Yes he was lucky.

I have a friend who fell from a stand a number of years ago. He was knocked unconscious. When he woke, he could not see. He crawled toward the sound of vehicles. He was found on the side of the road.

Look at the bright side.His spine is probably fully aligned and he is alive!!!

A guy from work fell out of his stand broke his neck, back and a bunch of ribs.

lucky his wife knew where he was and when he didn't show up she sent someone to look for him.

I hate tree stands.

Might as well go ride motorbikes without helmets.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Beretta682E:
I hate tree stands.

Might as well go ride motorbikes without helmets.

Mike

Using quality equipment and not doing stupid things goes a long way. I am terrified of heights . The climbers don’t other me. I go HIGH!

Hunters have been found dead dangling from their safety harnesses.

You have to exercise care.

BH63

There is risk even the safest exercise, i.e. people are killed from their auto air bags inflating...but all in I wear a safety harness properly an know how to support myself with the foot loops if need be...still better than a free fall by a "long drop".

Hanging in a harness for more than about 30 minutes is extremely dangerous. The blood that pools in your legs is not oxygenated and contains natural toxins that the liver and kidneys would normally remove.

Look up rescue death from suspension trauma.

Nasty business. Should be part of treestand safety videos, but I rarely see it.

Jeremy

Get a Miller Revolution harness

Yes there are ways to minimize this situation. Tree stand falls are now the #1 way to die hunting in North America.

Back before harness' were widely used I was hunting on my friends farm. started pouring rain so I decided to call it quits. Went walking to where my friend was and didn't see him up in his stand. I walked a little closer and found him lying face down. I ran over to him to check if he was ok and could see he was bleeding from nose and ears. I ran back to the farm house and called 911.
He had fallen 20' from his stand and landed on his head. They had to do emergency brain surgery to stop the bleeding and left a tube in to prevent swelling. He was in the hospital for a long time and even longer time spent with physical therapy.

He lost most of the vision in one eye, brain damage caused him to slur his speech a bit and didn't quite recover fully mentally.

Ever since that accident i've not been in a tree stand. I swore I would never live anywhere again that required to hunt that way.
Of course now with the safety harness' it would certainly improve your chances of surviving the fall.

My wife's cousin has been in that cold cold ground for many many years now . . .

Don't need no stinkin safety harnesses . . .

I still have my Baker from all those years ago.
Gadfry, that thing looks uncomfortable and dangerous