Best New Climbing Stick Attachment Options

Strap That Stick On … Light

The array of ultra-strong, easy-to-use, light and quiet aftermarket stick attachment options has never been more creative and compelling. The noisier, heavier, harder-to-conveniently-wrap-on-your-sticks metal buckle and strap is anathema for today’s mobile hunter.

After the bulky, potentially noise-generating buckle and strap came 8mm low-stretch climbing rope wrapped around the Versa-button and half-hitched on, or in the case of Muddy Pro sticks, slid through a cam cleat. This was followed quickly by lighter, insanely strong, easier-to-splice and tie ¼-inch Amsteel ropes (A), stronger than steel and so light it floats, then 1⁄8-inch and 7⁄64-inch daisy-chained Amsteel (B) ropes (rope with a full-length of loops every two-inches or so), often with a small ball on the end to sling it around the tree easier. Then we have lightweight straps made of Dyneema (what Amsteel is made of) weaved with a series of continuous loops (C), like the breakthrough Versastraps.

And the latest innovations are simple, buckleless 5⁄8-inch wide flat strap (D), available on Shikar and Lone Wolf Custom Gear Sticks, and the colloquially termed Whoopsie Daisy (E), a daisy chain of fixed loops, typically 2 to 3 inches, topped off with 8–12 inches of a whoopie sling loop — so you can cinch it down tight and never have the issue of being caught between loop openings. Brilliant.

The best sources include numerous solutions from: Mike Isbell’s (Backwoodsmobilegear.com); Trevor Bird’s (Customamsteelproducts.com); Dan Osterhouts’s Eastern Woods Outdoors at Doublesteps.com; and our friends at Tethrdnation.com.