Just a Reminder - Be Careful Out There- Tree Stands

[Bone Collector]

Glad you are ok. scary for sure.

 

[DayDay]

Double redundancy. Not a bad idea.

That's redundant (approved by the Department of Redundancy Department.)

 

[BSK]

Nothing serious but fractured my cheek bone and dislocated a joint on my finger .

Dang man. That sounds painful.

Glad you overcome your injury . Thank God that He helps the stupid for my sakes .

Only reason I'm still alive.

 

[Snake]

Glad it wasn't worse and you're healing up. Like other said, I usually just add a strap and hardly ever take one off.

@

Dang man. That sounds painful.

Only reason I'm still alive.

Was painful but if your dumb gotta be tough .

 

[BSK]

@

Was painful but if your dumb gotta be tough .

I'll remember that!

 

[Dumbluck]

Glad it wasn't any worse! Good reminder for everyone right before November as the season is heating up.

Also, for those with an Apple Watch, you can set the setttings to where it detects a fall. My wife set this up and it will notify her of not only a fall, but an irregular heart event I hope to never have. Just an fyi

Your wife is gonna start calling you every time you see a big buck now......your screwed buddy.

Mine would call me every time l rappeled out of a tree to the ground...."did you fall are you okay, should I call 911!"

 

[THE DUKE]

Glad your getting better.

 

[hammer33]

Glad you are on the mend. Took down a ladder today. One thing surprised me. The tree had grown over the last year and had created a little bit of a bow in the ladder. When I took the second (double strap the top in 2 locations) strap off the stand kind of sprung off the tree. Luckily my bil was holding the stand tight to the tree. After I unpuckered my bunghole. I noticed that the teeth of the stand were about an inch higher than the place they had dug into the tree.

Even if you have safety in place, weird things can happen to a stand during the year that might create a dangerous situation. Honestly its getting to where I don't like ladder stands and I gave up on lock ons a couple years ago.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Mercy...glad things weren't worse for you. I hope you make a quick and full recovery. I NEVER take an old strap off, until I put the new one on. As a matter of fact, I usually leave the old one, unless it is in really bad condition.

I do the same thing

 

[huvrman]

Hope you heal up and don't have any lasting issues. That could have been a lot worse.

I just put up a two man ladder stand by myself this morning. Destructions called for it to be a 3 person job. I used my loader on the tractor to help, but still had to stand it up by myself, that was the worst part. I stood in the bucket like a scaffold and got the stand situated and up against the tree. Pulled the straps down around the back of the tree and tied off to the mid section of the ladder. Got the stabilizer bar setup, then pulled the tractor around the back side of the tree and got the ratchet strap attached while standing in the bucket. Most dangerous part was climbing up the tractor into the bucket

Yes, that was a lot safer….

 

[Billboy]

Wow, glad you survived with no permanent damage! I am probably overly cautious, but I usually have at least 2 and typically 3 straps on every stand! You know, just in case...

 

[timberjack86]

Glad your ok, I'll stick to the tree seat and ground blinds.

 

[RUGER]

Glad it wasn't worse man.

 

[DoubleRidge]

Hope your healing up good and feeling better. Thanks for the powerful reminder and for sharing your story.

 

[Andy S.]

Glad you are okay, and hope you continue to heal and make full 100% recovery. Thank the Lord he was watching over you. Thanks for sharing to raise awareness at a critical time of the year.

 

[Andy S.]

Mercy...glad things weren't worse for you. I hope you make a quick and full recovery. I NEVER take an old strap off, until I put the new one on. As a matter of fact, I usually leave the old one, unless it is in really bad condition.

Ditto! The one ladder stand I mess with, I always ADD TO, never remove unless I absolutely have to due to no available connection points. As scn stated, if possible, weld a J bolt or eye bolt, use hook and eye turn buckle and metal chain and you can super secure the ladder for years to come.

 

[Andy S.]

Was painful but if your dumb gotta be tough .

One of my late granddad's favorite sayings, and he said it to me often when I was a high strung rambunctious young lad. I can hear him now.............."son, if you're gonna be dumb. you better be tough" That was in the late 80s, early 90s.

