PreacherTony

20 years ago, hunting alone behind my parents house, while I started descending my tree, I had a tree stand slip out from under my feet and fall all the way to the ground, as I hung precariously from my chest belt 18 feet in the air ...... my knife was in my back pack on the ground, as was my bow ... on the ground that is. I could not unhook myself .... the tree was too big around to shimmy up and get some slack ....... I didn't know what to do .....

I smoked at the time, and I pulled out my lighter and tried to burn the strap at the connection, but the wind kept blowing it out .... I started to feel faint ....... all of a sudden, the lighter stayed on for a few seconds ...... it was windy so it kept going out. As the belt started to melt, it caught fire, keeping the lighter lit .... it seemed like forever, but the strap let go, sending a half unconscious me to the forest floor .......

Other than a few bruises though, I was ok, as was my bow... upon further investigation, the stand was proven defective, and I got my money back.

txjourneyman

Rest failure, having to reset a trapdoor rest after shooting one hog. In the time it took to reset I missed another shot opportunity. So while the rest didn't fail the design failed me.

Paul L Mohr

Not yet, so far. I have had an issue with my inline ML that almost cost me a deer, but it worked out ok in the end. It did cost me a large deer the next day because I had to hunt with my smoothbore while the ML was being fixed. The deer was just out of what felt a comfortable range would be for that gun. Would have been an easy shot with the ML though.

Wasn't really an equipment failure as much I broke it and didn't notice until it was too late[&o]. Lesson learned on that one.

Paul

tsoc

As John and Greg mentioned,no equipment failure but Human Failure (ME).Why is it that most learning experiences come from pain and emotional sufferring?
A friend of mine and I set a treestand in Idaho several years ago.It was in a funnel that every year get's seriously scraped up and it is close to a thick bedding area.We went in to set it mid day of our first day out there and when we got to the spot,there was so much smoking hot buck sign that I wanted to set that stand as quickly as possible and get the heck out of there.The mistake I made was not really stepping hard on the stand once I had the strap set.I was so nervous about ruining this location that I didn't take my time.
Rested the stand for a day hunted it the next,got in bright and early,got settled in and noticed the stand would squeak a bit if I shifted my weight.I said to myself I will take care of this on my way down around noon time.Now I am rifle hunting mind you.Beautiful 5x5 comes in hard off my right shoulder( I am right handed) 30 yards away,he has no idea I am there,I am thinking about where he will go on the wall,then the reality that I have to turn in the stand,hard to my right to be able to shoot this deer.From euphoria to depression as the stand squeaked and the buck pinned me like a laser beam! I still have visions of that buck several years later.
Also a cold dose of reality that never occurred to me at that time,my friend said to me after hearing about what happened,"why didn't you shoot him off your left shoulder" Yeah everyone can come up with the answers after the fact,but he was right!
If any of you ever hunt a treestand that I set you can be absolutely certain it wont squeak!

shed33

Scot,

squeaky stand ouch.... my ? is.. how long did that buck wait around once he heard the stand squeak?

- I fell asleep in my tree lounge once..only to to wake up to cow elk feeding under me. Does that count as equipment being too good?

tsoc

Hey Troy,
You know it was the darndest thing.He pinned me,I stayed perfectly still while he took me apart for several minutes.He started to browse,on alert but not startled,it was the second squeak that did me in.I made every effort to distribute my weight in such a way that I could move.NOT! He took a couple of bounds,I grunted quickly and it froze him,unfortunately behind a hemlock.He stiff legged his way out of there through some thick stuff that I couldn't (or wouldn't attempt to get a shot through)
I have always wondered about after the first squeak,when he settled down a bit,if I brought my rifle up quickly would he have froze long enough for me to kill him.I'll never know.

mauser06

not bowhunting...i know i know...

but ive had rifle scopes fail..and fiber optic sights come loose on the flintlock. i really really hate to admit ive lost 2 deer with the rifle and completely missed one..all in one season. all within 50yds. this was after i already had like 5 under my belt and i knew it wasnt me. that summer dad was settin up a slug gun. i told him to take my scope so he didnt have to buy one coz i quit hunting. he tried talkin me out of it...but did take the scope...took it to the shop to be mounted and bore sighted...the guy couldnt believe how jacked up the scope was. the crosshairs moved ALOT every time you adjusted the power of the scope!!! i was jacked to say the least. none of the deer seemed fatally hit and we hunted the areas alot and never found them...hope they made it...

then another season i missed a pile of chip shots with the flintlock. i practice with my flintlock religiously..its close up there with bow shooting...you dont shoot it alot your not going to shoot accurately..dont have to shot as often as a bow but you gotta keep in practice...and i do and always have..i couldnt figure it out. i was gettin ready to throw the flintlock in the lake...target shooting after a few misses i couldnt hit jack...then i finally noticed the sight was WAY loose when i was cleaning it!!

i guess i had a tree stand failure..kinda..mainly my fault...rifle hunting opening day...i stood up when i saw a GIANT buck and another buck...leaned on the front rail of my summit viper to steady me...somehow i forgot to put on the strap for the top of the stand...i think it fell and i didnt feel like goin to get it well needless to say that top portion of my stand fell down. the bucks never took off...but they kept walking...wouldnt even stop to grunt calls or me yelling...i never got a shot....some snot nosed kid hunting the next farm over with his buddy killed the monster the first saturday[:@] man was it a whopper to say the least ....not exzactly a equiptment failure...just plain stupidity on my half...plus the saftey factor....i about fell out with a loaded rifle in my hands...think the saftey was off too them 2 bucks walked around my stand all morning before daylight grunting..thats why i didnt go get that strap i dropped now that i think about it[:'(]

Oneshot7

1. rest got slightly knocked off once hit a 140 ish deer in the shoulder

2. me i got to excited andd right over the back of a huge 160s class doe LOL

TROPHYHUNTER25

i had my ripcord not drop when shooting at a doe. i his her in the neck but wasn't aiming for there

boldplate

I can't believe that you did not list the piece of equipment that fails the most. Our brain, I would have to say that has cost me more deer than any other equipment failure.