When you have arrived at the location you are going to hunt, never get seperated from your firearm during legal hunting hours. Many moons ago I was setting my climber up for the afternoon hunt and decided the tree I was on was not as good as "the one over there". So I remove my stand and carried it in seperate peices to "the good tree", I left my rifle over by "the bad tree". With my rifle 75'-80' away, a nice 8 pt. buck steps out at about 50 yrds and we had us a mexican standoff. He knew something was up but couldn't get a handle on me, I stood there for a few minutes and he moved off.............

I have never been w/o my firearm since. I've had buddies get out of the truck and step into the woods to look at a trail or something and come back cussing 'cause they just jumped a nice one.

Always ready, always safe!