Saddle Hunting

So you want to try saddle hunting? I was in your shoes a year ago. Here’s what I did and what I’ve learned.

First question, how hard do you want it to be? How quiet? How much do you want to carry? What are you going after?

Ask yourself all these questions. For me I wanted it to be easy, I wanted to be quiet, I didn’t want to carry a lot and I am going after whitetail deer.

I at first considered using a climbing tree stand. This was appealing at first because it’s easier than learning how to climb with saddle sticks and using a tree saddle. It’s not that much easier I would eventually learn. It is heavier and a lot bulkier to carry around a climber stand. The limiting factor that bothered me the most though about climbing tree stands is that you need a smooth tree or you need to spend a lot of time sawing off limbs that will get in your way. So that means pre scouting for the perfect tree is important. If pre-scouting wasn’t possible it meant that my hunting areas would be limited by the perfect tree.

Climbing sticks and a tree saddle greatly increase the amount of trees you can select. This freedom of choice made the decision for me. I was actually going to go with a climber tree stand and had practiced with my buddy’s stand. But after walking around the woods grouse hunting and looking at all the trees I wouldn’t be able to use with a climber and all the trees I could use with climbing sticks and a saddle. I decided it can’t be that much harder.

I at first thought it was harder because I couldn’t picture in my head how the hell to use the climbing sticks and how all the ropes would work together to keep me up in the tree. I found a good youtube video put out by Tethrd and looked at a bunch of google images of tree saddle hunting and decided it couldn’t be that hard.

I chose the Tethrd workhorse saddle, because it had good reviews and it had built-in pockets. I didn’t realize how valuable I would find those pockets until later, so I’m glad I rated that feature highly.

I also chose the Tethrd workhorse climbing sticks, because I can’t resist completing the set.

Platform, I needed a platform too. Got that, again from Tethrd.

Took the whole kit to the nearest park that had a semi-private tree in the right diameter that I could find. Semi-private because I didn’t want to make an ass of myself. Way easier than I thought. Time consuming yes, but not that hard.

Find a tree approximately the diameter of a basketball. Can be bigger, can be smaller. If it’s bigger it becomes more challenging to get the rope around the tree. Picture trying to swing a rope in your hand blind. Your hands are wrapped around the tree and if the tree is bigger than your bear hug you’re going to be swinging that rope attempting to land it into your own hand. This becomes exponentially different in the dark and cold and at height.