Another Harness Story
 

This past week my best buddy from my 1950's - 1960's school days sat me down to give me a big thanks.

Over 15 years ago we renewed our childhood friendship in a major fashion. Since then we have hunted together 100's of days. When we first started hunting he did not even own a tree stand safety system. I badgered him into submission somewhere along the way and it paid off this past season. (Despite us hunting and fishing together several times last winter, he did not relate this to me until this past week.) Here's his account.

He had scouted and set-up a "hang-on" stand in a good looking area, some 20'-25' off the ground in a big oak tree. The maker of the stand is one of the major brands and came with one HD , fabric ratchet strap. He installed this strap correctly and then added a second as a precaution ... as do I. Two days later the wind was right, so he headed in about 30 minutes before daybreak to hunt from this stand.

He worked his way up his stick ladder. He attached his safety to the tree and then stepped off the ladder onto the stand. He sat down and started to lift up his bow .... and in a heart-beat he found himself dangling along side the tree trunk, suspended in his harness.

The stand had fallen out from under him and was laying on the forest floor below him. He told me that he was so shocked by the suddeness of the fall that he was more or less in a full panic mode, stunned. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was OK. So he swung over to the ladder and slowly eased down. What he found was that one fabric strap had been chewed into and the other almost through. Only about 1/2" was obviously not chewed, but had ripped though. The culprits probably were squirrels or rats.

At 20' - 25', a free fall would probably have been fatal. If not fatal, certainly would likely have left my buddy seriously injured and possibly paralized to a significant extent. Some might say he was lucky. I say he was prepared.

So to all the safety harness nay-sayers out there, think about what might have been in this guy's case. Go get you one and use it. All of well designed tree stand safety harnesses are easy to use and affordable. There is simply no excuse for not using one.

I agree 100%!!!!!!!!!!1 Glad he is ok

Completely agree. But luckily he is ok.

show me a guy who needed a harness and I'll show you a guy who shouldn't have been in a tree.

I don't take advice from people who fall about being safe. They are good at falling, not not falling.

Stay on the ground people and leave climbing to people who know how to do it.

A Harness is a harness and careless people are always careless. Lot of careless people have shot off unloaded firearms and they had safety's, some of them are dead.

If people are really concerned for others tell them to stay on the ground. They know and you know they have no business climbing trees. This guys a classic example of a careless person. How did the stand fall if he tied it off securely? Obviously he didn't and probably didn't through some false sense of security with the harness. From this guys perspective, if you want to fall, wear a harness. He should also stay away from bathtubs and definitely not smoke cigarettes. He'll burn the whole house down falling asleep on the couch say to himself, I'm good, I've got my safety system on (smoke detector with probably dead batteries).

If you don't want and flack don't use cracks like "nay sayers".

Nodog ... I could have used another term other than "nay sayer". I apologize if it offended you. My point was that if my buddy had not used the harness, he would have been hurt.

My whole purpose of sharing this was to encourage others to use a harness should they decide to get up off the ground in a tree stand. I guess I did a poor job of doing so.

Thanks for sharing this! Yes, those stinking squirrels will chew off straps given enough time. Why I don't know, but they do. But chains can also bust off. You never know what might happen.

Wear a Harness for sure!

***No need for an apology for the rant that member went on when all you did was relate a situation that everyone needs to be aware of that most probably wouldn't give a second thought about until AFTER something happened to them.

the importance of wearing a harness cannot be stressed enough. far too many times the there are devastating results that could have easily been prevented by wearing a harness

It's very sad to read about someone being killed or crippled by a fall from a tree stand, sometimes leaving a family behind.

Deer hunting is supposed to be fun. Whether the fall is due to squirrels eating straps, a faulty stand, or dozing off from the excitement of not seeing any deer, you need that harness.