I'm not sure where to start. I guess to start, I use a saddle-hunting setup from
Cruzr. I liked that they were easy to deal with, a small company and there weren't any hidden charges when shipping up here. I would go with them again, but don't have any first hand experience with anything else.
Just like yourself, I stick to hunting public land. Which when "mobile hunting" does add some challenges. I found that when hunting in late October/November it becomes a lot of gear to haul in. There may not be very good access, as there are fewer roads, two tracks etc. it's on you to haul it up and over the hills and through the bush. Hopefully all without breaking a sweat. You will have to set up in the dark if it's a morning sit or takedown in the dark if it's an evening sit.
That being said I took a beautiful mature whitetail buck this November in mine and had the biggest buck I had ever seen walk right under me the season before in my first sit in a saddle!
I love having mine as a tool, it is crazy how different being elevated changes things when hunting with a bow. I was hunting the thickest forest I had ever set up in when I shot my buck this year, he blew through my lone shooting lane and finally stopped when he was 10 yards away. If I was on the ground I would have had no shot. But from where I was, I was hidden and luckily had a gap between the tops of two spruce trees to shoot through, when I picked up my arrow and looked back at my platform, could not believe just how lucky I was to have that opening.
3blade made some good points. All that YouTube stuff you might be watching, most of it isn't in Alberta. You're going to have to be selective when it comes to trees, and sometimes you'll get up there and the lane you wanted just isn't there and now the sun is coming up or the tree you want to set up in just isn't close enough for a easy shot. But I do think if you can't get high up it's better to be able to use the tree as cover. You're also going to have to wear a heck lot more clothing. In an ideal world, you have scouted your tail off in the past and you know where you want to set up, you have visited those sites with your stand or saddle and set up, checked shooting lanes, and ranged the expected shots, so that when you have the day off, the wind is right, you know exactly how to get there and which tree you're climbing into. I think when doing this a saddle can work great, a light mobile tree stand might even allow you to set up in a few more coniferous trees.
A rough draft of my day in a saddle might look like this.
Jump out of the truck and pack my backpack with food, fluids, insulated hunting clothing, hunting gear, saddle, platform, ropes, sticks, and straps. Wear base layers and bino harness and maybe have bow in hand for the hike-in. Get to stand, unpack clothing, put on warm mitts and insulative layers, put on saddle harness, attach sticks and platform to harness, climb the tree while attaching climbing sticks, get to the last stick, and set up the platform. Climb on the platform and use your lineman rope as your safety while you set up your tether. Now place hooks for the backpack and bow. Pull up your backpack and bow, hang them up and you're ready! this is all done with a headlamp on. Now do that in reverse at the end of the night. It takes a bit of practice to do it smoothly and quietly, I could still get significantly better.
It's easier for an evening sit, and obviously the shorter the sit the less gear you need.
It sounds like you're just getting into bow hunting, but maybe have been rifle hunting for a while? I got into bow hunting for a few reasons. One was for the challenge and to become a better hunter. The other was because I was shooting nice deer in bow range most years and I wanted to prove I could get it done with archery equipment. That being said I was sitting in my saddle on Nov 2 this year listening to two bucks fight it out before one eventually came down the ridge at 70 yards, I could do nothing but grunt, he was a nice buck but had a dejected demeanor. When the victor came down the ridge his body language was pure testosterone. But neither got any closer than 70 yards and I had to watch them walk away, I spent the rest of the day there without seeing more than a couple does. That is what I would call an awesome day of bow hunting, even though I never got to draw my bow and spent most of those hours freezing my tail off...
If you have any other questions let me know. If you could get your hands on some cheap used hang on stands, that might be the way to start. If you're all in no matter what, then I would consider picking up a saddle or Lone Wolf tree stand and get out there now so by October you know where you want to be.
Happy Hunting.
Saddle Hunting Setup
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