Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

WARNING: Check your tree stands

Thunderflight

Dignitary Member
17,770
167
Shermans Dale, PA
Yesterday evening I had a bit of a scare.

I hunted a stand I helped a friend hang in 2010. The stand was new, but he left it in the tree and over the past two years the weather played hell on it.

I was hunting for about an hour when that afternoon T-storm rolled in. I debated about riding it out, but when my hunting partner came and got me I took it as a sign from God and decided to get down.

When I stood one of the cables that keep the platform up broke:smiley_deer:...... The other held, but for a minute there it was kinda shaky. I would have been fine because I had on my brand new Gorilla safety harness (great harness and very comfortable BTW). I tried to take the stand down, but it's to corroded and some tools will be needed to get it down. My friend is in college and won't be back until TGiving, but the guy I was hunting with is going to let him and his family know the stand is shot.

The moral of the story is to check your stand out before you climb in it. You never know what could happen.
 

Jackalope

Dignitary Member
Staff member
38,841
260
Yesterday evening I had a bit of a scare.

I hunted a stand I helped a friend hang in 2010. The stand was new, but he left it in the tree and over the past two years the weather played hell on it.

I was hunting for about an hour when that afternoon T-storm rolled in. I debated about riding it out, but when my hunting partner came and got me I took it as a sign from God and decided to get down.

When I stood one of the cables that keep the platform up broke:smiley_deer:...... The other held, but for a minute there it was kinda shaky. I would have been fine because I had on my brand new Gorilla safety harness (great harness and very comfortable BTW). I tried to take the stand down, but it's to corroded and some tools will be needed to get it down. My friend is in college and won't be back until TGiving, but the guy I was hunting with is going to let him and his family know the stand is shot.

The moral of the story is to check your stand out before you climb in it. You never know what could happen.


Good heads up man. Earlier in the season JD told me where a stand was in a fence row... He reminded me to take a couple ratchet straps as the stand had been up a couple years and hadn't been hunted. When I climbed up to the stand and was giving it a good inspection I noticed that squirrels had chewed the tag end of the strap right down to the buckle. And almost had the bottom strap chewed in half.
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,735
274
North Carolina
Always, always reinspect a stand if you haven't been in it for a while..... your life depends on it... Glad too see the Marines taught you good safety practices Major..... :smiley_coolpeace:
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,720
248
Ohio
Where can you get the new steel cables!? I would love to replace some.

I buy plastic coated braided steel cable for some equipment we own. I buy it by the spool. You can buy it by the foot as well. Ace Hardware is where I bought my last spool. I have bought it by the foot there as well.
 

"J"

Git Off My Lawn
Supporting Member
56,735
274
North Carolina
I buy plastic coated braided steel cable for some equipment we own. I buy it by the spool. You can buy it by the foot as well. Ace Hardware is where I bought my last spool. I have bought it by the foot there as well.

The thing about making cables for stands, you need too load test them too make sure they work..... I wouldn't use one that hasn't been load tested.... Isn't worth the risk.... We've made cables at work and we have a load tester and trust me some that look like factory give way, and others that look like they won't hold , work like a champ.....
 

tritonbill

Senior Member
5,126
0
NE Ohio
Found an old thread somewhere for Gorilla customer service and it sounds like if you know the lengths of your cables they will sell you new ones. I would think they would work on any tree stand!
 
Warning::Long winded storyMaybe im the only one that needs this advice im about to give but....Read all assembly an "how to use safely instructions""..I say this because I THOUGHT i knew what i was doing with climbers..I even took a test run to 10 or 12 ft an sat down,pulled bow up ,drew bow..etc etc to get a feel for everything..I had a great feeling about Sunday the oct 30ths hunt..I woke up feeling like TODAY WAS THE DAY...I unpacked the summit viper ultra climber got her hooked up all proper to the tree..Had a Brand new EZ harness an HSS tree rope with prussic knot..Had my water ball hooked to the stand an lost it at 10ft up..Climbed down and got it an back up i went..Slow an steady,meticulous in every way I thought that i could be..I got to 20ft or so up an made sure i had a good bite on the tree..Cinched down my aftermarket stabilizing straps an hauled my pack an my bow up...I put the pack on the hook an put my Z28 in the bow holder mounted to the top section of the ..I then get ready to take a seat in my hazmore sling seat... And the top section lets loose an falls ..I grab it with my bow in the other hand and no where to put it..I was able to get my bow back on the haul rope an back to the ground...I decided I wasnt sure what was wrong but I knew i wanted out of the fucking tree..I climbed down an decided to go home an figure out what was wrong..I thought maybe my choice in species of tree or something else had been the problem..Turns out the 1in strap that i didnt think i needed since i had my stabilizer straps now..That "un-needed strap" is to cinch the teeth part of the top section of the climber to the tree..IS NEEDED...Was i in grave danger?? NO!..Was I almost in panic mode??Damm right.. I will now use that strap for more then to just secure my pack to the climber when hauling it