Reminder to wear your safety harness
Whitetail Deer
That’s horrible. I had a scare earlier this fall. It caused me to rethink my approach to tree stand safety. I would use a harness, but not a lifeline. After looking at them, and adding up the cost of having to have a dozen or so, I researched making them up myself. It’s quite simple to do. You can make up 10 of them for under 100$ bucks. The peace of mind I now have climbing up into my stands is hard to put a value on.
There is absolutely no reason for this to happen. Just wear a damn harness with a fall arrest system, and climb up and down safely. Prayers for his family. Something enjoyable turns into something tragic, and totally avoidable.
Yes to making your own lifelines...I made 4 of them for less than $40.00...thats real cheap safety.
On the CT forum, it states that this hunter had a heart attack and fell.
Can't confirm that.
Maybe the cause of the fall isn’t important? Sounds like the injuries would have been life-altering all by themselves; not many places to fall here where you can NOT hit a rock or three….
Had he been clipped in, perhaps he’d have had a chance to call for help?
Prayers for his family. I've posted my story before. I fell 25' when a 4000 lb. ratchet strap holding a lock-on failed. I was not using a lifeline and was 2" from hooking up my safety vest when the strap failed. Alot of broken bones, internal injuries, pain, heartache, and a 5 year recovery. I was one of the lucky ones. I lived through the experience, defied multiple doctor's predictions, and with the good Lord's grace, my determination, and encouragement from family and good friends, I fully recovered. Use a lifeline and safety harness every time without exception. I kept one 10' Warren and Sweat ladder stand and got rid of all the rest. I look like the OSHA poster child when using it. On a hunt just this last week, I came across a lock-on with sticks set at about 20' (an area I had wanted to hunt). It had pull ups but no lifeline. Be safe out there.
I had a close call when I was in my late 20s…several mistakes that I made all because I was in a hurry…1st mistake was leaving the strap on the stand for 3 years without changing it (I was in the process of changing the stand when this all happened)…
2nd mistake was leaving my tree strap at head level once sitting, and 3rd was climbing in that stand without changing that strap first.
I had just sat down and pulled my new stand up and sat there for a minute taking in the view and answering a million questions from my young son who was watching from the ground, and I stood up and as soon as I faced the tree I felt the full effect of gravity instantly.
It took a few seconds to realize what just happened and I collected my thoughts and looked up at my carabiner and it was almost completely straight…By Gods grace the carabiner had broke on the upper side of the little knurled collar that you screw on and caught my harness strap just enough to keep me from falling.
I think about that quite often and to be honest it has kept me hunting on the ground more than I ever thought I would…I got too complacent with “its not likely to happen” and threw caution to the wind. My legs hurt far more and longer than you would think from the shock of the fall…hurt for a good month or so and I thought what would have happened to my kid if I had fell…he was only 4 at the time and he wouldn’t have known what to do or how to get back to the truck….that part bothers me more than anything.
I’m throwing this out there to maybe help someone think before you climb up in that tree…I would have had a lifeline if I had known about them…at this time they were new to the hunting scene at least as far as I knew.
The LITTLE things I overlooked almost caused me and my family HUGE problems…flame away if you feel the need I just hope maybe this might help someone think before you climb!
Damn. I was out in a rowboat one time with my sons, three and five, and a schoolie striper thrashed and ran a hook in and out of the back of one of my fingers. And I thought THAT was potentially upsetting! (They handled it fine, because I pretended it was no big deal… but the kid on the Police boat who loaned me his Leatherman looked like he was gonna blow chunks.)
Although who knows? These days, most four year olds would have no trouble making a phone call for you if you needed them to. No, I do not think that’s really a good thing.
Glad you lucked out/were blessed.
