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Do You Use a Safety Harness

blake

blake

Life Member
As we all know the 2005 bow season is just around the corner. Many of us have been eagerly anticipating the coming season. We have checked and rechecked our gear, practiced diligently with or bows, and have done the necessary foot work to know where at least several nice bucks are hanging out.

Many members will be hunting from tree stands this year as they have in past years. Some members may be heading to the woods to hunt with only a few years of hunting experience under their belt, and some will be going out for the first time to hunt.

Many of us have had at least one brush with disaster when hunting. If you have an incident that you would like to share with all of us please post at the bottom of this poll. Hopefully all of us will learn something from experiences of others.
 
Always, Always, Always wear a full harness on the way up, sitting and on the way down. So many hunters climb the tree, then put on the harness, then tak it off and climb down. That's insane. Would you drive to your hunting ground, put on your seat buckle at the 4-way stop 2 miles from your destination, then take it off before you get there. It's the same logic! Most accidents happen climbing up or down. Make sure that you wear it, ALWAYS.

I learned my lesson 2 years ago. I always put on the harness after I climbed up, and took it off to climb down. I lost the bottom part of my Summit climbing stand going down a tree with a big knot in it, in the dark of course. I nearly fell 15 feet to my death, luckily I had the upper body strength to do some acrobatic like moves to resituate myself and get my harness on. It scared me to death.
 
I've always felt that getting into and out of the stand as the most dangerous time also. How do you do you wear the safety harness when climbing into our out of the stand? Especially when there might be tree branches to climb over and when you're using tree steps?
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Thanks.
 
I'll second that question. I always climb up and down without. I've never figured out how to run a "lineman" technique as some of my trees are full of limbs. I usually put it on myself on the ground, but then fasten it to the tree once in the stand.
 
Summit has a 25 or 30ft rope you can purchase for climbing. Its the same rope that comes with the seat-of-the-pants harness but 20 to 25ft longer. You can clip into it then slide your knot up as you climb. You might want to look into these.
 
Here is the system that Lone Wolf utilizes for climbing and descending from your tree, it is in a PDF format.

This system works for me with some practice.
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Link
 
I'll have to look into that rope system. I fell out of a tree while hanging a stand about 8 years ago. I got lucky as there was nothing but flat ground below me covered in about 1 foot of snow. I fell flat on my back. I stripped all the limbs out of a smaller tree on the way down. I think about safety now that I'm older, somewhat wiser, and one fall is more than enough.
 
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Kinda scary to see that 22 people have fallen out of a stand.....

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Yes it is, also scary that 20% of those responding don't use a safety harness.
 
2 weeks ago I jumped off the pier into Lake Mi. The water was 2 ft deep, and i landed on SAND and my heels have been killing ME!!! Imagine if it is a 15 ft fall from a tree!!
 
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