4 start of the firearms deer hunting season. He had driven out to secure the platform to a tree in preparation for the Nov. Lying in his hospital bed, Martinson noted ruefully that the fall occurred as he was trying to make his deer stand safer. It was rare that they were just sitting there looking at wildlife and there was a complete mechanical failure.” “Maybe a little tired, maybe a little groggy, and you can’t see so good and you’re moving. “Most of the folks who fell were … in transition in the morning or at night,” VanWormer said.

He found that injuries were more likely among bowhunters - though that could be because they have longer seasons and therefore more opportunities - and more likely to occur in the morning or night as hunters climbed in and out of their stands.Īlcohol consumption was detected in only one of the fall victims in his study, though only a quarter were tested, given the higher priority of treating their traumatic injuries.

VanWormer’s study wasn’t so dire, but it found that die-hard hunters face a 1 in 33 chance of suffering a debilitating injury from a fall. One survey found that hunters have as much as a 1-in-3 chance of falling from a deer stand at some point in a lifetime of hunting. “They don’t go one year and then they’re done,” VanWormer said.

2017 deer hunting videos