Hi talondale,

When I am setting up a stand, I wear my harness and a waist strap (like a telephone strap).A 3/8"rope is then either tied or sometimes straped to the tree as high as I can reach (while I'm standing in the stand) (waist strap still attached). I also either tie a loop (if I tie the rope to the tree)or attach a steel ring(if I use a strap) and connect a carabiner that is connected to my harness back strap.Oh, you also have to tie the bottom rope so that the rope is faily tout. When everything is set, I can climb with the ascender connected to both waist straps, climb into the tree with the ascender still connested, and clip in my caribiner connected to the back strap. then of course detach the ascender. Never am I not protected.

It amazes me the people that are only thinking of themselves when it comes to whether or not to use a safety harness. Who cares what you think. Think of the people, friends, relatives that would have to take care of you if you were to fall. On Discovery Health channel they have a show called "Critical Hour". The other week the featured stories related to falls. One was a hunter who had fallen from a treestand. The showed his x-ray and you could clearly see where his vertabra were displaced severing his spinal cord. Paralyzed the rest of his life. Confined to a wheelchair. Do you think if he had the opportunity to do it all over again he would have a safety harness on?? Now his family has to take care of him for the rest of his life.

Is your family prepared to do this?

Use a safety harness so you don't have to find out.

Excuse me, but you guys who don't use a safety strap, vest or other device while climbing or decending a tree are nuts or have much better insurance than I do. Especially if you hunt alone like I do.

Ithink my biggest problem is that, like I said, I've been in trees and high places since I was just a little fella. Me and my cousins would spend endless hours in the trees, I don't know why, its just what we did. We built tree forts and everything else. I also climb trees all the time when I am scouting to check for stand spots and stuff.Atwork I am always on high roofs and walls and stuff, I just get so used to it that it seems weird to have to wear a safety strap.
Its kind of like, after riding your bike for years, someone tells you that you need to put training wheels on your bike so you don't fall over. You don't see any reason to do it.
I know thats a bad comparison becuase falling out of a tree and falling off a bike are a little different, but you get what I mean.

I wear the "Hunter Safety Systems" Full vest/harness. I use it whenever I use my climber, or a hang on stand.

I don't use it when I hunt from my 10-15 foot ladder stands.

yeah i havent used a safety strap when climbing up a tree..i usually just take my name and make sure i dont fall..

Anyone try this unit out? http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0032873416873a&type=product&cm Cat=search&returnString=_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&%2Fcabelas%2 Fcommerce%2FCabelasCatalogNumberFinder.giftCertifi cateURL=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Ftemplates%2Fgiftcertific ate%2Fgiftcertificate.jsp%3Fid%3D0005586990011a%26 podId%3D0005586%26catalogCode%3DIB%26navAction%3Dj ump%26indexId%3D&_D%3A%2Fcabelas%2Fcommerce%2F CabelasCatalogNumberFinder.giftCertificateURL=+&am p;QueryText=fall+guy&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2F common%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form9&N=4887&Ntk=Products&Ntx= mode+matchall&Nty=1&Ntt=fall+guy&noIma ge=0&returnPage=search-results1.jsp

Ditto on that. Anyoone who goes up a tree without one is eventually going to get hurt. Just a matter of time.

In other words, because nothing bad has ever happened to you in a tree nothing ever will. Sorry, but that is like saying that you will never make a mistake becauseyou haven't made one so far. I don't know, maybe you don't wear a seatbelt in your car or truck eitherbecause you can't believe you will ever get in an accident. Just sounds blockheaded to me.

Believe me when I say that I understand being blockheaded. I can be pretty blockheaded myself. But whenever I consider decisions like this I always ask myself what the penalty is for guessing wrong. In this case, the penalty can be pretty severe, not only for for me, but for the people who depend on me. So I repeat, if you don't wear a safety device every moment you are going up or down or in a tree, you are asking for a world of trouble. You have to be right every time to prove me wrong. I only have to be right once to prove you wrong. I would hate to find out some day that I was right on this.

I do when using my climber. If I'm hunting a hang on I usually don't, but I do hook up my safety vest before getting onto the stand. IN some cases I have an old safety belt on the tree above the seat. AS I climb I slip it over my head and under my arms until I get on the stand and get hooked up properly.