SANTA ROSA COUNTY - Deer hunting season opens this Thursday, and hunting experts are urging all hunters take precautions when they track their prey.

This comes after a Pace man fell to his death from a tree stand last weekend.

Channel Three's James Jackson has the story.

Roger Ruryk has been hunting most of his life and never wore a safety harness.

That's until he almost fell 40 feet from a tree stand earlier this year -- twice.

Roger Ruryk/Hunter, "You would think I learned the lesson on the first one and I didn't and the second one almost got me. So after that, I talked to Stan and Stan said you need to be wearing your safety harness. So I went and got a safety harness and I've had it on ever since and won't never go in the woods without it."

33-year-old Anthony Vana was hunting in the Blackwater State Forest last weekend when he fell around 20 feet to his death from a tree stand.

He was not wearing a safety harness.

"Hunting experts recommend you wear a safety harness because if you fall out of a tree stand, it will brake your fall, and ultimately keep you from hitting the ground."

Stan Butler/Mike's Outdoor Sports, "While you're climbing up the tree. When you're sitting and hunting from the tree. When you're climbing down. It should always be connected."

Larrence Inkel has been hunting for around seven years.

He's buying a harness just in time for hunting season.

Larrence Inkel/Hunter, "My brother in law had an experience with one and he said he likes it and he feels safer when in a tree stand and everything with it. So I just figured I'd come in and get one. You know, it's not worth getting hurt or anything."

Wildlife officials say almost 90-percent of hunters hunt from elevated stands.

A fourth of those who fall were injured.

Wildlife officials say hunters should not use old tree stand belts or upper chest straps.

Deer hunting season in the panhandle opens this Thursday and runs through Sunday and then again on December 12th through February 28th.Wildlife Officials Hunters To Be Safer