A little late in the season I know, but just wanted to remind those folks that hunt out of climbers and lock-ons to wear your safety gear.

I have preached this to my boys only because I realized when I had kids, I didn’t want another man possibly raising them. Well, like the saying you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink comes to mind in this instance.

A couple days ago my son and his best friend were hanging stands during their lunch break. They’d hung stands for years without incident. This time wasn’t one of those times.

My son was on the deck as his buddy was finishing up. He was looking at his phone when he heard his buddy say he was done and coming down. He heard a limb break and by the time he looked up his buddy was eye level.
He hit the deck face down.

My son rushed to him and his buddy stood up and said that hurt, then passed out. Luckily they took a truck and not the Ranger and my son got him in the truck and called his boss telling him what happened and he was taking him straight to the hospital.

His boss started calling local LEO’s describing the truck and what was going on and they wouldn’t be stopping until they reached the hospital, so don’t PIT them!

The owner was notified and called the hospital and told them to run every test known to mankind and not worry about billing or cost as he would have a representative there shortly before or after they arrived.

Thankfully all that was wrong was a broken wrist, but it will require surgery to repair. They ran every test known to man too…X-ray, MRI, CT, etc.

When my son called I knew by his voice something was wrong. He admitted they never wear a harness hanging a stand. They both do/will now. My son has always wore his in a climber and will latch on once at the top in a lock-on but never used anything climbing up or down, even though I put a Lifeline where my lock-on is. Needless to say the owner purchased 50 lifelines for every lock-on on the property. Harnesses must be worn now. He also bought the ropes/straps for use with climbers.

Just wanted to share just as a reminder.

Thanks for the reminder and so sorry it had to be a graphic one, prayers for a speedy recovery without long term trouble.

I've recently been studying up on the latest safety gear and definitely learning some stuff. Just a harness isn't always enough there can be fatal trauma from just hanging in a harness for extended lengths of times. I think I need to be doing a little research into self rescue as well.

We always use a safety line and harness don’t mind the fall but the sudden stop may kill or cripple. I prefer to hunt another day .

Always use certified climbing sticks too. Using tree branches is a bad idea. It's not if they break, it's when.

Man, that is horrible. I am glad the injuries wasn't worse.
For Climbers something you should look at is Third Hand Archery Stabilizer Straps. I swear by them.
https://www.thirdhandarchery.com/product.asp?PRODID=13

Looks pretty slick Dug!

Thats one of the reasons why I went to hunting out of a saddle. All my climbing methods I use have you attached to the tree at all times.

Forget sticks. Use ropes.

What saddle are you using? I've been looking at them but haven't pulled the trigger on buying one. I can see advantages and disadvantages to using them.

Im using a Tethrd Phantom currently. Been thinking of upgrading next year perhaps. If you want to get into it more, saddlehunter.com is a great forum.

Wannbe,
Glad it wasn't as bad it it could have been.

I've been guilty as any for doing the exact thing they did. I've been lucky.

I use the Hunter Safety System hybrid vest/harness when I hunt, but I climb in my Summits without being tethered. I also climb my sticks to Millenium hangons without a lifeline. I definitely need to buy/use lifelines for my 3 Milleniums.

When hanging the sticks & Milleniums, I do have/use a HSS stand hanging harness.
Keeps sweat off of your hunting harness.



Also, I have the Third Hand Archery stabilizer straps on my Summits. Will never use any climber without those. But, they only hold the climber sections together...not you.

Glad he survived

I'm like Swamp Wolf, only worse. I've hunted out of climbers and hang-on stands for more than three decades and rarely use a harness. By rarely, I mean almost never. I'm not advocating it, just full disclosure. I came awfully close to going headfirst out of a climber one time. I'm heading out shortly to prep a stand site for next year's season. I'm taking a harness with me.

I climbed tree limbs for years before I started using stands of any kind. Slid down the tree faster than planned with the old Baker a few times. Used climbers and lock ons without safety harnesses and was LUCKY for many years.

But that all changed in the blink of an eye in 2011 as I was replacing a lock on in a huge pine tree. I had my harness on but the linemans belt would not reach around the tree. I climbed up the climbing sticks and tethered to a limb while I was removing the old stand and mounting the new one. Had to unhook to climb back down the 20' sticks. Had both feet on the sticks and one hand on the top of the sticks and the other hand on a limb. All is good until I release the limb and get both hands on the climbing sticks and the strap holding the sticks in place breaks and down I go in a hurry.

I was lucky to live through it and the only injury was a fractured pelvis. I land on my right butt cheek and broke the pelvis through the socket from top to bottom. Took a little over 6 hours for the surgeon to put me back together and three months in a wheelchair with no weight bearing on that leg while the bone healed. Three days after the surgeon gave me the OK to put weight on that leg again, I was setting traps. I am still grateful for the excellent job the surgeon did because I have had zero problems since.

I also learned a hard lesson. Lots of folks are not a fortunate as I was.

Get connected to that tree and stay connected if you are going to climb.

Harnesses and lifelines are much less expensive than hospital bills or funerals!

Think it can not happen to you? Think again!

Thankfully your experience was not the last thing that was part of your life or death I was a brave soul that believed I was Superman in my younger days I also know what a Baker tree stand was As I saw what happened to some friends it as clear it could be me the next time Safety vest lineman's /tree ropes and many other safety items only help if you buy some and use them all of the time Because you are in danger al the time you are in the air 20 feet of more off the ground One day I climbed up a wet popular tree I wore a safety belt but was not fasten to the tree until I reached my desired height While getting ready to put my belt harness around the tree the stand dropped about 6 to 8 feet I tried to reach around the tree to grab hold but it was a big tree About then it stopped hard and it was amazing that the sudden stop did not throw me off the front of the stand I nearly dropped about 20 feet but because someone was watching out for me it did not happen It was time to give up my Superman suit and get some real safety equipment Yes it sometimes is a pain in the butt But do it aways an if you hunt with those that do not start talking to them until they join you in using it also Or else find other hunting partners that use safety gear always when climbing

I'm glad you started this thread. I have a Summit Seat O The Pants harness that's been sitting in the garage unused for years. I never took the time to familiarize myself with it and all the straps and rope made it seem like more of a nuisance than it was worth.

I took it out and spent some time with it this morning and I'm definitely going to be using it. I spent a lot of time needlessly hugging trees in awkward positions trying to get strap-on/screw-in tree steps in place. I can see where this is going to make life a lot easier and safer.

How do you climb with ropes?

Just don't go wee wee on your boots. Lol.

I still use a harness with a climber while I climb. A guy once had the top go out. He fell with feet still attached to bottom. His ankles didn't fair well.

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Couple methods,

2 tether climbing system (2tc). It's basically one-sticking sans the stick.

Stationary rope system. Throw a line in the tree and climb it. My main method.

Moving rope system. Similar to the SRS system but the rope moves.