Double D Hunting | Saddle Hunting Guide
Every piece you need to get up the tree light, mobile, and safe — the saddle, the platform, the sticks, the safety gear, and the extras — with a checklist to build your kit from scratch.
Saddle hunting trades the bulk of a treestand for a few pounds of gear you can carry anywhere — and the freedom to hang in trees most hunters would never bother with. But a saddle alone is not a setup. To actually hunt from the tree, comfortably and safely, you need five things working together: the saddle, a platform, climbing sticks, and a harness and lifeline for safety — then the small accessories that make the long sits bearable.
This guide walks through each piece, what it does, and what we carry, with a complete kit checklist at the end. Already know what you need? Jump straight to saddle hunting gear.
Build it in this order — saddle, platform, sticks, safety, accessories — and you end up with a setup that goes anywhere a treestand can't, for a fraction of the weight.
The saddle is the seat you hang in all day, so comfort and packability decide everything else. A two-panel design spreads the load and lets you sit longer; a lighter, simpler saddle keeps your pack trim. We carry the Hawk Helium Hammock Tree Saddle for all-day comfort, and the lighter, lower-cost CRUZR for hunters easing into the method.
A platform is your stable place to stand, shift your weight, and turn for a shot — and it is the single biggest comfort upgrade in a saddle setup. The Helium Hammock Full Platform gives you the most standing room for long sits, while the Small Platform trades size for weight when you are packing deep. New to the saddle? Go bigger — more room is more forgiving.
Sticks get you up the tree, and how many you carry is a personal trade-off between speed and weight. Most hunters run three or four; the minimalist crowd has turned the one-stick method into an art form, leapfrogging a single stick and a set of steps up the trunk.
Saddle hunting is only as safe as your connection to the tree, and you are connected from the ground up. A full-body Elevate Pro Harness (or the lighter Elevate Lite) plus a Safety Line keep you tethered the entire climb, not just once you are settled. This is the one category you never cut corners on.
Once the core is handled, a few small items make every hunt smoother: a gear hanger for your bow and pack, a dump pouch for calls and releases, a knee pad for leaning into the tree, and a folding saw to clear shooting lanes — the Helium Pole Saw handles limbs you can't reach. Find these in saddle hunting gear.
If this is your first saddle, do not chase the ultralight one-stick rig right away. Start with a comfortable saddle, a full platform for more standing room, and a simple two- or three-stick climb — then practice a few feet off the ground until hanging, turning, and shooting feel natural. Once the movements are second nature, you can shed weight and go higher. The safety gear, though, is non-negotiable from your very first climb.
From the saddle to the last carabiner, we stock the gear to put together a complete, safe, mobile setup. Start with the anchor pieces and build out from there.
A complete saddle hunting setup comes down to five things: the saddle you hang in, a platform to stand on, climbing sticks or steps to get up the tree, and a safety harness with a lifeline to keep you connected the whole time. From there you add accessories like a tether and bridge, a gear hanger, a dump pouch, and knee pads for comfort. The saddle, platform, sticks, and safety line are the non-negotiable core; everything else makes the hunt smoother.
A complete kit is the saddle, a stand-on platform, a set of climbing sticks or steps, a tether and bridge to hang from, and a full-body harness plus a lifeline for safety. Most hunters then add a gear hanger or two, a dump pouch for small items, a knee pad, and a folding saw for clearing shooting lanes. Build it in that order and you have a setup that goes anywhere a treestand can't.
Yes, as long as you start with safety. Saddle hunting is lighter and more mobile than a treestand, but you are always connected to the tree, so a quality harness and lifeline matter from your very first climb. New hunters do well starting with a comfortable saddle, a full platform (more standing room is more forgiving), and a simple two- or three-stick climb rather than chasing the minimalist one-stick method right away. Practice low to the ground before you go high.
A complete setup generally runs from about $550 for a budget-friendly build to $1,000 or more for a top-end rig. A starter setup might pair a lighter saddle, a small platform, a set of steps, a harness, and a lifeline; a premium build steps up to a full-comfort saddle, a larger platform, machined climbing sticks, and a pro harness. The saddle and platform are where most of the cost lives, and both are worth buying right the first time.
Practically, yes. You can technically hunt off your sticks, but a platform gives you a stable place to stand, shift your weight, and turn for a shot, which makes long sits far more comfortable and your shooting far more reliable. A larger platform offers more standing room and is more forgiving for newer saddle hunters; a smaller platform saves weight when you are packing deep.
A saddle, a platform, a few sticks, and the safety gear to back it up — that is the whole system. Pick your anchor pieces, add the extras as you go, and start hunting the spots a treestand could never reach.