Safety tips for hunting alone?

[Gonzo]

The last 10 years I have done a lot of hunting alone due to work schedule and what not. As I begin to get ready for another day trip to my place tomorrow I began to question weather I’m truly prepared for an emergency while alone in the woods? I know that no matter how much experience you have in the woods anything can happen. How would I call for help? How can I be more proactive?

What do you do to make sure you are safe and prepared in case of an accident or emergency? Snake bite, fall off the stand, accidental shooting, etc?




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[huntressjourney]

The last 10 years I have done a lot of hunting alone due to work schedule and what not. As I begin to get ready for another day trip to my place tomorrow I began to question weather I’m truly prepared for an emergency while alone in the woods? I know that no matter how much experience you have in the woods anything can happen. How would I call for help? How can I be more proactive?

What do you do to make sure you are safe and prepared in case of an accident or emergency? Snake bite, fall off the stand, accidental shooting, etc?




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That’s a really good question. If it were me, I’d likely be screwed. But you def got me thinking. I’m alone a lot of the time and maybe I should be a little more proactive as well.


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[flywise]

You should know exactly how to direct emergency personnel to your location.

[okrattler]

I hunt by myself a lot. I always have my cellphone. I can't comment on the falling out of a tree stand. I don't get in trees. I just hope that if I accidentally get shot or snake bit I can make it back to the truck. To be honest with you there's really not a whole lot I can think of that you can do except be careful. Falling out of the stand would be a bad deal. If you hurt your back you're just there until someone comes along.

So I guess I'd let people know when they can expect to hear from me or see me again. And they'd know where to find me just in case. If you're snake bit walk back to your truck and go to the hospital. If you're shot wrap a shirt or something around the wound and go get help. That's all I'd know to do.

[brianlg31]

Safety tips for hunting alone?

Have set times to check in with a loved one and make sure they know at least the area you will be. My son knows the ranch so I keep him updated as to what I’m doing or going. I also picked 4 different locations that had signal and could land a helicopter, and put the gps coordinates on a business size card and laminated them. All our guys on the lease have one and there is one in each vehicle.



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[panhandlehunter]

I honestly wont hunt alone. Too much work if you kill something.

[Outlaw_6]

Safety tips for hunting alone?

Let someone know where you will be hunting, an expected time of return and a time to “send the Calvary”.

I carry a whistle in my harness which I wear whenever I leave the ground, a tourniquet, a pack or two of QuickClot, and some gauze and bandages in my bag.

[Grndchecker]

I am the only one on my small lease that works shift work. I get to hunt alone during the week especially during bow season. I’m not too far off the beaten path. A two lane FM road is the western edge and I’m never more than a mile from it.
I do think about what could happen. I let someone know which stand I plan to hunt. Just yesterday when most everyone was leaving I had a reminder. When getting in my stand for the evening hunt, I got stung on the end of my middle finger by a wasp. (Better than a scorpion in the boys) I’m allergic to bees and wasps. I did a quick inventory of where my epi pen is and where my Benadryl was. Luckily I had no reaction besides pain.

[Paycheck]

It got me thinking too. Had a ladder kick out from under me with a 50lbs bag of corn on my shoulders. Landed flat on my back. It did not hurt me but if it did it might have been hard to make it to the truck for my phone.

[Bowhuntamistad]

I hunt the backcountry alone, but it applies the same.

I keep a SPOT messenger in my vest pocket, it stays warm so I know the batteries will work and I can reach it in case of an emergency. I also have have a separate organizer on my bino pack that I keep several first aid items like a tourniquet, decompression needle, epi, and other meds I switch around according to time of year and where I'm going. I also keep larger, long term first aid supplies in my pack but the life saving basics on my body. Never solely rely on your cell phone working, have a back up. I make sure I have designated time frames I will call if I find signal or will send an "ok" message on the messenger. Most nights I try to hike up and find a few bars to call home. Let people know where you will be and places you might deviate to if you were to switch spots or try a new place or whatever.

Biggest thing is have a plan and get trained on how to handle things when the poop hits the fan.

[tdwinklr]

Too much reliance on the cell phone by many folks now days and where I hunt, we have spotty service at best. Have read several survival articles and a few books on it to understand what to do but like some have said, I think you'd need a lot of good luck if you fell from a tree and landed on a stump or log or rock, waiting for someone to find you.
Always leery of snakes too since I would have a long hike out, guess I'd try to bleed it out as much as I could or use a suction device to pull some of it out then start walking to the truck.
This is a good thread and for all of us to run different scenarios through our brain then work out what we would do in all of them ... before it happens.

[Gonzo]

I hunt the backcountry alone, but it applies the same.

I keep a SPOT messenger in my vest pocket, it stays warm so I know the batteries will work and I can reach it in case of an emergency. I also have have a separate organizer on my bino pack that I keep several first aid items like a tourniquet, decompression needle, epi, and other meds I switch around according to time of year and where I'm going. I also keep larger, long term first aid supplies in my pack but the life saving basics on my body. Never solely rely on your cell phone working, have a back up. I make sure I have designated time frames I will call if I find signal or will send an "ok" message on the messenger. Most nights I try to hike up and find a few bars to call home. Let people know where you will be and places you might deviate to if you were to switch spots or try a new place or whatever.

Biggest thing is have a plan and get trained on how to handle things when the poop hits the fan.

I need to look into the spot messenger. I do carry a first aid kit, also snake bite kit. Always tell My wife and BIL where I’m hunting and what times they should expect to hear from me. I need to add fall arrest systems to all my stand off the ground, I only have one with a yo-yo right now.

I know there has been several members on here that unfortunately have suffers through that “what if” scenario. Maybe we can have some input on what was learned from it.


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[Hooverfb]

Carry first aid at a minimum, as well as small tools. I try to carry either a small fire starter or lighter in the event i cannot hike out and need to try to signal that I'm out there somehow.

[hooligan]

Biggest thing is have a plan and get trained on how to handle things when the poop hits the fan.

This

A lot of people carry the right gear but don't know how to use it or have never practiced so when you're in a bad situation you're trying to figure it out. I keep a couple different kits that I rotate depending on where I'm gonna be at. In my vest or harness I always have a whistle, tourniquet, phone and some athletic tape

Make sure if you've put together a kit a while ago to go through them periodically, things like medication, quickclot, etc expire

[hopedale]

Was just thinking about this. I've always let the wife know where I was hunting and what time to expect me. But at the end of the day she wouldn't have a clue on who to call and help me if I didn't report in.

I wrote the GPS location of my stand and the cell number of the the Game Warden in the area.

Hunting public, but don't feel i'm in a remote area like the back country of CO, so I've not really worried about first aid kit. But am interested in what others do on this thread that hunt alone.