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Safety first

S

Saddle9

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
46
Last night I fell from my tree.

I was able to sneak out for a quick hunt so I thought. Weather was perfect wind was a little iffy, but now is the time to be in the woods. I parked, dresses and headed to the tree I have had good pics of several shooters at this setup.

Half way up the tree with three points of contact on the tree at the time, that I am sure of. Not sure what happened I fell about 2/3 of the way in to my setup 15' ish off the ground. I had time to think on the way down as I grabbed at the tree trying to get a hold of it. Tore the crap out of my hands doing so. Hit my right upper arm on my climbing sticks step which I am guessing will be bruised and not fun for a while. Ripped my coat.

On the way down some how my bow way ripped right off of me and was left hanging on the climping stick.

I had time to think this is going to hurt. Tuck and roll, stay up right, bend my knees all while falling. How am I going to get out of the woods if I am badly hurt. Only three people have a clue of where I am at, non have ever been to the stand. It's a half mile walk in to no mans land.

I hit the ground and rolled not sure if I landed on my face or back. I do know I am glad my bow was not attached to me when I landed, pretty sure I would have more issues than I have this morning. I laid there for awhile assessing my self shaking the cobwebs.

I got up looked at my hands grabbed leaves to wipe away the blood dripping from both hands. Making sure I put all the leaves in a pile next to the tree just in case I did shoot something? I didn't want to be tracking myself. Thought I am ok shook up but good to go. I planned on Climbing the tree and hunting. I climbed up grabbed my bow. Climbed down fixed all my gear and started up the tree. I was right where my bow was hanging and said nope I need to hunt from the ground tonight. Which I tried to for about 45 minutes when I couldn't settle down kept trying to find a better ground set up. And my right arm felt wet so I left the woods still hunting my way out. Got to my truck undressed from my hunting clothes saw the shape my right arm was in, not bad but not pretty.

Relaxed at my truck for awhile and headed home. Cleaned everything up on my body. I am good to go today stiff and sore with a small headache.

I just set up the tree one month before season started all fresh clean and checked over equipment. I again still am not sure how why or what happened. Most of us are starting to spend more time in trees with the best time of the season fast approaching.

My request to each of you is this weekend check all your gear that you use to get up the tree and the gear you use while in the tree.

I am safe and okay, thank god. Please check all of your gear even at the tree. I plan to check mine as soon as I get home from work today before setting things up for the weekends hunts.
 
Wow, glad your ok, and thanks for the reminder. No doubt you were in shock after that and staying out there hunting was a bad idea, but made sense since you were in shock. Glad you had a change of heart and got out of there. Had something internal been injured, the last place you want to find that out is way out in the woods like that. People think they will just grab a limb or step as they are falling, you found out it doesnt work like that. Again glad your ok. Please let us know if you do find something that wasnt right with your gear that caused this, it will be a valuable lesson for us all. Now get yourself a linemans belt and bow rope. :tonguewink:
 
Glad you are ok. Were you using a safety line? linesman belt? Just curious if one of those failed.
 
Glad you're ok! Man you are lucky, my Dad took a fall while cleaning out his gutters when I was a kid. Put him in a coma for weeks and now his short term memory is hosed. I'm hooked into a rope from the ground to the crown. Hope the rest of your season turns out better.
 
So glad you're OK. That's very scary. Can you talk us through your setup so we can all play Monday morning quarterback and try to make sense of this? Hopefully we can all learn something.
 
justsomedude said:
Yikes!
That sounds like your stick fell off the tree.
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Mine did something similar a couple weeks before season. The bottom feet were in a little concave spot in the tree and when I shifted all my weight to one of the top steps, the bottom bracket gave way on the tree and the stick swung around the versa button like an axle. I lucked out and had tension on my linesman belt at the time, so I didn't fall far before binding up on the tree. Glad you weren't seriously injured.


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g2outdoors said:
So glad you're OK. That's very scary. Can you talk us through your setup so we can all play Monday morning quarterback and try to make sense of this? Hopefully we can all learn something.
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justsomedude said:
Yikes!
That sounds like your stick fell off the tree.
Click to expand...

Yeah, when you get back out to the tree, you have to find something out of place that we can learn from.
When you said 3 points of contact, do you mean between your 4 hands and feet? Or did you have a Linemans Belt/Tether in play?
 
3 points of contact refers to hands and feet. If you watch yourself climb a ladder let's say, the natural tendency is to lift your foot and hand at the same time. By only moving one at time it lessens the chance of falling. Murphy stills comes out to play though at the least opportune times so it's better to have another attachment like a lanyard or climb line.
 
I'm so glad that you are ok! Like the other's said, if you figure out what went wrong, please let us know. Everyone else, let's just use this as a reminder to be extra diligent!
 
halltrail said:
Glad you are ok. Were you using a safety line? linesman belt? Just curious if one of those failed.
Click to expand...
This one caused my fall last year. Worse possible situation. I still don't know what happened, but it was right after a clip in, so somehow, I wasn't clipped in correctly. Leaned back..and back and back... Fell about 10' lucky my head didn't hit a rock. You can bet that every.single.time. I now clip in, and rotate every carabiner before loading it.
 
Glad your ok and it was smart of you to get out of there. 2 years ago i fell getting into a treestand 20 feet landing on my back my head in between two boulders where they met the ground. I remember laying there afraid to move and like you had a million thoughts flash within an instant. I am lucky to be alive and so are you which i am glad. Might not be a bad idea to go get checked out though just to be really safe. Falls like that will mess you up and the body doesn't always tell the mind that something is serious there. These types of fall reak havoc on the body and the mind. When you can assess what happened and feel free to share with us so you have a different set of eyes on the matter. Again i am glad you are alive and hope you recover without any issues.
 
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