 

[tug]

I just wanted to remind everyone to please be careful out there. I had a pretty scary incident two weeks ago. I was replacing all the straps on my ladder stands in anticipation of the upcoming Muzzleloader/Gun Season and unfortunately, I took a pretty significant fall. I had already replaced the middle strap that secures the middle brace to the tree. I went to replace the top strap that secures the top of the stand to the tree. I had the new strap laying in the seat ready to replace. When I took the existing strap off and reached to get the new strap, the stand sprung off the tree and since I was on an incline, it immediately came lose and came went to the ground. This was a 15ft ladder stand. As the stand was falling, I jumped away from it to avoid landing on it. Upon landing, I was knocked out. I think I was only out for a minute or so. When I came to, I had a pretty nasty cut on my forehead and bit a considerable chunk out of my tongue. The first thing I did was immediately try to move my arms and legs and by the grace of God I had movement in all my extremities. I tried standing but the pain in my lower back was bad, it took my breath, and I could not walk due to the pain.

I was by myself and had no cell phone( No cell coverage, left phone at truck) My wife knew where I was at but would not be looking for me for several hours. I was able to crawl back to my 4-wheeler and was able to get back to my truck and cell phone, I was able to call my wife for help I was only about 15 minutes from our house. She arrived and took one look at me, (apparently my face was covered in blood) and called the ambulance.

After an ER visit and overnight stay at the hospital, it was determined that I had no broken bones. Apparently, I landed upright, and this prevented any major damage to my limbs, but it also compressed all the discs in my back. So, it has been about 2 1/2 weeks now, I am now off my walker and with the help of physical therapy, I am almost back to 100%.

I say all of this, life is short, be careful out there doing what we love. I am truly blessed and fortunate that I suffered no real injuries.

Please be careful and practice caution when hunting or working on stands. Things can happen in the blink of an eye.

Thank you for posting. You may have saved someone's life.

"When I took the existing strap off". May need to rethink the process order.

 

[CHRIS WILSON]

Good advice. Don't know if Garmin watches detects falls, but my Garmin does detect irregular heartbeat and will notify my wife of those events, if I don't dismiss them.

Several models of the Samsung watches have fall detection. My wife wears one due to her disability and being a fall risk. Thankfully, it's never been used as of yet but it's a nice peace of mind knowing if she takes a tumble, myself and my father in-law will get notifications. I work only about 10 mins from the house.

 

[CHRIS WILSON]

I just wanted to remind everyone to please be careful out there. I had a pretty scary incident two weeks ago. I was replacing all the straps on my ladder stands in anticipation of the upcoming Muzzleloader/Gun Season and unfortunately, I took a pretty significant fall. I had already replaced the middle strap that secures the middle brace to the tree. I went to replace the top strap that secures the top of the stand to the tree. I had the new strap laying in the seat ready to replace. When I took the existing strap off and reached to get the new strap, the stand sprung off the tree and since I was on an incline, it immediately came lose and came went to the ground. This was a 15ft ladder stand. As the stand was falling, I jumped away from it to avoid landing on it. Upon landing, I was knocked out. I think I was only out for a minute or so. When I came to, I had a pretty nasty cut on my forehead and bit a considerable chunk out of my tongue. The first thing I did was immediately try to move my arms and legs and by the grace of God I had movement in all my extremities. I tried standing but the pain in my lower back was bad, it took my breath, and I could not walk due to the pain.

I was by myself and had no cell phone( No cell coverage, left phone at truck) My wife knew where I was at but would not be looking for me for several hours. I was able to crawl back to my 4-wheeler and was able to get back to my truck and cell phone, I was able to call my wife for help I was only about 15 minutes from our house. She arrived and took one look at me, (apparently my face was covered in blood) and called the ambulance.

After an ER visit and overnight stay at the hospital, it was determined that I had no broken bones. Apparently, I landed upright, and this prevented any major damage to my limbs, but it also compressed all the discs in my back. So, it has been about 2 1/2 weeks now, I am now off my walker and with the help of physical therapy, I am almost back to 100%.

I say all of this, life is short, be careful out there doing what we love. I am truly blessed and fortunate that I suffered no real injuries.

Please be careful and practice caution when hunting or working on stands. Things can happen in the blink of an eye.

Happy to hear it wasn't any worse than what it was and you're now on the mend.

Folks....be sure to wear your safety harness and safety lines when you're off the ground. Had the platform section of my climber stand let go a few weeks back while I was climbing up a hickory for an afternoon hunt. I'd made it about ten feet off the ground and stood up on the platform to move my safety rope to a new position on the tree trunk. I'd just cinched the safety line back into place when the platform let go. In a split second, I found myself hanging by my safety line and the seat section was now about shoulder level. The stand tether caught the platform and my feet were just barely touching it. Had to hang there for a few seconds to catch my breath and check my pants before I was able to recover the platform section. I walked away pretty much unscathed except for some pretty good size bruises on the tricep area of my arms where I whacked them on the seat section as I fell thru it. I've used a climber stand for several years and that was the first time I've ever had anything like that happen. Still trying to figure that one out.