went out for the first time saturday morning. In the morning I had a total of 10 doe & 2 bucks pass by at 50yds by 8am. The farm I hunt is close to some public land I use to hunt and about 8:05 I heard some sirens that stopped in the area of the public ground parking lot. 20min later a helicopter is flying over the farm & from the way it sounded it landed on the road close to the parking lot. I decided to get down & drive over there.

By the time I got there the helicopter was gone but the CO was there so I talked to him. He said a hunter fell from his stand that was @ 14'. I asked what his condition was but all he would say was they thought it was serious enough to use life-flight. I use to think I didn't need to strap myself to a tree but one day after we had our first daughter I dozed off and almost fell out of the tree. That was the day that I decided I wanted to be around an able to play with my daughter and taking an extra 2-3 minutes to climb a tree was no big deal vs falling from a tree while hunting a deer. From that day on I have never climbed a tree without being connected to the tree at all times

I've heard all the stories "I have good balance, if you're careful you won't fall, etc..."
Guys it can happen to anyone of us and it would be a shame for one of us to fall with all the equipment available on the market to keep us safe.

So, on to the evening hunt. I got in the stand about 3:30 and the wind was gusting 30-35mph. About 4 the wind started to calm down and I spotted a small 8pt buck 80yds to the north working a scrape. Then 80yds west out popped a doe & yearling. The buck disappeared and the doe were slowly working their way to me. The doe stopped at 19yds slightly quartering away & I let the arrow fly, she ran about 60yds and was down. Over the next hour I saw 8 more doe.

This was by far the best outing I've ever had for the beginning of the season.

Sorry about the quality of the pic my 5yr old daughter took them with my blackberry.