Appreciate the encouragement..your right..the weight can kill you

I find when I trip..there is no stopping myself.. I must have tripped and fell 10 times this year..where normally I would have caught myself..now it's like i'm carrying an 80 pound bag of concrete...the weight itself puts you to the ground..

Which can move your scope, move your bow site..sprain an ankle etc..a real handicapp

its good to have a plan. i usually dont stand hunt, and i dont use harness's which i should. but my dads friend fell from a tree stand. sharp peice of a tree stump went through his head, one of his buddies was a doctor and saved his life, they said he would never walk again. A couple years later he was able to walk with a cane. its a frightening wake up call when you here these kinds of stories.

I just bought the Rescue One a few weeks ago. I have only tried it on inside the house so far. It is a very well built harness and feels about like a HSS vest style harness in terms of weight. I have read over the instructions and it looks like repacking the rope in the harness is pretty straight forward. It comes with a very detailed instruction book and a DVD.

Appreciate the replies guys.

You should always keep a SRS on your person when hunting in an elevated stand. I have the one Ameristep includes with their tree stands.

My dad fell out of a tree stand years ago (before cell phones) and broke his ankle. It was when he was climbing down and was lucky he did not land on his bow. He fell about 12 feet. It was getting dark so he took off his camo shirt and put his white tee shirt on over his camo so he would be easier to see. He crawled about 300 yards to get to a easier place to find him. He even had to crawl through a drainage ditch with a foot of water in it with a flash light in his mouth. When he did not come home my mom got worried and we went out to find him. That was one crazy night. I still remember our van with cornstalks hanging from the undercarrige when we drove through the corn field to get him.

Break out the cell phone/2 way radio and make a call for help...

I'm 6'1 and around 250...but heading lower! I've been hunting out of high stands my entire life. As embarrassing as it is...I'll admit that until I had kids, I never wore a belt of any kind. That was about 7 years ago. I fell when I was young, but walked away and thought I was bullet proof. My kids mean so much to me that I now take tons of precautions.

I started with the single strap and now wear a shoulder harness. I always carry 2 screw in steps and a knife in my front pocket. If need be, I can screw in a step and cut the harness. Then alternate steps until I get down the tree.

Using good equipment and taking your time, imo, lessens your chances of falling...but there's always a chance.

In many areas I hunt cell phones do not work and two way radios have a limited range.

Well son, you do know
 

your own fallibility clearly. And the rules of gravity, too.