VIDEO: Tree Stand Safety For Hunting Season

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Bow season just opened this past Saturday; hunters are already heading to the woods to scout the best locations for their tree stands..

Experts want to urge them to make sure their equipment is up to date to insure safety.

“The biggest safety or accident deal we see here is hunters just not wearing safety harness,” says Sports Center’s Hunting Center Manager Slade Fancher.

Hunters have a variety of choices in safety equipment, but year after year many are injured in the woods.

“They have a couple different safety harnesses that are pretty minimal for this time of year when the weather’s warm, hot outside don’t want something real big and bulky,” says Fancher.

Often times hunters will climb more than 12 feet up a tree, so deer will not see or smell them. That’s why Fancher says put the harness on before the climb.

“A lot of guys will use their safety harnesses when they get up in the tree stand but if you do that you’re not protected from the ground up. So the lifeline made by hunter safety system will also allow you to be protected from the ground up,” says Fancher.

Fancher says you should also remove the stand at the end of the season.

“As the tree grows and expands then the cables and chains and all get weak or get tight and sometimes you can’t see those weak points so it’s always a good idea to take it down at the end of the year and put it back up the next fall,” says Fancher.

If you’re unsure if your stand is secure, you can bring it in to a hunting center to have them look at it.