Killgore’s Corner

In all the years that I have spent perched up in a tree, it finally dawned on me that men weren‚t made to live in trees. Therefore, we must take precautions and use special equipment to aid us.

Tree stand safety is all important. Careful planning and being familiar with your stands is required. Whether it‚s new or old equipment, inspect it first. Then, practice hanging the stand at a low height, no more than four feet off the ground, so hanging it will become second nature to you when you get it set up in the field for hunting.

Getting ready for this deer season, which begins October 1st, the realization of turning age 65 hit me. At my age, ground blinds are looking more inviting all the time. This last year, I did not use a tree stand nor ladder stand at all. Instead, I opted for a well-placed ground blind.

Years ago, I had permission to hunt a piece of ground north of Sallisaw which at the time received little hunting pressure. After a great deal of scouting, I found what turned out to be the perfect tree to hang a stand. The big oak, located on a fence row, was the site of not only my first-ever whitetail taken with a bow, but the place that could have just as easily ended in tragedy. Stands and safety belts available in those days were primitive at best. My plan was to shimmy up the oak with a rope tied onto my belt loop which was attached to my tree stand. Upon finding the perfect limb on the perfect tree, I pulled my stand up to approximately 15 feet, latched the strap around the tree and stepped onto the platform to snag it to the tree like the instructions said to do.

That turned out to be a bad mistake. Before I knew it, I was bouncing off limbs in a scene that I‚m certain must have somewhat resembled a pinball machine. The next thing I recall was looking straight up to the heavens and praying to God that I wasn‚t badly hurt. After I was able to breathe again from having the wind knocked out of me, I took careful inventory of all the cuts and abrasions that covered my body and a sharp pain in my right side that the cause wasn‚t discovered until the following March during gallbladder surgery. It turned out to be a broken and detached rib that was floating around, a hard lesson learned that I have never forgotten. At the top of the list of stupid things I did that day would have to be not telling anyone my plans nor where I was going. I can assure you that will never happen again.

About twelve years ago, a good friend of mine, accompanied by his wife, went to the woods on a beautiful January day to take down one of his tree stands for the year. This man always used a safety belt while in his stand and relayed that, for the most part, he would use one while putting up or taking down a stand. This, however, seemed simple as the stand was buckled on and had ladder steps up to the stand. It would only require him to stand on the ladder steps, unbuckle the straps and drop the stand.

The first buckle was simple but the second one hung up, and without thinking, this man, who had put up and taken down up to a dozen stands a year, stepped onto the stand and reached around the tree to jiggle the buckle. At that time, his wife asked him if he needed his safety belt on, to which he very adamantly replied that he didn‚t need it to just take down a stand. As he jiggled the buckle, the strap released and my friend found himself falling headfirst toward the ground 25 feet away. He said he remembered thinking, “I cannot hit on my head.” The next thing he recalled was trying to breathe while his wife was calling the hospital. He had no idea how he and his wife walked out of the woods and got to their home.

The final toll for my friend was bad enough. He suffered a concussion, a break in the big bone in his shoulder, several broken ribs, a fractured leg and torn muscles around his rib cage. After months of treatment and rehab, his knees always gave him trouble. Frequent, severe headaches also bothered him for at least a year. However, he counted himself lucky as the doctors could not believe he walked into the hospital. He should have been in a wheelchair for life or worse. What he learned was to take tree stand safety very seriously.

Following the accident, he then used the best in climbing belts and safety vests. It wasn‚t cheap, but health is something we cannot replace at any cost. Years later, he still had times when he would freeze, stop and regain his composure while going up a tree.

A few years ago, a call to the Muskogee Bone and Joint Clinic informed me that they, on average, treated 12 cases per year of tree stand injuries. Most accidents happen while getting into or out of a tree stand and statistics show a great increase in these occurrences after the age of 40. Technology has come a long way in recent years with tree stands and safety belts/harnesses so that everyone can be secure during the hunting season.

The Tree stand Manufacturers Association website can be found at www.tmastands.com. It offers a free online tree stand safety quiz and other information as well as apps for your phone. Remember, no matter how secret your location, you need to tell someone when and where you hunt. You owe it to your friends and loved ones to come home safe and sound. Don‚t become a statistic.

Reach Kilgore at jkilgoreoutdoors@yahoo.com.