Ground Attack or never take off your harness

[naternate]

There really isn’t a reason not to be clipped on a safety harness from the time you get leave the ground till you return. I use a linemans belt setting sticks and have a tree tether over my head/shoulder like a bandolier. If I get to a branch I grab the tether, put around the tree, and clip in my harness. Linemans gets unclipped and set above the branch and then tether comes off. Climber is even easier. Just clip the harness to a tether and then move up as you go. Maybe adds a couple mins to the process


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[KY_Whitetails]

Glad to hear you're ok. I always have my harness on from the time I leave the truck to the time I'm back in it. But even then being far away from your vehicle by yourself in public land where you may have no cell signal, there is always a risk of injury. Stay hooked the whole times fellas, and make it back home to your families. Even in that case suspension trauma is a real danger and can happen quick, with any type of harness. I recently purchased 2 of the treestand wingman self descent devices. Previously I had a couple of self rescue, controlled descent harnesses. I got my back up, like new one up for sale on Archery Talk, just can't post it here. That one has only been in the woods twice, in the even of a fall where you can't quickly get back to your stand you can let yourself down the tree without a problem. Rock climbing harnesses can cause suspension trauma too if you hang long enough. Any treestand, platform, saddle, ropes, sticks, you name CAN fail at some point and it's nice to have that sense of security and peace and know you will make it back home to you loved ones. I'll happily carry the extra couple of pounds of weight these devices add, to make sure I make it home to see my wife and daughter again. There is no animal on God's green earth worth dying for or worse!

 

[Sapcut]

There really isn’t a reason not to be clipped on a safety harness from the time you get leave the ground till you return. I use a linemans belt setting sticks and have a tree tether over my head/shoulder like a bandolier. If I get to a branch I grab the tether, put around the tree, and clip in my harness. Linemans gets unclipped and set above the branch and then tether comes off. Climber is even easier. Just clip the harness to a tether and then move up as you go. Maybe adds a couple mins to the process


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Couldn’t agree more!

 

[camping1601]

Why on earth are people not harnessed in all the time? OP glad your ok.

 

[GWHunter]

Even when harnessed in things can happen. Two years ago I started getting into saddle hunting and all the gadgets and climbing methods used. Made a poor choice in how I had a rope attached to a tree and ended up falling about 18ft breaking my calcanus, femur and L1 in my back. A couple of surgeries later and everything is healed up but my leg will never be 100% of what it was. Plan on doing some more hunting from the ground, but have decided when I do climb to always be tethered somehow. Keep it simple and take it slow.

 

[wlzy]

wow, Glad your ok! Definitely need to stay clipped in. what type of ground setup did you go with?

 

[Sapcut]

wow, Glad your ok! Definitely need to stay clipped in. what type of ground setup did you go with?

My ground setup is whatever the terrain and natural structure give me. No artificial blinds or ghillie suits, etc. I mainly hunt travel routes rather than food source destinations. I like to use small changes in the terrain relief, turns in trails or major changes in habitat thickness to setup for shots. I like having layers of vegetation cover between me and the animal as well as fairly open area behind me so that the animal can see past me…and not me. A big advantage in being able to hunt that way is a very contrasting camo pattern. Vertigo and predator are my go to patterns. I want to mimic light and space to an animals eyes versus limbs and leaves of most dark blob camo. Deer will many times look thru me. I like the game in hunting game animals.

 

[540-Virginian]

Glad you are OK! Stats are clear - majority of tree stand accidents are the transition/ascend/descend and people not being tied to tree. Agree with others that even being tied to tree can get dangerous. I'm hearing of saddle hunters getting injured. I can't stress enough to anyone going vertical to get some sort of formal safety training. I was a vol firefighter and did a ropes course, did a rappelling course the ROTC offered in college, and I did rock climbing for a bit with training.

Long story short - NEVER disconnect yourself and NEVER have slack in a static rope. The shock of just a 6" fall on a static rope is dangerous.

But I get things happen, and why I only go up about 10 feet ever anymore. Sorry for my preach/PSA.