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best climbing sticks?

B

billcurry

Guest
which are the best....muddy, lone wolf, gorilla, summit, ameristep?

I've never had to use them other than an Ameristep one and I didn't care for them....to noisy. I need'm now to do an urban hunt and wanna drop some cash on a good set.

I've heard great things about the Muddy's and Lone Wolf sticks. Thanks for any input.
 
Depends on what you are looking for in a stick..

Portability and silence? Lone Wolf..

Muddys are probably a little nicer to climb because of the double steps, but they are a little louder and heavier than the LW (well they are advertised as the same weight, but they are shorter - so heavier for what you are getting is what I mean).
 
bckhnt1 said:
How deep are your pockets?
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not super deep but the credit card will make it happen! I gotta chance to buy 4 new muddy's tomorrow for $120....seems like a good deal but I don't wanna waste $120 if Lone Wolf is the way to go...

What do you recommend?
 
I've used them all. Hands down. Lonewolf is the way to go. 4 lonewolf sticks and one muddy stick in your pack will get you 25 ft up whatever tree you want. I use the muddy stick in smaller spots or at the top to hang the stand because of the dual steps. I have zero bad things to say about muddy or lonewolf and will occasionally use my muddy sticks and bloodsport stand. But if it's go time and I'm setting up on a new area I'll grab the lonewolf over the muddy everytime. I don't think you can go wrong with either company. Both have amazing customer service. Pick one set up and get familiar with it. Goodluck this season
 
thanks guys...i know a guy who has 4 muddy sticks for $120 cash...my only concern is that I will not have a receipt in case anything goes wrong/breaks/etc. I'd rather drop the extra cash and get a warranty or receipt to cover my butt instead of being out a $30-40 single stick if something happens.

I've read a ton of reviews today and Muddy and LW are by far the top two with LW getting a few more good reviews it seems like. Then I see the Rivers Edge Fast Sticks for $13.60 each and wonder if the cheap price will equal a headache and heartache in the long run?! I could buy a lot of them for the price of 3/4 LW sticks or Muddy's. :confused:
 
I have made hundreds of feet of my own sticks. But for a portable set up the cost of the lonewolf sticks far outweigh the amount of time I would have in machining my own set of portable aluminum sticks. All of our permanent stands that we use from year to year have 14 gauge sticks that I've made leading the way up the tree. For our portable set ups we use either muddy or lonewolf to determine where our permanent stands need to be.
 
I was just getting ready to make a post on muddy sticks. The way the muddy sticks work (which I'm sure most of you have seen them) is that there are 2 steps that fold out, with a gear like back on them. On Oct 6 I packed in to hunt an area. I have a set of muddy sticks, and a set of Lone Wolf sticks, and the combo I use is 2 muddy sticks and 3 lone wolf sticks with my set up. I like the longer lone wolfs for straighter trees, and with tree's with a bend or angle on them, the shorter muddy sticks help fill in the gap.

I was setting up in a straight tree. When I do that, I put both muddy sticks on bottom. Got the first one set, second one set, and when I stepped on the second one (about 6-7 feet off the ground) the steps collapsed and went straight down. Now first I thought I had a brain fart and put the stick upside down or something. After gathering myself back up (didn't hurt myself, but was dang sore the next morning) I looked the stick over, and the gears on the inside had came apart. I've never heard of this happening with muddy sticks before, but the stick was basically useless until I brought it home and took it apart and reset the steps. If it would have been a tree with an angle, I may have been 18-20 foot off the ground when the step collapsed, and I doubt I would have just walked away from that.

I'm sticking to the lone wolfs now. Never have had a failure with them, and I just trust the straps on them better anyways.
 
