Right before COVID-19 became the only thing we cared about for a few years, I decided I was going to invest tree saddle hunting. At the time, I was living in western Washington and I was trying to figure out a way to hunt blacktail. Let me save you the trouble, tree saddles aren’t it. Yet, I didn’t know what was in store for me and my hunting adventures.
One thing lead to another over the pandemic and now I am back in Texas. Many things about my hunting life has changed as a result, but one of the positives is that I get to chase whitetail again. Unlike the west where you can only take one or two deer, down here the average number is five or six. That means alot more time in the woods doing what I love. What’s even more exciting, I have a brand new tree saddle to try out.
First was learning how to climb. I love simplicity and having as little gear as possible so naturally I was drawn to the “single stick method”. Most people use several sticks to climb a tree. When they run out of sticks, there they are. Given the limitations, the extra weight, the added things to break, I never liked the idea of the traditional method. So I became a disciple of the single stick.
In the single stick method, you put your stick on the tree above your head. With the help of an aider, you climb up and then attach a climbing rope. From there you put your weight into the saddle (I use a Trophyline), reach down to your stick, and then pull it loose to put it above you. Then you repeat the process as many times as you want to get as high as you want.
The only problem was my stick. It was terrible. It was too long and wasn’t at all conducive to the single stick method. I was going to have to do some research and build my own. This past summer, no one was catering to the single stick saddle hunter. So I took to YouTube and found this video.
Since the stick he uses in the video is a prototype, I had to build my own. So here is what I did:
First, I took my Hawk Helium stick and cut it down to be 18″ and relocated the tree grip accordingly. I then got a cheap eyebolt from Walmart and attached it so that it sat parallel with the ground. I tied a piece of climbing rope to it, the beginning of my tree attachment method. Then I got a cam cleat and placed it in the center of the stick. Now I would just wrap the rope around the tree and put it into the cleat.
Finally, I put the Hawk Platform on top of the stick and attached a climbing aider to the bottom of it. Though my home grown stick is not the best, it works. It will last me through the season and perhaps I will replace it next year since many of the saddle companies are now producing things for guys like me.
However you decide to climb, I endorse the single stick method for tree saddle hunting. It is slightly more difficult, but much more versatile.