Hunter dies in Indiana - fall from tree stand??

[fasteddie]

I have the HSS harness and don't leave home without it . It's easy to put on , comfortable and when hooked up right leaves room to maneuver . I keep the tether line short also . No problem . I turned 70 in September and as long as I can climb up and down out of stands , i'll keep it that way . I prefer to leave a stand a step at a time ---- not 15' all at once .

I also have the Rescue One Controlled Descent System but havn't used it yet .

[DEADDEER1]

20 ft is a good height not only for scent forgivness but also visibility deer look up yes but not 20 ft up

i like to use tress that are of mutiple limbs for cover if no cover simply use cut off pine branches stick them in your stand it works great trust me I can honestly say ive never been busted!!

also the new hunter safety sysytem lite is awesome its light and made fantastic it cost me 90$ and ill have till i dont hunt no more whick isnt any time soon guarenteed 90 $ is a great investment for your life and family and yes 10 or 20 ft you really should wear a harness your neck will thank you.. theres no reason to be higher than 20 ft as that is pretty high up if your getting busted in tree stand your to low try 20 ft use pine brances they stay green all hunting season as well as give off a pine scent

FORGET the wind and just hunt @ 20 ft GO BUY A HUNTER SAFTY SYSTEM its a great product that will last years to come if not forever get the ultra lite new version its just back pack straps very lite and no restrictions.

guys good luck Besafe in every thing you do while hunting Have Fun. RIP to the person who had the fatal fall its to bad..

[WNYBuckHunter]

Think about it.... how tough is it for a deer to see 20 or 30 feet in the air simply by using their peripheral vision. When I'm walking through the woods, I can see way the heck up in the air without even tipping my head. The farther away I am the higher my peripheral vision can pick out items. How high would you actually have to go up to be completely out of sight of a deer at say 30 or 40 yards?

Somebody said something about relying more on cover than height. I think they got it right. If your going to pick out a tree that looks like a telephone pole, I doubt you can get high enough to be out of sight.

Deer will look up? ....... Darn right they will. I've seen them do it.

Precisely! Anybody that thinks they dont is just kidding themselves. I like to hunt from stands because I can see better, not because I think the deer wont see me as easy as if I were on the ground. Actually, bettcha I can hide better in a ground blind or thick brush than I can in a treestand, silhouetted against the sky.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Also, another thing to think about, once you get up above 17 or 18 feet, the angles on deer under 20 yards get extremely steep, and the zone to put your arrow into gets very small. Think about it, for the average guy thats in the neighborhood of 6 feet tall, you are in a stand with a platform thats 16 feet off the ground, well, now your arrow is over 20 feet up if you take your height into consideration. Thats a pretty steep angle at a deer 15 yards from the tree. Now put your stand at 20 feet, the arrow is now 25 feet up there, and your angles get worse. Deer do look up, and 20 feet or 25 feet, they are still going to see you up there. You are just making your shots more difficult. For gun season, its not as much of a problem, but you guys that bow hunt up at those heights are just making things worse for yourself.

[DEADDEER1]

NO PROBLEM KILING DEER FOR ME @ 20 ' 20 YARDS SHOTS ARE NOTHING NOW A 5 YD SHOT MIGH BE TRICKY BUT IF I LET A DEER GET TO 5YDS IM PROBALLT PASSING HIM OR HER AS I WOULD OF SHOT IT @ 30 OR SO YARDS. AGAIN SCENT @20' YOUR SCENT IS GOING QUITE A BIT OVER ANY ANIMALS NOSE

EVERY ONES DIFFERENT BUT TO SAY SHOTS ARE TOUGH @ 20' ISNT TRUE IT MAKES FOR A LOW EXIT HOLE WHICH IS NICE FOR BLOOD TRAILING ANY HOW IM HEADING TO THE FUNNEL THIS AFTER NOON WHERE ILL BE IN A 20 'STAND WITH MY HARNESS OFCOURSE.

WILL SEE WHATS CHASING THROUGH THERE TODAY.

[Doewhacker]

On the occasion that I do use a tree stand its genrally set between 12-16 feet and I do it to help with the scent and I am sure to wear my harness because I do not want to fall and break something.

Never had a problem killing deer from the ground, usually I just find a good sized tree to stand in front of. In fact I think I have killed all but three from the ground.

[WNYBuckHunter]

NO PROBLEM KILING DEER FOR ME @ 20 ' 20 YARDS SHOTS ARE NOTHING NOW A 5 YD SHOT MIGH BE TRICKY BUT IF I LET A DEER GET TO 5YDS IM PROBALLT PASSING HIM OR HER AS I WOULD OF SHOT IT @ 30 OR SO YARDS. AGAIN SCENT @20' YOUR SCENT IS GOING QUITE A BIT OVER ANY ANIMALS NOSE

EVERY ONES DIFFERENT BUT TO SAY SHOTS ARE TOUGH @ 20' ISNT TRUE IT MAKES FOR A LOW EXIT HOLE WHICH IS NICE FOR BLOOD TRAILING ANY HOW IM HEADING TO THE FUNNEL THIS AFTER NOON WHERE ILL BE IN A 20 'STAND WITH MY HARNESS OFCOURSE.

WILL SEE WHATS CHASING THROUGH THERE TODAY.

Sorry but trying to argue geometry and what happens to angles at increasing heights is pretty silly. If you can pull off steep shots, have at it, but the fact remains that the higher you go, the smaller the kill zone gets.

