Started saddle hunting last season using 20” Hawk Helium sticks using amsteel daisy chains as my climbing method. Usually only use 3 sticks with no aider.
Thinking about getting lighter premium sticks; something like OOAL Shikars or Tethrd One Sticks.  The Tethrd sticks are lighter at 1lb each but being made in China is a serious turn off. Out On A Limb is an awesome company but I don’t know that the weight savings is enough to justify the price.  Anybody here use either of these and want to chime in?

Guess this sub forum doesn’t see much action, especially outside of the Fall. If anyone stumbles across this post I ended up going with the Out On A Limb Shikar sticks. Chose the 17” fixed double step model.  Haven’t climbed with them yet but they seem really nice and nest together well. Already outfitted them with amsteel daisy chains for my attachment method.
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Decided against the lighter, titanium Tethrd One sticks after reading about the failure of their “chemical welds” (fancy way of saying glue).  With all the hype then taking 6 months to become available I would have hoped they would have worked out the bugs.

Have you looked into the Wild Edge steps?

I had a set of them along with the knaider / swaider set up. Couldn’t get comfortable with it so I sold it off.  Cool idea but I hunt mornings 75% of the time and didn’t want to mess with them in the dark.

The only sticks I ever used were from Lone Wolf.  That was several years ago so I don't know what's available now.  I can say the Lone Wolf sticks were really light and super easy to set up.

Lone Wolf sticks were top tier about 7 years ago when I started paying attention to friends who used hang on stands. To my knowledge they still make good stuff although I think the company changed hands. In the past few years there’s been a race to make the lightest, minimalist gear for the public land hunters who cover a lot of ground.  Tethrd was the first to make a stick weighing less than 1 pound (titanium tube with the step / stand off being one piece) but as I posted above it’s imported and they’re having some issues with breaking.

I have had about everything out there including the Shikars. I finally settled on SRT as my primary climbing choice and I carry a Ultimate One Stick from Eastern Woods Outdoors for situations where SRT is not optimal.

I think you made a good choice. I don't have any sticks, just DRT climb, but have been looking.

The Shikars are nice. Now you need to get into One Sticking and never look back!