Saddle Hunting: What's All the Fuss About?

While hang-ons, climbers, and ladder stands have dominated the hunting scene for nearly 50 years, a saddle is a hunting weapon that multitudes of conventional stand-hunters have converted to in recent years. Most bowhunters have heard about saddle hunting, yet many have been reluctant to try it because it is different, and it’s human nature to avoid change.

While the advantages of a saddle are listed and explained later in this article, from the killing perspective, the principal advantages of a saddle are the ability to hunt almost any tree no matter its size, shape, or lean; having the ability to move 360 degrees around trees to take shots in every direction; being able to move around the tree to hide behind its trunk; and the overall adjustability and comfort of saddles for long sits.

What Is A Saddle, And What Is The Concept Of Hunting From One?

Today’s hunting saddles are harness systems like those used by arborists and people who work on powerlines, except with no noisy metal-to-metal parts. You face the tree sitting in a fabric hammock-like seat while being securely tethered to the tree with a rope. Your feet are on a ring of steps that circle the tree, a small platform, or some combination of the two. For climbing, you use the same sticks, steps, and even branches, as you would when employing a hang-on stand.

Shot locations around the tree are referred to in the same manner as hours on a clock (see illustration below). Imagine the trunk in front of you as being the center post of a clock. Directly behind you is 6 o’clock, 90 degrees to your left is 9 o’clock, to your front on the opposite side of the tree is 12 o’clock, and 90 degrees to your right is 3 o’clock. Every 30 degrees is a different hour.

If hunting a destination such as an oak that’s dropping acorns or an active scrape area, set up in a manner that the kill zone is 180 degrees on the opposite side of where you’re perched in the tree. Your body would be in the 6 o’clock position, and the kill zone would be at 12 o’clock. In situations where multiple deer may move in and feed or linger for a period, the tree’s trunk will act as a visual hiding buffer, allowing you to peek around either side of the tree to watch the activity, while your body’s profile is completely blocked from the deer’s vision. For a shot, you move your left foot to the next step to the left, and then your right foot to the step your left foot was on, at which point you lean and take the shot.

If in an area where deer could come from any direction, position yourself on the opposite side of the tree from where you’d expect the most activity to be. Your body would be at 6 o’clock, and the expected activity would be between 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, and the 3 o’clock positions. As deer move within the area, by using your ring of steps around the tree, you can move and remain hidden from non-target and target deer until you need to take the shot. Remaining hidden is especially important in heavily pressured areas, where mature deer watch for hunters in trees, or during the rut phases when the foliage is gone and you have an open-sky background.

In 1981, I purchased an Anderson Tree Sling. It looked like a bag full of seatbelt material stitched together, and the hangtag pictured a hunter tethered to the tree while comfortably sitting in a hammock-like seat. The tag said you could carry it in your pocket, it was its own safety harness, was totally quiet, fit any tree, was quick to set up, had 6,000-pound-test webbing, allowed 360-degree shooting mobility, and it cost only $39.95. It was clear this would be a one-time purchase, and I could use it in every tree I hunted from for the rest of my life, which was awesome because I hunted from a lot of trees during a season. Always questioning the “status quo,” I bought it, and its advantages have yielded opportunities and kills well beyond my expectations.

I’m a self-taught Michigan bowhunter who, since 1965, has hunted exclusively on either heavily pressured public lands or private ground to which I gained access by knocking on doors and asking for permission to hunt there. Currently, I have 34 bucks in Michigan’s record book from 21 different properties in 10 different counties. On my 25 out-of-state hunts, I’ve taken 20 P&Y-class bucks from 14 different properties. Of the 54 record-class bucks, 48 were taken out of my original sling, which has been modified to include the additional benefits you get with a modern saddle.

With my late son, Chris, I co-authored three instructional bowhunting books, and because the saddle played such an integral part in so many of my kills, each book has a chapter on hunting from a saddle. On podcasts, in articles, and seminars, I’ve stated that nearly half of the deer I’ve killed since 1981 would not have been taken had I been limited to using conventional stands. Saddle advantages make that big of a difference. In 2021, along with my sons, Joe and Jon, we started an instructional YouTube channel titled “Eberhart Outdoors,” and much of its content revolves around saddle hunting.

