Stand Maintenance for Hunting Season . . .

[6hold]

The Hunter Safety System Vest makes staying safe in your stand easy.​

The Journal​

http://www.journalpress.com

By Mark Fike

If you have not done so by now, take an hour or two to visit your permanent stands on properties where you hunt and do some maintenance on them to ensure you and yours will have a safe season this fall. Most hunting accidents can be prevented and this includes falling from treestands. Falling from a stand is very dangerous and can inflict great injury even when falling from less than ten feet up.

When visiting your permanent stand first check out the ladder. If you made a ladder from 2X4 treated wood make sure it is not rotten. Next, check the rungs to be sure they are not cracked. Check the screws or bolts to ensure they are tight. If you used nails, take a hammer and tap them sharply to drive them home. When it is humid nails can loosen some as the wood swells and contracts.

If you used screw in steps check them over carefully to make sure they have not rusted to a point they are weak. Make sure they are tight. Climb the ladder or rungs carefully and slowly, testing each step for support. Once at the top put weight on the platform itself and test it. Look over the wood up there and check the bolts and screws. Take along a few extra bolts and screws and a 2X4 for minor repairs. When using a bolt consider using a fender washer to hold the wood in place without sinking the bolt head into the wood. The stand will last longer this way. Use treated wood for repairs.

While in the stand check out the view in all shooting lanes and take along a trimmer to clip limbs and clean up shooting lanes. It is a good idea to install a shooting/safety rail while you are doing maintenance if your stand does not already have one. Consider placing a crate or bench in the stand for better seating. I also try and either brush my stand or put some camouflage on it to break up my outline too.

This is a good time of year to flag distances from your stand. Be sure to use a rangefinder or some good old-fashioned math (A squared + B squared = C squared) to get the actual distance you are shooting. Steep angles are variables that change actual shooting distance. Sharp angles also change the aimpoint needed. If your stand sits on a steep hillside and there is a chance you will be shooting uphill or downhill consider one of the new rangefinders that actually figures out the shooting range for you. The point of impact on such shots is quite different than you might think.

Last but certainly not least check over your pull rope for your bow or gun. Is it dry rotting? Be very sure to check safety harnesses too. Last year I switched over to a product called Hunter Safety System and I absolutely love it. The product is so much easier to put on. The seat belt like buckles don’t tangle and are easily found in the dark when many of us are sneaking in or out of the woods. The vest has the safety straps built into it and other than buckling a few snaps and swinging into the vest there is nothing to putting it on. The company even makes a youth model. This product could save a serious injury from occurring. As soon as I can save the money I will be purchasing one for my wife and my daughter who likes getting in the stand with me. Check out www.huntersafetysystem.com.

One last product that is worthy of taking with you on your rounds of your stands is the Holeb Bushman. This is a machete like tool that is PERFECTLY balanced for cutting chores while making or trimming shooting lanes, clearing paths or doing general camp work. I have used mine for about six months now and would not trade it for any machete that I have ever owned. It is small enough to toss in a pack, heavy enough to split small wood and kindling, large enough to whack down saplings and well made to last many years. The real wood handle is made to be comfortable after a lot of cutting. The blade is solidly 440 stainless steel. One of the things I really liked about the product is that it is made right here in the good old U.S.A.
Check it out at http:/www.holeboutdoors.com/

 

[Admin]

When visiting your permanent stand first check out the ladder. If you made a ladder from 2X4 treated wood make sure it is not rotten. Next, check the rungs to be sure they are not cracked. Check the screws or bolts to ensure they are tight. If you used nails, take a hammer and tap them sharply to drive them home. When it is humid nails can loosen some as the wood swells and contracts.

A few years ago my old man got to the last step at the top of his ladder when it broke sending him 25 feet to the ground on his back. He wondered the woods for 6 hours dazed and confused until another hunter saw him, made him lay down and called 911. Spent a week in the hospital recovering from it.

Another thing to remember if you go out and hunt alone make sure you let a friend know when you are leaving, about how long you are going to be gone, and where you are hunting.

If you fall and break an ankle and are known to hunt many different areas, it could be days before help arrives.

 

[6hold]

Very sorry to hear of your Dad’s fall from a tree-stand. A ten foot fall can be bad enough (like the article mentioned) but the twenty-five feet he fell could have been disastrous, I hope he has no permanent injuries.

I have a friend that had a bad back for a couple decades that laid him up, sometimes for weeks at a time. He finally had it operated on knowing full well that the doctor stated there was a 50/50 chance he could come out of it in worse shape and more pain. Well he was happy for after a couple months the pain had lessened to about half of what it was before the operation.

To get to the point…he is a hunter, fisherman and took a tumble out of a tree-stand while hunting that set him back to ground zero again, as far as his back. He is slowly recovering (about half way back) but had to retire and will be in pain the rest of his life. I believe they found out that the tree-stand broke or bent and it was not his set-up that caused the fall. He is a large man but purchased a stand that was advertised to hold his weight.

So true what you said about telling people the time, going in and out, and the location your going to hunt.

 

[Admin]

He was alright. A lot of bruised organs and a brief hospital stay. My old man still remembers the deer hunter who found him walking below his tree stand. The hunter was a fire fighter from the next town over. He looked down at my dad and said "Hey buddy, don't move I'll be right down!" My dad had no idea he had blood coming out of his nose and ears.

After the fall he actually had climbed back up in to the stand and the top step was gone. After a little bit he said he was confused and started looking for his truck. I hunted in his stand the next weekend. At 20 years old and a corporal in the Marines I literally could hardly make it in to his stand with that last step missing because there was so much distance you had to overcome. I still to this day have no idea how my old man made it back up after his fall and made it back down. His rifle was still in the stand that next weekend too.

 

[Adam_MA]

His rifle was still in the stand that next weekend too.

SWEET!

 

[JonJ]

Damn lucky that firefighter found him and a bonus with the rifle still there!

 

[Admin]

Damn lucky that firefighter found him and a bonus with the rifle still there!

He was very lucky. He probably wouldn't have made it out of the woods because of the state he was in. The FF told me my old man kept on apologizing to him for making him miss a morning of hunting.