle hunt” out of lock ons, saddle platforms, top of stick platforms, whatever. No reason to hate the saddle, it just lets you sit comfortable facing the tree off whatever your platform is.

You can one stick up to the stratosphere on a nice tall straight tree, or slide into a limby tree with a little platform and a few sticks, you can one stick up and hang a lock on at the top. There’s no rules they are just tools.

 

[WI-Carcosa]

4 seasons hunting out of a saddle has been a game changer. From a cheaper climber or ground hunting this was a huge upgrade. I hunt from 3ft high to 25ft high depending on the situation and back cover. Really nice to look like an offshoot tree trunk in a split oak or basswood or hide behind the tree. It was a major difference in the amount of times I get spotted by deer in the stand moving from a saddle from tree stand.

There is a decent amount of fiddle factor with each saddle and offseason practice is a must. Practice in the backyard going up in and out in the dark as well. Each year do some small tweaks to gear or process and your setup will be lights out for what you need and your style of hunting is.

Bowhunting and getting 360 shot is more challenging than advertised but possible (practice practice practice). Rifle hunting is a blast out of the saddle with the tree as an easy rest and turret. I get the hype can be annoying, but much of the noise is legitimate excitement over how this changed many of our hunting styles for the better.

 

[jpuckett]

I agree with a lot of this, I will say, hip
Pinch is a con…. But most if not all of us who are switching over to the saddle full time are not getting hip pinch, we’ve figured out saddles or adjustments to take care of that. Fiddle factor is definitely a thing. And I’m getting used to what adjustments I can make that will cut that down more. I use a ring of steps so I never have to do the weak side shot. That’s something I think more should consider.


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[North Idaho Stickbow]

I have a great saddle, and I greatly prefer it over a stand myself. I carry just two full size sticks with an aider and set up and go. It’s light and easy and I don’t have any issues getting comfortable. In fact; I have to work to stay awake.

… however …

I have learned I kinda just don’t like hunting from a tree in general, so I rarely ever do it at all. I’m not much help.

 

[TWill_61]

I haven’t “switched”…I’ve added it to my tool bag. I think some folks think they either have to be a saddle hunter or hang on hunter. Reality is that there are times where one may work better than another. If you need to be a little lower in the tree and there’s a ton of cover, saddle may be tricky to get a shot out of.

That said, I prefer a saddle most of the time. It’s lighter and easier to get up and in and I make less noise than with my lone wolf.


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[ManUpNorth]

Just switched this past season myself too. Definitely will be continuing on with saddle hunting as I really like the ability to pop into almost any tree I want. Some things I will be changing this year though:

1. Modifying my saddle. I bought the XOP one and it really is more like a tree stand harness with a "butt"/seat sewn into it. There's a video on YT of a guy who removed some of the shoulder strap and the unnecessary extra leg straps that I plan on modeling. Just didn't want to blow a ton of money on a Tethrd/Latitude/etc. if it wasn't something I was going to like. The XOP is definitely a good entry level saddle kit though for someone looking to try saddle hunting out.
2. Rigging up my own rope ladder for my bottom stick to add a couple extra steps up. I'm 5'9" so I was a little limited as far as how high I could get with just three regular sticks
3. purchasing a nice adjustable hand saw. lot of times I found a perfect tree, but a shooting lane would of been obstructed because I could not reach the branch to cut it.
4. Probably will get a bigger pack for my tree. the bag the saddle comes in is nice (but cheaply made) to be able to store saddle and straps in but just one more thing to carry in and forget. Bigger pack I could store all the straps and saddle equipment as well as all my cold weather gear (I typically hunt in SE MN).

Tips:

1. Buy some gear ties to keep your sticks and platform together and from shifting around on your back.
2. I put stealth strip tape all over my sticks and used paracord on my platform (tons of videos on YT on how to do this, its easy once you get the hang of it). It really did seem to help with clanking and noise when setting up and tearing down.
3. Get a retractable bow pull (search this on amazon) super handy!

Excited to keep on experimenting with saddle hunting as I feel I have way more options when out hunting! Cheers!