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Have You?

Skipper

New member
Joined
Sep 29, 2003
Messages
25
Location
Corbin, KY
Had the opportunity to test your safety harness?

I got to thinking about that Saturday in the stand. I always put it on, but if I actually had to use this thing, what kind of mess would I be in? Maybe instead of breaking my neck, I'd hang upside down till dead. I don't know what exactly would happen. The sudden stop when the belt got to its end would probably snap some ribs. Would I be choaked to death around the neck? How would I manage to get myself back in the stand or on the ground? Could I somehow right myself back up and be back where I belonged or would I end up cutting the strap with a knife and falling anyhow?

Skipper
 
Good quetions. I know that when I finally get a tree climber that I will have the best full body safety there is. I do not want any of the things you mentioned to ever happen to me. If they did my wife would kill me.
eek.gif
 
I know this may sound stupid, but I dont wear safety belts while hunting from a lock on stand, lander stand or climber. I had a bad experience while bowhunting. The strap got in the way of me taking a 160 class whitetail. After that I have never used them.

later, MM
 
Am I the only one here so dumb that I purposely tried it out?

First off let me say that I'm sure a true 'fall' would probably hurt a heck of a lot more than what I did, but it's good to know my setup would keep me from the 12-14 ft. fall I may have with my treestand sleeping habbits. In my back yard I set up my treestand and ladder to practice some elevated shots and decided one day I'd test my safety harness out. I have an ameristep model, and was fairly happy with the results. I didn't truely fall, but put my legs over the edge of my stand and slipped my butt off. I didn't get the sudden yank I'd probably experience in an accidental fall, but I can deal with a mental idea of the feeling better than bruised ribs.

In my head I'd always thought that I'd grab the edge of my treestand and do a pullup back up, like getting back into a boat after cooling off in the water. Not that easy.

Problem 1: My safety rope and my body pushed the bottom of my stand to the side of the tree. That sucked, but live and learn.

Some may think heck, just climb the strap back up. Lemme tell you, not gonna happen. First off the harness hooks up behing me so garbbing it would have proven difficult. secondly, I was afraid to put my arms up in fear of slipping out of the harness like someone slipping out of a sweatshirt. If that idea was as good as it sounds I'm sure lots of people being hung years ago would have lived to spread the word.

What I ended up doing was grabbing hold of the top of my ladder (Strapped to the tree) with my foot and right arm and working myself slack in the harness to the point where I slipped it off and climbed down. Sounds easy, but my stand was akwardly nudging and poking me in the process. This was in the summer where I was just wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans. I can just imagine trying to do it with my insulated coveralls on, making more looseness between me and my harness.

Breathing wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I can only assume it would be worse with just a safety belt underneath my ribs getting tighter with each breath.

All in all not a good experience, but nice to know a bit more about what to expect.
 
IMO you are foolish to not wear a harness... 1 in every 4 hunter hunting from a stand WILL fall at some point in their hunting career... Those are some stagering statistics. I could smoke 3 packs of cigaretts a day and have less chance of getting cancer than I would falling out of my tree stand! NO deer is worth me dieing over, or getting maimed badly, no matter how big he is... its just a deer.

The full boddy harness is the only way to go, they don't cost all that much more and are a lot easier to get back on your "feet" again if you fall. A short lanyard fall arrester is a good thing to have as well. I always put my last strap up as high as I can and still comfortly sit down. So incase of a fall theoreticlay my chest will be about the same hight as the bottom of my stand... Also I put the tie in anchor point on the side of the tree where my steps are (so when I fall I get impaled...) so my stand won't get nocked out of the way and the steps are easier to acess.

Harness are a must, and should always be warn unless you "Feel lucky, well do Ya?"

Ivan
 

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