Gyro Doctor
Electronics Tech for over 45 years
I've made an incredibly useful tool for Quad retrieval. 
It's an aluminum walking cane (even just a short section of broomstick would do) with a "Wrist Rocket" slingshot for the handle and an open face
reel (a.k.a. Spinning Reel) mounted to it. I tied a small sinker to the end of the line. You just shoot over the quad and let the line (clear low strength
monofilament fishing line) drop onto it or the branch it's stuck in. Gently reel in the line until there's only a few feet of it dangling from the branch
or quad, then by gently pulling rhythmically on the line you can get the sinker swinging enough to wrap the line around the quad or branch enough to
be relatively secured/anchored.
After the sinker/line is secured you can then rock that branch enough to dislodge the quad or, if you've "hooked" the quad, just pull it down.
If the branch is too large to get swinging well enough with the light line (the trick is to not pull too hard but use a repeated rhythm to build up the motion)
just try until the line breaks and repeat the firing process BUT without securing the lightweight line, after you've landed the line across the branch, cut it
and tie a heavier line or rope to it. DO NOT try to secure/anchor the rope to the branch, just pull it up and over the branch until you've got a
hold of both ends and rock that branch vigorously. Then you can let go of one end of the rope and pull it back out of the tree.
Works like a charm ! I've gotten my quads out of 150 ft tall pine trees with this method.
It's an aluminum walking cane (even just a short section of broomstick would do) with a "Wrist Rocket" slingshot for the handle and an open face
reel (a.k.a. Spinning Reel) mounted to it. I tied a small sinker to the end of the line. You just shoot over the quad and let the line (clear low strength
monofilament fishing line) drop onto it or the branch it's stuck in. Gently reel in the line until there's only a few feet of it dangling from the branch
or quad, then by gently pulling rhythmically on the line you can get the sinker swinging enough to wrap the line around the quad or branch enough to
be relatively secured/anchored.
After the sinker/line is secured you can then rock that branch enough to dislodge the quad or, if you've "hooked" the quad, just pull it down.
If the branch is too large to get swinging well enough with the light line (the trick is to not pull too hard but use a repeated rhythm to build up the motion)
just try until the line breaks and repeat the firing process BUT without securing the lightweight line, after you've landed the line across the branch, cut it
and tie a heavier line or rope to it. DO NOT try to secure/anchor the rope to the branch, just pull it up and over the branch until you've got a
hold of both ends and rock that branch vigorously. Then you can let go of one end of the rope and pull it back out of the tree.
Works like a charm ! I've gotten my quads out of 150 ft tall pine trees with this method.
Last edited:
