Deerstand Safety

When building a deer stand, putting up a metal store-bought deerstand, or even fastening a safety harness, you should follow this very important rule:

One failed fastener should never result in an accident!

So for ladder rungs, you should have a minimum of two fasteners per side.

One failed support should never result in structure failure!

On structural components, have multiple supports in your design. In the photo shown left, there is both a diagonal support and the tree fasteners. In the photo below, you can see that the deck is supported by both fasteners and a diagonal support from below.

Never rely entirely on brittle hardened fasteners!

Pole barn spikes and hardened screws are popular for building deer stands, but never rely on them entirely for holding up a structure! They will, without warning, shear off!. Instead, use galvanized nails in combination with the hardened pole barn spikes and screws. What I like to do is initially fasten components with deck screws and a driver and then add the galvanized nails. With a combination of the fasteners, you will get the convenience and holding power of screws and spikes and the bend-but-not-break qualities of the softer nails.

Keep your stand from tipping!

If you have a free standing deer hunting platform, you will need to provide enough support to keep it from tipping in high winds. In the stand shown on the left, the diagonal supports make this stand stable in high winds. In addition, you can, as illustrated here, stake down the ends of the supports to make this stand stay upright to all but a full force tornado!

If your stand is against a tree, it is a good idea to have an additional support or two. In my elevated box stand, my stand is partially supported by the ladder attached to it, has 4 legs, and if you look closely I have multiple fastening points to the tree that include side braces.

And, of course, a dead tree fastened to your stand becomes a liability. So only fasten to a live tree. Besides the danger of the dead tree breaking at the bottom, there is a danger of branches and limbs from above falling without warning.

Inspect your stand annually! Use only treated wood.

It should go without saying but you should always use pressure treated wood. Even so, pressure treated wood, in a damp environment will eventually rot. So inspect your stand annually. Replace or reinforce components or fasteners as needed.

Use a quality safety harness!

If you fall from 32 ft your speed upon hitting the ground will be around 30 MPH! And from only 10 ft it will be close to 17 MPH. That is like being thrown out of a moving car into a solid wall! So use a quality harness, not one that will strangle you as some have been known to do.

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