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Examples of dangerous carabiner loading

Fl Canopy Stalker

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Correct, cinching using a carabiner falls more under a multidirectional force application than a true side loading application. It will still weaken the carabiner, but to what degree is 100% based on different factors such as width of the tree, weight of the person, the angle exiting the carabiner…. I was more concerned about carabiner cinching a few years ago than I am these days.
 

Speedfreek48

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Sep 25, 2017
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I don't know how I've never heard of this or why it isn't brought up frequently when talking about "carabiner cross/side loading".... I was watching a Sterling Ropes video & seen they have a carabiner that has a screw in bar that is made for rappelling/side loading. The video I saw it in was 12 years old.... maybe it's been in a thread that I've just missed... I switched to saddle hunting in 2006, but have not hunted hardly any the last 2 years so I haven't been following things as closely as I used to.
 

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Speedfreek48

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Sterling is showing this as proper use of the carabiner. It is part of their emergency evacuation kit with the F4 descender; so it may not necessarily mean that it's made for this use daily, but perhaps for a single use emergency situation... Just thought I'd bring it up since I'd never heard of it. It's not like using a quick link ruins the whole experience. Most times I'm only using it to go around 1 limb & there are times I could use a girth hitch to the eye because I don't have any limbs to pass over. However, my "perfect" tree will have at least one limb around 15-20 ft up so I can get 5-10 ft above it, have it help hide me, but still have plenty of options for shooting lanes.
 

Speedfreek48

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Sep 25, 2017
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View attachment 90275
Sterling is showing this as proper use of the carabiner. It is part of their emergency evacuation kit with the F4 descender; so it may not necessarily mean that it's made for this use daily, but perhaps for a single use emergency situation... Just thought I'd bring it up since I'd never heard of it. It's not like using a quick link ruins the whole experience. Most times I'm only using it to go around 1 limb & there are times I could use a girth hitch to the eye because I don't have any limbs to pass over. However, my "perfect" tree will have at least one limb around 15-20 ft up so I can get 5-10 ft above it, have it help hide me, but still have plenty of options for shooting lanes.
1694176711670.png
 

tailgunner

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Feb 22, 2021
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western Oregon blacktailwoods
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I am by no means an athority on fall protection. But im not ignorant to it.im retrained and tested through continuing education every 2 years per osha.its my Lively hood.not just à hobbie i read about on the interweb. So funny what hypothetical situations people argue about on this forum wich have no basis in reality.
 

Speedfreek48

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Sep 25, 2017
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I am by no means an athority on fall protection. But im not ignorant to it.im retrained and tested through continuing education every 2 years per osha.its my Lively hood.not just à hobbie i read about on the interweb. So funny what hypothetical situations people argue about on this forum wich have no basis in reality.
I'm a lot lower on the totem pole of linemen. I just worked for a few years as a lineman hanging coax & fiber. I'm still with the same cable construction company, but just work in the warehouse here now. I used gaffs when I started saddle hunting, but guess I'm gonna mostly one stick now, because a lot of the places I used to use gaffs I wasn't supposed to be. Seems like I keep getting a little more law abiding the older I get.
I'm still not sure why more ppl don't use those carabiners for one sticking, even though the quick links are a lot cheaper. Cheaper just usually isn't the theme of most saddle hunting accessories...
 

Iron_llama

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Aug 4, 2020
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I'm still not sure why more ppl don't use those carabiners for one sticking, even though the quick links are a lot cheaper. Cheaper just usually isn't the theme of most saddle hunting accessories...
I think I'm going to replace my delta link with a Pocono hitch. Faster than trying to torque down a delta link with frozen fingers. It uses a bit more rope, but that's why I bought more than I needed.
 

Horn

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Mar 8, 2022
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I think I'm going to replace my delta link with a Pocono hitch. Faster than trying to torque down a delta link with frozen fingers. It uses a bit more rope, but that's why I bought more than I needed.
Pocono looks like it's a scaffold/ poachers to the carabiner then tied eye?
 

Iron_llama

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Aug 4, 2020
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Pocono looks like it's a scaffold/ poachers to the carabiner then tied eye?
I don't think that part is super critical, more the mid-line loop (alpine butterfly) and clipping the carabiner over the correct part of the intersection. But yeah, scaffold to the carabiner, since I already have a scaffold on my Delta link..
 
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samu

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Dec 16, 2022
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Kinda hilarious when people are worried about carabiner being loaded wrong when girth hitching a tree. Then proceeding to abuse a belay device, trust their lives on prusik cords and completely ignore risks related to short falls on hyperstatic materials. All while wearing saddles that are not made to conform to any standard and manufacturer only gives vague 300-350lb user limits and not actual MBS for the components.

You would notice the gate of the carabiner not working properly long before you break the carabiner with normal tree diameters you’d use for hunting.

Any situation where breaking the carabiner would be a realistic outcome, using a dynamic rope would mitigate the risk almost completely, yet that’s somehow unacceptable or you don’t believe in physics.
 

woodsdog2

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Jun 28, 2019
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Kinda hilarious when people are worried about carabiner being loaded wrong when girth hitching a tree. Then proceeding to abuse a belay device, trust their lives on prusik cords and completely ignore risks related to short falls on hyperstatic materials. All while wearing saddles that are not made to conform to any standard and manufacturer only gives vague 300-350lb user limits and not actual MBS for the components.

You would notice the gate of the carabiner not working properly long before you break the carabiner with normal tree diameters you’d use for hunting.

Any situation where breaking the carabiner would be a realistic outcome, using a dynamic rope would mitigate the risk almost completely, yet that’s somehow unacceptable or you don’t believe in physics.
Totally the reason why I keep harping on the need for a “best practices” video for saddle hunting and saddle hunting gear. I’m a Hunter Ed, Bowhunter Ed and Trapping Instructor and it is really basic what we cover for tree stand hunting safety. For saddles and saddle hunting there is no “approved doctrine” out yet from an objective third party authority. Thankfully the manufacturers have stepped up to provide good info but I would really like to see NBEF or IHEA come up with something. This sight remains the best resource thus far in my opinion with safety always the priority.