Mr VJP

If he saw you, or knows you're there, unless you have a Starship tractor beam, he ain't coming back no matter what.

I thought the longer it took a deer to die, the gamier the meat would taste. So if you had to track an archery shot deer a long way, or had to wait hours to recover it, it should not taste as good. An instant kill shot with a rifle, one that drops the deer in it's tracks without another breath, would be close to how a slaughterhouse animal is killed. That method is preferred by meat packers to provide the best tasting meat.

Pick up about 5 or 6 inexpensive gifts to give her too. Her favorite Chick Flik DVD, a pound of her favorite coffee, a scented candle, new slippers, a Dunkin Donuts gift card and some scented oil for the body. ( That one needs someone to apply it so it's also a gift for you )

Steve makes a good point though. the more out of shape you are, the harder it will be to save yourself when hanging in a safety harness.

Two of my friends and I will be hunting on my land in stands overlooking trails. This tactic has worked every year and we often get two deer by noon. I think we would get three deer every opener if my one buddy's eyes were better. I also have a doe permit, so I can keep hunting after opening day and look for that trophy doe. That would be the biggest, meatiest doe I can take.

What if the brakes fail on my vehicle , I go over a cliff and I never make it to the ladder stand ? ??? Then you won't have to worry about falling from your stand. ;D Seriously, when a ladder stand breaks, it falls to the ground. Assuming you will be OK with your harness in a ladder stand because you can just climb back on it, is a mistake. If you want to be safe, you have to be sure your preventative measures are going to work. If you have a qualified mechanic checkout your brakes, you won't need to be worried about them either.

Welcome aboard!

If you can leave the Island by 4AM Friday morning, you should have no problem. The middle of the day Thursday would be better. ;D

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

What if the ladder breaks and falls down to the ground?

Give the Police the license plate number, a description of the guy and the leaflet he left on your car and get a copy of the report. That should be enough to let the guy know he's being watched now and if anything happens, he's the prime suspect. Hopefully that will keep him out of the woods, at least in your area.

Imagine living in that house and never being able to shoot one of those Elk. The odds of getting a permit are very low.

Terrible news. May the Good Lord watch over, protect and console his family. :'(

I wasn't trying to sell anything with that post other than the idea that 90% of hunters are using safety systems that will kill them. They aren't even aware of the danger either. So, I looked up the info on the web and put it up for all to see. Hunting from an elevated stand is becoming very expensive with the cost of the stand and the safety system you need to use in it. Then you have to learn to use it properly in order for it to be effective. Getting everything set up in the dark isn't easy either. My bow hunting is still done from a tree, but I'm only 10 feet up in the crotch of three trees. My gun hunting is less and less from a tree stand. The older I get, the more I hunt from the ground.

Depends. Where are you heading to hunt?

