Top 5 Reasons You Should Be a Saddle Hunter

I’m sure you’ve seen the posts on social media, read the articles in hunting magazines, watched the videos on YouTube, or even heard the chatter from your hunting buddies about saddles. After all, you do know how to tell if someone is a saddle hunter, right? Just wait a few minutes…he’ll tell you. Saddle hunters are the CrossFitters of the hunting community…we LOVE to talk about it. Personally, I wear that crown with pride.

But before you take the plunge into the saddle realm, there are some things you need to think about. The following questions can help determine if this style of hunting is right for you.

Can you be detail-oriented? It’s important that your saddle and other gear be inspected regularly for signs of wear and tear. Your life will depend on how well you maintain and inspect your equipment. The same is true for traditional treestands, but safety is not often at the forefront of hunters’ minds. It’s imperative for saddle hunters to be familiar with their safety features, understand why they’re important, and be comfortable with their use. It’s a very simple system, but learning the ropes can be a bit daunting in the beginning.

Are you willing to learn? Saddles require learning about new equipment, new hunting positions, new ways of selecting trees, and new shooting techniques. Learning this system is both fun and very rewarding. Put in a little bit of time up front before the season, and you’ll be a pro in no time.

Are you ok with forging new ground? Saddle hunting is a very new idea for the masses. Although the techniques have been around for many decades, the general hunting community is still in the dark about the system. It’s getting better every day, but there are times when you need to figure things out by yourself, because there won’t always be an off-the-shelf solution for the problems or situations you might encounter.

Saddle hunters are generally people who enjoy DIY and trying new things. Now that I’ve tried to scare you all off, let’s talk about the advantages of saddles. There are many benefits of hunting from a saddle, but I’ll narrow it down to the Top Five.

1. Mobility

We’ll start off with one of the most important benefits: Saddles are much lighter and more packable than traditional treestands. Some hunters choose to wear a saddle around their waist while walking to and from their hunting location. Others choose to roll it up and throw it in their pack. Either way, the small profile of a hunting saddle lends itself to quiet, easy transportation. Good luck trying to transport a bulky, metal treestand inside a small pack. My entire saddle setup weighs less than five pounds and can roll up to the size of a cantaloupe.

The saddle’s packability and light weight allows you to be a more mobile hunter. One of the credos universally espoused by hunters who consistently kill mature bucks is, “first sit, best sit.” This means the first time you go into a big buck’s living room is the best time to kill him. Accordingly, many hunters adopt a mobile style of hunting. Being mobile means constantly finding new, fresh sign in huntable terrain, while refraining from climbing into the same trees and locations over and over throughout the season. This can get difficult when lugging big, bulky, metal lock-ons and climbers around the woods. Not to mention the frustration of finding an area with great sign but no good trees for your stand. I’ve been there, and it stinks!

2. Affordabilty

Maybe your style of hunting isn’t very mobile. Maybe you like to set up trees all over your hunting property and “bounce around,” based on wind, feed, and movement patterns. Bouncing around is an extremely popular style of hunting but can require multiple hang-ons, ladder stands, or blinds to do it effectively. This can get quite expensive. With a saddle system, a hunter can prep trees ahead of time without leaving the stands in the woods. The truth is, one saddle can replace all of your traditional treestands.

The bounce-around method can work great if you don’t mind buying lots of hang-on stands and you hunt private land, where theft isn’t a serious concern. But what if you hunt mostly public land? There is a good possibility that traditional treestands will be stolen if left in the hunting area for any substantial amount of time. Not only could they be stolen, but permanent treestands alert every hunter in the area about a new possible hotspot. Plus, many public lands have regs against leaving treestands in the woods during the season. Taking your saddle in and out on every single hunt can solve these problems.

