Explainer

Studies by state wildlife agencies and trauma centres repeatedly find that falls from elevated stands account for more serious hunting injuries than firearm incidents. It is the leading cause of hunting-related hospitalisation in much of the country.

When falls happen

Not, mostly, while sitting. The dangerous moments are climbing up, climbing down, and the transition between the ladder or climbing sticks and the platform.

That transition is where a hunter is most likely to be unattached, off balance, and holding equipment.

The other cluster is equipment failure on stands left in the weather. Straps degrade in ultraviolet light, wood rots, and cables and welds fatigue.

The harness is not the whole system

A full-body harness prevents the fall from being fatal on impact. It does not prevent the fall, and it introduces a second hazard: suspension trauma.

Hanging motionless in a harness pools blood in the legs and can cause loss of consciousness within a period measured in minutes rather than hours. A suspension relief strap — a loop to stand in — addresses this and costs almost nothing.

The complete system is a harness plus a lifeline that keeps you attached from the ground up and back down, so there is no point at which you are unclipped while off the ground.

The rules that reduce it

Three points of contact while climbing. Equipment raised on a haul line, never carried up, and firearms unloaded with the action open while being raised.

Stands inspected before every season, and straps replaced on a schedule rather than when they look bad.

Someone told where the stand is and when you will be back — the same plan discussed in our piece on how search and rescue works.

Where the law touches it

Some states and many public land units regulate stands directly: prohibiting screw-in steps and nails into trees, requiring portable stands be removed at the end of the day or the season, and requiring identification on stands left overnight.

Those rules are about tree damage and abandoned equipment, but the removal requirement also happens to eliminate the stand that has been weathering since last October.

This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed, fact-checked and edited by Leonidas Clark before publication. Hunting regulations vary by state, unit and season; read the current digest before you hunt.