Stay Safe in your stand

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  • mforsta

    Pops
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jun 25, 2012
    494
    28
    Denham Springs
    Guys please be careful getting into and out of your stands. I was climbing into a two man ladder stand this morning and slipped and fell. the ladder stand is a 15 foot two man stand that i have climbed many times before. i got to the top of the ladder, took my gun and placed it the stand so I could get up onto the foot platform and up to the seat. As I was making that last step, my foot missed the last wrong and I lost my footing. I fell backward with my leg catching one of the rungs. I tumbled down with my left shoulder hitting more rungs on the way down. I ended up landing on my left side and back. As I lay on the ground making an assessment of my body, I realized how lucky I was that I only ended up with some scrapes, some good bruises and some sore body parts. For a 59 year old man I fared out very well.

    The scary part of this whole event, I had a very good friend who died in a hunting stand accident 20 years ago this month.

    Please be careful and do not become a statistic!
     

    CatCam

    Ready, Shoot, Aim!
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Feb 20, 2013
    1,025
    63
    We get complacent when we've done it so many years.....thanks for the reminder.
     

    LACamper

    oldbie
    Premium Member
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jun 3, 2007
    8,629
    48
    Metairie, LA
    I spent my younger years climbing and caving. If you're going to use a tree stand (especially with screwed in steps that eventually work loose) I have a suggestion. Get a climbing harness. Run a 8' piece of rope to the mount point on the harness (tied in the middle) with a carabiner or snap link on each end. Put a string of eye bolts into the tree. As you climb you hook one to the highest eye bolt you can reach and unhook the lower eyebolt. That way the furthest you can fall is about 2 -3 feet.
    Finally, the rifle and whatever else gets pulled up by rope when you get to the top. Falling on your rifle hurts, scratches the finish, and it loses your zero. Plus it ties up your hand as you climb and distracts you.
     

    mforsta

    Pops
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jun 25, 2012
    494
    28
    Denham Springs
    I spent my younger years climbing and caving. If you're going to use a tree stand (especially with screwed in steps that eventually work loose) I have a suggestion. Get a climbing harness. Run a 8' piece of rope to the mount point on the harness (tied in the middle) with a carabiner or snap link on each end. Put a string of eye bolts into the tree. As you climb you hook one to the highest eye bolt you can reach and unhook the lower eyebolt. That way the furthest you can fall is about 2 -3 feet.
    Finally, the rifle and whatever else gets pulled up by rope when you get to the top. Falling on your rifle hurts, scratches the finish, and it loses your zero. Plus it ties up your hand as you climb and distracts you.

    LA, we have lifelines along with pull up ropes for the bows and bags, on all of lock-on stand and use climbing sticks to get into those. This stand was one of the two man ladder stands that many of us use all the time. We all think we're good because we are climbing up a ladder just like a ladder at home. But when you get complacent and think you've done this a hundred times without a problem, that's where an accident will rear its ugly head. I am lucky that all I have is cuts, bruises and am sore in places I didn't even know where hurt yesterday. I got on-line last night and ordered lifelines for all of ladder stands. We will stay hooked up from the minute we leave the ground to the time we are back on the ground after the hunt.
     

    Magdump

    Don’t troll me bro!
    Rating - 100%
    163   0   0
    Dec 31, 2013
    9,396
    113
    Hammond, Louisiana
    Great post and necessary reminder. At my job, we’ve learned to expect falls from stands this time of year (usually starts in October but November is the biggest month for it) and injuries range from head injuries and broken legs/arms to spinal fractures and paralysis. I’ve even seen a fatality. Don’t forget the safety list for those climbing stands!
     

    oleheat

    Professional Amateur
    Premium Member
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    May 18, 2009
    13,775
    38
    Man....Glad you are going to be okay....Happens to folks every year, out there. :(
     

    Kraut

    LEO
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Oct 3, 2007
    1,799
    83
    Slidell, LA
    A co-worker fell a couple years ago when working on a stand, broke his pelvis, and was out for most of a year. He was lucky as well that he was not in the woods alone.
     

    Emperor

    Seriously Misunderstood!
    Rating - 100%
    11   0   0
    Mar 7, 2011
    8,376
    113
    Nether region
    Good thing you are not seriously injured. Gravity hurts when you are young, it REALLY hurts when you are older. At 57, I still climb a lot. I still hunt high too. 25-30 feet is nothing for me, but I now wear a safety harness; I weigh less than 225lbs, I let my wife and son know my GPS coordinates of the tree I am in, and I let them know as soon as I make it back down. The days of suicide hunting (I am thankful I survived some of that stupid ****), for me are over.

    I am not lying when I tell you all, if I weighed over 250lbs, I would never leave the ground. I don't trust these cheap Chinese made ladder stands, and I don't get into a climber that doesn't belong to me, or has left my possession. My chains are well maintained, and I change them out every couple of years. To me, a 300 lb. weight limit means 250 lbs. max.

    Glad you made it out alive.
     

    mforsta

    Pops
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jun 25, 2012
    494
    28
    Denham Springs
    I let my wife and son know my GPS coordinates of the tree I am in, and I let them know as soon as I make it back down.

    Same here I always send the GPS coordinates to the wife if I am hunting alone. If I am hunting with my cousin and/or daughter we let each other know what stand we are in, when we are in the stand and when we are getting down. We are in contact throughout the hunt via text just to make sure everyone is safe.
     

    whbonney26

    Well-Known Member
    Rating - 100%
    37   0   0
    Nov 2, 2008
    4,795
    63
    Pearl River, LA
    Good reminder as me and my boys head to Alabama this weekend for our first real deer hunt of the year. We have a couple two man stands that stay on our property. Always good to slow down and think about the safety.
     

    mforsta

    Pops
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Jun 25, 2012
    494
    28
    Denham Springs
    Make sure and check those ratchet straps. If the stands have been out all year the strap rot and break. And that can lead to a real bad situation. Be safe!!! A deer is not worth dying over.
     
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