So last Saturday was supposed to be rainy and I decided to just stalk hunt. Stay on the ground, move often but very slowly, and grunt every couple hundred yards. I even let it get shooting light before I left the truck. For this reason I didnt wear my harness. After about an hour I had made it to a climber I hung in late summer in a spot where I knew a big boy was working at the end of last season. It was not raining at all and the winds were not 15+ like the forecast so I decided to climb. I realized, no harness, but thought I would only climb 10ft or so. On the way up there was a small tree blocking my view so I went higher and ended up about 16-18ft. Was as careful as possible. This was an old climber that I knew was gonna need some work done on it soon but I got seated with no issues. About 8am in one long ripping sound the seat left me and there was nothing under my arse but air and opportunity. Luckily this stand had the rail in front and I caught myself with my arms. If it was an open-shot style I may have been in trouble. I nearly Sharted down both legs. I put a video on the book of faces about it warning my fellow hunters to be careful. My middle daughter is 16 and I bought a HSS harness when she was little. I think this is the 1st time I can remember climbing (maybe 2nd) since she was born without a harness. Dumb on my part to climb, dumber to not to do the maintenance on the stand like I should have. New cables are ordered and new seat will be installed, & no more climbing w/o a harness for me. Stay safe boys and good luck!

It can happen quick and when you least expect it even if you are being as careful as possible.

I didn't have a story on the original thread but I've got one for the Almost thread. I've hunted on the same land now for 40+ years. When I first started and old dentist hunted there too (RIP, Dr. Tom). We had only a few days back then to kill does during the Doe Days so we shot them then without much thought. One morning Dr. Tom came back visibly shaken. He said that he was walking down a road we have towards the property line that back then had a hunting club on the neighboring property. We used to love when they ran dogs, but those are stories for another thread. Anyways, Dr. Tom was walking down the road when he saw the back of a deer in the Sedge heading toward the property line. All he could see was the back as the Sedge was about 2 1/2 feet tall. He knew it was deer and since does were legal, he was going to shoot it when he got an opportunity for a chest shot. He really didn't want to shoot a young buck but he got a good rest on a tree and figured he had enough back showing to make a kill shot when he was ready. As the deer eased towards the property line he followed it in his scope. Then when it got about 100 yards from the line, a man stood up and took off running for the line. He was wearing a tan brown coat and no Orange. One of the hunting club members just had to see if the grass was greener and was doing some piddling a couple hundred yards on us. Dr. Tom was really shaken about how close he came to shooting that man. What we knew of it was that Tom like to shoot so he didn't hold back too often, so we were amazed he didn't shoot.

Almost - Crossing a creek on a log, in a privet thicket. Probably a 15 foot span on a wet log that had thick privet covering both ends. Started across the log, concentrating on not falling into the water when a privet limb snagged my rifle sling. Proceeded to continue moving and finally got the sling free as the barrel is now pointed at my stomach. When I stopped to adjust, I noticed that one of the limbs has pushed my safety off and I had a loaded 30.06 with a light trigger pointed right at me. Not sure how a limb didn't get caught on that trigger. Still think about how close I came to being found dead in a creek of a self inflicted gunshot wound. Remember muzzle discipline at all times and always, always, always, make wise decisions like not crossing a creek or fence with a loaded weapon.

Was driving my 4-wheeler out of the woods one night and as normal unloaded my rifle and put the cartridges in my pack which was strapped to the back rack of the wheeler. It was a long, cold ride out and the last 1/2 mile was on a county gravel road. Not long after I made it to the gravel I heard a gun shot that was almost deafening. We’d had problems with road hunters and that was my first thought. Within a second or two there were 3 more shots, again so loud my ears were ringing. For a brief second I thought someone was shooting at me and I went WOT on the wheeler. Suddenly I turned around to look behind me and saw my pack had slipped through the rack of the wheeler and was dangling there against the 4-wheeler’s muffler. The pack had a big hole in it where rifle cartridges had exploded. Not really thinking I grabbed the pack real quick and just slung it off into the woods.

I rode the final 1/4 mile to our camp trying to process what had just happened. I was shook no doubt and as others have said luckily didn’t mess myself. For a few minutes I was thankful I wasn’t shot, but after thinking it through a little realized that wasn’t really a possibility. I did go back a little while later to pick up my pack which was ruined along with pretty much everything else that was in it. The plastic grunt call I had in there was almost completely melted. Lesson learned…

I was hunting out of a climber one morning and decided I would climb down and do a little slipping around on foot. I attached my string to the sling of the rifle and started lowering it down... while still loaded. That wasn't my usual habit and I have no idea what made me do it that day, but I did. And wouldn't you know it, from about 25' up the knot gave way and the gun began to fall towards the ground...

Barrel up.
Loaded.
Falling fast with nothing but hard ground waiting on it.

I remember watching it fall in what seemed slow motion. Trapped facing the tree and with nowhere to go, I pulled myself as close to that big pine as I could and braced for the worst. At some point I opened my eyes realizing that nothing happened. And I have never climbed up/down or raised/lowered another loaded gun since that day.

A man I used to hunt with in Clarke County during the late 80's climbed a wooden stand with his A5 Magnum Browning. He always carried the shotgun and had no use for a rifle even in those open hardwood bottoms we loved so much. One morning as he was bored and sleepy he dropped the A5, buttstock first, from the tree. When it hit the ground it went off slinging buckshot into the air very close to him. He was watching the gun as the recoil from the shot launched the gun into the air turning it several flips in the process. It only went off the one time it hit the ground but he was very shaken by the experience and it woke him up real quick. This incident was talked and laughed about for years to come.

There is a long stretch of road on some land I hunt in Dallas County. I was walking down that road one day about 1000 and saw someone in a tree about 400 yards ahead of me. I wasn't going to walk up on him as there was a turn off road about 50 yards ahead I had planned to walk down. A cowhorn spike stepped out in between him and I and he commenced to open fire. I had plenty of orange on. He had to have seen me. I heard the ricocheting bullet before I heard the report of the gun. I dove for cover. He fired 3 more times. I made a straight line to the truck. Got in the truck and went looking for that guy. He up and disappeared. It is a bad feeling getting shot at.

When I was a teenager, what I wanted most was a tree lounge. A friend of my dads had one and let me hunt out of it one afternoon. It was on a sweetgum. I climbed up about 20', then as I was turning around, the stand slipped and the stand skint the bark on the tree about 15' down and when it caught, I fell back into the footrest and got stuck. It took a full 30 minutes to get myself unstuck. That was the last time I used a tree lounge. A few years later I had the same thing happen in an old man but was only 10' off the ground when it decided to set loose from the bark. I'll only hunt out of a cougar claw or summit nowadays.......and always wear a safety harness.

This was probably 20 yrs ago, but I had got done hunting and unloaded my Browning BAR and tied it on to my rope to lower it. My normal procedure was to unload it and stick the magazine back in the gun. Well, as soon as I started to let the gun down the knot gave way and like yours, my gun went down barrel up. The butt hit the ground with so much force the bolt slid back and loaded a live round, then fell over. It didn’t fire but my life flash before my eyes that day. I haven’t climbed in over 10 yrs, but to this day when I unload the shells go in my pocket regardless of the type gun I’m carrying.

But, but, but, that old woman said that a Tree Lounge could never slip.