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I always have my linesmans belt wrapped around the tree and another linesman belt above me wrapped around the tree the same way you would use it as if you were In a climber. Knock on wood I've never had a fall but but I can guarantee that ill be connected to the tree all the way up and all the way down. More matter what. Everyday. Every hunt. It can be a pain. But I Care about my family and my passion for hunting more than anything. I will never give that up for anthing. I've had a stand break on me and tested out a harness 27 ft off the ground and if it wasn't for a muddy lifeline I'd be dead or in a wheelchair guaranteed. I'll defend the use of every safety device until the day I meet my maker.
 
nannyslayer said:
I've never heard of this happening with muddy sticks before, but the stick was basically useless until I brought it home and took it apart and reset the steps. If it would have been a tree with an angle, I may have been 18-20 foot off the ground when the step collapsed, and I doubt I would have just walked away from that.

I'm sticking to the lone wolfs now. Never have had a failure with them, and I just trust the straps on them better anyways.
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thanks a ton for sharing...PRAISE God it happened like it did.
 
Rich77 said:
I always have my linesmans belt wrapped around the tree and another linesman belt above me wrapped around the tree the same way you would use it as if you were In a climber. Knock on wood I've never had a fall but but I can guarantee that ill be connected to the tree all the way up and all the way down. More matter what. Everyday. Every hunt. It can be a pain. But I Care about my family and my passion for hunting more than anything. I will never give that up for anthing. I've had a stand break on me and tested out a harness 27 ft off the ground and if it wasn't for a muddy lifeline I'd be dead or in a wheelchair guaranteed. I'll defend the use of every safety device until the day I meet my maker.
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thanks for sharing...I passed out in the stand last fall and if it wasn't for my Hunter Safety System I doubt I would be here today...I woke up swinging next to the tree and stand and I bet I would have met my Maker that day too if I wasn't tied off.

I hunted 20yrs and never even came close to a fall or anything and of all things I passed out after slamming the tip of left thumb with a brow tine while doing a rattling sequence. When I hit my thumb I could have swore I broke it! It hurt so freakn bad! About a minute after I hit it, I started to feel sick to my stomach....2mins later my vision was getting a bit blurry and my stomach was really churning...I just thought I would vomit and feel better...but then my vision got so bad I literally couldn't focus on anything and my hearing was the last to go before I passed out.

Woke up swinging from my harness and I was good as new. I climbed down, kissed the ground, praised God and went home. I've been fine since. The doctor told me that when I smashed my thumb it overloaded my nervous system and I passed out like a "system restart" to bring everything back into alignment.
 
Lone Wolf. If you want dead silent then get some of those constrictor ropes for them. I wrapped mine in hockey tape, hockey taped the buckles, and they're quiet enough for me.
 
thanks Muddy...I'm gonna go to Gander Mountain this morning and touch and feel those LW sticks before I pull the trigger on the four $120 Muddy sticks a friend has.

I think GM has 3 LW sticks for $140 plus if you order them online you get a $20 gift card so that is like $120 for a set of 3...or if you spend over $100 on treestands/ladders you get the same $20 gift card.
 
I've heard you can get camo hockey tape online now as well. The LW sticks by themselves are great, but as some said, a little noisy if yo'ure not paying attention. Once I put hockey tape on mine I was shocked at how quiet they got. Also that cloth hockey tape makes them a lot "grippier" so climbing is easier.

Personally I'm not that impressed by muddy sticks, they're shorter and heavier. It's not that difficult to flip your foot steps to the other side if you need to for getting into the tree.
 
went to gander and did a side by side test comparison of both the Muddy and LW. Muddy is much heavier and just bulky being they are shorter and 4 of them vs 3 by LW. Muddy has the 2 steps on each side and LW as the one for each side.

Noise wise I think the LW would be tad louder but not much more. The hockey tape idea would solve that quick. The cam lock thing on muddy's is slick but not that much more slick than the straps for the LW sticks.

I passed on buying the Muddy's from my buddy today and I think I will go with the LW sticks for now. I didnt pull the trigger on buying them at the store cuz if I order online I get the $20 gift card plus free S&H.

Thank you guys all the input and reviews. keep'm coming if you read this or wanna add anything else.
 
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