When I was about 20, I was hunting with a friend on his dad's property for the first time. He pointed out an old ladder deer stand that was chained to a tree, and walked to another. I walked to the stand, and had my .30-06 strapped across my back, with the shoulder strap across my chest. I started to climb the stand, and just reached the top and went to get on the top, when the stand started to pull away from the tree, and the chain came loose. As I was falling backwards I actually thought I'm about to break my back. When I hit the ground, the rifle stock broke into. My friend got there pretty soon (I guess he heard me yell). Luckily the gun was all that was broken, but I don't know how. I definitely am very careful with tree stands now, and always try to make sure that someone knows where I am.