RTA47,
God was watching over you that day. I had a close encounter almost like yours. I was hunting by myself one evening and my stand had no ratchet straps, just the chain. Sometimes it was tight enough and it was too loose other wise. I had my bow and gear up on my stand and i was about to step onto my stand when it fell completely off the tree![] I had no safety harness on, and i grabbed on to a small branch with my gear bag hanging to it. I managed to swing around and catch a big part of the tree and land safe.
Earlier in the season of this year, i still was just using the chain of my stand and nothing else, when one morning ,(no harness again) i ventured out to hunt one winter morning. We had gotten a icy rain the night before, and I knew I would have to be careful. I was only using a 4 ft. section of ladder and i had to climb the rest of the way to my stand ( Never going to do again) I slipped on a icy branch and grabbed my rope that i originally used for hoisting my bow up and tried to hold myself up when it snapped clean in 2! I fell maybe 10' and caught hold of one branch and wrapped my arms around it like a boa constricter. My fingers were so cold I was letting loose and not feeling it. I prayed to GoD not to let me fall because I had a 20' drop to an ice covered sharp branch that was sticking out from the side of the tree, it was pointing straight up at me. I asked God to let me live to another day and not fall.
Next thing I know the sun had started to come out. I hung from that branch for about a hour and a half before it started to melt my icy tree. I had enough strength to pull myself up and get grip of a branch that was close by. I climbed down and never told anyone about it. I thank God I lived from the experience and I know he was watching over me. Now i ALWAYS wear a safety belt, and I also have a couple ratchet straps and a T screw in my stand to be SURE i won't have it fall out again!

Went out one afternoon and didn't tell anyone where I was hunting. I was using an older Loggy Bayou stand. The tree I wanted to hunt was about 24" at chest height and tapered to about 12" at 20'. I knew this wasn't going to work too well but I had it in my head I was going to hunt this tree. Got up to the heighth I wanted to hunt and the front of my stand was pointing towards the ground. I hung on the climber and locked it up level with the strap. Problem solved or so I thought. Needless to say after dark when I was ready to get down I completely forgot about the perdicament I had created for myself. I reached down and unlocked the strap and next thing you know the stand is gone and there I hang 20' in the air by my safety belt. This created a new problem. I was wearing an old seat belt type safety belt with the plastic buckle and I had it up too high under my arms. The more I tried to move to get a hold of the tree the tighter the belt got and the higher it pushed up my arms and the harder it was to breathe. Panic set in no one knew where I was at , my wife was used to me not returning until 10 - 11 oclock at night if I had good luck so she wouldn't think anything of it till at least 11. Now I was about 99% sure I was going to hang there all night and probably suffocate from trying to get out of the safety belt. They say deep down inside of everyone there is a will to survive, some how I found mine. I had completely forgotton about my legs in my panic. I wrapped them around the tree and some of the pressure on my arms and chest went away. I could breathe a little better. I can't honestly say how long I hung there but I finally calmed down and started to think. I wear a turkey vest when archery hunting to keep everthing close at hand. I knew I had a knife in it I just had to figure out how to get the pressure off my arms so I could lower them. I Started using my legs and the safety belt to pull myself up the tree. Finaly I could reach my knife. I cut the safety belt and slid down the tree. It was probably 20degrees out and I was soaked with sweat. I thanked the man upstairs for helping me and made my way to my truck. The next day I was bruised from the bottom of my ribs all the way up past my arm pits. I now tell someone where I am hunting or leave a note at my vehicle and wear a harness type safety belt.

I guess I would have to say at this moment after reading all these posts on falling from trees is, I thank god I'm scared of heights and not ashamed to admit it.

I was pulling the seat section of my climber off the tree and it popped loose and hit me in the mouth. It is still sore 2.5 months later. i probably broke something in there.

do a search on racoons, treestands and bowhunting and you'll get a good laugh on me....