Advantages of saddle hunting over conventional hang-on, climber and ladder stands.

1. Safety – Unlike conventional stands which tens of thousands of hunters have fallen from and been seriously injured, with a saddle you are 100% always tethered to the tree. When properly hunting from a saddle you can’t fall. Saddles are the safest systems for hunting from trees.

2. Set-up noise – Saddles are made of fabric so there is no noise associated with; pulling stands up into the tree, setting them up, going up a tree with a climber stand, or foot movements on metal platforms.

3. Creaking – Saddles are made of fabric so there are no metal bolts, joints or weak welds like there are on conventional stands. With a saddle, creaking noises at crunch time when you may have to shift your weight for a shot, are a thing of the past.

4. Weight – Saddles weigh about 2 pounds and easily fits in any backpack with other layering garments and hunting accessories. Try putting a Treestand in your pack.

5. 360 degree shooting mobility – Unlike conventional stands with limited to zero shooting mobility to the back side of trees larger than 14-inch diameters, with a saddle, no matter the tree diameter, the hunter has the option of having 360 degree shooting mobility around the tree. During the rut phases when bucks chase does on unchartered courses, you can’t bank on where an opportunity may occur and with a saddle there are no missed opportunities.

6. Hiding buffer – With a saddle you can move around the tree to keep the tree trunk between you and the deer you want to shoot and when the opportunity presents itself, you lean to the side and make the shot. With conventional stands of any kind, your body is where it is and because you can’t move and the odds of getting visually picked are much greater than with a saddle where you can eliminate it by moving around the tree. This is a huge deal.

7. More tree options – With a saddle you can hunt from large and small diameter trees, whereas with conventional climbers and many hang-on stands, trees must be within a specific size to accommodate them. I’ve taken bucks from trees that were 4 inches in diameter and from trees that were over 30 inches in diameter at the locations in the trees I was set-up at.

8. Branches – Unlike using a climber, the tree doesn’t have to be devoid of branches in order to hunt it. Branches and crotches can actually be used as steps and additional concealment cover.

9. Leaning trees – With a saddle, trees leaning up to 15 degrees can be hunted comfortably from and are easy to set-up in. Other than with heavy and extremely bulky and cumbersome ladder stands, there is no way you could hunt hard leaning trees with climbers and hang-on stands.
10. Accuracy – With a saddle you always have 3 solid points of body contact with both feet being on steps or a platform and your upper body weight being securely supported by the seat. This gives you a much more solid and comfortable base when shooting which will equate to better accuracy. When using conventional stands, you are typically standing when taking a shot and have to balance yourself.

11. Unlimited locations – With a saddle you can have as many locations prepared as desired while owning only one saddle to hunt from any of them at any time. Being able to rotate locations increases the element of surprise and decreases the human intrusions and contamination of each site. Because your saddle is always with you, you simply hunt the locations when and where the sign is hot.

12. Your wallet $$$ – When using hang-on and ladder stands, you need one for each location otherwise you would have to carry a heavy and cumbersome stand along with your pack and bow to each location and then make the noise of setting it up. Just imagine having to purchase conventional stands for 20 or more locations, the cost would be astronomical and even then, the hunter would not have all the other many advantages a saddle offers.

13. Theft – With a saddle you never have to worry about expensive stands being stolen because your saddle is always with you. On public lands and in heavily pressured areas tree stand theft is to be expected and is a major issue.

14. Other hunters – With a saddle, other hunters can’t hunt your locations when you are not there because your saddle is not left in the tree, it’s with you.

15. Comfort – Depending on the type of saddle, they are extremely comfortable to sit in on all day hunts. On average 55 to 65% of record book bucks from every state are taken during the short rut phase periods and being able to sit all day during those time frames is a huge advantage because many are taken during midday. All saddles have tether drape adjustments so you can adjust your seating position within seconds at any time adding to the overall comfort of changing positions on long sits.

16. Constriction – With a saddle your body from the waist up is totally open and not constricted by straps. You can easily add or remove upper body layering garments to allow for changing weather conditions and move your upper body freely. When safely hunting from conventional stands, your upper body is constricted with a shoulder safety harness or vest that is tethered to the tree behind you and is connected to your shoulder area.

17. Climbing harness – All saddles have adjustable safety lineman ropes for climbing and they also double as a hands-free safety harness system for preparing new locations on DIY freelance hunts. With hang-on stands, where similar climbing apparatuses are used, for a DIY freelance hunt where you would need to prepare the tree, or just to safely climb an already prepared tree, you would need to also carry a climbing harness.

18. DIY -Freelance hunting – Saddles are perfect for freelance hunting because they are light, make no noise, are not cumbersome, you can wear them, and they double as your climbing and preparation harness. When freelancing in heavily pressured areas, hunters don’t have the luxury of walking down pristine 2 tracks, through open timber or along open crops as commonly seen on TV and in videos, they have to freelance scout and oftentimes transition through dense cover where toting a cumbersome stand would not be very feasible.

19. Versatility – A saddle is perfect for finding a good location and making a tree within shooting distance of all the sign at it, work. No more having to set up conventional stands in trees away from the destination site because there are no suitable trees at the site. Due to the tree size limitations when using conventional stands, having to set up away from a destination location such as a mast or fruit tree or scrape area, will put some of the runways feeding the destination site and sign at it out of range and possibly out of sight.

20. Multiple lingering deer – A major advantage of a saddle is that at destination locations such as preferred mast and fruit trees and or a scrape area where there may be multiple deer feeding and hanging out for an extended period-of-time, being tethered on the opposite side of the tree trunk from them will keep you from getting visually picked. Deer at these types of locations are constantly looking around and listening while eating. With conventional stands you have no option but to set up somewhat on the side of the tree because if you were set up on the opposite side of the tree, you would not have a shot as the trunk would be in the way. Having to set up on the side of the tree makes your body silhouette visible to the deer at the destination location and greatly increases the likelihood of getting visually picked.

The many advantages of hunting from a saddle will without question, increase your kill opportunities.

Saddle hunting is not another me to hunting concept and it flies against the grain of conventional tree stand manufacturers that want to sell hunters a stand for every one of their hunting locations. Saddle hunting also flies against TMA (Treestand Manufacturers Association) as they are owned and controlled by tree stand manufacturers.

These are my personal hunting qualifications for offering instruction on saddle hunting and the many advantages it has over hunting from any conventional style stands.

-I have exclusively hunted from a 2-panel saddle since 1981 when hunting from trees and have an accumulative total of 50 record book bucks (31 from Michigan and 19 from 5 other states). 44 of those 50 book bucks were taken out of a 2-panel saddle from 32 different properties and 39 different trees. I’ve also taken about 50 other bucks and well over 100 does for the freezer during my 41 seasons of saddle hunting.

-I attribute the taking of about half of those bucks to the many aforementioned advantages of hunting from a saddle. There is absolutely no way I would have taken 44 record bucks in 41 seasons from any type of conventional stands due to their limitations for the style of hunting I do.

-What separates my accomplishments from any other hunter in the country that I know of is they all were taken from either public lands or knock-on-doors for free permission properties. I’ve never owned, leased, hunted a relative’s property or paid a dime to hunt anywhere, and never will.