I am very lucky to be alive today to tell this story. In 1987 i was hunting in a cutover that my brother and had been hunting the week before! We had found some pretty good deer sign in it so i thought i would go back and hunt it again. My brother could not go this one morning so i went alone, I over sleep that morning so i was in a big hurry to get to the woods and get up the tree. I drove to the area where we parked the truck and got out and begain to get my gear together. my deer stand was a two peace stand that took a bolt and wing nut on each side of the back bar, when i started to get my deerstand out the truck i noticed that a bolt was missing on one side of the back bar on the top part of the stand! My brother and i was working in Atlanta,ga for a company back then that took apart big machinery! I had few of these old bolt left over from one of these old machines, left in my toolbelt so i just threw them in the back of my truck and did not think much about it after that. It was very dark this one morning and so i just grabed what i thought was my bolt to my stand but was of the old bolts that i threw in the truck the day before. I put it threw the stand and the wing nut fit the bolt just fine. I had forgot about the other bolt`s so i did not think about it being wrong, I put the stand on my back and headed off into the cut over to my tree when it got there i was hunting in what we call a Jack Pine! A tall most of the time skinny pine tree with out many limb on it! You can climb very high in these trees if you want to! I was hunting with a gun that morning so i tied my 27 foot rope to my gun so i could pull it up to me. I could see it just starting to lightin up just a little but was still to dark to really see any thing, I cilmb up the tree faceing it and reached the hight i wanted to hunt from that day becouse my rope was tight from stand to my gun below, I sat thair a second then i heard a POP! and all of a sudden i was hanging upside down with my boots still in the straps that i pull the bottom part of my stand up with and the top part of the stand was rapped all around me and i could not figure out at first what had happened then i felt my straps slipping off my boots and i started to panic and trying to get back up, but it was very cold that morning and i a think jacket on and the top part of the stand keeped me from reaching the bottom part of the stand with my hand to grab on, I felt the straps slip of my boots and for a second all i could here was the wind ,as i was falling i don`t remenber hittng the ground but i do remember hitting something on the way down with my head! Remember! this was before daylight?when i fell and it was about 9.30am when i woke up with the sun shining in my eye`s I did not know where i was at first, Then pain like i have never felt in my life! hit me all at one time from my hair to my toe`s hurt like i never felt before or ever have sence! I begain to scream for help but no one could here me i was hunting alone. I knew i had to get out off there somehow, I was affrad to look at my body in case some thing was sticking threw me but i was lucky to that i did not have any thing sticking threw me, But was laying across a log i had landed on that was about eight inch`s thick I crushed the part of the long with my back when i landed the long was rotten! I raised up but was very dizzy then i stood up but fell back down. I laid there and prayed to GOD to help me! I started to cry,i thought i was dieing! After a little while longer i was able to stand back up but i very dizzy and sick to my stomach i begain to throwup, Then fell down again but this time, I feel i went off a little bank which was next to my tree and at the bottom was a small creek runnig in it i landed in it face first! Which the water was very cold and seemed to help me come to my sence`s after that i was able get up and walk, I made it all the way back to my truck and i unlocked the door and sat down on the seat and looked in to the mirror I had dryed blood that had come out of my left ear and blood had run all down my shirt from my nose, My hair had pine bark and sap in it, As i sat there i remenber i left my gun back at the tree, So i thought i could not leave it there so i was able to walk back out to my tree and get my gun, i looked down on the ground where i was laying and there was print of where my body had landed with a blood splot where my head was the blood had came out of my left ear and nose, I got my gun and walked back to my truck and was able to dive home, when i got thair my dad was the only one at home at the time and he had not been up long when i walked in, I sat down at the kitchen table, He sead you look like you fell out of a tree? I sead Idid! he sead do you think you need to go to the hospital? I told him i don`t` think so, I just need to lay down for a little while! I layed down in the bed and sleeped for 9hr then my dad woke me and asked was i ok? I told him yes! Then he left me, I fell back asleep and sleeped 10 more hr. I woke up sunday morning at about eight o-clock but i could not hardly move? I managed to make it to the bathroom and when i looked into the mirror both my eye`s were black and i had a bruise that went from the back of my neck to lower part of my leg`s my whole back was a dark bruise. I was very stupid and never went to the to the hospital. Some how i lived threw it? i was tweenty one years old back when this happened. My brother and i walked back over two weeks later to the tree i fell from as i looked up i could see a peace of bark missing about 14 feet up i guess thats what i hit with my head on the way down? Then looked on up higher to the bottom part of the tree stand still in the tree. My brother just stood there not saying anything for a while then looked at me and sead you are Very, Very lucky! How in gods name did you live threw that fall? I did not say any thing, All i could remeber was falling and waking up screeming for help! and then praying to God to help me! I fell 26 feet out backwards and lived threw it, I beleave in god, and i know he was with me that day! As i have read story`s of some hunters falling from much less hight`s and dieing or braking or hurting themself very bad! I dont know why god let me live that day? Or what he has instore for me. I have two kids now my son is 9 and my daughter is 13 and have been strickly a bowhunting for more then tweenty years now sence that day. I still hunt out of a tree but I ALWAYS wear a safety belt! And i never clim that high any more! All i can say to most of you! Is take it from someone who is very lucky to be alive today. Pray to God to be with you and your family and freinds before going to the woods, And check all your hunting gear! And always wear a saftey belt while hunting! This is what happend to me! RTA47