The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: CJS3 on December 13, 2010, 06:14:49 PM
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When you start taking safety for granted. ::)
I was out hunting this weekend in the Crockett National Forest in east Texas. I was using a climbing tree stand that I've been using for years. I've used it hundreds of times and made many "meat in the freezer" shots from it. After a Sunday morning with no deer sighted, I was going to climb down, and move to a different location for the afternoon hunt. I stood up and detached my safety harness from the tree. The tree was so big around, my safety strap couldn't move freely up and down the tree while connected. I had also forgotten a line to attach to my rifle to lift it up and down from the stand. So I had just slipped the rifle into the arm rest across the seat, and carried it up and down the tree that way.
As I stood up and turned around to slip my feet into the cuffs on the lower part of the stand, that part of the stand dropped out from under my feet and I was suddenly hanging 20 feet off the ground in the middle of nowhere. The knot on the line that connected the top and bottom pieces of the stand had come loose and didn't stop the bottom from dropping almost all the way to the ground.
I knew that I wasn't going to be able to pull myself back up to the seat, because I could feel the foam covering on the rail I was hanging on to, start to twist in my hand. As I looked down to the ground, I realized, that if I dropped down directly below me I would land on the lower portion of the stand and break one or both of my legs. I remember that I said out loud "this ain't good", and pushed off from the tree as my hands slipped off the upper stand.
The only part of the fall that I remember was that it seemed like I was looking at a video of someone who had dropped a camera. As I lay on the ground, I remember waiting for the pain to start. It didn't. All I heard was the woodpeckers on some other trees. I turned my head back and forth slowly and noticed that I had landed about four feet from the lower stand. I slowly moved my feet and then raised my legs to check my knees and hips. I didn't feel any pain untill I tried to stand. I had an intense, sharp pain in my left thigh. I found a fallen branch strong enough to take my weight and was able to stand using it. I was able to slowly put weight on my left leg, and slowly able to move around.
I thought about going directly back to my truck, but if I didn't do anything about the part of the stand still in the tree, with attached rifle, I didn't know if I'd be able to get back and recover them later. I found another long branch and was able to reach up and flip off the safety, then I hooked the trigger and the rifle fired. The recoil knocked it off the stand and I picked it up and set it aside.
I was then able to knock down the remaining part of the stand. I disassembled the stand and put them on the pack rack I use to carry them.The pain in my leg had subsided to the point that I could walk back to my truck. I packed everything up and walked about a half mile to my truck.
I stopped by the hospital in Livingston Tx to get x-rays and the Doc gave me a thumbs up, except for a torn muscle in my thigh. Quite honestly, I was surprised that is all that happened.
The lesson was clear. NEVER,EVER, take safety for granted.
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WOW!!!
Thanks for the reminder as it is easy to get complacent in our routines. Glad you weren't seriously injured....could have ended much worse. Hug your family and go buy a lottery ticket ASAP.
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Wow, you're very lucky that didn't end up much worse. Its easy to look back and see things you could've done differently to prevent that but I have to say it sounds like you did all the right things once it happened. Glad you made it out relatively unscathed.
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Damn CJ, glad your all right. What an ordeal. I can see a real need for two way radios, or another hunting partner within eyesight of each other, so there is always someone around.
But it's hunting, and it sometimes doesn't work that way.
Take care, CJ.
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I'm glad you're okay CJ. People have died falling from tree stands. You are so lucky.
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Glad you're alright. Not something to take lightly as between 6K and 8K accidents occur annually from tree stands, a bunch of them are fatal.
Personally, I've never use one and because of my bad hip, I never will. They weren't legal in MI back in the 60's and 70's anyway.
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Glad your OK.
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Thats what I don't like about climbers. I know they have to be used when you can't leave a stand up. A couple weeks ago a friend at work had his drop out, but he still had a safety strap on. He hung there for about 2 hours waiting for his buddy to come and help him down. He was lucky enough to be able to get to his cell and call for help.
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Holy Crap!! That scared the tar out of me just by reading it..
My open stand is strapped on but it has an angled ladder going to the top.. I never use the safety strap cause it binds me up.. its about 16 ft in the air and this year I DID think about what I would fall on if I went down.. Which would have been a whole bunch of dead fallen tree limbs and brush.. Bad deal.. I don't think I would have been smart enough to push myself away from the tree like you did.. Probably would have just dropped and screamed.. LOL Glad you are ok and thanks for telling us the story..
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As a veteran and chronic klutz, I feel your pain and rejoice in your protection in this whole thing!
Your story brings back the memories of slow motion falls, the millions of things that go through the mind, and then laying there, realizing your still alive, and then wondering if you will ever walk again.
Glad to here you survived and even walked away!
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Ahhh, ya' sissy. Why, back in the day we used to break both our legs BEFORE we went hunting, just to make it fair for the critters. We didn't have no tree stands on account of ladders being too expensive. So, we'd shove a jet-pak up our bums, fire it off when we heard the critters, and shoot 'em when we reached the apex. Then we'd use a sharp part of the bone pushing through either our left or right thigh (hunter's choice) to skin the critter. We'd then tie it to our backs and drag ourselves back to camp on our elbows where we'd build a smokehouse outta heavy rocks and do the "sweat lodge" thing while the fresh critter smoked until it was preserved. Usually took about a week. We'd get a bit dry sitting in the smokehouse with the critters and if it wasn't for the Coors Light, we'd a'never made it out alive. You youngsters are just sissies.
Seriously, CJ, I'm glad you made it out without greater injury. Safety is vital--even more so if you're clumsy.
Crusader
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Glad you made it!