ABC's of Tree Stand Safety

September is Tree Stand Safety Awareness Month and Bear Archery has been a long-standing supporter of tree stand safety and the Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation. Promoting safe tree stand and saddle hunting practices is important to help ensure all our great customers come home safe to hunt another day. 

For many, the start of that season is an early archery season. With that in mind hunter’s place their trail cameras throughout their hunter areas trying to locate target deer for the upcoming season. They also start thinking about strategic tree stand and/or saddle placement based on what the primary food source(s) will be for their area as the season starts. Hunting from an elevated position is a crucial strategy that many bow hunters use to get an advantage and tip the scales of success in their favor.

Hunting with tree stands and saddles are a safe and highly effective means for hunting whitetail deer along with other species. However, every year there are hunters (archery and firearms) that have falls from tree stands and saddles because they weren’t following some basic safety principles causing injuries and in a few cases death. The Tree Stand Safety Awareness Foundation has developed the ABC’s of Tree Stand Safety and the ABC’s of Hunting Saddle Safety to keep these safety principles simple and help ensure you come home safe to your family and friends. 

“A” stands for Always remove and inspect your equipment prior to use. Tree stands, saddle platforms, and climbing aids are not designed to be left in the woods from season to season. You should inspect all your equipment including your stand(s), climbing aids/ladder systems, full-body harness, saddle, ropes, and straps being used. You should inspect the nuts, bolts, straps, ratchets, cables, and safety ropes for any signs of deterioration, wear, cuts, and don’t forget to check your full-body harness to ensure it has not expired and is not damaged. If you find something that is missing, damaged or showing signs of wear, immediately take it out of service and reach out to the manufacturer to get replacement parts. Lastly, practice at ground level with your equipment.

“B” stands for the Buckle on your full-body harness, or your hunting saddle every single time before you climb. Full-body harnesses must be used any time you’re hunting from a tree stand (ladder, climber, or hang-on) and a hunting saddle when hunting from a saddle platform. A hunting saddle should never be used in place of a full-body harness when hunting from a tree stand.  Today’s full-body harnesses and saddles are easy to use, light weight, comfortable, and come with different options to suit your style of hunting. You must wear a full-body harness any time you’re hanging a stand, checking a stand, practicing from a stand, hunting, or taking a stand down. It’s important to practice with your harness or saddle to give you confidence in the stand or saddle platform in making the shot when the moment arrives.

“C” stands for Connect before your feet leave the ground. Whether you are using a full-body harness or a hunting saddle, they are just another piece of clothing if it is not connected to the tree.  It’s somewhat like jumping from a plane with a parachute but never pulling the cord. For the harness and saddle to work properly, you must be connected to the tree 100% of the time with either a linesman belt/rope, tree strap, tree tether, or a rope safety line.  This includes installing and taking down your hunting set-ups, climbing up and down to your stand or saddle platform, while hunting, and practicing. When seated in your tree stand ensure your tether does not have slack in it to minimize the drop distance if a fall should occur and increase your ability to self-recover/rescue. With saddles it’s important to have the tree tether at the appropriate angle above the level of bridge attachment point. Lastly, slow down during the ascending and descending phases. This is typically when a slip or loss of grip is most likely to occur.

“D” stands for sharing your Destination. None of us ever think we’re going to have a medical emergency or get injured while hunting and in some situations every minute counts. This is why it is extremely important to share your hunt and stand location with your hunting partners and/or a family member prior to the hunt. Using one of the hunting apps, a printed map or some other method will help make it easier for rescuers to find you in an emergency. You should always carry a signaling device such as a whistle on your person as cell phones don’t always work in remote locations. The time saved by letting others know where to look for you in an emergency can mean the difference between life and death.

Practicing the ABCs of Tree Stand and Hunting Saddle Safety will help ensure you come home safe to your family and friends. Fore more information on the ABCs go to www.treestandsafety.org and click on the resources page.