I'm lucky to be alive. I climbed into a stand this afternoon that I hung last weekend up in northern Wisconsin. I had just finished tickling some antlers together and was starting to sit down when the base of my hang-on came out from underneath me. Thank god I had my HSS on. My back is a little bruised after slamming against the front of the seat but I'll take that any day over a 24ft fall. It's all one big blur, before I knew what hit me I was dangling in mid air. I did manage to get my camera and bow out of the tree while I was hanging there, but man what a humbling experience. As I was walking back to the truck after it happened it really started to hit me. I was 20 miles from the nearest town in the middle of a couple hundred thousand acres of county and state land, a mile away from the truck, with no cell phone service. Had I survived the fall there is no way I would have been able to get back to the truck, or make a call. Not only am I not going to hunt up there alone anymore, I'm never climbing into any type of stand without a harness ever again. To those of you who don't wear a harness, please do so. If I wouldn't have been wearing mine I wouldn't be here. Sorry for the jumbled sentences I'm still really shook up.
Yeah why it slip? Glad to hear you're ok though. The bottom fell out from under me while I was climbing down the other day but it was fairly easy to get back up since I tie it to the top. It had my heart racing though.
That's exactly what it was, I'm not sure if the cables got pinched in the tailgate of my truck, if it was sabotaged, or what happened, but both cables snapped.
Dang... that scares me... I got one I've had since I was 15 like that... I'm now 23... Might be time to retire it after this year... Or atleast new cables...
glad to hear your still here and i'll be sure and take your advise and keep the harness on and attached to the tree. I have a stand with cables that I put up this year but I can already tell the China made design is bad and I reinforced it with same SS cables but you got me thinking. Maybe I need to not trust it to much. Just glad to hear your your here to tell the story.
Scary stuff! Glad your ok man..I wonder if theres a statistic on how many lives harnesses save rather than how many people have injuries falling from stands. Maybe that would get more people to wear them idk
Congrats on surviving. I wouldnt trust that both cables snapped either...i think i'd be setting a trail cam up to watch my stand.
Glad you're okay. Definitely scary stuff. I used to rock climb and have fallen from that to be caught by a harness...definitely not fun. I went hunting this morning and was 3/4 up to my spot in the tree before I realized I had not hooked my harness to the rope around the tree. I had been moving the rope up as I was climbing my stand up, but had simply forgotten to hook the harness to the rope. So glad it wasn't an issue, but I bet I remember from this point forward. I just hope everyone else remembers to also use the harness while climbing, not just while being in the stand.
Glad your ok! I started wearing a HSS 2 years ago after a close call. Been lucky since but still not worth the risk.
Glad your Ok!! I've ordered my harness was planning on hunting this afternoon, but think it might be better to wait until I get the Harness in!
