Tree stand horror story

[rsimms]

Have you got a tree stand horror story?

http://newschannel9.com/sports/outdoors/hunters-need-to-buckle-up-for-safety

 

[procraft]

yes i do i had a summit saber it was one of the first ones they made they had not come out with cable around the tree yet i was in the back yard and was setting the sights on my bow i was around 9 or 10 foot off the ground i had climbed a slick bark tree at this time i field dressed around 260 i shot the bow 5 to 6 times sights was dead on let my bow down and turned around put my feet in the straps and raised the top seat up to start down this was before we had stand up sit down climb just as i got my feet in the straps me and the bottom piece went to the ground when we stopped my nose hit the tree and was broken both arms and belly was skint up very nicely and left knee was sprained as well as then the top piece hit me in the head sending me into the house where my wife who was an rn decided i needed 4 stitches witch she was more than happy to give me and was also glad to straighten out my nose cause we was going through a divorce that was the first story the second was not that dramatic i climbed a tree on the hunting club i was in as i was going up mi bottom piece cable went over a small broken limb that i did not see as it got dark i started down when the cable of my new summit viper got caught on the limb and i could not reach it to get the cable over it but as luck would have it i had a friend hunting with me and he climbed up with his stand and sawed the limb off the we both went to the ground and walked out of the woods with out any other problems and i saved the best for last i about 16 or maybe 17 i was invited to go hunting with one of my friends in school his dad took us to his lease we rode horses to our stands now keep in mined i have never hunted out of a tree always on the ground as luck would have it about 2 hours after daylight a very nice doe came walking by i raised up my 3006 put the cross hairs on the front shoulder and touched one of she kicked and took off straight for the pond i was sitting over and fell dead as a hammer now this was my 2nd deer ever so i still had a good case of buck fever i seen she was down and was not getting up so i stood up and walked right out of the stand that was about 12 feet or so in the air when i landed in the mud i hit on my right side and managed to break 3 ribs and my collar bone as well as my arm also broke the stock of my brand new 3006 that my mom and dad had got me for x-mas thank god that is the end of my tree stand horror stories and hope i never have another one hope you have a good laugh reading mine

 

[EricM]

Love it! Still laughing. Thanks!!!!! emoUpsmile emoUpsmile

 

[rsimms]

Good grief procraft... three for the price of one! And you lived to tell about it. emoThumbsup

 

[Hook1]

I had a similar instance as procraft with a Summit Viper. I started hunting from the ground of course so when I got a tree stand it was all new. I hunted several times out of my stand and all was well. One morning I was a few minutes late getting into the woods so I hurried up the tree. You can get high pretty fast in a Summit. However; I forgot to tie the bottom platform to the seat. I determined that my platform was looking down too far so I perched on the seat and raised the front of the platform to tighten my cable. Guess what happened next? The whole bottom half fell all the way to the ground!So I carefully bear hugged the big white oak and slid the best I could to the ground. Next problem?????? My seat section was still 35-40 feet in the tree and I was feeling pretty stupid. I re-attached my lower platform on the tree and used my lanyard on the safety belt as a climbing belt and to my dis-belief, I made it back up the tree. I was shaking, sweaty, and the insides of my arms and legs had a good tree burn on them. I don't think I hunted all that long that particular Saturday. The lesson here was not only to have a safety harness, but to slow down and pay attention to the details and not just race up the tree.

 

[fish4thepeck]

About 25 years ago I found one of my best friends laying under a tree where he had fell and lost his life deer hunting the worst day of my life so you would think I would have learned A valuable lesson about wearing a safety belt or harness. I was hunting one evening up in the head of Wolf Cove and had picked a Chestnut oak out to get in. I was climbing an Old Man stand and when I started up the tree there was a sapling growing up beside it that I was going to use for some cover. The Old Man stands had a pin and clip system that held the cable and on my way up the clip must have wedged against the sapling and poped open. I climbed to about 18 or 20 feet and hunted till dark. I decided to get down and lowered my gun and put my coveralls in my backpack then put my backback on. I had the netting that you set on against the tree so I could have my back agaist the tree so I moved the seat so I could start back down and when I set down on the seat it gave way and I went over backwards hitting on my backpack when I hit the ground. I was numb all over and thought I was paralized so I just layed there for about 20 minutes. Finally I sarted to get some feeling back and moved around enough to get my phone out but no service. I crawled about 400 yards untill I could get service and called a buddy who got me help. The game warden came and carried me to the checking station out on Carters Mountain where the Ambulance took me to the hospital. I was lucky that I had that backpack on because it saved my life. This was several years ago and I never thought I would fall out of a tree. When I first started hunting before treestands I would use tree spikes to climb a tree and just set on a limb which looking back was crazy. I have seen what falling out of a tree can do but still it took me falling to get it thru my thick skull that no one is the exception. I'm getting long in the tooth now and thank God every day that he spared me during my bullet proof days. WEAR A SAFETY SYSTEM PLEASE.

 

[screwball]

I learned the hard way when I first got a tree stand not to put stand in a pine tree! I can tell you what bark looks like at 75 miles an hour. enough said.

 

[lmk25]

I love climbing pines, gotta use the tree a few times to get the sap flowin good and no more problems. I did climb, well thought I was going to climb a wet cedar once. Like the pines more. I actually hunted from a stand for about 15 years without a harness, before I used one. Have to say I'm pretty lucky