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I am always tied off while I am on the stand. I am tied off 100% of the time when I am using my climber. I am not tied off 100% of the time when I am setting up my hang ons. I hunt mostly public and am very mobile. I rarely hunt the same tree more than 3 times in a season so lifelines are not the best for me as a lot of my stands are sat once and I am carrying the sticks and stand in with me each time. That being said, it looks like 2 linemens belts will be the way to go (needing 2 in case I need to detach one to go around a limb and attach the other so I am always tied off). Is this how some of you are doing it and any suggestions on the best approach is much appreciated.

Thank You

This video should explain it. https://youtu.be/uPHkbZrw4aw

Been using this almost exclusively since 2000.

I have fallen from strap on steps occasionally (again just this season) as they are often required for special hunts. I don't like the idea of looking downwards and seeing 10-12 steel impalements looking back up at me. The climbing sticks are a little better but they can shift, are noisy (even when filled with foam) and some brands are known to break. As with my climbers I use the dual linemans rope( going around branches, etc.).

When I fell off a step this year (the strap on shifted) I ended up with a stab in the groin, I was only about 4 ft off the ground at the time. While hanging there by my harness could get off the step and it probably saved me from being nutered.

In addition I watched my hunting partner fall asleep on stand , waking up only when his harness caught him. In almost 40 years of hunting he hadn't done that before. Ouch, a little embarassed we hunted the rest of the season without further incident.

As far as a haul line I use two Strappers (one for the stand which I set up fresh every time, and one for the bow/pack). Attached on the end are barbless Musky hooks, clip to load bow, pack, etc.

To go with out some type of fall protection , strapped in 100% of the time is dangerous and really ridiculous give all the equipment out there now.

P.S. If you don't like fall protection OK to hunt from ground, I have shot plenty of deer out of natural blinds.

i try to be as safe as possible. i want to drive my own car home after each and every hunt.

ben

Like many of us my cousin bowhunted all over the US and Canada. At age 66, when one would think he was wiser, he fell from a treestand. Spent four months paralyzed then died four months later from complications.

If you don't hook up because it is convenient try a wheelchair. If you don't hook up for yourself do so for those who would have to take care of you or mourn for you.

Now off my stump, continue...

I climbed with Buckingham gaffs for years, but the last 10 years been using Lone Wolf sticks.

No matter how you climb, you must be tied off. If not, sooner or later you will fall.

You should always step down onto your hang on stand platform, and never up onto it.

The guy in the video showed an unsafe method of transferring into the stand. He stepped up into it, and he was very unbalanced when doing so.

His stand was also not very snug on the tree, and should have never been wabbly, even if mounting it from below.

I don't leave my equipment out for more than a week or two at a time and I check it regularly. Unlike many of you I don't hunt from tree stands day in and day out so my exposer is less. When I do climb, I'm careful and deliberate. Sure, something could go wrong, but that's true everyday with everything we do as soon as we get out of bed.

Do you guys even let your kids climb trees, or is that taboo these days also?

I had an 18" ladder step section pop off in my hand about 18' up a few years ago. I wasn't wearing a harness or using a line-mans belt. I got cocky and was in a hurry hanging a set in a soaking wet jungle. That was the last time I hung a set without safety equipment.

I will use full length "lifelines" when the situation calls for it but they don't work with every set and aren't always necessary in my opinion.

Regardless of the stand style, Ladder, hang on, or climber, I'm always wearing a harness during the hunt. That's a lot more than some...

You get in your vehicle and drive down the road, you could end up a splattered bug on a windshield, many folks do.

We go into the woods alone, we climb trees, we seek out the places where nobody else is going, we walk around where predatory animals like lions and bears could easily rip us apart if they so chose.

I live my life without fear, guilt, or shame. I measure risks and mitigate the ones where the mitigation doesn't interfere with who I am and what I love doing. Maybe someday I'll die in the woods. I'm ok with that. I don't fear it. If that's how I go, then I died doing what I love.

The most important thing in my life is living my life on my terms and that includes dying on my terms. So I don't fear it.

I do, though, take a pragmatic view of this sort of thing and I feel it's a good idea to tie in. Lots of folks die or are injured for life each year from falling out of stands/ladders. I'll admit, I'm not tied in 100% of the time if I'm not using my climber. Risk vs reward. I've drawn my line and I'm tied in almost all of the time.

Mike, you really should use a harness. You never know when you're going to have an equipment failure.

