Hunting Forum

This week in Northeast Louisiana a 69 yr. old man fell from his ladder stand and died.

As he started down the ladder the strap holding the ladder to the tree broke and he fell 20 feet

to his death from internal injuries.

Make sure your securing straps are in good shape and check them often! Don't want to

hear of any of you falling because of a simple thing like that.

Papaw Jim

 

 

 

 

Don't use the stands any more sold them all .Back problems and other stuff .

So, one of those safety vests, wouldn't have done him a bit of good. I only have two ladder stands and I check the straps every summer before the season opens, and then keep an eye on them during the season.

I read a story this week of a guy in fell out or off a climber and his Harness choked him to death,in upstate NY,freak accidents can't be avoided sometimes it just sucks.

That's what happen when you connect your safety system to the stand instead of the tree. PV obviously one of two things happened IF (this I doubt) he was using a full body harness he didn't connect the straps between his legs. OR he was using one of those old harnesses that just went around the waist. Now those things WERE DEADLY!

I knew I stayed outta trees for a reason... ;-) Never been in a tree stand and don't plan to be. Went to a place in Maine who "suggested" using their treestands. - Thanks, no thanks, I'll stay planted on terra-firma. They weren't impressed but not much they could do about it.

Very sad to hear these kinds of things.

Steve, one of my ladder stands is only about 8 feet up in a big oak tree, the other one is a 20 foot two man type ladder stand where I killed the deer this past Friday morning. I also have two home built tower blinds, a shooting house, and my favorite stand which is an A-frame ladder stand on the end of a fence row, tucked under a big gum tree. The 20 footer is the only one that I've ever really been concerned about, as far as what is here at home. I did hunt a place one time with my brother and I killed a buck out of a ladder stand that I'll swear was 40 feet up in the air. That was as high as I ever plan to go again unless I'm surrounded by something made out of metal and surrounded by some type of framework, ie. roller coaster, air plane, Ferris wheel, etc.

I'll pass rt, if I was supposed to be in trees I'd be crapping through feathers and be able to fly up.

I'll stick with still hunting and ground ambushes.   Even when I was bow hunting I stayed firmly planted with pretty decent success.   To each their own. Trees ain't for me.

Yeah Steve, I'm with you. I am a firm believer in what Jesus said in Matthew 28:20

,,,and,lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

I believe I'll stay on the ground...I really don't mind heights as long as I can keep one foot on the ground.

And I am an Air Force Vet. Fly em' high but let me work on the ground.

Papaw Jim 

I have 2 ladder stands. A 12'- 2 man, and a 15' single man. I bought new straps for them this year.The 12' came with 2 straps and I added a second one to the 15'. Having been in construction for over 40yrs. I have a lot of experience working off of a ladder. I wear a safety harness when I hunt out of the 15' stand but feel comfortable in the 12' without one. My worst mishap in construction was back in 92 when I stepped backward off of a roof 11' and almost completed a back flip and broke my left ankle after landing on a sidewalk.

I spotted a homemade stand the looked a little unsafe while I was looking for a deer. I could see this guy in his hunter orange from my favorite permanent stand on the river bank last yr. during rifle season. He had a 3' square platform of extruded steel on a heavy steel frame with a railing about 12" high, the ladder was welded out of what looked like heavy shelving standards. What was scary was the worn single strap that was holding it to the tree. I could see why he didn't want to take it down after the season as it probably weighed 300lbs.

Steve think your safe on the ground? Think again! Know a guy stepped in a leaf covered woodchuck hole snapped ankle. Couple years ago guy was stepping over a small log caught his foot hit his head on a rock he drools now. The plain fact is you are safer hunting from a tree or on the ground than you are in your shower. But weird sheit happens. That's why if you get in a treestand and aren't physically attached to the tree going up, while you're up there and when you come down you're a FOOL. BUT if you don't feel comfortable in a treestand properly harnessed don't do it.

On the side a funny but true story. This past summer Fire Rescue in a town near here was called out to get a 4yr old girl and her 3yr old brother out of the top of a forty foot pine. When the little girl was asked why she climbed up there her reply was: "My brother was scared and crying." When the reporter asked her if she wasn't scared to climb so high she replied: "No I climb that tree all the time." She's gonna be trouble at 16!