SwampHunt

Ive been using the Seat o the pants harness for 5 years now. Use the safety belt as I go up the tree and attached safety lanyard before stepping on treestand. My hunting partner was using what I considered a lesser harness and I would not let him in my stands until he up graded. His wife called me at 900pm last night saying he didnt come home so I went to look for him. Where he hunts he was getting into a stand that collapsed on him . He was ok but he one strap caught on a footpeg where he could not turn around to free himself. He had a couple of cuts and bruises but said he was pretty comfortable just hanging there. He thinks if he had a cell phone in his pocket he could of used it to call for help. I wish all good hunting but more important SAFE HUNTING!!!!!!

BGfisher

Pretty cheap life-insurance, wasn't it? Just think about how many people are killed or maimed for life for the sake of spending $60 on a good harness, and then learning how to use it.

Good news for your friend. A happy ending.

kevin1

I know the feeling ,
I got to "test drive" my safety harness just last Saturday . I have the older shoulder harness type , and it wasn't all that comfortable but it sure beat hitting the ground from 15 feet . [&:]

KONK

My brother is a First Responder In Oconto County Wi. and has had to respond to numerous tree stand accidents. From a guy slipping on a wet wooden plateform and tearing the back of his leg open from the back of his knee to his butt cheek on a rusty nail, to a guy who fell 20' and landed on the side of his head and was found by his son on his way out of the woods that night. It is very inexpensive Life Insurance as stated before. Your family at least desreves that much. I also use a Seat-O-The-Pants harness, it is comfortable and I feel much more at ease 20' up a tree.
Good Hunting!!!

SwampHunt

Well here is an update on using a harness. I was in Michigan over this long weekend and found 3 stands on my inlaws land. So using hang on tree steps we went up the trees using the linemans belt removed all the stand and left notes in zip loc bags on each tree with instructions for getting their treestands back. We found a back pack with a cell phone in it so we either scared them off or they just forgot it. They were up 30 feet so who knows they might have been out there while I've been huntng all season. It was an easy climb using the harness with linemans belt. But the sheriff said there is almost nothing they can do?? I dont live in Michigan but I thought that they have some tresspassing laws. They said the only thing they can do is if they threaten us with a gun? Oh well gun season will be over in 2 days.

loperhoyt47

I couldn't agree more. Just the other day, Nov 28th, at about 8:00 am my permanent tree stand fell out from underneath me. Thankfully I was wearing my safety harness and I can live to walk again. A friend and I build these treestand and we have had an engineer evaluate them for strength, etc.. The engineer said they would hold around 3000 lbs. Yes, we overbuild everthing, but the one thing you can't account for is tree movement. While I was dangling from the tree I investigated the holes where the lag bolts were and it looked as if the holes had rotted from around the lag. Needless to say, we will be changing some of our treestands this next year. On a similar note, I have been looking for a climber, any recomendations? What about API's telescoping ladder stand?

Good day and Hunt Safe

mrfritz44

Do a search for the Summit Viper on this forum. I think this stand has gotten more kudos than any other on this and other boards. I've got one (my second Viper) and love it. For the money you can't beat them, especially the newer versions with the bent braces and stirrups.