a reminder to use your safty harness
Connecticut
Contributors to this thread:
after 30+ years hunting in trees I had my first fall. I went to a new public area area yesterday, didn't know it at all. did some homework on the area with maps. found a nice bedding area and set up out side of it. after the sun came up I was able to look around and found some one elses set up about 50 yards away. felt bad but they went there so I stayed. probably would od left if they showed up but they never did. after a while I forgot it was small game hunting and had some traffic of some hunters come thru. so I decided to leave. so I went to grab my rope to lower my bow and the rope still attached to my stand but fell to the ground. so I leaned over to grab the rope and my climber gave loose and fell and I fell and my face slamed into the tree. I was in that tree for 5 hours it was stable not sure why it gave loose but it did. if not for the harness i'm sure I would not be writing this today. not sure what I would of gotten for injuries but I would of substain some. I was never big on the restraints, but did use them. like seat belts was not big on them but do them. had to get use to them. So just a reminder always use them and if you forget yours at home don't go up the tree. you never know!!!
Glad your ok , I am always connected to the tree from the time I get in the stand until I climb down . It is very easy to fall out of a stand if not carefully . My buddy hardly ever wears a safety vest . I keep telling him to get one and use it .
Glad your all rite . That really could have turned out ugly. Safety first .
I rely on my safety harness the most when I'm in the tree predawn hours taking a nap or during those all day sits when I start to nod off. I can see how people fall out of stands when falling asleep without being strapped in.
Good to hear you are okay and its always a good reminder to stay safe. Thanks for sharing.
Did the stand fall all the way down? What kind of tree was it? How big around was the tree? What kind of stand was it?
it's a lone wolf hand climber, the tree was 16-18" white oak, it fell about 3/4 the way down. I've had it about 10 years. the last couple of years I been using a lone wolf hang on, on private land in Old Lyme. haven't used this one for a couple of years. but want to hunt the area more where I live, which is north of Hartford. it was leveled pretty good. bounced on it a couple of times. felt solid. still not sure what happened but I leaned over to pull the rope and the stand must of kicked out. to reach my pull rope I had to slide the purest knot down on my safety rope so I can reach my bow pull rope. after the fall I had to undo my chest clip so I could reach stand. I had reposition the stand then climbed back up and undid the safety rope and things that was left in the tree. I hope this is not up for debate, I been hunting out of trees for over 30 years, I feel I am experienced, the only reason I made the post is to let everybody know, no matter how experienced you are, always use your restraint. I now know how important it is.
Great story and poignant message. Did you have a cell phone and signal? How'd you get down?
Glad you're okay, and yes, use your harness all the time! My wife is bugging me to get a ground blind!
yes, always have a phone with me. that's the only time my family bugs me, when I'm hunting. lol. after I was able to reposition the stand I checked he straps on the stand they looked ok so I went back up the tree and got everything that was left up there.
I was hanging s stand once, had been doing a lot of it as I had about 2 dozen up in the trees. Un-tethered to reach out to cut a branch and lost footing, was hanging by one arm. They do that a lot in movies, but hanging by one arm is hard in real life (for me). Rescued myself but had shoulder pain for weeks after that. Once fell with just a waist belt on and it saved me fine, but I have joined the full-harness crowd. Sometimes use a mountaineering type harness (waist belt, thigh straps) sometimes but the full body sort allows for spinning around if a deer circles your tree. I wonder if studies have been done comparing falls and severity of falls, climbers versus fixed position stands...
Glad you are ok.
I use a HHS harness. very easy to get out of in a emergency.
Does your lone wolf have the securing straps on each side.. Once I cinch mine down its rock solid
Thanks for the info, I'm just trying to figure what may have gone wrong so as not to repeat it.
I can see the stand kicking out in an extreme situation such as a fairly slick and large diameter tree. White oaks usually do not give the best bite for a stand to grab on to.
I get that feeling like it may come unglued when I lean way over in my summit climbers. I know the lone wolf stands have some mean teeth to grab into the tree, better than summit, but they are only rated for up to 19 inch tree. Thinking that only the last tooth was making contact on each side and when you leaned over that one tooth lost it's bite and came out from underneath you.
Even in a perfect world a harness is a must, stuff happens. Glad you made it out o.k. A good wake up call for everyone to take every precaution necessary to be safe and get to hunt another day.
A few weeks ago I was coming down out of a hang on with strap on ladder sections. I had a screw in step at the bottom to help me get onto the first section. When I stepped onto it, it came out of the tree and sent me to the ground. It happened so fast I could not even keep the ladder section I was holding onto in my hands. I was lucky it was on the bottom and I landed on my feet. Scary stuff, a wake up call for sure.
between the seat and the base? yes, but I wasn't on the seat. I was on the base to pull up the rope. ounce off the seat the seat is loose
glad your ok Adam. I know a guy that broken his ankle similar to that.
mentioned this last year, but worth repeating. I was climbing up my usual tree last year with my summit and was up about 10 ft when I locked in the hand climber, pulled up the platform and thought it was locked in, but it fell and left me handing by the hand climber with my arms stretched straight out!!
I didn't have my harness hooked onto the tree yet, so unless I got the platform back on the tree I was falling, and luckily I did, but me elbows were hyper-extended and I had pain for a month.
Now I lock onto the tree at the base! After 45 years of climbing trees!
Once my straps are tight my seat parts solid like a hang on..glad your alright... Once with my old clunker climber I was standing on the Platform bummed the seat with my butt turning around and the whole deal dropped so fast I dropped the arrow I had knocked. My phone and everything I had up there..except me... Wearing no harness that morning either.......I know I know......
How come you don't have a strap connecting the two parts of the climber? With my stand, the bottom section would only side about 3 feet.
First and foremost, I'm glad you're ok, and I haven't been using my harness much this year, because I've been using ladder stands. But after reading your story, I'll be strapped in every time I hunt from now on. As far as my climber is concerned, a few of the guys on the site informed me about the stabilizing straps from Third Hand Archery. I can't say for sure if they would've helped in your situation, but they stabilze the upper and lower portions of your climber by creating tension and they also keep your bottom platform from falling very far if it does happen to slip out from underneath you. Be safe.
Third hand archery straps would probably have prevented this. Also just the straps that come with Lone wolf work fine. glad you're ok!
SmoothieJonez's Link
Supporting Link regarding the discussion regarding stabilizer straps & strapping in top portion of climber for safety purposes.