Your phone is the map. The wind call. The property line. The camera.
It is also your lifeline if something goes wrong twenty feet up and nobody knows exactly where you are. And when it comes together, it is the first thing you reach for to send the picture to your wife.
So it is coming up the tree with you. The only question is where it lives once you are there.
A saddle hunting phone mount holds it in front of your face while you hang. You still touch it. What you stop doing is committing to hold it. A buck steps out, you need both hands on the bow, and you let go. The phone stays exactly where it was.
There are four places to put one: your bridge carabiner, a platform clamp, a tree arm, or your pocket. Only the bridge moves with you when you rotate around the trunk.
Before you read another line: I build one of these. It is called the Wayward Bridge. I am still going to tell you what the other three do well, because if you hunt out of a ladder stand or you already run a dedicated filming arm, you do not need what I make.
The problem is your hand
Two things happen up there.
You are holding the phone and it slips.
Or you set it on top of your bag to free up a hand, and then you bump the bag.
That is the whole problem. It does not take high wind or a gear failure. It takes one distraction at the wrong second, and there is no recovery from twenty feet.
A mount takes both off the table, because the phone is never in your hand and never balanced on top of something else.
Where a saddle hunting phone mount should attach
| Bridge | Platform clamp | Tree arm | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mounts to | Your bridge carabiner | Your platform | A tree strap with an adjustable arm |
| Moves when you rotate | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Hands to load the phone | ✅ One | ❌ Two | ❌ Two |
| Setup | ✅ Clips on, no tools | Clamp and tighten | ❌ Strap the tree, set the arm |
| Orientation | ✅ Vertical or horizontal, one hand | ❌ Set by the cradle | ❌ Set at the arm head |
| Points at | ✅ Your face | ❌ Down at your feet | Wherever you aimed it |
| Weight | 4.0 oz | Varies by build | Arm plus strap |
Bridge
Rotate around the tree and your bridge rotates with you. It is the only mounting point on your entire setup that does. Everything else stays where you put it while you move, which means half your rotations leave the phone somewhere behind your shoulder.
The bridge is also your life-safety connection, so anything living there has to clip on and off without opening the carabiner, and it has to not be load bearing. Your phone is never structural.
That is what the Wayward Bridge saddle hunting phone mount is. It clips over the bridge onto the carabiner with no tools. A 45 lb rare earth magnet locks onto a thick steel plate on your case. 4.0 oz, made in the USA, lifetime transferable warranty.
The magnet and the plate are the design argument, and they are why it does not need a tether. Most magnetic mounts ship a thin adhesive disc, which gives the magnetic field almost nothing to pull on and turns a 45 lb rating into a fraction of that in the field. Thick plate, full pull. Turn the mount upside down with your phone on it and it stays. A tether is one more thing to snag and unclip in the dark, and this does not ask you to run one.
The other thing a magnet buys you is orientation. Nothing grips the edges of the phone, so no cradle is deciding which way it sits. Vertical to run a map. Horizontal to film. Change your mind mid-sit with one hand. Turning a clamp or a cradle takes two hands and generates a lot of movement, which is exactly what you cannot afford with a deer on the ground in front of you.
Platform clamp
Clamps to your platform. Cheap and simple.
It holds your phone down by your feet, and it is fixed in place while you are not. Good as a spot to park the phone. Weak as the place you actually read it.
Tree arm
A phone or camera clamp on an adjustable arm, strapped to the tree. Built for self-filming and genuinely good at it, because you can set a wide angle looking back at you and frame the whole scene.
The cost is that it is the most gear, the most setup at height, and it stays aimed where you left it while you rotate. Run one if filming is the point. Do not run one to check a map.
Not a position. A habit.
Filming yourself, which is the part people miss
A bridge mount faces you from about two feet away. That changes what you can shoot.
Every self-filming rig in the woods is built to capture the deer, and that is the clip people watch. Nobody is arguing with that. But the reaction is the one you keep. It is a memory that outlives the season, and getting it usually costs a second camera, a second arm, and a second battery. A phone on your bridge is already pointed at you.
