Cougar Mag

Bruce, it sounds as though you have a nice system worked out. I use my hangons where I know they won't be stolen, and currently use my climber where its quite possible a thief may show up or on public, therefore I'm thinking of switching to sticks and a light hangon to take place of the climber AND if I decide to hunt the same tree the next morning.........I can leave them up overnight.

brucelanthier

You can also take the bottom stick or bottom two sticks and then no one can get to the stand. Then all you have to do is attach the stick(s) when you get there the next morning.

PABowhntr

Coug,

I had been doing just that...on my back....both up and down...but only when I use a hang on which is about 10% of the time. The rest of the time I am utilizing my climber. I do love my hang-on though. At 9 pounds it is a dream to tote around even with the strap-on tree steps. I use a lineman's belt attached to a full body harness to hang the stand.

Cougar Mag

Frank, thats what I will be doing. I too have been using my climbers a lot, but I'm thinking of getting totally away from a climber and going strictly to a light hangon and sticks when I want to be mobile.

GregH

Never carry your hang-on up or down on your back. All I use are hang-ons, but I carry them up or down with a strap around ONE of my shoulders.

Although this is the way I've always done it, since 1988 when I bought my first stand, it was impressed upon me as being the correct way when a good friend died while carrying one up on his back.

While climbing with the stand strapped to his back, a tree step pulled out, causing him to fall. He hit the ground on his rump and wrapped his head backwards over the stand, where it grips the tree (the V), and snapped his neck!

By carrying it only over one shoulder, you can toss it aside or hopefully, just break an arm. Not kill yourself should you fall.

Take care.

Greg / MO

97% of the time, this is what I do (strap my hang-on to my back, go up by screwing in stepsuntil I reach my hunting height, and then remove my stand and hang it. Probably 85-90% of the time I'll bring it back down with me because I either want to move it to a different spot or I'm on public land and don't want to leave it)...

Two keys that make this a really simple act, and extremely safe (I, too, disagree that this is an unsafe act -- at least the way I do it): One, know which side of the tree your compression buckle will end up on when tightening it down to secure your treestand to the tree. Always climb the tree facing that side so the buckle will be right in front of you and you won't be reaching blindly around the tree to secure it. Two, carry enough steps (or in the case of the LW sticks, make sure you've got four) so that you won't be tempted to hang the stand while standing on the top steps... I like to leave the last step just slightly higher -- or at the least -- level with my platform. That way, I can easily step onto the platform from my steps or vice versa.

I used to think it went without saying to use a quality lineman's belt with good D-loop attachments to your harness around your waist, but I've learned that not everyone even thinks about that ... I know you will, Greg... but for the others reading this. That's probably the one thing that makes it the easiest while hanging the stand... if you've got both hands free to hang the stand, and the buckle which you tighten your stand down with is right in front of your face, how can there be anything hard about that?

Cougar Mag

Who makes a qualtiy safety harness utilizing the D-loops? Does HSS use D-loops?

Greg / MO

I've got an older Fall Woods' Seat of the Pants one that I really like because the webbing which makes up the harness is super thick, and therefore really stiff... meaning it doesn't tangle at all. I haven't looked at the Seat of the Pants harnesses that closely since they were bought out by Summit years ago...

I do know that all of the harnesses supplied by Summit with their stands (which are Seat of the Pants, in essence) have d-loops on them. Using the provided materials, you'd have to loop the big nylon rope through that has the prussic knot on it... but it'd be pretty simple to buy an accessory belt with carabiners or some other attaching device to clip on to them.

Rick James

The new Loggy Bayou Transformer harness has the metal d-loops. You can also use the supplied rope and carribeaner (spelling?) to snap yourself in. This is a huge reason I believe this is the best harness on the market.

WKP Todd

That's what we do nearly every-set, filming run & guns. It works great for us!