ORIGINAL: hardcorehunter
ORIGINAL: Greg / MO
Yep,I've tried almost everything else out there, and there's simply NO comparison. None.
I disagree...Lone Wolf sticks with Utility Constriction ropes(UCR's), Summit bucksteps, rapid rails; ANYTHING is better than screwing in a treestep...that is from the old days b4 safety harnasses and back when my bows were shot with fingers as releases weren't invented yet. No comparison to the labor of screwing tree steps in and damaging trees, not to mention screw in steps are not allowed on public land and are also a gr8 way to piss off a landowner when he sees screws in his tree. It takes a tree 40-50 years to get old enough to hunt in and then some guy comes along and screws in steps which could possibly kill it or open it up for disease; just doesn't make sense to me. I respect the woods too much and I like to leave the woods the same way I entered it....minus the dead deer I take out with me.
If you guys like bows with 80% letoff, releases, A/C/C arrows, safety harnasses, fast and quiet bows, and all of the other modern bowhunting tools, then I suggest you get out of the dark ages and get into a simpler and more woods friendly climbing system.
HC, you're correct, you're not allowed to use screw in steps on public land. But, you're not allowed to cut (trimming shooting lanes
)any live growth on public land either. Admittedly I do both. At least I'm honest.
As you know, I'm an arborist by trade, and I'll tell you that screw in steps won't hurt a tree unless it was done regularly (in/out)to the tree.Leaving them in the tree does absolutely no harm at all to a tree. Like was said earlier, if left in the tree will simply grow over the step.I install support cables in tree's all the time, and lag bolts are used in the process. A hole is drilled, and the lag is turned into the tree.I see these years later, and the tree just grows right over the lag bolt.
The LW climbing sticks are great, and I'll use them at some point later on, but, I can GUARANTEEthe Cranfords aremore quiet than the sticks, and much more compact. There reallyis verylittle effortinvolvedin screwing these steps in. Cranford is to tree steps what LW is to tree stands!
