I can't help but wonder how many of you who say, "the funds are limited" or "I haven't got the money right now" are purchasing cigarettes, chew, eating out every day, scratchertickets etc. etc. Wearing a safety harness in a tree stand has to become more of a priority in every tree stand hunters life! The means are out there to help us keep ourselves safer when hunting. We just have to stop with the laziness and the excuses "I don't see how you can wear one and still shoot" and make our life safety our priority.

Well in our camp it is 100% use them because if you don not show up with one and wear it then you go home and do not hunt on our property. Thats the rule no exceptions! people have had to drive home to get them if they forgot them but now that every new stand comes with one we keep some extras at camp for the people who forget them.

I wear a belt (sigh) and not a harness but am really surprised at the number of people who use nothing.

A hefty Pal-O-Mine fell from about 6 feet. Thankfully he was able to land on his feet so he only broke bones in both legs and the shattered vertabrae healed in no time at all. He now hunts from the ground but at least he can walk to his stand..

How many of you that don't wear a safety harness wear a seat belt "just in case"? I haven't been involved a car accident in decades but I always wear a seat belt, and anyone in my car will wear a seat belt, just in case my car is involved in accident. I wear my safety harness for the same reasons.

Would you let your child (that is old enough to bowhunt)sit in a treestand without a safety harness?

Im part of the lazy ones that dont wear one. I use my climber, and dont really see where I could safely use one and get to my desired height in the same day. Once I get to my height I tie my platform on and have a bar around me that keeps me on the platform. When Im on my ladder stands I sit comfortably knowing that 3 different components would need to fail to fall.

By the way...I have my spine fused at two parts with titanium rods and screws.

I know I should always wear one but I don't. I wear on when I feel uncomfortable in the stand, like really high or sitting in the open. I usually try to put my stand in the fork ofa free or close to one so I have something else around me. I've worn it in one of the three stands I hunted this season (hunted multiple times of course.)

I can't imagine not wearing one. As far as the difficulty getting up the tree while wearing one, or them being hard to put on, you can't be serious. If so, maybe you shouldn't be in a tree at all. And it's not the stand components I'm worried about, its me. If you think your beyond making that kind of mistake........wake up.......your not!

Opening day fatality:

Calhoun Co. man falls from deer stand, dies
October 01, 2008 at 09:06 AM[/align]BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS[/align]HARDIN—A Calhoun County man fell to his death from his deer stand.
Deputy Coroner Phil Gress says Duane Swan was found dead Tuesday night behind his home near Hardin.
Gress says Swan’s wife told him that her husband went to work on his deer stand on a bluff that afternoon but didn’t return home after it became dark.
The wife apparently called Swan’s parents, who went to the deer stand and found their son’s body.
Gress said he did not yet have Swan’s exact age, but thought it was 41.
“He lived from the end of one deer season to the next and he died doing something he loved,” said his mother Virginia Swan

Scary comments guys.
I've said this here before. I hunt only on the ground (blind or still) at the request of my wife and kids. I could probably talk them into a stand and a harness but i'd rather just leave it as is. Right now they feel secure about my safety and i'll keep it that way.

I hope throught this post that just one person on here changes their mind and begins using a harness 100% of the time. If not for themselves then for their families.

i use one most of the time accept when i forget

Do you forget your bow? Arrows? Or is it just the nonessentials that you forget most of the time.