The stop / lock button which locks poles together is missing from one of the pole sections of my mates poles. He doesn't normally use all of his poles, so normally it doesn't matter, but today he used all of his poles.
All was OK putting the decoys in place. Recovering the decoys was a different matter. On one of the highest decoys the counterweight came down leaving the decoy in the twigs. He attempted to nudge it out with an up and down movement of the poles. During that process the top 4 poles became disengaged from the pole in his hand. The joined 4 poles dropped vertically some 6 feet into his bottom lip. A real mess. Massive cut and blood. If there was a good side it didn't break his teeth and,more importantly, it didn't drop into his eyes!!
At the time of posting this he's sat in the local casualty unit requiring micro stitches.
Thought I'd post this as a lesson learned and a cautionary tale for PW members that the stop buttons are there for a reason.