i am getting an NSInvalidArgumentException with reason: -[UITapGestureRecognizer initWithCoder:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance
my understandin
I think you have a NSCoding compliant object that is deallocated before the crash. The UITapGestureRecognizer is allocated at its address and when the disappeared object (but not its reference) tries to call initWithCoder on itself, it actually calls this method on your gestureRecognizer instead.
Then your problem comes from that deallocated object but not from your gestureRecognizer.
Be sure to retain all your IBOutlet properties.