Ever fell out of a tree?

[mpernest]

Twice:
1. I was about 12 years old, maybe. My old man was teaching me how to use a climber out by his workshop. I did not get a good purchase on the tree and fell backwards. I was only a few feet off the ground and he caught me.

2. Just this past season - so more than 40 years after the first time - as I was coming down one of my climbing sticks let go. To this day I don't know what happened to cause it to pop off. My lineman's rope kept me from falling to the ground, but I smashed into the tree and drove the step of the stick above into my ribs. Knocked the wind out of me and left me hanging for a minute until I could gather my wits. I was out of cell range, no one in the world knew where I was, and my GPS device was sitting at the house. That was a really close call and scared me for real. Now, even when just going scouting, I show my wife on the map the general area to which I am headed, I text her the coordinates of my truck when I park, and I never leave home without my rescue device.

[MartyMoose]

I personally never have fallen out of a treestand. I was present when my son fell 15' attempting to remove a grown in treestand on some land we leased. We were scouting in August and came across a double set of stands hung on a ridge. He decided to climb up the climbing sticks that were left to cut the stands off the tree. As he was cutting the second stand with a knife, I believe he nicked the dry rotted strap on the sticks which caused him to start falling backwards. He immediately jumped toward the top part of the ridge and landed on his feet. His right foot hit first and he broke 4 bones in his foot and had a 9 month recovery after surgery. I immediately thought he landed on the knife as he was rolling around on the ground! Thankfully, he came out of it with the lesser of two evils. I hit 3 stumps with my front bumper of the truck trying to get him out of there and to the emergency room. He weighs around 280 pounds, and I had to carry him about 200 yards to get to the truck. Scariest thing I've ever witnessed while in the woods.

[greenhorndave]

I personally never have fallen out of a treestand. I was present when my son fell 15' attempting to remove a grown in treestand on some land we leased. We were scouting in August and came across a double set of stands hung on a ridge. He decided to climb up the climbing sticks that were left to cut the stands off the tree. As he was cutting the second stand with a knife, I believe he nicked the dry rotted strap on the sticks which caused him to start falling backwards. He immediately jumped toward the top part of the ridge and landed on his feet. His right foot hit first and he broke 4 bones in his foot and had a 9 month recovery after surgery. I immediately thought he landed on the knife as he was rolling around on the ground! Thankfully, he came out of it with the lesser of two evils. I hit 3 stumps with my front bumper of the truck trying to get him out of there and to the emergency room. He weighs around 280 pounds, and I had to carry him about 200 yards to get to the truck. Scariest thing I've ever witnessed while in the woods.

Holy mole

That would freak out a parent!

[UntouchableNess]

I voted "Yes".

I bailed out of a ladder stand while taking it down in Dec. 2021. Not sure how high I was up, 10 or 12 feet. I had climbed up to take the top ratchet strap from around the tree, started the climb back down. Instead of going sideways, it started tipping directly away from the tree. I must have leaned back too far climbing down instead of hugging the rungs. When it started tipping away from the tree, I made the snap decision to bail instead of "going down with the ship", which would have me landing flat on my back with the stand on top of me. So I made the decision to jump back. A gymnast would have been proud of how I stuck the landing, feet together, knees slightly bent. I hit so hard there was no way my legs could take it, my but hit the backs of my heels HARD as I then pitched to my left. Knees punched me so hard in the chest I passed wind. I laid there a second to assess the situation, moved legs and stuff to see if everything worked. I stood up and finished tearing apart the ladder stand to carry it over to the trailer. I was wearing high top leather work boots that I had just changed laces in. The laces were too long so I used every hook and eyelet in the boots, had them laced on pretty tight. I think that saved me from breaking an ankle. I walked a little stiffly for about a week, but was very lucky that was all.

I had a scare with my Lone Wolf stand that used the hook strap to hang the stand. I went to step onto the platform and it slipped off the upper hook, tilting forward. Major heart rush, but didn't fall. I've checked to make sure the hook is firmly set ever since.
Another time I was climbing down in the dark, thought I was on the bottom LW step section, so stepped back thinking my foot would hit the ground soon. Well, I was at the second one up (DOH!), so maybe four feet up. I was on the downhill side of a tree on a steep slope, wound up doing a back roll when I landed on the ground and luckily didn't hit my head on nearby tree.

Guess my luck is probably about used up.

[wolverinebuckman]

I was testing out a homemade piece of equipment in the back yard a few years back, dubbed by saddle hunters as a 'swaider'. I should have been using a lineman's belt, but I was only going to go up a couple steps.
As I put my weight into the aider, my foot kicked out to the side of the tree, and in an instant I was laying on my head and shoulders.
I fortunately wasn't but a few feet off of the ground, and it was under a pine, so there was a nice bed of needles to absorb the impact. The pile of rocks a few feet away wouldn't have been as forgiving...

[A5BLASTER]

I voted no.

Because I have never fallen out of a tree. But I have fallen out a treestand.

I guess I'm diffrent, from the very first time I ever messed around in a treestand I had on fall protection. I grew up in a oil feild trash home. So all my adult mentors had fall protection training from their jobs and they pasted that knowledge on to me when I was a kid.

So I have never been up a tree without fall protection and never will go up a tree without it on. Soon as my feet leave the ground I'm hooked in.

I'm telling you fella's, yall all need a treestand wingman.

[Hookslinger]

Forgot to mention, my uncle fell out of a 15 ft ladder stand once. He didn't have a harness on and fell asleep up there and slid right out. Luckily he was in a swamp and fell straight into watery swamp muck so he walked away unharmed. Yeah, he never really was much of a deer hunter. He doesn't hunt anymore either.