The bigger one is less obvious. Two feet from your face, dead level, is a coaching camera. You will watch yourself punch the trigger. You will watch your bow arm drop before the arrow is gone. You will see the creep you swear you do not have. Review a season of releases from that angle and you will fix things no amount of backyard reps was going to show you.
Two settings and one habit make the footage usable:
- Lock exposure on the timber, not the sky. Auto exposure hunting between bright sky and dark woods will ruin the one clip that mattered. Tap and hold before the moment.
- 1080p at 60 frames. Enough resolution, and the frame rate gives you slow motion on the release. 4K eats storage and heats the phone.
- Horizontal to edit, vertical for shorts. On a magnetic mount you are not committing at the truck. Shoot the sit horizontal, flip vertical for a quick piece to camera, flip back. One hand, no tools.
Running maps without burning the sit
Two things a lit screen does that have nothing to do with the mount.
Brightness. A phone at full brightness at last light is a beacon. A deer does not read your screen, but a glowing rectangle twenty feet up a tree that was dark a minute ago is light where there was none. Set it to minimum before you climb. Dark mode on. If your app has a night theme, use it.
Battery. Airplane mode for the sit. A phone hunting for a tower in thin coverage drains faster than anything else you do with it, and cold makes it worse. Keep a small bank in an inside pocket where your body heat reaches it. Download your offline maps before you leave the driveway, not at the trailhead where you have one bar and no patience.
And the obvious one that gets forgotten: the mount exists so the phone is there in half a second when you want it, not so it sits in your field of view for four hours. Load the map. Glance. Look up.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work with MagSafe?
MagSafe works with this phone mount, but the magnetic connection is much weaker than with the included steel plate. Running MagSafe means flipping around the reversible shelf that comes with the mount, which gives the phone extra fall protection. If you want the best of both worlds, put the steel plate between your phone and your case while you hunt, then park the plate on the mount when you are done so you never lose it.
What is a saddle hunting phone mount?
A mount that holds your phone in a fixed, readable position while you are suspended in a saddle, so you can run a map app, check wind, or film without committing a hand to holding it. It attaches to your bridge, your platform, or the tree.
Where should a saddle hunting phone holder attach?
The bridge carabiner. It is the only mounting point that rotates with you around the tree, so the phone stays in front of your face no matter which direction you are facing.
Is a magnetic phone mount strong enough at twenty feet?
Yes, when the magnet is matched to a thick enough steel plate. A 45 lb rare earth magnet against a proper plate will hold a phone upside down. The weak link in magnetic mounts is almost always a thin adhesive disc, not the magnet. Use the steel plate included with the Wayward Bridge for the strongest connection.
Do I need a tether with a magnetic phone mount?
Not with a thick steel plate and a 45 lb magnet. That combination is the point. A tether is one more thing to snag and unclip in the dark.
Can I mount the phone vertically and horizontally?
On a magnetic mount, both, and you can switch with one hand in the tree. Nothing grips the edges of the phone, so no cradle is dictating the orientation. Clamp and cradle holders take two hands to adjust and generate a lot of movement you cannot afford while hunting.
Will a metal case work instead of the plate?
Only if the metal is steel. Aluminum and titanium backs are not magnetic and the mount will not hold to them. When in doubt, run the plate.
Can I film myself with a phone from a saddle?
Yes. A bridge mount points back at you from about two feet, which gives you your own reaction and a clear view of your release without a second camera.
Can I hang my bow from a phone mount?
No. Phone mounts are not load bearing. Your bow goes on a pocket bow hanger or a dedicated hanger rated for it.
Where your phone lives in the tree is a hardware problem with a clean answer.
Where you are, in the dark, a mile and a half in, with a load on your back and a dead battery, is not. That one is training.
Ghost Country gives you the skillset to self-recover if your phone dies and you are lost in the woods. Plus, it teaches you how to actually read maps and their different layers. Plus you get a master course in e-scouting for the highest probability setups. And an additional course on map & compass if you want to take your outdoor skillset to the next level. Lifetime access, 60 day guarantee.
Written by Jake Roberts, Green Beret and founder of Wayward Ridge.