[Doewhacker]

and one other thing...TAKE YOUR CAPS LOCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited November 1, 2011 by Doewhacker

[WNYBuckHunter]

and one other thing...TAKE YOUR CAPS LOCK OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank You...

[screamon demon]

I hunt with one of the summit climbers without the front bar. It's a pain to climb with but there is nothing in front of you to hit with your bow. BC (before children) i never even thought about the harness. I never wore it, never thought of it. I was raised hunting private land in home made penthouse stands. Dad and the crew should have been wearing harnesses and i would have too. The year my wife was pregnant with our first child I was hunting without said harness and dozed off. I woke up as I leaning out of the seat. The paltmform was slippery from ice, somehow I managed to not fall. Now I never go out with out it. First time out this season I forget it and left the climber in the truck. I was foolish as a youngster. If I were to not wear a harness now I would be flat out ignorant.

For the height of the stand I like about 20 feet from the top of the climber. I tie a 20' rope to the top part of the stand when I feel it get tight from the weight of my bag I know I am where i want to be. If I am a little lower I dont worry to much. I was up around 10' on Sunday and had several doe walk by with 15 yards never noticed me. Concealment, wind direction, and general woodsmanship are better then height.

[Joe2SCH]

I know you mean well but why should there be a law enforcing something that hunters should want to do with out a law. Senseless just like seat belt and motorcycle laws. If people are that dumb not to wear them then so be it.

If it is made a felony than you should not see anymore hunters die a needless death in a tree stand trying to assist others in need of meat or for thier own meat or trophy you should always wear one and those who dont ruin the enjoyment for other. For the reason they have that weigh in on thier minds but apparently some people dont understand that and if it is indeed made a law I say good for that. As well as hunter deaths and statisticly hunters that fall out of tree stands is the number two cause of death among hunters other than not following simple gun safety.

[WNYBuckHunter]

If it is made a felony than you should not see anymore hunters die a needless death in a tree stand trying to assist others in need of meat or for thier own meat or trophy you should always wear one and those who dont ruin the enjoyment for other. For the reason they have that weigh in on thier minds but apparently some people dont understand that and if it is indeed made a law I say good for that. As well as hunter deaths and statisticly hunters that fall out of tree stands is the number two cause of death among hunters other than not following simple gun safety.

Sorry, but you are wrong on that. With that line of reasoning there should never be a murder or any other felonious crime committed. Also, do you realize what a felony on your record does to your life? It affects it in many ways, you really want to ruin someones life because they dont wear a harness? If someone wants to go up a tree with no harness and falls out of the tree, affecting his family and himself, well, thats their dumb choice, which they have every right to make. Bottom line is, you cant legislate stupidity.

[Joe2SCH]

That is true but no hunter needs to die a needless death as well its one of those toss up topics

[WNYBuckHunter]

Its a personal choice. If someone is dumb enough to sit in a tree without any safety device, and they fall and die, its their fault. Darwinism.

[Deerthug]

Its a personal choice. If someone is dumb enough to sit in a tree without any safety device, and they fall and die, its their fault. Darwinism.

Darwinisim at its finest!

[Doc]

Regarding this topic I must mention that a treestand fall death touched our family very closely last year, and I am probably in a pretty good position to point out that these kinds of incidents do not simply affect those that are killed or maimed from treestand falls. That lapse in judgement affects all kinds of people that surround our lives. It's not just a single victim incident. So just like anything in hunting (or anything else in life) that involves safety, it's not only our lives that are impacted by those choices when things go bad. I have seen the pain and anguish on the faces of those loved ones who had to carry on after such a tragedy.

So for those that may be considering foregoing safety equipment I would just like to say that there are many others to consider besides yourself. No, you cannot insulate yourself from all harm, but there are some things that you can easily apply to hunting safety. It seems unnecessary to take risks that you don't have to. You owe it to your family to use whatever hunter safety equipment that is available.

[BOBBY29]

so ture i love them vest thay have out now for tree stand hunting

[BucktheBuck30-06]

I'm sorry for anybodys loss like that.But ill tell ya thats why i stick with ground blinds never heard of someone dieing while using a ground blind!!

[Doc]

I too am "ground bound". It's not because of safety concerns necessarily. We have the technology to take care of that concern. However, I do have a powerful fear of heights that has driven out of the tree-tops a couple of decades back.

As careless as I was about treestand safety, maybe this fear of heights thing was a blessing in disguise .... lol. In my younger years and back before anyone ever even thought about harnesses, I used to climb through the trees like a monkey without even thinking about falling. Then somebody mentioned that I should be tethered to the tree while in the stand. Of course there was very little info about what methods were safe and what weren't. So I pulled an old lap-belt out of a VW Beetle, put it around my waist and fastened it to the tree while I was up in my stand, and thought I was being pretty smart. Little did I know that that arrangement was probably more dangerous than a fall.....lol. However, over the years things have changed to the point where people have actually done some research on the subject. So now we have true body harnesses that won't leave you suspended upside down by your waist when a fall occurs. We have units that will keep you attached from the ground up to your stand and back. We have devices that will lower you to the ground in a controlled fashion. We have all these things and all we have to do is use them. Believe me, if I were hunting in the tree-tops today, I would have every bit of this technology and would use it everytime, with no exceptions.