Elmo

Hunting new spot with heavy buck signs. Wind has shifted today and is blowing towards the direction of the deer. Hoping he takes the side entrance today. It's cold and raining. Odds are against me but I guess you have to be in it to win it. =/ *shrug*

Didn't check but tons of rubs a few feet away.

Is this a scrape? Is it too early to find scrapes? In the middle of the dirt pile are a couple of deer prints but I didn't really get a strong urine smell. Of course I don't even actually know what deer piss really smell like anyway.

It isn't exactly this incidence that has me turned off from climbers. I find that with climbers, you have to be very selective of which trees you can climb. Straight tree without low lying branches. I find that the ideal tree for a climber might not be the tree that gives you the best angle. Of course this isn't from practical experience. This is purely based on observation.

Where are the squirrels? They're right here. Decided to take a little break from the archery season to do a little squirrel hunting. shawnhu and I toko down 6 this afternoon and found another deer spot at the same time. Very productive day.

I really appreciate the offer Phade. I'll see how my season changes. All my raucous has cause the deer I'm targetting to shift to a new area where a stand won't do me any good. It's open field of tall grass and I haven't identified where they're coming in from yet. I don't want to take a stand off of you and not use it. If the deer shifts again into a spot where a tree stand would give me a clear advantage or I identify where they're entering this field from then I'll definitely take you up on your offer.

Thanks for the encouragement hunter. Yeah, shotgun would works wonders in that open spot. I don't have a doe tag for that area but I might have a shot at that buck now that I know it's there.

Skipped a couple of days so this is an update of past events. It was completely quiet that day so I decided I was going to come down, walk around a bit, grab some food and then maybe head back up. As I was coming down, the tree stand incidence occur. I packed my broken stand back into the car and decided to walk around a bit. Yes, falling out of the tree didn't faze me at all. The comments you guys gave were correct. My activities here has caused the deer to change patterns. I found tons of new activity further south of where I had been setup. The great news is that along with those activities was a couple of fresh rubs. Of of which, snapped a young tree. The problem with this area is that it is a big wide open. Big patches of tall grass. Only a few scattered trees here and there. Not that it'll do me any good anyway since now I don't have a tree stand but a tree stand won't do me much good here anyway. I any event, I think I should give this place a little rest and let the "dust settle" a bit. Maybe do some squirrel hunting or something and come back to it on Monday or Tuesday.

Great story but a paper in a liberal city is probably not the best place to post it. A lot of nasty ignorant comments left by tree huggers. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hunters-critically-ill-kids-chance-hunt-big-game-article-1.1176262

Hudson Valley is a big place. What county are you in?

Jeremy, you're totally right. It is the Field and Stream Primetime Lite. I never thought about it after I bought it and threw out the box but the moment you mentioned the name, it rung a bell.

I had read a different article on a related subject which was a scientific explanation on whether dogs can see ghost to try to explain why dogs some times react, get scared, or bark at things that just aren't there. What they did was produce a noise pitch that we humans can't hear but to dogs it was like scratching your nails on a chalkboard. Dog were hearing to noise almost a mile away. Makes the dog go react in all different ways but us humans are completely oblivious to it. While I do agree that sometimes you just get a feeling someone is watching you I think most times the deer are just hearing something or smelling something that we can't detect.

Grow, I see your point about climbing sticks. Looking at climbers now with the inherent danger of standing to close to the base makes me lean more towards an alternative unless this was more due to the quality of my stand. I skimp and bought the more affordable model. Maybe a more expensive model might be more forgiving of human error?

Nice. Wish my dad did something like that when I was young.

Welcome, Squirrel Slayer. I'm relatively new to hunting (3rd year). I've been trying to move to other game but I have to admit, hunting squirrels with friends is a whole lot of fun. Been trying to get the fiancé to do it. She'll hike with me when I go squirrel hunting but I'm trying to get her to pull the trigger one of these days. We still need to find her hunters Ed certification that she "misplaced".

Thanks, Phade for the offer.

I removed the tethers because I was starting my descend. I removed my harness because I had tied the harness above a branch sticking out of the trunk and was in the process of tying it back under the branch. Yes, it could very well have ben on the fall. I was standing on the platform tying the harness back to the trunk and next thing I knew I was standing on the ground think "holy craps! What just happen?". The big mistake I made was tying the harness above a branch. This forced me to remove the harness from the trunk to get down, even if it's temporary. I think I'll go without a climber for the season and get a climbing stick and saddle next year.

I removed the tethers because I was starting my descend. I removed my harness because I had tied the harness above a branch sticking out of the trunk and was in the process of tying it back under the branch. Yes, it could very well have ben on the fall. I was standing on the platform tying the harness back to the trunk and next thing I knew I was standing on the ground think "holy craps! What just happen?". The big mistake I made was tying the harness above a branch. This forced me to remove the harness from the trunk to get down, even if it's temporary. I think I'll go without a climber for the season and get a climbing stick and saddle next year.

WNY - It wasn't an oak tree but it wasn't completely smooth. Lawdwaz - I weight 172 lbs.

I was standing at where it had bent. Since it bent there, it cause the front to come up. The metal strap the holds the stand to the tree pulled on the front of the stand pulling it up. Keep in mind, I was facing the tree adjusting my harness when it happened.

I always strap it down once I get it into position but read my thread about my stand breaking earlier today.

The stand was Ameristep. Forgot the name of the model. I don't think they sell it anymore. Bought it for like $120 or something like that. Will have to hunt on the ground for the rest of the season. Might go with steps and hang on or saddle next year but money is tight this year. The bottom platform as you well know should be completely straight. It bent where that white part is at. The white is due to the paint cracking off due to the bend. Fortunately it dropped right when I was hugging the tree as I was trying to get the harness around the trunk. Also fortunate that I was only 12 to 15 feet up.

Yeah, i hunt Sterling once in a while as well.

As I was descending, my safety harness is tied above a branch so I had to remove it to get it below the branch. Not a good idea apparently. As I'm standing on the tree stand straightening out my safety harness to tie it back on the tree below the branch, the platform gave out on me. I fell straight down. Lucky for me, the fri room of the tree stand against the tree absorbed most of the impact and I only walked away with a big scratch on my chest. The bottom platform is completely bent out of shape. Now I don't know if it got bent from impact or it bending was what caused it to give out from under me. POS stand! I weighted myself a couple of nights ago at 172lbs. I'll post pictures when I get back home.

Various locations in Orange and Putnam County.