"Practice anything new only a couple of feet off of the ground at first. Take your time, don’t try to fly up the tree or do it in as few moves as possible."
I'm not going to engage the ongoing debates about the finer points, but did find this little gem to be very worthwhile in my own saddle learning curve. I'm only one season in, but researched equipment and techniques a significant amount before I purchased and got started. I bought my saddle setup used, but emailed the small business owner and we chatted a bit before I purchased it. While I was waiting for it to arrive, I watched a number of "Intro to saddle hunting" videos and began my learning in the basement on a support pole.
I put on the saddle, adjusted the fit, attached the linemans to the pole as I would at ground level in the woods, shifted to the tether in my left dump pouch, stowed the linemans in the empty left dump pouch, retrieved the linemans and reattached, removed the tether and put it back, then removed the linemans......simulating the technique and sequence of a typical hunt. I did that process every day at least twice for over a week until I felt memory and muscle memory taking over. During that time I acquired a platform, so I went to a local friend's home with a 25 acre woods to test it above ground.....but only one stick high. I attached the stick, attached the platform just above and to the right side, attached the linemans, climbed two steps to the platform while moving the linemans, got on the platform, shifted to tether, removed the linemans and after a few minutes reveresed the steps and climbed down using the linemans. Then I moved to another tree and started over.
My first hunt was from a pre-set stick and fixed stand setup already in the woods. I simply used the linemans of my saddle for the ascent, climbed aboard the stand platform, attached my tether, installed the accessory strap, removed my pack, hauled up my bow and hunted. I left the stand seat up and utilized my saddle while testing out some budget knee-pads I had obtained from Harbor Freight. The next hunt I utilized a set of pre-set sticks, climbed up, set my platform, climbed aboard and set my tether, installed the accessory strap, hauled up my bow and saddle hunted for the first time off the platform. After a few hunts from pre-set sticks, I went 'solo' from the ground up with everything in a pack on some local public land. By then I had a pretty good 'system' developed for the saddle and rigging aspects and just had to learn the nuances of the particular sticks. A half dozen hunts like that and I really felt like I was smoothing out the kinks and was loving the saddle more each hunt.
My last saddle hunt in mid-December, I killed a doe with my first shot from a saddle and was really pleased with the whole process. I never once felt unsafe, having tested all my gear at or just above ground level and then under pretty controlled circumstances until my confidence was really solid. This worked well for me and while I don't see it as 'perfect', it certainly instilled a lot of confidence over a period of a few months. Over the winter I've done some DIY projects and added a few new facets, such as ditching a Ropeman 1 and going to a 'hitch' on my tether, which I have tested out several times on a stout branch of a front yard tree. Test EVERYTHING low.....go redundant if that makes you feel better......but give it a shot.
