No pro here I assure you. I'm a just a journeyman who's built them and broke them about every way conceivable, and yet I have never broken one with the step thru method. Never. I just wonder if there is anything to it, or is it just something that got repeated often enough that it has become one of the commandments. I understand that if your not careful things can get twisted up wrongly, that's a given. But just use a little horse sense for goodness sake. You're right bow101, in that a stringer makes stringing one nearly bullet proof. But in lue of that just exercise a little caution. Stumbling and stepping on the limb could be the biggest risk.