On hanging from trees while hunting and not dying
by Teresa Mull
I went to the Northeastern Mobile Hunters Expo in Manheim, Pennsylvania, last month to see a man about a pair of boots (more on that later). I honestly didn’t know what was meant by “mobile hunting” before I arrived, imagining it might have something to do with the latest in hunting technology—trail cameras, optics, night vision, rangefinders, and the like. Or perhaps mobile telephones, as the showroom was full of what appeared to me at first to be a stand of utility poles.
I should have known, though, by the impressive sea of camouflage, that gathered here was a group of serious hunters. So serious, in fact, that they’re willing and eager to mutate into Robin Hood/Tarzan hybrids to bag a big buck.
This event was my introduction to mobile hunting, which those in attendance informed me is becoming all the rage in the archery world. My experience hunting whitetails has so far been limited to the woods of central Pennsylvania, where people I hunt with use blinds and fixed-position tree stands. I’m also not a bowhunter—yet—but now I figure if I’m going to foray into the sport, I may as well do so artfully, in the most adventuresome, athletic, daring way I can imagine.
So I consult Thomas, a burly vendor from Texas with a charming twang. He asserts that mobile hunting is “the safest method of hunting there is, because you’re connected to the tree from the time you leave the ground.”
Hmm. Perhaps not leaving the ground at all would be safer? But no matter. What sets mobile hunting apart, says Thomas, is that you don’t have to “play the wind” or sit in silence quite as much as you do when hunting with a traditional blind or tree stand.
“You gotta rely on [the deer] coming to you,” Thomas says of fixed-position hunting. With mobile hunting, though, “When you get within 50 or 60 yards of a bedding area or a heavy trail or rub lines, and with six or seven pounds on your back, you can climb the tree with what you’re ultimately going to stand on and hunt.”
The mobile-hunting systems I spy look like a cross between a World War II parachute and something that would have been used in an Old West hanging: chords, harnesses, ropes, straps, and tethers galore. Also a portable (and to me, precarious-looking) ladder. I’m told by other mobile-hunting enthusiasts that they prefer this method because it allows them greater flexibility in finding fresh areas that haven’t been disturbed before opening day, which is not the case, of course, with a pre-placed blind or stand. What’s more, some sportsmen commit only to hunt on public lands, as they find it more challenging and sporting than so much sedentary staring above a food plot.
“Challenging” sounds right. All you have to do with a mobile-hunting set-up, says Thomas, is “hang it as high as you can hang it, climb up to the top of it—you’re tethered in the whole time—you hang off the side, you pull your stick up, you move it as high as you can move it, attach your stick, and you climb it again.” A simple “rinse, wash, and repeat” process, he insists.
Once you’re up in the tree, you can hang out, literally, in a “saddle.” Or, depending on what type of system you have, you may have the option to sit down, or stand on an angled platform that takes the pressure off your feet and is purportedly “very, very comfortable.” Then you can theoretically maneuver around the tree and draw your bow from any angle at which a deer appears.
Still, Thomas notes, mobile-hunting systems are “not something you take out of the box and go hunting with that day.” Some of these setups look so complicated as to be downright dangerous. But then again, I’ve never given mobile hunting a go, and Thomas affirms the obvious that this style of hunting involves “a different mindset.”
For now, my mindset is still one of awe and fascination. There’s definitely a steep learning curve with mobile hunting, and like anything, to become a mobile hunter, I’ll need to get grounded in bowhunting first, learn the ropes, and work my way up.
Teresa Mull would be keener on acquiring a mobile-hunting system if she knew with certainty she could sip coffee while hanging from a tree.
