Mobile set ups

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Shed Hunter

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I've always been a climbing stand kind of guy but I bought a hawk hang on and some climbing sticks. It's really light but the set up process is very slow even with a lineman's rope.

What do you guys prefer?
 
I love my loc-ons I have preset on my farms but they're big and comfortable. I can't stand the small light weight ones designed for mobile use, they're just small and uncomfortable. If I want light and mobile I'm using a saddle. Same way of climbing up but I'm comfortable when I get up there. I also still use my climbers quite a bit. Just my opinion though.
 
Most of the time if im mobile it's a lock on. Once you get the hang of it, it's not that much more time than a climber. The difference is that you can climb any tree no matter how bushy and branchy. I have been using a lone wolf alpha and 4 standard sticks, pretty old school by today's standards. This year I bought an XOP Fly with two XOP Hydro sticks and the entire set up comes in under 10lb and gets me as high as the old set up.

For climbers I have a lone wolf and a summit aluminum viper. Good for medium growth pole timber but not much else. Anytime I need to climb a bigger or smaller tree, gnarly, branchy, etc tree then the hang on is where it's at.
 
For my mobile setups its a saddle / a summit climber. The light setup are crazy. I prefer i saddle or climber over a hang on thats just personally. If I am trying to move around on a deer and dont have any setups I will just hang sticks in advance. That makes it pretty simple to just to have my saddle platforms. We have ladder stands for the most part. A couple of blinds.
 
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If I am trying to move around on a deer and dont have any setups I will just hang sticks in advance.

I do similar. If it's an evening hunt and im planning to come back next morning I'll just leave everything in place. Or if im hunting and need to make an adjustment for next sit I will get down early and move the stand for the next day.

I had a cat & mouse game a couple years ago with a good 10pt coming to a several acre oak grove. I knew where he was bedding and how he was getting to the oaks but once in them he could be anywhere. Took 5 days of tightening the noose to finally get bow distance on him and I moved that stand every day, sometimes twice per day. The tree i killed him from was a 6" diameter beech, about 12ft up. Being constantly mobile and able to hunt any tree was the only I was able to kill that buck.
 
I use a little of everything on the farm. Ladders, hang-ons, and climbers.

When I'm trying to stay on early season deer using White Oaks, I'll take my climber every time.
 
I used to use a Lone Wolf Alpha 2, and then I went to the LONE WOLF assault with the 3 step sticks and the 2 step ones. Each had its advantages. I could hang and hunt quicker than with any climber. As I got more arthritic, I had to change that to something more comfortable. So now I use a set of 4 XOP mini sticks and a modified Millennium ultra lite stand. The mesh seat is way more comfortable and it hangs almost as easily as my Lone Wolf sets. But I still can't sit there like a young gun anymore.
 
I'm like most others where I've climbed, hunted out of lock-ons, ladders, and box stands. When I was younger all I ever did was climb it seemed like. I really like hunting out of lock-ons because they are an easy one man setup/taken down. I see advantages to using them for permanent as well as being mobile. I do feel like the saddle is the most efficient of all the options from
 
I've always been a climbing stand kind of guy but I bought a hawk hang on and some climbing sticks. It's really light but the set up process is very slow even with a lineman's rope.

What do you guys prefer?
If you truly want to go mobile, a saddle set up is the way to go. If I am going in for a generally short hunt, anything under 3.5 hours I use a platform. Longer hunts I carry in a LWCG 1.0. I don't hurry my climbing because of inherit risk but opt for slow is smooth and smooth is fast. I can typically be ready to hunt in the stand in 12 minutes starting at the base of the tree. Over time you get better and better at it. Last year, I climbed and set up the loc-on then had a doe feeding under me before I could put my bow release on my hand.
 
I have the millennium m7 ultra lite. I have 3 of the 30inch sticks. But they were too long to pack nicely. And some trees they were to long for. So I use 4 of the 20inch sticks and 3 primal steps. All the sticks have the daisy chain with amsteel. And all my primal steps have amsteel. If you put a primal step in between the heliums you can get way up there. I've got about 8 primal steps might try just using those they go up quick.
 
I have always hunted solo. Private property and only I have permission. It's much easier for me to carry and set up climbing sticks. I'm definitely more comfortable in a ladder stand, feel safer and can sit longer. Just have to put them up and leave them. It gets harder to mess with them by myself as I get older.
 
I've run them all…climbers, mobile lockons, saddle setups of all kinds. Climbers are quick going up the tree and comfortable while on stand but they're usually bulky to carry in heavy brush and they limit your options for trees. I used all types of saddle setups with various platforms options. I love the security of a saddle setup most of all. They're quiet and you can get into any tree. I came to find that I tend to get busted in the saddle from the backside. That's mostly due to my adhd 😅 and the fact that I can't stop looking around which tends to make me sway back and forth. For the past 2 seasons I've been running the LWCG .5 with a minimalist saddle and it's been absolutely flawless for me. Light, compact, quiet, and I can get into any tree. I hunt it 90% of the time like a lock on but when the occasion calls for it I like having the minimalist saddle to work around the blind spot on the tree.
 

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