Tree stand hunting: your safety device can kill you If the average deer hunter has heard it once, he’s heard it a hundred times: “Wear your safety harness!” Climbing a tree presents a clear advantage for hunters but it also presents dangers. Any number of things, from a tree stand malfunction to a hunter simply losing his balance and falling from the stand, can cause a hunter to tumble 20 or more feet to the ground. Each year, hunters are killed in tree stand falls, while others suffer broken backs or other debilitating injuries that leave them permanently disabled. Full-body safety harnesses and safety vests are designed to save hunters’ lives in the case of a fall. And usually they do. But very few hunters are aware of the secondary danger associated with tree stand falls: the same device that keeps you from tumbling to what would almost certainly be serious injury or even death can slowly kill you as you await rescue. The culprit? Gravity, the body’s weight and the fundamentals of human circulation. Full-body harnesses, which are considered substantially safer than safety straps that simply go around the waist, include straps that fasten across the chest and around the legs. It is the latter that can ultimately lead to death. The weight of the human body resting on the leg straps causes a tourniquet effect on the veins in the legs and does not allow blood to return to the heart. As a result, blood pools in the lower extremities at an alarming rate, causing blood pressure to quickly drop. Within minutes, unconsciousness results, followed quickly by death. A 68-year-old Georgia man, Weyman Chandler, was found hanging dead in a tree in Pike County, Illinois, last November. In 2008, a 48-year-old Ohio man and 35-year-old Ohio man were each discovered dead at the end of their safety harnesses. Each year, hunters who did everything right are still killed in tree stand accidents. Dr. Norman Wood, who designed a safety harness system to prevent such tragedies, says death from “suspension trauma” can occur in as little as five minutes or as much as 30 minutes. The clock starts as soon as the hunter falls from the stand. It doesn’t start until he has managed to return to a standing position, whether by returning to his stand—not an easy task—or being rescued. “The longer you hang in your harness the less and less blood there is to circulate through the heart and lungs to keep you alive,” Wood says. “Meaning your blood pressure starts to drop the moment you start being suspended because the heart has less and less blood to pump. The heart, sensing this loss in volume, increases its rate and pumps harder to try and keep the pressure up. It is killing you at an increasingly faster rate. “If you cannot get back to a standing position either back on your stand, on the ground or on a suspension relief strap to get the pressure off of your legs so the blood starts circulating again, you will become a suspension trauma victim pretty quick,” Wood adds. “It is only a matter of time and you will never know how much time you have.” Because the chances are significant that help will not arrive in time to rescue fallen hunters, it’s pretty much on the hunter himself to make sure he can return to a standing position in the short window of opportunity. Fortunately, avoiding tragedy is relatively easy. Wood’s system, Mountaineer Sports’ Rescue 1 Controlled Descent System, is designed to take pressure off the legs in case of a fall and retails for nearly $200. Other, cheaper harnesses include suspension relief straps designed to allow a suspended hunter to stand up in the strap, relieving pressure on the legs while he awaits rescue or figures out how to return to a standing position. Hunters using traditional safety harnesses without the added protective measures should secure their harnesses to the tree as high as they can reach while standing on the stand platform. In case of a fall, the hunter would then be suspended nearly level with his stand, allowing him to climb back into his stand more easily. Experts say it will be almost impossible for hunters, even those in good physical condition, to climb back into their stand if they’re hanging with the platform of the stand higher than their waist. Some hunters advocate carrying a screw-in tree step in a pocket, so that the suspended hunter can screw it into the tree and climb onto it in order to relieve pressure on the legs. However, others say that it can be difficult to screw in a step while suspended, especially if the hunter is suspended in a non-upright position. Failed efforts to screw in the step could waist valuable time, those hunters say. Still other hunters carry pocket knives or some other cutting device tethered to their strap or in a shirt pocket. If they cannot climb back into their stand or otherwise regain a standing position quickly, they prefer to cut the strap and take their chances with falling than slowly losing consciousness while suspended, they say. Many suspended hunters have managed to bear-hug the tree while cutting the strap and painfully sliding to the ground. Of course, it’s always a good idea to carry two-way radios if hunting with partners or a cell phone if hunting alone. While help might be slow arriving, it’s better than no help at all. The average hunter wears a safety strap that he purchases for a few dollars or receives with his tree stand and is never aware of the other potential dangers. Almost any hunter will quickly say that it’s foolish to climb a tree without a safety harness, and they’re right. But as it turns out, a harness used improperly can be almost as dangerous as no harness at all.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard!

There are some huge deer in the ADK. Not many deer overall density wise, but some are huge!

Why not just bring the bottom too and just go up 5 feet or so to get a better view? I have two climbers and have been using them for 30 years.

I've been there to see them. The farmers hate them and want them out of there. That house is probably for sale because of the Elk. The tourists come to see them, drive on lawns, cause traffic and block driveways. Some towns have so much traffic during tourist season, the residents can't even get to work because the town is grid locked. The Elk are getting used to the houses in certain areas and congregate in small neighborhoods. They do lots of damage to homes and property during the rut. The trouble is caused because the Elk won't stay out in the wilds of PA. They prefer to live in town. It's not what it seems from the video. There are lots of videos on the PA Elk showing all of the downsides to it. :-\ I still would love to see them in the Catskills and Adk's though. Just shoot at them to scare them if they start coming into town.

I'll keep an eye out for you.

Sounds Great! SxS 30-06 is my rifle. Had a nice Rizzini 30-06 O/U but like the SxS better. Have a couple of nice Merkel SxS shotguns. The Arrieta 20 gauge is my pride though. I also like the Ugartechea's and the Parker Repro 28 gauge DHE 2 bbl set. Had to sell the Bernadelli's. Couldn't hit anything with them as they don't fit me well. Never owned a Blazer rifle. I tend to collect SxS shotguns and Superposed O/U's so most of my funds are funneled in that direction. I'll have to check them out some more now though.