Go light. That’s the motto these days with hunters. Mobile hunting, made largely popular by bulky climbing stands, has seen a huge growth lately. If you’re a mobile hunter looking to lighten your load, you’ve likely had the thought of saddle hunting. And you can’t consider saddle hunting without the concept of “one-sticking”, and rappelling down following a hunt being seriously on your mind. This is a technique that I’ve grown particularly fond of, and utilize even when coming out of a traditional stand. At a time when you’re usually cold and tired, the descent from the tree can be a tricky, dangerous time. Rappelling remediates much of that risk by allowing you to stay connected to the tree on the way down.
While there are many methods and tools to do this (and I will cover many of them eventually), one of my favorite tools is the Rock Exotica Mini Figure 8. This compact variation of the figure 8 works incredibly well with the 8mm rope that I am a fan of. Between this light, easy to pack rope and such a compact device for descending, you don’t need to devote much of the space in your pack to the tools needed to get down after the hunt.
Not only can you descend efficiently with this miniature tool, but the ears on it give you a multitude of options for locking yourself off in the tree and remaining tethered for the duration of your hunt. In the following video you can see how handy this little tool can be, and watch til the end to see how small it is in comparison to a full size figure 8!
Setting up a Rock Exotica Mini Figure 8
Here is where my rope came from: https://www.hillsideholsters.com/products/sterling-oplux-8mm-special-operations-rope
Rock exotica Mini figure 8:
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