Hunter rescued after upside down ordeal

[rick_reno]

Why I don't climb trees.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10408091/

MOUNT HOLLY, Ark. - A hunter suffered hypothermia and kidney damage after becoming entangled in his deer stand and dangling upside down 30 feet above the ground in sleet for 8½ hours.

Raybon E. Upton was hunting by himself Wednesday when his ankle became caught on the deer stand and he slipped. He was trapped there until about midnight when rescuers called by his wife were finally able to free him.

“I had cooked a big supper and he wasn’t home, then I just got this gut feeling that something wasn’t right. And I went out there and found him,” Tammy Upton said Friday.

Upton was conscious but trapped when his wife found him about 8:30 p.m. and call for help. A firefighter was able to secure him with a rope until a fire crew with a ladder could free him.

Upton underwent surgery on Thursday and had another scheduled Saturday and Monday, his wife said.

“He thought he was going to die there,” Tammy Upton said. “He had made his peace with God and everything.”

 

[Atticus]

That's why I don't climb trees without a safety harness.

 

[bakert]

rick, about a dozen years ago a friend at work fell from a tree stand. Landed on top of his rifle breaking the stock and also his pelvis. Luckily he was found by other hunters who carried him out and to the hospital. Tree stands can be dangerous. I've heard of instances where bow hunters fell on arrows too.

 

[MDHunter]

Tree Stand Accidents.....

.....hurt/kill a number of hunters each Fall, one reason why I always have my Hunter Safety System vest on - of my feet aren't touching the ground, the vest is on and attached to the tree.

Michael

 

[Lennyjoe]

I know first hand how it feels falling 18 feet from a home made tree stand. Landed on my back. Thank God there was no roots and it was on the edge of a swamp. The ground was pretty soft.

Darn wooden home made stand let got when I got to the top of the ladder. The piece I was holding onto let go. Rotten I guess cause it didnt take hardly any weight before letting go. I hit, almost blacked out before catching my breath. Finally convinced myself that I can feel my feet. Got up and walked to the car. Drove straight to the emergency room for x-rays. No broken bones, ruptured spleen or anything. Just alot of sore muscles.

Since then I don't go up into anything home made and definitely don't go up into any tree without a harness.

 

[Kingcreek]

The real problem is gravity. People are all fired up about global warming but it's gravity that's got me worried. There's more of it now than there used to be. How do I know?
40 years ago I could jump higher, run faster, climb trees like a monkey.
Now I use a good quality safety harness.

 

[Cindog]

MDHunter (and anyone else considering a vest style harness),

I'm glad you wear a safety harness but you may want to check out this test (http://www.bowsite.com/bowsite/features/articles/harnesstest/) comparing the Summit Seat of the Pants Supreme and the Hunter Safety System vest. I suppose it is better than the alternative, but the tester actually cancelled the remaining tests on the HSS vest because of the "immediate and intense pain from the crotch strap".

 

[Dean C]

Another idea here is don't hunt alone.
dean

 

[charby]

I have a tendency to fall asleep if I have been sitting in one spot to long while hunting, especially if I am warm from being bundled up. This is the reason why I do not hunt out of a tree stand.

I have hunted one time from a tree stand and really didn't like all that much, I was too concerned about falling out of it even though I was tied in with a safety harness.

I have shoot all my deer from the ground, either by waiting for them on a active trail, stalking them or jumping them out of beds. I have done this with a bow, shotgun and muzzleloader, so I really don't sit to well with the tree stand theory. Many times I have watched mature deer constantly looking up in the trees as they walk through the woods.

Charby

 

[sturmruger]

My favorite part about stand hunting is that I can get a nice nap in. I like to get to my stand about 5:30am during rifle season. This gives me at least an hour of nap time before I need to wake up and start hunting. I would say about 50% of the time I wake up with deer within sight. I have a portable stand that kind of reclines and gives me a lot of side to side support.

I always hunt with a buddy so I am not worried about getting hung up.

 

[shermacman]

Kingcreek is on to something. There is more gravity today than when I was young. Bush and Rove have increased it to generate more profits for Haliburton. We are all suffering because of their greed.

Next post will be about "di-hydrogen oxide" the killer chemical compound!

 

[belton-deer-hunter]

this is going to sound stupid but it happened to me last year first i was getting into an elevated box stand when one of the steps boke and sent me crashing to the ground luckly two or three 2x4's broke my fall. (these were all broke by my neck) nice and intresting trip to the hospital lol. next in the same year i was picking up the just killed doe on my own and pulled a muscle in my back. but i am still out there doing what i love to do. for some reason i think it is a disease or something once you catch it there is no cure.

 

[scout26]

Kingcreek is on to something. There is more gravity today than when I was young. Bush and Rove have increased it to generate more profits for Haliburton. We are all suffering because of their greed.

Next post will be about "di-hydrogen oxide" the killer chemical compound!

Nah, it's the Democrats are behind the "more gravity" conspiracy, because it reduces the number of hunters.

Di-Hydrogen Monoxide (The correct chemical name, more often referred to as simply DHMO) kills more kids each year then guns (FACT: per the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Report).
I heard that there was actually only one town that had the "courage" to ban di-hydrogen monoxide. (*) I think all the blissninnies need to move there.

For More info about the dangers of Di-Hydrogen Monoxide:
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html







(*) edit: found the link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihydrogen_monoxide

 

[shermacman]

It is worse than I thought. Originally, I posted it as "di-hydrogen oxide". I was wrong. The correct name is "di-hydrogen monoxide". Cheney must be involved, too.
Much worse.

 

[birddog]

I always wear my harness (HSS vest) but there is always that moment of detaching from the tree, and stepping down onto (in my case) screw-in treesteps. Anything can happen from there on down. I don't have anything attached to the tree as I'm ascending / descending. I am not against a climbing harness just have not figured out a good way to go up or down a tree while attached that wouldn't make the climb even more precarious.

 

[Cindog]

Birddog,

For fixed stands, we use a long piece of climbing rope tied off above the stand and then run it all the way down to the bottom. We then use ascenders to connect to the climbing rope; that way, we are connected from the time we set foot off the ground.

 

[Lupinus]

I hate hights (should see me climbing up a ladder onto a roof or something....its so funny I laugh at myself once I'm done being scared to death) so deer stands aren't on my wish list. That and I have heard many stories of people falling out and stuff.

One of the worst I heard was a guy that fell out and landed near a fire ant nest. He broke something so he couldn't even crawl out but was awake. It took 30 something hours to find him and by that time the fire ants had done quite a bit of stinging and biting.