HuntingNet.com Forums - Safety Harness Exchange '08 Please Read!!

Sorry for the long post but some people probably need to here this story....especially the younger, indestructible guys and gals out there.

*Severalyears ago, a guy Iworked with (his name is Chad)asked me if I wear a safety harness while hunting. I laughed andtold himI don't need one. I thought, it'sjust something else to carry, keep up with, put on, take off, and get in the way. Besides, I told him I was too good a climber to fall out of a tree....a young, lean, mean, indestructible, thought I knew everything, dummy machine.He got this serious lookin his eyes that demanded his attentionand askedthat hear what he had to say. This was his story................

Two hunting seasonsbefore, he and his best friend, both of whomwere in their mid twenties, agreed to take off work earlyand meetfor an afternoon hunt. He said they were close, did everything together, especially hunting and fishing. They were, a Chad put it,brothers from different mothers. Well, long story short, something came up and Chadcouldn't make it hunting that afternoon. His best friend went anyway.....alone.An hour or so after dark, Chad and a few f their other friends started their search because his buddy still hadn't made it back home to his wife and two young sons.They found him in a little less than anhour, lying under the tree he had been hunting out of. Chad said thathe prayed all the time that someday he would forget that moment....that feeling.The fall didn't kill him....it wasmuch worst than that.

The guy is now paralyzed from the neck down!

The next day after hearing that story told to me by a teary eyed guy that had pretty much lost his best friend, his brother, I left work and bought me a harness. I never knew the guy that fell, but I always remember his story. I think of him and how it must feel to have had his life ruined before he had even lived. I think of his two boys I never knewthat don't have a daddy able to take them hunting and fishing. I think of his wife and her burden of raising their children alone and being his care giver til death do they part. I think that I'd never want to be a burden on anyone, much less my family, by way of an easily preventable accident. It's those thoughts that keep me on the groundif I don't havea harness. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE OF US....its our responsibility to ourselves, to our loved ones, to be prepared and protected if or when lighting strikes!

************I have an extra harness I'd be more than happy tosend to someone that needs it. The size is adult large. I'm 5' 9"- 215lbs and I wore it for the last three years. Its still in great shape so if you don't have one, you'll needthis one! PM me!!