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no harness

Old 10-15-2004, 11:23 AM
  #21  
Fork Horn
 
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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Default RE: no harness

im up 20' so i never go up without it!!
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Old 10-15-2004, 01:08 PM
  #22  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: NH USA
Posts: 113
Default RE: no harness

I have a question for those that do wear harnesses: Do you have a system in place to catch you if you fall while climbing up to your stand? I'm always strapped in when I'm in my stand, but for my hang on stand I climb up to it then I strap in.

Last week we had a frost here, and my wet (icy?) boot slipped off of one of my tree steps. I was able to catch myself, but it definitely put a scare into me.

I'm in the process of rigging up a static line secured at the top and bottom that I'll be able to clip on to so that I'm secured the entire time I'm in the tree. The way I figure it, I'm a lot more likely to fall when climbing in/out of my stand than I am to fall when sitting there(naps excluded of course).
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Old 10-18-2004, 11:35 AM
  #23  
Fork Horn
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Atlanta Georgia USA
Posts: 169
Default RE: no harness

Matt, when I climb I use tree surgeon gear, so dont know what they sell for hunters. However, yes I DO use a safety line when climbing with a climbing stand. I take a short piece of rope (even 6mm nylon line works for this purpose), and make a loop by tying the ends together. A good knot is important, I use a grapevine or a fisherman's knot (used to tie 2 lengths of fishing line together). Then run the loop around the tree and put one end through the other. This forms a choker around the tree. Clip the end of the loop to your safety harness. If you fall, the choker will tighten up on the tree and hold you. This system requires sliding the line up the tree as you go.
You can also use something like a flipline like tree climbers use with leg spikes that just goes around the tree and each end clips to your belt/harness. This should work fine for a climbing stand since you would not slide down past your stand if you fell.
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Old 10-18-2004, 05:06 PM
  #24  
Giant Nontypical
 
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: the woods of NJ.
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Default RE: no harness

good news is that those who refuse the safety harness have less to injur when they fall on thier head....

couldn't agree more
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Old 10-19-2004, 12:31 AM
  #25  
Typical Buck
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Rockaway,NJ.
Posts: 621
Default RE: no harness

I never used one until I had my first child 6 years ago. Before that I never really thought about it. I even wear my seat belt in the car now. Boy aint i get-n- smart...LOL It took me until the age 30 but at least I got there! Take the time to strap your self in folks you don't want to end your hunting career (or life) early! Hunt smart hunt safe....JIm
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Old 10-19-2004, 04:58 AM
  #26  
Spike
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Tulsa, OK
Posts: 74
Default RE: no harness

I need to start wearing one. My dad fell out of two in one year while he was putting them up! Luckily he wasn't hurt to bad but it reminded us that it can happen. We gave him a hard time about it, but I think about it every time I go up in the stand.
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Old 10-19-2004, 08:32 AM
  #27  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Madison Indiana
Posts: 210
Default RE: no harness

I was wondering if anybody has ever fell out of a stand with a harness? What do you do when you are hanging there? Do you cut the harness or what?
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Old 10-19-2004, 09:57 AM
  #28  
 
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Join Date: Nov 2003
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Default RE: no harness

I have never worn a harness before this weekend. Based on this forum alone, I decided to give it a try. I generally hunt at least 30' in a climber so I always thought the harness would make climbing a pain. I also thought that harness would be difficult to put on. To my surprise it wasn't hardly noticeable. It did make ascending much slower because of having to raise it every couple of feet but descending was no problem. Also the extra comfort on knowing that if you fell asleep you had a backup was nice. So my message is to at least try it for someone who hasn't ever done it before because you will find out it isn't as bad as you think.
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Old 10-20-2004, 08:59 PM
  #29  
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Marshfield WI USA
Posts: 41
Default RE: no harness

First off I apologize for the length of this but I have some facts for those who don't wear a safety harness. This will also make those who do wear one feel better about it. I work at a hospital in the middle of Wisconsin, we are the only truama center in the area and we see are fair share of tree stand injuries. I got a hold of a study done on tree stand injuries. These were people that didn't wear a harness and fell an average of 15ft. Out of 51 falls over a 5 year period 52% had spinal injuries, 40% had extermity injuries, 24% had closed head injuries, 22% had pulmonary contusions/rib fractures, 12% suffered exposure, and there was a 10% fatality rate. As you can see these add up to more than 100%, so you can concure that some had multiple injuries. Only those injuries that were the result of the fall were entered in the study while those that included injury from a weapon were left out (thats a whole nother study)There were other injuries too but I just chose the highest percentages. The average length of stay in the hospital; was close to 6 days. Some of the patients reported the accident was due to falling asleep in the stand, recoil from the weapon, alcohol structural failure and improper stand placement. One fatality was the result of a belt type harness that strangled the person when the harness slid up around his neck. 100% of the accident vitims were male and the average age was 42.9. Now some basic physics, when you fall you are accelerating at a rate of 32 feet per second/per second. This means if you fall for one second you'll be going 32 feet per second, 2 seconds, 64 ft/sec and so on. So lets say you fall 15 feet or roughly 3 meters. That means you'll be accelerating at about 3 meters per second/second. To find out with what force your going to hit the ground at, you multiple your mass with the acceleration. Now say you weigh 200 pounds (90.72Kg), That means you'll hit the ground with 272 Kg of force or 600 pounds of force. 3 TIMES YOUR WEIGHT. Thats like standing still and getting hit by a 10 pound bowling ball traveling at 181 feet per second or roughly 30 miles per hour. These figures may not exact but they are close enough to that you get the point. Some pretty sobering thoughts. All I can say is please wear a good safety harness when in your tree stands, let someone know where your going and when to expect you back or take a cell phone or some other communication device if at all possible. I'd hate to hear of any of you ending up at our or any other hospital.
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Old 10-20-2004, 09:04 PM
  #30  
Nontypical Buck
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gypsum KS USA
Posts: 1,289
Default RE: no harness

Good rule of thumb for any elevated stand without walls (ladder stands included):

No harness, No hunt.

Even if it's just a lariat anchored around the tree and tied around my waist, I'm not going up unless I know that I CONTROL HOW FAST I COME DOWN.
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