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Safety Harness Save My Life This Morning

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Drop_Tine5214

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In 9 years of bowhunting, I had my first close call this morning. I was taking my stand down to move to a new location and had some crazy stuff happen. When I loosened the top strap on my ladder, at 20' high, I lost my balance and started to fall backwards. I was still holding onto the top of the ladder when the piece of crap strap below the one I loosened decided the give way. Long story short I was going down, and the cheap ladder completely bent in half under my own body weight, and I only weigh 170 pounds. This was a Guide Gear ladder I bought on Sportsman's Guide, I'm pretty sure made in China. This was my near-fatal mistake that I will never make again. Don't skimp on the price and put yourself at risk guys.
Luckily I was wearing my Hunter's Safety System harness and it potentially saved my life. In my younger years of bowhunting I never wore a harness, I felt invincible and thought something like this would never happen to me. I know a lot of the older guys always wear a harness but the younger guys might need to see something like this to convince them. I am only 25 and I could have died today. Trust me, it can happen to anyone at any time.
I have two things I would like everyone to take out of this, whether a new hunter or a seasoned vet:

1) ALWAYS wear a safety harness, from the time you leave the ground until the time you are back. Remember, you are not wearing it for yourself, you are wearing it for your friends and family.
2) Don't get complacent. I started feeling too comfortable at 20' up in the air because I have been hunting in tree stands for the last 9 years without any hint of an incident. Something like this can happen to anyone at any time. There was nothing special about this morning's hunt, it wasn't windy, rainy, or icy. Any time you climb a tree can be your last, so always be careful.

Good luck to everyone and safe hunting.




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I was tethered thankfully. The strap was pretty long so I rode the ladder down quite a ways but it caught me when I was about 5 or 6 feet off the ground.
 
Good points there, glad you are ok! I had a buddy fall a couple weeks ago. He was standing on his hang-on and decide to give it a couple more clicks on the ratchet strap. Cheap strap broke and he fell 25 feet and luckily only broke his shoulder!
 
Skully said:
Good points there, glad you are ok! I had a buddy fall a couple weeks ago. He was standing on his hang-on and decide to give it a couple more clicks on the ratchet strap. Cheap strap broke and he fell 25 feet and luckily only broke his shoulder!
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That is why I always have two ratchet straps on every stand. If one fails or breaks then I have a second to prevent the stand from falling. Sounds like your buddy got really lucky.
 
When I ended up moving the stand after the fall today I was so spooked I put 6 straps on the new ladder and 3 on the stand itself lol. Certainly couldn't hurt.
 
also always keep in mind if you fall not to panic and right yourself as quickly as possilble as a full body harness has hazards or its own. I,m a union iron worker so i wear a safty harness every day as part of my job and am at heights of 200ft at times. from the time you fall you have roughly nine minutes to right yourself or wearing the harness did you no good. the leg straps cut off major arteries in your legs once all of your weight is hanging down on this point. true facts!!!!!! always be cosious of what you are doing and slow down a bit.
 
I have two of those same ladders. No matter how much of a pain in the rear they are a guy should always wear a linesman belt when messing with stands glad you are ok
 
I have also fell out of a tree while hunting. It was my first year of bowhunting and i was out sitting on the ground without a blind. I had several does come by me and they all got spooked when they got near me. So i decided to climb a tree without a harness or anything. All was good for a while i had 5 does close to the tree i was in. I saw a nice buck coming up a fence line, so i was trying to position myself for a shot at him. Just as he was about 30 yards from me the branch i was standing on broke off. I had my bow in my hand arrow nocked up and down i went. I was only about 12' off the ground and the only damage that occured was the string came off my bow after i landed on it. After that day i will never even think of hunting out of a tree without a harness.
 
I fell out of my tree a week ago while getting down luckily ll i did is bruised my thumb & tore my finger nail loose
 
Good to hear the harness saved you....a good reminder to everyone. I'm working on adding a lineman's harness to my lone wolf harness. I think it came with one...just need to find it. I'm always tethered in, but the lineman's part would help in getting the sticks up since I pack in and out each time.
 
Thank God you were tethered. I am a TMA certified treestand safety instructor. I get accident reports from TMA on a regular basis. There are way too many guys getting hurt and dead because they do not take treestand safety seriously.

If you dont mind I would like to use your story in my next bowhunter education class.

I am glad that you are ok.
 
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