Well, I nearly hurt my hunting partner and put him out of commission.....
First off I must tell you all that I'm a western hunter these past 20 years and am most comfortable with my feet planted firmly on the ground, on huge tracks of land. This past month I traveled to New York to deer hunt with my partner who normally travels west, in to my world. Circumstances beyond his control dictated that he could not travel this year so I opted to hunt Whitetails back east in his world. When in Rome do as the Romans do.....so he set me up in his favorite treestand. This was a permanent affair, built out of 4by4's and 2by6's (I think he beefed up the structure to account for my 260 lbs). The danged treehouse was about 17 feet up into a croutch of a white oak tree that was easily 2 feet in diameter. Substantial tree, substantial structure. Except it was way up there, I was way down on the ground lookin up at it, thinking "This is gunna be ugly!" I aint never seen a 260 lbs squirrel in the woods and I think theres a reason for that. 260 lbs aint supposed to be 17 feet off the ground. Now Jeff (partner) he sees my reluctance and scampers his 180 lbs up that tree like he's been eatin acorns his whole life.... Being a good sport I start the climbing thing. He's got these 12 inch long massive nails pounded into the tree, they look like just smaller than railroad spikes, but they're bending down flat against the tree with each step.....oops sorry Jeff, I guess I bent your nails. I get my whole fatso self up to the point where I'm gotta transition from climbing up the tree trunk to getting onto the platform and now I'm stuck. Upper fatso is horizontal over the paltform, A$$ is pointed somewheres in the direction of Mars or Venus and the feet just don't seem to want to let go of those bent nails. With his feet planted on Terra Firma he is now laughing in a full blown belly chortle (forget about deer hunting quietly) and that's where he nearly split his gutz laugh at me and nearly hurt hisself. Well that got me laughing at myself too, except I was still in that awkward bent over position 17 feet up in the danged tree. Then I hear him on the cell phone calling my wife and suggesting to her that she contact the life insurance agent and increase coverage. She responds something about splitting the profits with him and thanks for the investment tip.
I finally hoisted my carcass into that danged tree stand but it was ugly....you guys that hunt from trees have my admiration. Wow!
Two hours later I hear a big old Military Helicopter whomp, whompin off in the distance and my cell phone rings. It's Jeff tellin me that he's called in Military assistance to get me down off that tree....called up a "Sky hook" to get me down. Now that's a true friend, always looking out for his buddy.
I'm proud to say that eventually I got in touch with my squirrelly inner being, having recalled Ray Hammond mentioning that it's easier to get into a tree stand if you step down into it, rather than the climbing up into it like I originally tried to do. Fun times in the woods and I'm just glad that my buddy's stomach eventually recovered from the strain of laughing so hard.
Topic: Huntin Partner nearly hurt (Read 303 times)
