Hey guys,

Just a friendly reminder to all you guys who hunt from ladder or hang on stands to check them every time you get in/out of your stand. Saturday evening I took my fiance out hunting and set her up in a ladder stand. She climbed up and sat down and everything was fine. The hunt went without a hitch (besides only seeing 4 deer), but things got interesting when I climbed down out of my climber beside her and headed towards her. She lowered her bow to me and I stood back for her to climb down. As she was climbing down I watched the stand twist away from the tree and she fell. Luckily she was more than half way down and she probablly fell around 6 feet. She landed on her back on top of a fallen down tree. Thank God she only had a little cut on her finger but she is still really sore. The only thing that I can figure is either that the rain softened the ground and allowed on side of the ladder to sink into the ground which allowed the top to twist off the tree or that strong winds had shifted the tree around enough to loosen the ratchet strap.

Be careful out there guys and remember to check your stands everytime you go into the woods.

Also check your stand when hunting ground that you do not exclusively have rights to. There are jerks out there that will loosen the straps if they think you are intruding where they want to hunt. Happened to me and the DNR guy for the area caught them the 2nd time they were doing it. Result: Assault W/Intent to Commit Bodily Harm. They were PO'd because I had a stand in a honey spot they wanted. They figured they'd "scare" me out.

Like BM says, check your stand and I'll add in:don't go up without a harness and once you get up there, use the dang thing! Not worth dying over or being disabled!!!

What the heck, you didn't catch her? She is very lucky, and good reminder.

I will check mine, thanks.

wow thats not good hope she feels better

Didn't she have a safety strap on?

Get her stand a set of these: Leg levelers I have them for mine, they reduce sinking and slipping.

She wears a safety harness when she is in stand, but as I said, she was climbing down the ladder when this happened.

Thanks Kevin, I will definetly invest in a set of those. Thanks again for the tip buddy.

ive also had squirrells chew through the strap

I have found that most of the time the strap will loosen from the wind blowing the tree back and forth when it gets windy.