Opening morning of Indiana's bow season broke frosty and cold, one of the best opening days, weather-wise, I can remember. In stand about two hours when I heard a loud pop and felt the earth moved under my feet. A cable had broken on my treestand. I hadn't worn a safty vest for years until about two years ago, when, at my wife's insistance, I began wearing an HSS vest. Since, I have never hunted without it. Glad I had it on that morning. You can be careful, as I always was, but you can't do anything about equipment failure which is sudden and without warning. Evening hunt produced a sighting of a deer that I have been getting pictures of all summer that I call the magnum 8. I saw him in his bed for over an hour in the evening until he finally got up and walked off in the opposite direction. Now that I know where he is bedding, I will try to devise a strategy that will give him a ride in the back of my truck in the very near future. Here is a picture of him from this summer.
Blessings.....Pastorjim
Here are the pics of the broken stand that some of you requested. Sorry it took me so long. By the way, I did email Gorilla about this problem on Friday and today the contacted me with an offer to replace the cables. They said the cables should be replaced every 2-3 years depending on use. This stand was four yrs old and I really would expect longer use out of it before a failure like this.
This is the other side that didn't break but looks about ready to.
Everyone, please inspect every part of your equipment every year before you use it. I was lucky this time but it could have been a lot different.
Blessings.....Pastorjim