Mojotex

This past week my best buddy from my 1950's - 1960's school days sat me down to give me a big thanks.

Over 15 years ago we renewed our childhood friendship in a major fashion. Since then we have hunted together 100's of days. When we first started hunting he did not even own a tree stand safety system. I badgered him into submission somewhere along the way and it paid off this past season. (Despite us hunting and fishing together several times last winter, he did not relate this to me until this past week.) Here's his account.

He had scouted and set-up a "hang-on" stand in a good looking area, some 20'-25' off the ground in a big oak tree. The maker of the stand is one of the major brands and came with one HD , fabric ratchet strap. He installed this strap correctly and then added a second as a precaution ... as do I. Two days later the wind was right, so he headed in about 30 minutes before daybreak to hunt from this stand.

He worked his way up his stick ladder. He attached his safety to the tree and then stepped off the ladder onto the stand. He sat down and started to lift up his bow .... and in a heart-beat he found himself dangling along side the tree trunk, suspended in his harness.

The stand had fallen out from under him and was laying on the forest floor below him. He told me that he was so shocked by the suddeness of the fall that he was more or less in a full panic mode, stunned. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was OK. So he swung over to the ladder and slowly eased down. What he found was that one fabric strap had been chewed into and the other almost through. Only about 1/2" was obviously not chewed, but had ripped though. The culprits probably were squirrels or rats.

At 20' - 25', a free fall would probably have been fatal. If not fatal, certainly would likely have left my buddy seriously injured and possibly paralized to a significant extent. Some might say he was lucky. I say he was prepared.

So to all the safety harness nay-sayers out there, think about what might have been in this guy's case. Go get you one and use it. All of well designed tree stand safety harnesses are easy to use and affordable. There is simply no excuse for not using one.