I preach tree-stand safety. Any trad bowhunter that hunts with me has to wear one or they are "grounded". Up until this year I used the harness only, and was unhooked in the brief period that I step onto my stand.
I had just made 4 full length ropes with a prusset hitch on them for my hang-ons and put them on my 4 best stands. I got a south wind yesterday and headed to a "lesser" stand. It was hung last year and due to my laziness I had not checked it yet.
I climbed into the hang-on last evening and as I was putting my safety strap around a tree the stand broke, and I fell 18 feet. Lucky (or unlucky maybe) I grabbed a tree step and impaled my left hand. I fell anyway. 5 years of judo helped me because I rolled into the fall and slapped my right hand on the ground. Breaking my fall but also forcing a couple of bones though the skin of my right ring and middle finger. Other than the wind being knocked out of me nothing else happened. I got hit in high school by a middle linebacker from Tennessee while tring to run a little j-hook route in an all-star game that was about the same force. He went on to play at UT and the NFL, and I went to play for a small school where they didn't hit as hard. This hit told me 18 feet is too high, so I will play at a lesser school from now on. I had made an attempt to check the stand as I did not pull it last year. I think with the winds we had and the weather, perhaps the rachet strap was frayed and my 240 was too much for it.
I cut a tendon on my left hand and got surgery last night, and I have pins in the open fractures of my right hand during the same surgery. My shooting of trad equipment is over for a few months. I am lucky I know how to fall, and I am glad that God was there to keep me here with my fellow brothers of the bow and my wonderful family.
I am glad it was me that fell. My friend Jack Paluh loves this stand, and we have a hunt planned here for November. I will hang a new one for him, complete with a rope from stand to ground, with a prusset hitch. His hands are worth a million dollars. Mine aren't worth 10 cents a pound
So, please check your stands. Stay hooked in. Climbing rope and a small piece of nylon rope to tie the hitch is cheap. Search Powwow and you will find what you need on how to do this. Here are a few pics. Laugh at my hat, gag at the pics, but whatever you do wear your safety strap while using your climbers and stay tethered when you take that first step on the platform.
I will be here waiting for hunting stories and I will be living through Tradgang the rest of the fall. I am meat-rich with half an elk, a big bear, and a giant doe from this year in my freezer! Stay on the ground or stay hooked up my friends.
*step vs hand...no good.
*Judo fall at 27 feet per second not good for fingers.
*Off to surgery. Didn't have camo hats. Wonder if we can get Barry and Gene to market these in camo.
*Post-up...just before Albert's second homerun.
Topic: Tree stand safety and a bowhunter down (Read 4469 times)
