i have hunted for many years and i did not always were one. 7 years ago i was hunting out of a homemade stand and the bar around the back of the tree broke at the weld on the seat portion. trust me fellers no matter how agile you are there is no way to catch yourself. i had shot a buck and was climbing down the tree at the time, so i was lucky and was only about 7ft off the ground. i landed on top of the stand and the only injury i had was a lacerated right ear. it was hard to get out of bed the next day but i survived. i was very very lucky.when is was hunting that day i had been about 17 ft off the ground and by myself, there is no telling how long i would have laid there if i had really injured myself bad. im a ER nurse and have taken care of people from tree stand accidents. some of them are not pretty sights trust me. fractured arms and legs or worse yet spinal vertebre. so please for your and your families sake were one.