[Horizontal Hunter]

So I have never been up a tree without fall protection and never will go up a tree without it on. Soon as my feet leave the ground I'm hooked in.

That was always my cardinal rule when I was hunting from the trees in a climber.

I have had the top platform fall and the bottom platform slip down a few feet but I too have never fallen. More than once the bottom platform would have been at the foot of the tree if I hadn’t tied them together.

Everyone who hunts from the trees should be wearing a harness and have a self rescue plan that they have practiced at least once to ensure that it works and they are physically able to execute it.

If not for you, do it for your loved ones.

Bob

[VaBowKill5]

I’m a lineman by trade and I used to carry hooks and a lock on deep in the mountains as an alternative to climbing sticks. I was about 3 miles in one morning and had hunted in a big chestnut oak. I was climbing down at lunch time and cutout about 20’ up. I landed on my back and by the grace of God I must’ve landed on the only soft spot on the mountain as there was exposed rock everywhere. I didn’t have a scratch but I got a whole new respect for how dangerous that was and how bad it could have been. Climbing sticks for me nowadays!

[sagDE]

Fortunately I've never fallen. I did miss a step on my beast sticks though and laid my inner thigh open. Lots of blood and a nasty bruise that lasted a few weeks. I move a little slower now when climbing.

[G-Patt]

I didn't fall out, but almost did this past gun season for a stupid reason. I was using my climber, but got lazy and decided just this one time (and... I mean only this one time) I thought I could go faster if I didn't tether to the tree as I was climbing. As I was climbing, I could see 2 does were making their way in my direction. I pulled up my rifle while still untethered, slightly leaned on the top half of the climber as I was bringing my gun to my shoulder and felt the top half of the climber shift because it wasn't tied in. Luckily, I had enough weight on my other foot to catch me, but that sent shivers down my spine, caused the hairs on my neck to stand, and after my heart stopped racing, I pretty much called it the day. I couldn't concentrate the rest of the hunt after being so mad at myself and seeing my life pass in front of me. Over a stupid thought of saving probably an extra minute of not having to shimmy my tether rope up as I went along in the climber. Just don't do it. Take the extra few minutes. A deer is simply not worth getting hurt or killed.

[Barkeater]

Not yet...

From when I graduated high school til my 30's I did rigging work, high angle search and rescue, trained people in self rescue and rappelling and did a little rock climbing for fun.

Some of my hunting buddies have given me crap for always wearing a harness and using a lineman's belt and being cautious in general hunting out of trees. That's fine with me.

People say that the saddle is the safest tree stand. I don't know. I think the safest way to hunt out of a tree is what ever is simplest, has some form of fall arrest built into it, and that you've practiced the same way over and over. Could be a climber, hang on, ladder doesn't matter. It makes me alittle nervous to read about some of the stuff people are doing especially on the saddle forums. It's cool to see what these guys are doing but some of the systems I've read about leave too much room for error. where thing go wrong is when it's dark, cold, and something isn't going the way it should or youre distracted. Highly skilled professionals make fatal mistakes and they use their systems all the time.

Be careful out there

[Brokenarrow1980]

I fell out of a tree when I was 14, Old rickety wood stand and the wood broke, fell about 15ft and thankfully only had scratches and bruises. Another time a climber bottom gave out on me and I slid 22 ft down the tree, that one messed up my ankles and started my back problems. It's not a matter if your going to fall, it's when! I stay on the ground now but if I still hunted trees I'd be tied in from start to finish.

[Yoder]

I never fell but came close. I had the bottom platform drop off twice on climbers. One was last season. The one strap that secured the two platforms together came loose when I was walking in. I didn't secure it properly in the dark. When the stand dropped the strap let go and only one side was keeping the platform from dropping. I also forgot my pull rope so I had my unloaded rifle strapped across my back. I was about 30 ft up. It took me about an hr to get the platform back to where I could climb down. I was almost stuck a mile from the truck. I was so tired my legs were shaking. Two other times I've had climbing stands slip. One was an old school where you bear hug the tree to climb. That one took the skin off my forearms and my chest. Now I'm always wearing a harness. It's not worth risking your life. Too many things can go wrong.

[Dewey]

I never fell but came close. I had the bottom platform drop off twice on climbers. One was last season. The one strap that secured the two platforms together came loose when I was walking in. I didn't secure it properly in the dark. When the stand dropped the strap let go and only one side was keeping the platform from dropping. I also forgot my pull rope so I had my unloaded rifle strapped across my back. I was about 30 ft up. It took me about an hr to get the platform back to where I could climb down. I was almost stuck a mile from the truck. I was so tired my legs were shaking. Two other times I've had climbing stands slip. One was an old school where you bear hug the tree to climb. That one took the skin off my forearms and my chest. Now I'm always wearing a harness. It's not worth risking your life. Too many things can go wrong.

I know that feeling well. It’s never good when your platform drops to the base of the tree, no cell service and nobody knows where you are.



I used a climber for many years and never had this happen. Somehow the rope I had connecting the top and bottom became disconnected. In a split second it was at the base of the tree.

As I sat on the climbing bar over 25 feet up contemplating what to do figured all I could do was relax, take a deep breath and plan how I was going to get down. After some time I climbed up and stood on the climb bar. Bear hugging the tree and easing down by hooking my feet in the top platform was the only option. Talk about a but t puckering moment. Luckily I had my safety harness on in case things went real bad and I slipped. Took quite some time but I made it back to the ground. Needless to say my hunt was done for the day and I packed up and went home. That was enough excitement for one day.