DIY Hunting Saddle

There is a lot of information out there on building your own hunting saddle, from youtube channels Like G2 outdoors, DIY Sportsman, as well as numerous other resources. I want to spend just a moment of your time and tell you about a Forum with a ton of information as well as users to the forum like the two mentioned above as well as a host of others who are extremely knowledgable, friendly as well as Helpful.

So if you have time, and assuming since you are reading this blog, you are interested in possibly making your own hunting saddle and or interested in learning more about saddle hunting, then I would love to invite you to come check out as well as coin us at www.SaddleHunter.com

I joined this forum a little over a moth ago, it all stemmed after watching the DIY  Sportsman and G2 outdoors on youtube. I decided I might want to give this hunting concept a try this year. Being someone who loves to do some of my own mods and or a crafty person if you will, and enjoys making some of my own gear I thought I would give this a try.

I watched a few videos on how to make a saddle out of a sit drag. The Sit Drag is a commonly used item for some DIY guys to use as the base component of the saddle. Something of interest is the more research you do on this style of hunting, climbing way up in the tree, you will still need to purchase a rock climbing harness for safety reasons. The sit drag will most likely fit and feel like sitting in a swing once up in the tree, since that is essentially what you are doing with it, in the tree.

One of the Key things about the true hunting saddle, is it double as a Hunting Seat as well as a rock climbing Harness if you will, all built together as one solid piece. This not only cuts down on potential weight, but for a hunter it is less stuff to carry off into the field. You can strap it all on as one piece and then you are ready to make your hike off to the tree of your choice.

So after a week of two of research, I decided to make my own and since there was little information, and I didn’t personally know anyone who had a true hunting saddle I could get some rough guess on sizes etc, I just fabbed up one in my head and started to get to work on it.

Here is a few pics of the first one I made.

 

I used 2″ climbing tubing for the main support of the saddle, as well as the 1″ climbing tubing for the smaller parts of the support system. I was pretty pleased with how this saddle turned out, but it was my first one to make and I knew I wanted one that was camo and this was just a photo type if you will. The second part of this build was I know I love my climbing tree stand and have already ordered a new one for this year. Not knowing how comfortable it might be to hunt out of a saddle, I wanted to try to make my own and see a couple of things for myself. One, is it is safe as they say it is. Does it feel safe up in the tree, and will it work for all day or long day hunts comfortably.

Last week, we went to the off grid cabin location and I took my prototype with me up in the woods along with the Predator Stand made by Tethrd. (video review coming soon). Well the verdict is still not in for me as to my final thoughts on if this will work for all day hunts. I had already ordered some brushed twill camo fabric the next hunting saddle out of. I was able to find it on ETSY.

I came across a thread on the SaddleHunter.com website, and it had a bunch of useful information on specs etc. along with some helpful drawings. I am posting a link to this topic on the forum (Click Here)  The guy who made this thread is one of or the founding members of Tethrd. One of the saddle hunter suppliers located here in the US.

Here is the second prototype of the Saddle. I was able to get it 99% done last night and I wanted to share some of the pics this morning with my friends over at the SaddleHunter.com and this was the easiest way for me to share the pics as well as give them all a huge shoutout.

This is the side view of the saddle, I also made two Bags, One for each side to put the Lineman Belt in one side and the Tree Teather in the Other one. I Also made a Back Brace that has a small piece of closed cell foam in it for comfort as well.

I will be doing some videos on this set up as time allows. I will also try to get some pics of the saddle being worn later on when the wife wakes up.

Again, thanks for taking the time to check out this post about our DYI Hunting Saddle and well as our Blog, I hope you have a blessed week.

Dale

New Playlist Coming Soon.

As many of you know already, we have added the All New Honda Africa Twin to Heartland Dual Sport over the past month. I am sure you have gathered by watching the videos we are super pleased with this addition to the family and we are currently planning many trips with her in mind. Roxy is her name and fun is her game.

Along with the planning of the trips already for both this year and next we are coming up with a long list of new videos and to help with the organization of the channel, we are going to be adding a new playlist to the channel, “Planning the Epic Adventure.”

I am excited to tell you about the new play list and we will be working behind the scenes over the next few weeks as we begin this playlist and start prepping Roxy for many Epic Adventures to come.

Thank you for all your support, we could  not do this with out all of you. I am sure you have noticed we are only 25 subscribers away from hitting 500 subscribers. If you have any friends or family who enjoy good family friendly videos that they can share with anyone grandparents, grandkids etc, we would love to invite them to come subscribe to our channel. You can send them this link or if it helps or share this page with your friends and family. Thank you for all your support and may you have a blessed week.

Dale

 

Honda Africa Twin, Trip to Sulphur Springs, OK

 

Beat the Summer Heat by Traveling Somewhere Cool.

Summer is officially here. Along with summer comes some hot weather days. A lot of times people will stay inside when it gets really hot out, but there is still plenty of fun to be had on two wheels, especially if you don’t mind cooling off when you get there. Luckily for us, here in the Heartland, we have some very beautiful areas we can ride and go cool off once you get there.

One such place is Sulphur Oklahoma. It is located South of Shawnee on HWY 177 or you can go south on I-35 to Pauls Valley and then go east. I will attach a GPX file for those of you who would like to add it to your GPS for better directions. You can also Google Sulphur Oklahom and look for the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

 

This is a great trip that I feel would be worth taking no matter if you are on a dual sport or any other motorcycle. Day trips are sometimes half the fun of being a motorcycle owner. Knowing you have another place to go see and or something to do sometimes gives us purpose in motorcycle ownership.

Knowing that the day is going to get hotter as it warms up, you can leave a little earlier and make it there before it gets too hot. Yesterday morning I got up and left around 8am and still made it to the Chickasaw National Recreational area beating the heat. It was a wonderful ride on the Africa Twin and a great little day adventure.

There is plenty to do once you make it to this little gem of a park. There is plenty of shade to cool off in. With so many pull outs and places to park there is no shortage of shade and or places to cool off. From hanging a hammock and resting beside a beautiful fresh water  spring fed creek, to actually sitting in the edge of the creek. Soak your feet or go for a swim, either way you wont  be able to beat the heat any better than the peaceful beauty this area provides.

I will have to admit, I was fully planning on taking a nap in one of the picturesque areas in my hammock. As you will see in many of our adventure videos we always carry a hammock in our saddle bags. The one thing I forgot as I anxiously left the house this morning on the New Honda Africa Twin, was I don’t have the saddle bags on it yet, so the hammock I meant to through in my back pack, was still at home. Its ok, I was able to find plenty of places to sit and relax and just take in the beauty this park has to offer.

This trip is an easy day trip no matter what your skill level and would be fun to take the family to as well.

The video on this mini adventure will be posted soon.  For even more adventure videos, reviews, tips and give aways you can subscribe for free at  YouTube

Again, Thank you and may you have a blessed week.

If you wold like to have the GPX file of this Adventure, Click Here. One of the fun things on the GPS files we share is sometime we will have extra places and or something else fun to do on the trip. You will be taken to an additional destination in this link as well. Fun place. The image below is a sneak peak to the additional place to go in this GPX track.