Season has come to a close for most and the time for taking down, cleaning up, and repairing is now before we stack all the stands, put away the hub style blinds, and hang up the equipment that helped us to be safe, secure and successful in the season.

Let’s look at some of the basics we do each and every year to assure safe and successful hunting each season.

Tree stands…..We check all the straps. If it’s been a couple of years, even though we show no stress or fraying on our straps, it’s time to replace.  Really check out all the plastic washers, spacers the manufacture supply and if any of those need replaced do so now. Many of us actually use ratchet straps as well, please check them out and make sure they are made of good quality. Don’t buy those super cheap straps if you plan on using some of them to hold up your stands or climbing sticks….Most only get one chance at living!

 Now’s the time to oil up all moving parts, make sure you check all of the screws, nuts and bolts. If any are bad, REPLACE them now! Also pay close attention to any of the cables or chains that hold the bottom platform on, these are super critical for major support. If you see any stress marks, cables fraying, or anything out of the ordinary on your cables/chains, remove and contact the manufacture for replacement parts.

 Seats, foam pads, or whatever you’re sitting on, when you store them make sure those miserable little mice, squirrels, or chipmunks can’t chew them up. Dryer sheets can help this as can storing them in big plastic sealed containers.

Some may ask why do it now why not wait till its time to put them out next year? I can tell you in all the years we have done this it remains a constant that we are always in a hurry to get our new sets up and just figure they are ready. Don’t be one of those procrastinators, if you take care of all your stands prior to putting them away for the year, you don’t have to worry come time to hang. However, please make the time to inspect the straps again before you hang them, just never know if any mice or other critters got to them on the off season if you had to store it in a open garage or barn.

A while back we bought some of that herculiner product for DIY truck beds and we applied this to our stand platforms and it really made a difference to help quiet things up, eliminate a lot of slippery conditions in late season.

Let us also review our safety harnesses to make sure they are all in great shape, from straps to buckles, from lifelines to carabineers nothing is to go uninspected. We are talking about your life and we ask you don’t take that lightly.

We picked up a bunch of the Plano plastic foot lockers and label each one with the contents, straps, ropes, ratchets, seats, extra bolts, washers, cables, etc. Before heading back out to the field we lay out each set and make sure we have 2 stands, climbing sticks, all straps, lifeline with 2 carabiners, bow rope, camera rope, bow holder, and some small screw in hangers for gear, some marking reflective ribbon or pins. We also attach a Breadcrumb tracker to each set this way if we have a friend coming out all they have to do is follow the App right into the location with the marking ribbons as well. 

Please remember, doing this as you take them down storing them out of the elements not only makes you safer year after year, it also prolongs the longevity of your equipment. This isn’t rock science…LOL, It’s simple basic things to assure safety for years to come.

If you’d like to see a visual representation, go check out our youtube! Click HERE