Claiming saddle systems are more affordable does not mean they’re inexpensive. On the contrary, most offerings are made in the USA and built with high-quality, bombproof materials that make the initial investment seem steep. However, when you factor in the length of time your saddle will last and that you only have to buy it once, you can see how the investment is well worth it. I like to say, “Buy once, cry once.” Hunters are fine spending $2,500 on the newest bow setup, or dropping a couple thousand on fancy name camo systems (I like that stuff, too), but they will hesitate to spend $800 on a complete saddle system that they will use on every single hunt, will last for decades, and could save their life.

3. Precision

Once you have found an area you want to hunt, the saddle provides even more benefits. First of all, a climbing treestand is relegated to straight trees with few or no limbs. A hang-on stand is much less dependent on specific tree types, but still comes with limitations. With a saddle, any tree that can support your weight is a potential elevated ambush site. You are no longer limited by finding a good tree; you can focus on being in PRECISELY the right tree. I have heard stories of saddle hunters grabbing three or four saplings, tying them together at hunting height, and then hooking up their saddle. I certainly would not recommend this, but it is possible.

The advantages are amplified for the hunter who likes to travel out of state to hunt. Instead of hauling several hang-on stands or taking the chance that you’ll be able to find appropriate trees for your climber, you can bring one saddle system and reliably hunt every area you find. This is why thousands of out-of-state hunters are switching to saddles — it just makes sense.

4. Stealth

Now that you have climbed the right tree, in the right location, the saddle allows you to hide behind the tree’s trunk for the ultimate camouflage. You no longer stick out like a sore thumb. Saddle hunters position themselves facing the tree in the direction in which the deer are expected to travel. Conversely, traditional stands most often are set up on the side of the tree from which the deer will be approaching. Setting up on the opposite side, behind the trunk, gives you a place to hide your profile and remain entirely out of the deer’s line of sight.

Once the time is right, a small, quick movement is all it takes to move from behind the tree, draw your bow, crossbow, or even firearm, and make a clean, ethical shot. This is one of the main reasons I decided to switch to saddles in 2009.

5. Safety

Finally, any conversation about hunting saddles would not be complete without talking about safety. Unfortunately, many hunters still don’t use any type of fall-restraint device with their treestand. This is sad but true. Saddle hunters have built-in safety devices that make it nearly impossible to fall when used properly under normal hunting conditions. There is also a significant difference between how safety harnesses and hunting saddles manage a fall from the tree.

Safety harnesses do nothing to stop you from falling from the tree. They are designed to catch your fall and stop you from hitting the ground. Conversely, saddles are designed to prevent your fall in the first place.

Obviously, there is no perfect system on the planet. Accidents happen. But when you are properly connected to the tree from the ground to hunting height, your chances of returning home safely after the hunt greatly increase. I travel around the country talking to hunters from every walk of life. Without fail, I will meet a hunter at an event and hear his story about how after hunting from a saddle he now feels unsafe in a traditional treestand. This isn’t meant to be a scare tactic or claim that traditional treestands are unsafe. However, the anecdotal stories I have heard from hunters all around the country have convinced me that saddles are the safest way to get in a tree.

The examples above are a handful of the most obvious advantages to saddle hunting. Once familiar with a saddle system, you will discover even more benefits, like comfort, maneuverability, and increased shot opportunities. To learn more about my setup, check out my G2Outdoors YouTube channel, and the gear I use at TethrdNation.com. Don’t like my system? That’s fine. One of the beauties of saddle hunting is there are lots of options to help you get started, ranging from DIY to manufacturers who will build you completely custom setup. How can you go wrong?

Editor’s Note: Greg Godfrey began saddle hunting in 2010, when the U.S. Army stationed him and his family at Fort Carson, Colorado, on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Greg tried to bring his NW Florida hunting style and equipment with him, but that didn’t work at all. Fortunately, he discovered saddle hunting from reading John Eberhart’s book “Hunting Pressured Whitetails,” and the rest is history. Greg co-founded Tethrd in 2018, and ended his Active Duty time in the U.S. Army in 2019, after a decade of service and two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now he and his buddies run Tethrd and think about saddle hunting for big whitetails 365 days a year!

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