Tethrd, Latitude, and Trophyline are just a few of the companies offering saddles today, but my saddle of choice due to overall comfort and versatility is my “Eberhart Signature Saddle,” which is manufactured and sold by Tethrd. It is a two-panel saddle with an adjustable seat. My preferred climbing stick is Tethrd’s 15-oz. titanium One stick, and my number-two choice is Tethrd’s aluminum Skeletor stick (2 lbs. each).

When hunting public land, where everything must be strap-on, I use five to seven Bullman or Treehopper steps and recommend using a Cranford or Bullman ratchet strap to put them on. The quantity of steps used is dictated by the diameter of the tree and the gaps you want between each step. While I never use a platform, if you do, I recommend using a ring of steps on the backside of the tree, so you can move around the tree to hide and make shots. For private-property presets, Cranford offers three models of folding screw-in steps, and my preference is their deluxe for my ring of steps, and either their T-step or folding steps for climbing up the tree.

Saddles vs. Conventional Stands

1. Safety: Saddles are the safest systems for hunting from trees because you are tethered to the tree 100% of the time with your lineman’s/safety rope while ascending and descending the tree, and you’re attached to the tree with your tree-tether rope during the hunt. Conventional stand hunters must carry a safety harness system and hook up once on stand, and we all know that thousands of hunters have fallen from conventional stands.

2. Preparation Safety Harness: A saddle’s adjustable lineman’s/safety rope system for climbing also doubles as a hands-free preparation safety harness for hanging sticks, steps, platforms, and placing a ring of steps. For prepping trees for a hang-on, you must carry a separate safety climbing harness in order to have both hands free for placing sticks/steps and the stand, or just to safely climb an already prepared tree.

3. Investment: A complete saddle system will cost from $350–$500, and a platform and/or ring of steps costs $80–$250. So, everything you need to hunt from every tree you want to hunt for the rest of your life will cost roughly $430–$750. Imagine the cost of having hang-ons or ladder stands in 10 or more locations. It would be astronomical!

4. Unlimited Preset Locations: While owning one saddle, you can have as many preset locations as desired; you simply move and choose the one where the sign is hot, safely climb, hook up, and hunt.

5. Weight: A saddle system weighs 3–5 lbs., and while most saddle hunters wear them in, the complete system will easily fit in a backpack with other layering garments and gear. Most lightweight hang-on stands weigh 6–12 lbs., and climbing treestands weigh as much as 22 lbs. — and they must be carried.

6. Cumbersome: Saddles do not have a rigid/cumbersome framework to haul in or set up. Hang-ons and climbers have larger frames that make busting through brush, walking long distances, and setting them up an effort in both perspiration and frustration.

7. Noise: Saddles are made of fabric, so they’re obviously dead-quiet all the time. Conventional stands are made of metal with welds, nuts and bolts, and joints. Over time, any of those could cause a creak when you shift your weight for a shot.

8. Comfort: Depending on the saddle, the hammock-like seat conforms to your butt’s shape and is extremely comfortable. And all saddles have drape adjustments to customize your sitting/standing positions, which adds to your overall body comfort on long sits. I have a bad back and can sit comfortably in my ESS about 14 hours on all-day sits during the rut. Most conventional stands have seats at fixed heights, forcing you to sit in the same position during the entire hunt, which will ultimately cause back pain.

9. Total Shooting Mobility: During the rut, you never know where an opportunity may present itself. With a saddle, you can move around the tree and take full advantage of the 360-degree shooting mobility they offer. You can’t do that with conventional stands.

10. Concealment: A saddle allows you to keep your profile hidden behind the tree’s trunk. When setting up at a feeding or scrape area, where multiple non-target deer may come in and feed or linger for long periods of time, being hidden behind the tree will keep you from getting busted. With conventional stands, you can’t set up on the opposite side of a tree and use it as a buffer. Instead, you must set up on the side of the tree, making your stand and your body visible to the deer.

