m.t.hands

great advice, i'll only add a little, first if you buy one get a sit and stand climber, hand climbers are great but they will fatigue you very quickly, even if you have great upper body strenght, i took a spill with one, luckily i was only 8-10' up, i was in a hurry and in the dark and chose the wrong type of tree ( a scaley bark hickory) next, make sure you buy a quality stand, you can ask some of the ole timers about things like a "baker death trap"it dosen't have to be the highest priced model, but if you find one you like ask questions about it here, there is avery good chance someone on this site has had experience with the climber your considering, last thing, get with someone who has some experince with a portable climber, you will be time and safety ahead of a bunch of us that had to learn the hard way, and always, always, always wear a good safety restraint device like a seat-of-the-pants harness, i would rather you maintain you current lifestyle than go to your funeral or spoon feed you for the rest of your life, you owe it to your friends and family to do the right thing, never leave home w/o it, if you do hunt from the ground

Chuck7

Amen Keith,
I always wear mine ..although it barely fits.

Black Bellamy

Buy the lightest stand you can afford that meets your needs. Your chances of an accident increase significantly if you're all tired from lugging it around.

one on one

once your in the tree, keep your movement to a minimum, and keep your weight out away from the tree.good luck and be safe.

jerseyhunter

Make sure there are no dead branches above you. Trouble if it gets to windy.[]

Jim Beam

Pick a good tree that is alive and away from dead trees.Heavy winds can bring down some big dead branches.

khuengo

a instructor in my hunter safety class keeps reminded us to use full-body harness when climbing. He also mentioned to have a big whisle and/or cellphone/walkie talkie in the pocket, just in case you slip and get hung on the tree, you could get some help.

NorthernHunter

All posts tell it all. Read and follow the instructions provided...they provide safety instructions for a reason! Go it slow and always practice safety. Make certain your lower stand is attached to your upper section, make certain your cables are not defective, make sure you pick a healthy tree, etc. Even when I hunt one spot where I only go up about 8 feet off the ground, I have my full body harness on! Just like wearing a seatbelt in a car...you need to use it all the time and eventually it becomes a habit...A GOOD HABIT!

Trustee

YES!!!!!!!!! I just had an incident last week when I was hunting. It was my fault but anyhow...make sure that your bottom part of your stand is somehow attached to your top half of your stand. Just take a piece of rope about 4' long and tie the pieces together. My accident happened when I was sitting in my stand and I noticed that if I stood up the bottom part is angled down therefore making it hard to stand. So like an idiot I tried to adjust my bottom part with my legs while still sitting in my stand and the bottom part slide all the way down the tree leaving me stuck at about 22 feet with just the top part to sit on. Make a long story short my gun broke and half and I have a few bruises from the incident but I'll live!

Chuck7

22 feet ..WOW 13 is tops for me. Seriously afraid of heights.
Chuck7

PS And the rope ya tie from seat to platform Tie a few extra knots... they somehow get untied sometimes. that to me is the most important. 2ndly gotta have that harness on.
Love my Summit