Hey Everyone,
With hunting seasons open all over the U.S. I want to encourage all of you that hunt from tree stands to use the Safety/Lifeline Ropes that keep you tethered to the tree from bottom to top start to finish. Two weeks ago this past Sunday I learned the hard way falling twenty feet while descending from my stand at dark. I am not sure exactly how the strap failed but somehow the top section of the stick ladder came loose from the tree resulting in my fall.
I had put this stand up along with 4 others three weeks prior. As a general rule all of my stands have Lifeline ropes and the day I hung these I left the Ropes at my barn and I told myself just to add them as I hunted them which I forgot on this day. I did use my normal rope once in the stand but most accidents happen going up and down. I am not new to hunting out of stick ladders and hang on stands as I have been doing it for 30 plus years. I pull my stands at the end of each season but leave the stick ladders. I loosen the straps then tighten and replace the next year as I put them back up. On many of my ladders I add a ratchet strap to the top section to keep them tight to the tree as the factory straps seem to loosen. The bottom line here is that I try to be as safe as I can but a Lifeline Rope would have prevented this and I knew better.
As far as my injuries I have 3 vertebrae with compression fractures and 6 broken ribs which earned me an ambulance ride and a week stay in the hospital. I am very thankful and blessed that it was not worse. My doctors told me some really bad stories that they have seen first hand and basically said I was lucky. Thankfully I did not need surgery and the Neurosurgeon said my back would recover 100% on my own and return to doing all the things I did before the accident. I am home now healing and doing much better.
Some key takeaways other than using a Lifeline. I was fortunate that I had other members in my lease that could find me but tell someone where you are gonna be as a safety measure. Keep a battery back up for your phone and spare batteries for lights. On a side note if you are hunting in the South wear snake boots. With these warm/cool days the snakes are crawling trying to find a home and I killed this cottonmouth walking to my stand that afternoon... maybe it was a bad sign of things to come. Stay safe and keep posting the awesome hunting stories & pictures as for now I am hunting vicariously through you all!
Topic: Tree Stand Safety... Lifeline Ropes (Read 860 times)
