Nice to use, wish they lasted longer,  Wednesday, 12 December 2007 This review refers to the pictured Su-type sleeves. I liked these a lot when I first purchased them. They are far and away the quickest and most convenient to place on the branch; if the rope slides over, one of these will too, and they generally stay put once placed (but see below). They are compact and light and fit easily either in the rope bag or in with other gear. The tight bending radius is especially nice for the pine trees I spend a lot of my time in.

Two issues:
- Don't use them in really cold weather (single digits or below). I know; most people aren't nuts enough to climb under those conditions anyway, but you'll have a particular problem with this tool if you do. The plastic housing becomes a) more slippery, so that the sleeve won't easily stay on the branch, and b) brittle, so that it cracks.
- Once the plastic housing is worn or cracked, the sleeve begins to break down, as Andrew notes, and it will shortly be unusable.

That said, I may actually be replacing my broken one soon, unless something handier comes along before then.

 Works OK in the woods,  Wednesday, 12 December 2007 I've been using a pair 8 oz Sherrill "bullets" for about two years as the mainstay of my tree entry kit. The 8 oz size helps me get a bit more height on my throws and big shot flings, and it is heavy enough to pull 1.75 mm Zing It over most branches. I've read complaints about the durability of these for a couple of years now on various tree climbing forums, but I haven't had any problems yet. I think the difference is where I climb: many people climb around pavement or in parks with hard grassy surfaces, whereas I climb mostly in the woods - and around here that means a thick layer of "duff" on the surface. That's about as soft a landing as you can get, although the bags routinely bury themselves an inch or two deep when they land. They have held up to regular ricochets off of branches without any problems yet. I'll keep them for as long as they last, and they'll keep getting used hard because of the usefulness of the 8 oz size (at the time I purchased them they were one of the few bags offered in this size).

 Good stuff,  Wednesday, 12 December 2007 1.75 mm Zing It and an 8 oz throwbag have been my standard tree entry set-up for a couple of years now. The Zing It is light enough that an 8 oz throwbag works to pull the line over anything I've been hitting, and it is strong enough that you can actually use a hard pull to dislodge a stuck bag sometimes. That said, it can break if a tangle is pinched in a snag. It doesn't tangle and snag very often for a hand throw (although there have been days...), but it is very prone to throwing tangles when used with a big shot. Judging from my earlier experience with NT's blackline, this is probably just a characteristic of any light line. It is VERY worth your time to flake the line carefully before throwing or shooting, and keep all debris out of the line - even a pine needle can be enough to create a mess. It seems to behave a bit better after being broken in. All this said, I doubt any other lines offer significant improvement on tangle management, and this stuff is so strong and durable I'll probably be using it for years.

 Good versatile tool,  Friday, 07 December 2007 I've been using this regularly for about 6 months, mostly as part of a yoyo/RADS climbing system in tallish pine trees. As a component of that system, it does just what it needs to do: allow pull-through and ratcheting action on the ascent, and a reasonably predictable rappel on the descent. I find that for some of my longer slides (100 feet or so) it gets pretty hot - it doesn't dissipate heat as nicely as a rack does - but if you take your time, or aren't going too far it's a good tool for a rappel. It's a bit fiddly to get on the rope, and it's only slightly more forgiving than the other rappelling devices, but it's lighter and cheaper than other tools with a similar function. Works for me. Desi's comments about rope size are worthy of being reiterated: this is really designed for 11mm ropes and shouldn't be used very far out of that size range.

 The best connector for a NT saddle,  Tuesday, 04 December 2007 If you use a New Tribe saddle, it is worth the extra couple of dollars to get one of these instead of the default Delta screwlink for your main saddle attachment point. The main reason is space; if you do anything but single-pitch climbs on a traditional system, the delta link gets crowded with ropes and/or hardware. The pear link helps a lot here; that extra room is always nice to have. Screwlinks of heavy stock like this are absurdly strong, even when loaded at odd angles. All you have to do is screw them finger tight at the start of the climb and check from time to time during the climb - same as for any other hardware. I have once or twice wished for a wrench when undoing one, and a gentle twist with a wrench at the start of the climb would provide a bit of extra security, but mostly this is usable with fingers alone. My one complaint is that the thing has a habit of re-orienting during a climb, especially when you unload for a moment while standing on a branch, so that the narrow side ends up pointing upward. This could be fixed by something to keep the narrow end confined to the leg strap attachment, but so far I haven't bothered. You don't want a carabiner for this attachment, and this is the best of the easily available choices.