You all should talk with your loved ones about this choice and see what they say. Maybe for their sake you'll reconsider. Think about what their lives would be like with you in a wheelchair, or a quadriplegic, or dead and buried.

"It is so easy to be connected 100% of the time."

That simply is not true. If you climb trees that look more like power poles - sure. But they are not very good for hunting. A bow hunter may as well put neon lights on they are so visible in such trees. I usually use trees that look like this. It may be possible to be tied in 100% when setting a stand in this tree, but it sure wouldn't be easy. And it would be way more problematic than it's worth - unless you fall, of course. The goal is NOT to fall, and to that end I'm very careful. I also hunt and hike in the mountains, sometimes in situations where climbing gear would be safer to use. If you want to be close to 100% safe every day, you should stay in bed. Otherwise, the best you can do is be observant, identify risks, mitigate them the best you can, and proceed cautiously.

I really am way more safe than I once was. Back when I first started hunting from trees, I often just climbed one and stood on a likely branch. One of my favorite trees was a multi trunked cottonwood. One trunk started out at about a 45 degree angle and arched into a fairly level section about 15' above the ground with a vertical limb sticking up. I used to shimmy up there and just stand on the trunk leaning against the limb. When a deer came by I would just stand up, and take the shot. Sounds pretty stupid in this day and age, even to me. But there was no "gear" to fail, I have excellent balance, and back then, little fear to mess with my head.

It IS possible to be tied in 100%...it just takes more time to do that.

A guy can use a throw line to set his HSS line first...or set up a temp line....

If I was overly concerned with safety I would never have enjoyed experiences like this. Rowing Lava Falls, Grand Canyon in my 13' raft.

Any way you can secure yourself to a tree going up is more practicle than nothing especially to hold yourself in place while your pulling a stand up to set or putting in steps of any kind. You never know when a fall will occurr no matter how big you think your _all's are? One step broke on me just about up to the stand at 17 feet and down I went hitting a number of steps and cutting open my KOM cloths jacket and pants. If I hadn't had these heavy wools on I could have been cut open like a can. I did get cut and was able to get my cloths repaired. When I hit the bottom I was sitting and felt myself and said I lucked out I'm ok. I must have breifly passed out from shock though. I called my wife and told her what happened and she came an got me. She asked me what happened when she first saw me all my cloths were torn bad straight on up from my boots up my leg and my jacket. I was lucky. Tie in no matter how much a pain it is might just save your life.

If you're 100 lbs over weight and your stand breaks and you fall, was it more dangerous for you to be in a tree than someone who's 160 lbs? Absolutely. My equipment is not put under the same stress and I'm not going to fall as hard. Additionally, my ability to mitigate my own fall by the nature of the agility that someone that is 160 lbs vs someone that's 300 lbs puts the idea of a fall in a whole new light.

I trip and fall frequently in the mountains and I'm fine. I've seen people that are 100 lbs over weight trip and fall and bust their shit up and that's from ground level.

I don't want to sound rude or stuck up, but at 300 lbs, your risk of dying of heart disease is far higher my risk of dying from a fal during the 5 minutes a year I spend not tied in to my tree stand.

I also go into the mountains alone frequently, without, OMG, a cell phone, sat phone, or SPOT.

If you're more comfortable using more safety precautions, by all means do. But if you come out of the woods and climb on a motorcycle, EVER, you have no valid argument. ;-)

IMO, if you're 100 lbs over weight, you have no business getting in a tree. It's your choice, but telling people they should be tied in because you fell is kinda like the doctor who smokes and tells his patients to quit because it's bad for them.

And I'm not busting on fat guys, I'm just telling it like it is. Sometimes the truth is offensive and there's no nice way to say it.

And yes, I think there's a line where a kid is too fat to get in a tree stand. IMO, it's somewhere around 100 lbs overweight, just like an adult.

EDIT: You have a point with the kids, but they shouldn't be given the choice, because they're kids. If a kid is hunting, they're being supervised, so it's up to the supervisor to make sure they're tied in properly.

Not wearing a harness "because it's uncomfortable" or "I don't want to" is not a good answer. Good luck & stay safe guys.

I never forgot that and think about those words every time I do something dangerous with out taking all the safety precautions I should. Dear old dad is long gone now but I guarantee you if I fell out of a tree and died when a harness would have prevented it he would consider that as... dying stupid.

I do have several pre set stands that I'm going to use lifelines with next year. I never thought about the double linemans belt. I may try that when setting hang ons.

NOT