We hunt from ladder stands and have lifelines on them that we attach to before we climb up the ladderLike Jackalope, I find those stats hard to believe.
I can safely say that I'll never own a ladder stand. I do NOT feel comfortable climbing up into one and not being attached as I climb.The past couple of years of my experiences with a tree saddle has enforced the safety of being tied to the tree at all times.
In the early 80s, I got dumped out of a Baker climbing tree stand, when my weight shifted and it started racheting down the tree.I was doing some version of a skateboard dance, trying to maintain my balance as it went down. At about the 6 foot mark I reluctantly pitched my bow one direction and I jumped the other. I'm sure a video would've been hilarious, but I was pissed enough to leave that sack of hubcaps out for the garbage man.
Prior to that, I was just climbing trees with a piece of cord tied to my belt, that I used to pull my bow up. I'd stand on a limb or two and balance myself enough for taking a shot. This was in the late 70s, when I was a tree climbing fool.
I fell asleep after being awake for 34 hours (swingshift job) and fell out of a tree in Manistee National Forest, at about 14 feet. I did a full rolling flip forward and hit the ground flat on my back....asleep the entire fall.I woke up gasping for air, as the landing knocked the wind out of me.
It also knocked my equilibrium off so bad that when I sat up the trees looked like the were growing sideways. After a couple of minutes of collecting myself, I stood up, looked up in the tree at my bow still hanging on a branch and had to climb up and get it, lower it down and walked back to the camper for some much needed sleep. LUCKY....DAMN LUCKY!!!
Yet Another Unnecessary Death...
- Thread starter Fletch
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ThatBuckeyeGuy
Active Member
I'm one of the guilty ones. Have sat in some stupid contraptions . Fell through a homemade stand and got wedged in the Y of the tree . Also fell out of an old hangon hunting in Coshocton years ago. Landed flat on my back from 15 ft up in a thorn bush. I use ladder stands and always use a minimum of two to three ratchet straps on them. I told myself this next season I'm going to be strapped in from now on there's no excuse not to . The reality is I've been lazy no if ands or buts
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One other safety thing I do... Ladder sticks normally come with those shitty straps you pull tight... I don't trust them, so in ADDITION, I add a ratchet strap half way up and ESP. RIGHT AT THE TOP... Don't need them sticks slipping when stepping on or off the stand... Another thing, since all my hang ons get an extra ratchet strap they are rock solid so when stepping off the ladder onto the stand, I don't step over the support cable I step on the edges of the stand with toes under cables, then step over cables... Less chance of tripping on cables...
I won't comment on my safety record for fear of jinxing myself, but will admit that only the sketchiest of stands on our place have lifelines. I don't wear a harness in either ladder stand, but do have them secured very well. I am slowly improving my safety measures and will eventually have lifelines on all my sets. I will say that one thing I learned from @Spencie's fall was that I don't place any outward pressure on my sticks when I climb. I stay vertical and always keep one hand around the tree, even on the stands with lifelines.
I've been hanging stands for 20 years and no matter how well you have one secured, there's nothing that puckers my ballon knot like stepping out on to a stand for the first time!
I've been hanging stands for 20 years and no matter how well you have one secured, there's nothing that puckers my ballon knot like stepping out on to a stand for the first time!
Chancegriffis
Active Member
I’m going to be completely honest. I’ve been in a harness less times than I can count on two hands…
Big_Holla
Senior Member
For me as I started bringing the kids into hunting the ‘lead by example’ is what made it easier to make it a religious part of my treestand hunting. It is a choice, and what you are willing to risk for a deer. Has being strapped in cost me a shot at a buck?? I can say yes, in the early years of using it I got crossed up in it before. After years of wearing one I know the do’s and don’ts better and literally is the last thing I worry about in a stand these days.
And to be perfectly honest, ladder stands that I have been in felt less safe to me than any hang-on or climber I have ever been in. Just my experience. I've been in several ladder stands and have never been a fan.
The lifeline idea is great if you hunt the same tree a lot. Me, personally, I almost never do. Even with a lifeline, the first trip up and the last trip down have to be without it, right? I mean, you have to hang/install it on the first climb up, and take it down as you leave if you're not returning to the stand. I've been using a lineman's rope for the past several years that is attached to my saddle setup, and it works fairly well. Obviously, if there are low limbs to navigate, there are moments when you have to remove it and reattach.
My come-to-jeebus moment with safety equipment was a few years after I started bowhunting, using a climber (old Summit stand, I think). I wasn't attaching my harness to the tree until I was set up at hunting height at the time. It was pre-dawn, I was well over 20' up on an icy cold morning, and the platform slipped on the tree somehow. It probably skidded just a few inches down the tree but it felt like 2 feet. Luckily, I had a solid grip on the other half of the stand because I was still climbing. Otherwise....who knows? I never rolled those dice again.
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Hey @"J" I went old school yesterday,............
Don't worry I'm not losing it... Just put around base of tree and had a place to sit...
Don't worry I'm not losing it... Just put around base of tree and had a place to sit...
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Yeah, that’s what mine was relegated too in its final years… Pretty dang comfortable when a foam pad was added.
I feel incredibly unsafe in a saddle (I have trust issues even with a double bridge setup) and on hang-ons. I absolutely hate climbing sticks. I feel most safe in my Summit climber and on ladder stands. I do need to order new life lines for the ladders.
My summit climbers are modified to provide more grip to the tree btw.
My summit climbers are modified to provide more grip to the tree btw.
Likewise. But I'm way too old and fat to use the portables and climbers. I pretty much only hunt ground blinds and box stands now, with the occasional ladder in there. The ladders have at least 3 ratchet straps on them and are solid.
I’ve always doubled the ratchet straps on all my ladder stands. One fails, still steady as a rock with the other one.
Plus I swap them out every other year.
I don't even swap them out. I just keep adding to them. lol
I have some stands that have been in the tree so long they have about 15 straps on them and the tree has grown around the stand.
My days of hang-ons and climbers are long over. It's all ladder stands and ground hunting.
Ohiosam
*Supporting Member*
I went with a friend on his farm yesterday, the first drive he put me in a ladder stand that had a safety rail, I was OK with that. On the last drive the ladder stand he told me to sit in had nothing, I stayed on the ground.
I did a ground hunt yesterday on public for ML. I sat there thinking I could get used to more of that. No messing with trees and climbing, less to carry into the woods, I stayed more out of the wind, and I was nestled into cover so I was well-hidden. I like hunting from trees, but I kinda forgot how comfortable (and safe) a ground hunt could be.
Until you have a bobcat sneak up on ya from behind! That happened to me a couple years ago during muzzy. Damn thing was above my head on the hillside behind me at like 10 yards before I knew he was there. When I turned to look what noise I heard he saw me and bolted. I don't think he was stalking me... just happened to come over the hill my way. I think we scared each other. LOL