ORIGINAL: GMMAT
MdDave---Unless the deer is nearly directly in front of me it seems my lower limb is banging against the railing. Maybe I'm just used to hang ons with no railing I don't know. As far as noise is, I know they are part of the game with climbers. My brother in law has a Viper too, and loves it.
YOU have total control over where you place your upper stand portion. Position your seat high enough...and you won't have the rail/limb issues.
Also....think LOGICALLY about what you're saying occurred. How could it "slip"? Did the knuckle come loose from the cable? That's the only way this could happen (other than the metal receiver bending and allowing the knuckle to slide through it).
If you didn't have the knuckle seated correctly....it might still climb fine (due to friction).
Like I said....think about it logically. If the knuckle didn't come loose from the cable...and the receiver didn't bend open and allow it to slide through.....then you didn't have it seated properly before you ascended.
My knees were already touching the bottom of the rail, so I don't see how I could lower it anymore.
Also, I'm in no way am I trying to come off as pushing the blame on Summit or their product. Like I said, I bought aSummit, because ofthe positive things I had heard about the safety of the Vipers.I watched the DVD and practiced with it numerous times just climbing 5 feet up then back down. But this was only my 5th or 6th time withhunting with it, so a mishap on my part is definantly possible. I understand what you are saying about the knuckle having to come through there. I've looked at it and the only thing I figured is somehow it wasn't locked all the way, or the mechanism that locks it somehow was tripped while I was sitting or getting ready for my climb down.
Regardless of what happened or how it happened the knuckle still slipped, andit was enough to scare thecrap out of me. I would prefer to sit in a hang on or a ladder stand that has ratchet straps holding it on and a climbing stick/ladder leading up to it.
The only reason I bought the climber was our farm is being logged this year, and it was convenient to work around the loggers with it.