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huntfishNJ

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
We lost another hunter, guys. And I admit, I'm horrible about wearing mine. That ends today. I'm not going to post details because I don't know the family but do know someone involved in the recovery.
ALSO, a rope is NOT a harness. My pledge "FROM THIS DAY FORWARD I WILL NOT GET IN A TREE WITHOUT A HARNESS!"
'Nuff said, and prayers sent to the family.
 
I just started using one this year and I feel more safe than ever before. I always thought they were for the faint of heart, boy was I wrong.
 
Make it the first thing you do when you go up & the last thing on the way down. I been wearing mine religously for the last twenty years & in a short time it will become so much a part of your routine that you wont even think about not wearjng it.
I was hunting from the ground & fell only 15' off a boulder and broke my neck,hand,couple of teeth & got partially scalped. I should have been at least paralyzed but got lucky. Now imagine if I was in my climber when I'm usually at least 25' high.
 
This January was my first season hunting from an elevated stand - and all the posts you guys have posted in the last year was a big part why I never start going up without it on. I'm so paranoid, I never take it off even when I'm only like 4 feet off the ground on the way down when it isn't going to do me hardly any good anyway :) I hear too many stories - and I had a personal acquaintance tell me it happened to him too (another one of those horror stories - crawled to the car, in the hospital for weeks, yadda yadda).

You probably will only need it one time - the problem is, you never know when that one time will be.
 
This is only my second season hunting but I've never been in a stand without a harness. All my ladder stands are equipped with HSS lifelines and I'm always clipped in before I even step on the ladder's first rung. I guess I just don't know better, which unlike most things hunting related, might actually work to
my advantage in this case.

Thoughts and prayers for the lost hunter and their loved ones.
 
" I never take it off even when I'm only like 4 feet off the ground on the way down when it isn't going to do me hardly any good anyway" Can't with you when you say it won't do you any good if you are only like 4 feet off the ground. Have a brother who broke a hip falling only about 3 feet. WEAR IT ALL THE WAY UP AND ALL THE WAY DOWN. MHO
 
Please head the warnings. Three years ago at the Harrisburg show I bought a hunter safety system harness. At the time it was $110. My wife made me promise if I bought it I would have to wear ever time I hunted from an elevated stand. My son was born on August 18th that year. On opening day in September (my son was only weeks old), I was in my lowest stand (12 feet). I had my harness on, thinking this crazy, it's only 12 feet. Then I heard a weird sound, next thing I knew, I was hanging from my harness. The strap had failed(apparently a squirrel had chewed it between the few weeks I had hung it. I looked down and the spikes (loc on lem) we're facing up. I would have been impaled. Needless to say I wear my harness every time I'm in the stand. Two friends lost their hunting partners this year from tree stand accidents. PLEASE, everyone wear one. I have extras that came with stands if anyone needs one.
 
Yes Prayers sent to the family.. I hunt mostly from a climber and I always hook up before I start to climb. It can be a pain in the ass but a lot better than being in a wheel chair the rest of your life. If you don't wear one than hunt from the ground, otherwise your just asking for a trajedy.
 
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