#XSTAND HARNESS HOW TO#
#XSTAND HARNESS CRACKED#

One morning before daylight, I set up in a hard-barked tree that I had climbed many times before, 12 yards from a commonly used community scrape.

I didn’t have any more tree stand issues until this winter. Those micro-tops are the lightest, quietest and smallest profile, which makes a great solution to accompany any climber bottom for the standing position I need to use my power recurve bows.

The Lone Wolf customer support sent me a brand new Hand Climber top piece as a replacement, which I’ve still been using to this day. It was one scary morning, but at least I didn’t get injured way up in the mountains. I got all banged up against some of the sharp stubs on this dead fir tree, but I was able to crawl safely down the tree. The startling jerk left me dangling from my harness.

#XSTAND HARNESS CRACKED#

The metal top piece cracked completely in half. As I got to the desired height in the dark, more than 20 feet up for a morning elk hunt, I put all my weight on the tiny Lone Wolf Hand Climber top piece to get it securely dug into the tree’s bark. I climbed a tree more than 6 miles deep from the trail head where I was dropped off, alone, by my wife. The scariest moment I experienced happened when I was hunting in Colorado years ago. They can also be homemade for a cheaper solution. Searching the internet for “tree stand safety line” will bring up many pre-made options from which to choose. With a static rope, I can safely climb a tree in a handful of seconds. I tape the carabiner to avoid any metal clanking noises. This knot slides up and down the static rope, but it clinches tight when pressure is pulled from the loop. Then, I use the loop from a prusik knot to attach my harness to a carabiner for fast climbing on future hunts. I use my regular tree strap with the harness to get up for the initial setting of the static line above my stand. However, this is a slower process to keep lifting and adjusting the strap, and I’ve been busted by several deer that came through while making these lengthy ascents.įor a faster solution, when I have trees that I climb often or when setting up a lock-on where allowed on public lands, I set a safety rope high in the tree. I attach a wide strap to the tree that I slide up and down as I climb. I’m constantly on the move every week on various tracts of land, so I use a basic, full-body, lightweight strap harness.

#XSTAND HARNESS HOW TO#

Soon after, I bought my first tree climber and learned how to use the harness that came with the purchase. Not having a clue what a safety harness was, I remember lassoing my boat’s anchor rope around my torso and bungee strapping that climber to the tree for the next hunt, hoping to avoid another roller-coaster ride experience. On one of the first times I used that decades-old, smooth, V-style metal climber, it nearly slid all the way down a tree with me in it. It wasn’t long before I found out that climbing stands could be very dangerous. I was given an old climber from someone’s attic and set off into the woods alone to down a deer. I had to learn how to deer hunt on my own, without guidance. Growing up, I was fortunate not to find out the hard way about harnesses. This year, on my week-long hunting vacation, I had to slide down a tree like a bear not once, but twice, from scary situations where my climbers failed.

Xstand harness