TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

We are all concerned with staying safe and not geting hurt while hunting. Many use tree stands of various types to stand for deer. We've all heard it before - "There's 2 kinda stand hunters - those who have fallen and those who will." I hate that saying because if it bares true - I have a fall in my future.

So what can we do to eliminate or narrow the chances of a fall or injury occuring? (please use the quote feature button & number your tip)

1. Check the physical and mechanical condition of all parts of your stand before taking it afield. Make any repairs necessary.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

2. Always use an approved, properly fitting and weight rated safety harness. While climbing up, standing and climbing down.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

3. NEVER climb up or down from a stand with your gun or bow. Use a pull up cord and never pull up or lower a loaded firearm. Cover the muzzle of your barrel and pull up firearms with the muzzle DOWN! Also use a cord to pull up any other gear bags, etc.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

4. Never use a pull up cord that is rated more than 25% of your weight. Should you fall you would not want a chance of being hung up in your cord.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

5. Make sure to only climb healthy trees with shaggy bark. Try to avoid smooth bark trees, especially when its wet.

I know of a couple people who climbed up smooth bark trees and their stand didnt get a good grip. Their stand, their equipment, and themselves all came sliding down from 15 feet up. Luckily there were no seriouse injuries.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

6. Be sure to check for and clear steps/pegs of ice if possible prior to ascending and/or do not hunt that set-up that day.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Use a Treehopper belt when hanging stands! That's the best product I've ever bought - reduces set-up times, noise, and makes me feel 100% more secure while hanging a stand.

Other than that - get in-shape before season. I think too many guys go into the woods and are at heights they shouldn't be at. If you can't do a pull-up, how would you expect to get off the harness if you were stranded? The fall is only the beginning of you're problems! IMO - Fitness probably has more to do with accidents than any other factor!

Also, use a good stand. It is you're life you're putting on the thing!

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Full body harness,prusic hitch with Summits system,where you are attached all the way up and all the way down,as Todd said a tree hopper belt or like belt for hanging stands.Treat it as serious as it is.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Always make sure each time your stand bites the tree it has a good hold.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Never pee on your ladders, treesteps and pegs.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

May not be totally related to tree stands, buthow I am safer is I only use ladder stands. I about fell out of a hang on tree stand when I first started using them trying to put on a safety harness! After that year I switched to ladder stands and try to only use the ones with the side rails on them. Not a sure bet, and I lose mobility, but I feel alot safer in them.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Since the most likely time to fall out of your stand is when you are climbing in or out, I think one of the most important saftety features is to actually be attached to your safety belt at all times.

Last year I began using the Fall Guy system and I like it alot. Wish they would make the belt longer though.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Always make sure you control your gun or bow. For a long time people recommended using a haul line to raise and lower your gun, but that didn't secure the gun while you were hunting. We recommend using a Gunslinger, which secures your gun or bow through the entire tree stand hunting process. The product was profiled in the May 2007 issue of Shooting Illustrated. Or you can see it here: http://www.git-a-gunslinger.com.

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

DON'T FALL A SLEEP IN YOUR STAND FOUND MY BUDDY HANGING FROM HIS HARNESS HE COULDN'T GET BACK IN HIS STAND, SO I HAD TO TAKE SOME PICS AND THROW A FEW WALNUTS AT HIM HEHEHE

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

Where are the picts? ;) Or did he pay you for them? :D

RE: TREE STANDS - Let's hear your safety tips.
 

some good pointers, but in reality all that is needed is a little common sense

Deer Stands
 

Rules:

1. Always check your stands to make sure they are sturdy
2. Check the area below your stand to make sure if you do take a fall you dont land on something that could hurt you

Be sure to attach upper climber to the lower climber sections. The bottom can slip off your feet and fall down the tree leaving you sitting on the top.

But the best tip I've read so far is don't pee on your ladder or tree steps, it will surely freeze and cause a slip hazard. LOL!

Have a means for descending the tree in case you can't get back in the stand. Some people carry a couple screw in tree steps. I bought the tree descender from Summit:

http://www.summitstands.com/productd...aspx?id=329145

Much nicer to carry than tree steps.

Inspect all parts of the climbers at home, put on safety harness at truck, assemble the climber, and hook up.
I'm tense throughout the entire climbing, anchor, removal, and descent of the climber. Find trees with soft bark, and avoid too small or too large trees. Lookout for widow maker limbs, rocks, or other potential impalers below. Check the weather, and do not use them in heavy wind, snow, ice, or freezing rain.

Take your time. Get to your location long before you need to and take you time climbing up, getting situated and getting gear ready. Rushing in the woods is dangerous and not near as enjoyable.

For the most part I only use ladder stands, within the next year or two they'll be exclusively all I use.

If you leave your stand out year round, release, loosen, and resnug your straps each year. As after a few years of tree growth can break those straps.

ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS stay connected to the tree somehow. You are most likely to fall while climbing up or down. If you stay connected to the tree somehow during the entire time, you nearly eliminate your chances of serious injury. In the past I have used that Fall Guy system but this past year, the belt jammed on me and would not pull out any further. So I switched to one of the more popular safety lines. Basically, it consists of a rope that runs from the base of the tree up to your stand. It comes with a prussic knot you attach your safety harness to and you slide it up or down as you go, but it will cinch on the rope should any great amount of pressure be put on it in the event of a fall. It works great.

Some guys will say they use several stands and that investing in one of these safety lines for each is too expensive. To them I would say, how much is your life worth? I got safety line system for $30 on sale at the farm supply store this year and they often go on sale for about this amount. Say you have four primary stands, that's $120 and well worth the price of not becoming paralyzed or dead.

Don't fall out of it......

A screwed in eye hook at the top of the sticks or steps, hook up there and then another one set up higher for when you are in the stand. Set the second one high enough so that you can barely touch your toes when seated. This will prevent you from falling below your stand height should you have a fall.

Most importantly, take your time and pay attention. Even a 12' fall can kill or permanantly disable you.

Dont rush up or down a tree. Make sure EACH time you move up or down you have a SECURE bite on the tree.

Petzl Climbing Gear has an ascender that would work very well for going up and down your tree if you have a climbing rope tied above your stand and at ground level. If you've ever seen it, it looks like a looped handle, which it is, with a place for the rope to go through. It grips the rope and only slides up the rope so you can hook it to your harness on the ground and reach out and slide it up every other step up the tree. You could even hold it in one hand all the way up, using it for support to climb.
Coming down you would hold your thumb on the lever that allows the rope to slide the other way, and slide it down a step or two at a time. If you fell you would hang from it until you could get hold of your steps and take your weight off it. Then you could continue up or down. Your rope would be tied tightly at the top and bottom of the tree with no slack and right against the tree, between your steps. A gri gri that Petzl also sells would work even better, as you then could slide it up the rope and after a fall, while hanging from the rope, you would only need to reach a handle which you pull out to descend at your desired speed. They also sell harness and rope and such for climbing and I have used many of their products. They ain't cheap but as someone already said your life is worth more. I weigh in at about 240 on a good day and would trust to climb to any hieght with their ropes and equipment. All this stuff is tested for ten thousand pounds of falling weight so I'm never coming close to breaking it, and a real climbing rope stretches a lot but doesn't break, which takes most of the shock out of falling.
Went and checked prices at REI and found the ascender costs $70. and the grigri which has the descending handle and is the best, is only $95. But of coarse you need an 11mm climbing rope too.

My safety tip for tree stands, is stay on the ground, problem solved.