What problems have you encountered or had when saddle hunting? Any common gear failures or mistakes? How do you get down safely if your platform fails or a stick fails? Maybe the strap breaks and it falls off the tree? How do you get down? Worried about getting stuck up in the tree. How to get down with a lineman rope and tether?

When I had a mama pig charge out of the brush and my horse went to bucking and my cinch broke! Ended up on my a$$, with my saddle in the mud, and my horse heading for the next county buckin and fartin the whole way!

Never hunted with a tree saddle but the old Baker climbing stands left me bearhugging the tree and sliding down it. Not fun btu better than falling

[quote=kmon11]Never hunted with a tree saddle but the old Baker climbing stands left me bearhugging the tree and sliding down it. Not fun btu better than falling[/quote


Yes sir, I remember the baker stand!!!

WOW I remember the Baker stand. That was a long time ago. Glad they make them a lot lighter now.

I am guessing a saddle stand is one that leans up against a tree, and there is a saddle (of sorts) that wedges into the trunk? strap around the tree to hold in place, possibly a ladder going up to a platform with seat where the saddle is located???

it reminds me of one year my college room mate decided to go to CO on a mule deer and elk hunt with us. He and I struck out walking (young bucks, full of pi$$ and vinegar), after a few miles we found a tall pine tree with steel stakes driven in forming a ladder up to a small 2x2ish platform about 20 feet high. He crawled up there and gave me a thumbs up that he was going to stay and hunt there and could see great alleys out several hundred yards. I continued walking a big loop and made it back to our camp right at dark. A front had blown in and we had ice and snow 10-12 inches deep since I left that morning. I fixed dinner and got to wondering where he was. about 2 hours after dark we started getting concerned and went looking for him. I found the tree stand and he was packed in snow, shaking like a leaf, beard full of snow. There was enough ice on the steel stakes, he couldn't get down by himself plus his legs had gone to sleep and he had no feelings in his legs. After about 30 minutes we finally got him down using some ropes we finally got over some limbs above him to lower his gun, pack and helped stabilize him to crawl down.

Clearly we're doing this wrong... No failures, though.

So, if one of your sticks fail just use the lineman's belt to walk down the tree. Unlikely though. More likely is they're spaced too far apart and your searching with your foot trying to find the step. Worse case you can re attach and hang while you get your bearings. I'm a heavy guy and don't really have problems up or down. I just make sure I haven't spaced my sticks too far apart.

Practice will get you comfortable. Attach the platform about a foot up the tree and clip in to your lineman's belt. Step up on the platform and adjust your belt so you can hang comfortably. This is the hardest thing, getting your lineman's belt adjusted correctly while climbing. Once your hanging, attach your main rope and clip in. I keep my lineman's belt attached but most don't. That's from my climbing days when we stressed three points of contact. Once your comfortable, step down, remove the platform and attach your first stick. Clip back into the lineman's belt and move up the tree. Hold on to you belt, not the tree. Step up, pull close to the tree jump your belt up, lean back a little and climb to your second step. Attach a second stick, attach your platform next to the top of stick two, adjust your lineman's belt and step on the next stick. Keep going until you can step on the platform.

If ever you need to remove your lineman's belt, attach your bridge to the main rope first.

For those that dont know what a tree saddle is, it is a set up where a hinter has a small platform to stand on, a sort of linans harness around the waist which can be sat down in, and a set up of portable tree steps to get up into the platform. Theu are supposed to be superior to a traditional treestand in that they are more comfortable, allow near 360 degree shooting lanes, and hopefully easier to get in and out of due to never having to really leave the confines of the vertical portion of the tree

https://youtu.be/w5OWL5fr9K4

Thank me later.

I just learned about saddle hunting a few days ago from a friend. It looks interesting to say the least.

I've never heard of one failing, at least from a manufacturing defect. Climbing sticks seem pretty bombproof to me and, having been in the rock climbing scene for a while, the ropes/cords they use could hold a mid-size truck no problem. As with anything else like it, you just need to double check your carabiners and be patient when you're setting up. All that being said, if you go with a reputable company, I'd never be concerned about it failing.

As for getting, down you just go down the same way you came up! In a worst-case scenario, you could just bear hug the tree with your lineman's rope and slide down. You can also get a safety line, too, which allows you to move up and down the setup without using a lineman's belt — once you get everything set up, that is.