FALLING PREY: HUNTERS IN STANDS NEED TO TAKE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS

MAYWOOD, Mo. -- On a frosty morning in late October of 1983, 36-year-old Mike Schnitzer arose in the dark, dressed in camouflage clothing, collected bow and arrows and drove a mile and a half to one of several tree stands he had placed around Lewis County. He climbed nine feet up to his stand and, as he slipped an arrow onto his bowstring, noticed he wasn't feeling well.

"I started feeling sick to my stomach and lightheaded," recalls Schnitzer "I thought, `If I don't get to feeling better, I better get down and go home.' Next thing I knew, I was laying face down on the ground. I reached back and slapped myself on the leg and I couldn't feel anything. I knew immediately what was wrong."

What was wrong was that Schnitzer had several crushed vertebrae. That's when he realized that he had neglected to tell anyone where he would be hunting. Help eventually arrived, but it was too late to save Schnitzer from being paralyzed from the waist down.

Spring turkey hunters must take care not to let other hunters mistake them for game. Firearms deer hunters have to keep a sharp lookout to ensure that they aren't caught in other shooters' line of fire. But for archery deer hunters, the biggest worry is gravity.

The nature of their sport makes archers less susceptible to the kinds of dangers that other hunters must guard against. The need to get very close to their quarry and place their shots carefully makes misidentification of targets and "line-of-fire" injuries extremely rare among archers.

Furthermore, long bows don't "go off" accidentally as firearms can.

But archers face different hazards because they spend so much time climbing trees and sitting in tree stands during the three-month-plus archery deer hunting season. Every year, Missouri bow hunters fall from high places. Many are injured; some are crippled. A few die.

It was only good luck -- if you can call it luck -- that spared Schnitzer's life. Doctors told him that he most likely passed out and fell from his tree stand because of low blood sugar. He had gone straight from his night-shift job in a steel foundry to bed, then went straight from bed to the woods, without a bite of breakfast. He might have died instantly of spinal injuries after his fall. He probably would have perished from hypothermia if he had not been found shortly before dark the same day he fell.

"I made every mistake I could possibly have made," says Schnitzer. "Not eating right, no safety harness, not telling anybody where I was, going hunting alone, not getting down as soon as I knew I wasn't feeling good."

Hindsight makes it easy for Schnitzer to see his mistakes, but he has plenty of company. Reliable information about tree-stand accidents is scarce. The Missouri Department of Conservation defines a "hunting accident" as a mishap involving the discharge of a rifle, shotgun,pistol or bow and arrow. Since falls from tree stands fall outside this definition, they don't show up in the state's hunting accident statistics. But studies of bow hunting accident accounts show that falls are the leading hazard for archers. Such studies also provide information that can help bow hunters avoid Schnitzer's fate, or worse.

More than 2,300 readers of Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine responded to a survey the magazine conducted in 1993 to gather information about tree-stand mishaps. One third of the respondents said they had taken spills while hunting. Of those who had fallen, fewer than one in five said they had taken the easiest and most effective measure to avoid injury -- wearing safety belts or harnesses.

Three percent of readers reported suffering crippling injuries in their falls. Others reported injuries ranging from minor cuts to crushed vertebrae and punctured lungs. Most of those who were wearing safety harnesses when they fell reported nothing worse than scrapes and bruises. Their safety tethers halted their falls,allowing them to make safe exits to the ground.

Interestingly, fewer than one-third of the magazine survey respondents who reported falls were sitting on their stands when they fell. Nearly three-quarters said they fell when climbing up to or down from stands or while entering or exiting their stands. Yet, more than 80 percent of respondents in the magazine survey said they rarely or never wore safety belts when ascending or descending tree stands.

Not that wearing a safety strap is a guarantee of safety.

A quarter of those in the magazine survey who said they were wearing safety belts when they fell still suffered serious injuries. Belts that are poorly designed or worn improperly can actually contribute to injury or death. Wearing a belt around the abdomen impairs breathing when the wearer's full weight is suspended from the strap. Straps or ropes that cinch tight when the wearer's weight comes down on them are even more likely to cause internal injuries or death by suffocation.

The U.S. Air Force ran tests in which volunteers were suspended from safety belts. Some began losing consciousness after only 30 seconds; none stayed conscious more than four and a half minutes. Volunteer swearing chest harnesses began blacking out after anywhere from one to 13 minutes. Those wearing full-body harnesses like parachute harnesses lasted five to 30 minutes.

For greatest benefit, safety tethers should be worn under the armpits. Models that spread the hunter's weight over a wide area by means of a chest harness are less likely to impair breathing, but all do so to some extent.

Schnitzer has adapted to paraplegia, changing his vocation to gunsmithing and learning to hunt from places he can reach by wheelchair. Last year he settled for killing a 10-point buck during firearms deer season,after a bigger deer eluded him during the early part of the archery season. But he offers the following tips to help other hunters keep all their physical capabilities.

*Prepare yourself to hunt. Eat before you go, and take food to sustain you through the day.

*Prepare for an emergency. Tell others where you will be. Hunt with a partner if possible. Carry an air horn, walkie talkie, strobe light or other means of signaling for help. Take matches, a vacuum bottle of hot beverage and a reflective survival blanket to keep warm in case you are stranded outdoors overnight.

*Check your stand and steps every time you use them to be sure they are in good repair and that there are no loose parts.

*Wear a safety harness every moment possible when you are off the ground. Even short falls can be devastating.

*Do a dry run mounting your tree stand and using your safety harness at ground level before trying the real thing.

*When on your stand, shorten the tether so it is only long enough to permit necessary movement. The impact that results from falling several feet before reaching the "end of your rope" can cause serious injury.

*Don't try to hang a portable tree stand in the dark on opening day. Find a suitable tree in daylight and put the stand up ahead of time.

*Read and follow all instructions that come with your stand.Don't replace factory parts with substitutes. They may not provide the same strength and safety.

*Secure all stands with safety straps or chains before standing on them.

*Don't use a tree stand when you are tired or under the influence of alcohol or medication that impairs judgment or reflexes.

*Mount screw-in steps so the vertical bar is flush with the solid surface of the tree. Make sure they are screwed into solid, live wood.

*Don't rely on branches for handholds or steps. They can be rotten inside without showing it on the outside.

*Keep your hands free while climbing, and don't overbalance yourself with backpacks, fanny packs or shoulder bags. Pull your bow and other equipment up with a haul rope after you are on the stand and wearing your safety harness.

*Be as cautious with a tree stand as you would be with a firearm.Think about the effects of all your actions and act deliberately to avoid trouble.

*Climb down from your stand before you grow sleepy or the weather turns bad.

*Don't leave equipment on the ground directly under you while climbing. You could fall on an arrow or other item, worsening injury from the fall.