11. Tree Diameter: With a saddle, you can hunt in trees from 4–28 inches in diameter. No more having to set up in trees along routes to a destination site because there are no suitable trees for your conventional stand at the core hub of activity. Most conventional stands have tree diameter limitations, and climbers can be used only on trees devoid of branches.

12. Odd Trees: With a saddle, misfigured and leaning trees up to 15 degrees can be hunted from comfortably, oftentimes putting you closer to the action. The same can’t be said for conventional stands.

13. DIY Hunting: Saddles are perfect for DIY ventures where you just take off, scout for a location, set up, and hunt. They’re also ideal for public-land hunts where oftentimes hunters don’t have the luxury of walking down pristine two-tracks, through open timber, or along field edges. Conventional stands are just not well-suited for DIY hunting for the aforementioned reasons and others, like state regulations regarding treestands and their use on public dirt.

14. Better Accuracy With All Weapons: When hunting from a saddle, you always have three solid points of body contact, with both feet being on steps or a small platform, and your upper-body weight being securely supported by the seat. Having three points of contact gives you solid stability when taking shots, which equates to better accuracy. When using a gun, you can rest the forearm against the tree and use the trunk as a solid rest. With conventional stands, you can shoot sitting down with the same three-point stability. However, if you stand to shoot, you must balance yourself on the platform, which is likely going to affect your accuracy.

15. Theft: Stand theft is a thing of the past, as you never have to worry about your saddle being stolen because it’s always with you. For those who hunt heavily pressured areas like public land, hang-on stand theft is rampant and causes many hunters to use inexpensive stands that are not as comfortable and are more likely to creak when shifting weight. When expensive stands are used, it forces hunters to carry them in and out.

16. Body Constriction/Changing Clothes: With a saddle, your body is free of any incumbrance from the waist up, and while safely tethered to the tree, you can add/remove clothing layers to allow for changing weather conditions. For me, this is a huge deal on long sits, as I’ll remove or add clothes several times during a hunt. With conventional stands, your upper body is constricted by a safety harness system worn under/over your jacket with a strap that tethers you to the tree. To change, you must disconnect the safety harness, remove your jacket and harness, change garments, then put the harness and jacket back on and reconnect to the tree. This process takes time, during which your harness isn’t connected.

17. Other Hunters: When using a saddle on both public and private dirt, you never have to worry about someone finding, or worse yet, hunting your location, because there is nothing to tip them off to your carefully selected ambush sites. Conversely, if you leave a hang-on in a tree, there’s always the chance of another hunter seeing and hunting from it, or setting up nearby and compromising the location.

18. Crotches In Trees: With a saddle, you can and should use every available concealment advantage a tree offers. Given options, I gravitate toward trees with large crotches at a decent hunting height. When sitting and straddling the trunk, or in a standing position facing the tree, to take a shot to the opposite side you can easily step and maneuver through steep crotches that otherwise offer excellent cover. You can’t do that with conventional stands, because where you hang your stand is where you remain.

19. Bow Clearance & Straight-Down Shots: With a saddle, there is no large platform below your body, making limb clearance with a long bow and straight-down shots with any weapon a non-issue. With conventional stands, there are areas you can’t shoot due to the platform being in the way.

The following hunting-pressure analogy is not meant to pit one group of hunters against another, and while it may come across as crass, it’s the truth. Many hunters are fortunate to reside in high-profile, big-buck states in the Midwest, and many others own or lease and manage large parcels of private property. A common denominator for most hunters in those types of areas is that there are always quite a few mature bucks available, and no matter what they use when hunting from trees, every season they will usually get enough opportunities to take a buck, so they don’t have much incentive to improve on their hunting methods.

On the other hand, there are millions of hunters who hunt pressured public land or small private properties, where very few mature bucks exist. Those hunters want and need every advantage they can get over their competition to improve their odds of success. I know of many hunters who converted from stands to saddles and experienced immediate impact on their success rate due to the many advantages saddles offer.

The author is a well-known bowhunter and saddle-hunting early adopter from Central Michigan.

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