Hunting Alone
 

I have been doing most of my hunting alone for the last several years. The 2 buddies that would go with me have gone there own ways. One is now living in SC and the other is in Afganistan for now. He lives about 1.5 hours away when he isn' t serving our country. But to get to the point, I do most of my hunting alone. Everyone I talk to, says I should' t do that. My response to them is " if I had to wait for someone to go with me, I would never get to hunt" . Well, not as much any how. I was just wondering, how many of you hunt without someone else? I don' t mean someone next to you in the woods, but someone else on the property that knows where to find you when you don' t show up after it gets dark. Someone that has been scouting the woods with you and seen all the differant places that you could be. One of the things that I do is to tell my wife where I will be hunting before I leave the house. This way, she has a general idea of where I should be.

Lets hear your thoughts and perspectives.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone most morning during the week. But in the afternoons i sometims have company and have company most every sat and sunday. I always have a walkie talkie with me and my friends know if im out there or not even if there not hunting sense i park by there house.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

Most of the time I hunt with someone ,but occasionally I hunt by myself When I' m hunting on mine or a neighbors property. That way someone would know where to look if I didn' t make it back . Hunting by yourself and not letting people know where is not the way to go in my opinion .

RE: Hunting Alone
 

i have and will....and im only 16....i dont worry...i know more about survival then most people...and if im in an accident my dad knows where i SHOULD be like you tell your wife....god only knows where i may wander off to....but when im alone i also try hard to use my head and not make a stupid mistake that could leave me out there...i know its still VERY possible...but theres just something about hunting alone...the satisfaction...the peacefulness...being with nature all alone....taking your game knowing you did it all by yourself...you wouldnt believe how great it felt to bag my first turkey alone from scouting to calling to hunting it i did it all and it paid off with a nice long beard all by myself..i do always tell someone where im going....and if im lost i have the proper things to keep me alive and the knowhow if i am ABLE to use it....but injured or sick guys like us are up a creek for a while....tree stands i dont know if i will get in one alone or not....to many things can leave you hurt from a tree stand...ill probally get in one alone sooner or later but not until im comfortable in them(never hunted from them i do just fine from the ground but this year i am hunting from one when im with dad in the same set of woods somewehre) i like hunting alone....

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt by myself majority of the time. I hunt nothing but private land and a lot of our land is spread out in differnt locations and counties. I always leave word which piece of proerty I will be hunting and approx. return time just in case I don' t show up. I have a first cousin that knows the land well and he lives close by so that makes me feel much better just in case something happens. I also carry my cell phone with me (turned off) and I have a two way radio that is able to reach the house from about 20 miles away. -- CDH

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I have hunted by myself for years now. None of my friends take hunting as serious as I do therefor I hunt alone.

In the recent years past I hunted on public land which made all my hunting buddies nervous. Not to mention most of them had their own private leases to hunt on.

My work schedule allows me to hunt durring the week when most others are in the office.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone most of the time. Sometimes my husband comes with me, but he bowhunts and I rifle hunt, so I' m usually on my own. I' ve hunted with my uncles and cousins a couple times, but that pretty much drove me nuts---completely different style. I hunt public land and it' s a pretty huge area, but my husband knows the areas I go to and probably wouldn' t have too hard a time finding me if I ever failed to come home. In October I take off for two weeks, but I always make sure to call home every night to let him know that I' ve made it back to camp safely.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

Alone all the time. Like the rest I tell my wife where I will be.I have a list where my 6 ground blinds are. They all are within 1/2 mile of my home.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

While you have to consider the safety issues , I prefer to hunt alone . The solitude is like a tonic for me after the bustle and noise of work and home , and the only one making noise on stand will be me . The guy who lives there always knows when I' m there since he can see my car , and will have a good idea where I' m hunting .

RE: Hunting Alone
 

When I hunt alone, I just tell my girlfriend which property I' ll be on, and if I don' t show up, she can tell my Dad and he knows all the places to find me.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone about 75% of the time. I feel more comfortable in the woods than I do anywhere else, and the solitude can be very enjoyable. I carry the basic tools for survival with me, and if I need to I know I can stay in the woods until help finds me. I don' t worry about getting lost, but there is always the possibility of getting injured, so thinking ahead is a wise thing to do.

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RE: Hunting Alone
 

Well up until 2 years ago I hunted alone all the time, I still do most of the time, I like it that way. To me it is part of the experience, do not get me wrong, I do enjoy hunting with others, but as others have mentioned there are not many folks that hunt more than 70 days a year, so if I only hunted when someone else could come it wouldn' t be that often.

My twins come with me sometimes, and they both know where my stands are and the property I hunt so if the old man doesn' t come home they would know where to look, I just let them know where I am hunting that day.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

i have always hunted alone since my sons moved on and started their own families.i carry a cell phone with me where ever i go just in case.:)

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I dont mind hunting alone when I have to. I' ve gone at least a dozen times by myself over the years when my buddy had to work or something. I always give my wife and hunting buddy a general idea of when to expect me. If I' m not home by a couple hours after nightfall, my buddy would come looking for me. I dont seem to get as much rest at night when I' m camping alone..seems like I sleep with one eye open all night. And of course it can be tough getting a deer out of the woods along...I did that last year....a solid hour of hard core dragging in the dark...whew! Sore for days after that one!
SC in LR

RE: Hunting Alone
 

That about sums it up for me. About the only exception is when I take my son (age 8) or my brother who doesn' t know much more than my son!

RE: Hunting Alone
 

During bow and black powder season I hunt alone more than with someone.. there are a few days where I will hook up woth a friend or two and go.. during regular gun season it just depends, there are weeks when I dont see another person.. and then there are weeks where I will hunt with a group all week... when hunting alone I usually let my girlfriend and or my parents know where I will be... most of the time my brother knows where I will be.. or the neighbor if hes not with me!!

RE: Hunting Alone
 

All my deer hunting is done solo. But my Wife and I do hunt Pheasants together.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

Well now, I dont feel so bad about going it alone. But here is a little story some of you might find to be an eye opener. Believe me, I sure did.

To start off, I bought into a 1100 acre hunting lease back in Febuary. There are 12 members of the lease, of which only about 7 or 8 have been active so far. Several of us have done some extensive scouting all over the property since well before Turkey season. Needless to say, anyone of us could be anywhere within 1100 acres. I hunted the opener of Bow season with a few of the other guys on the property. We hunt the mornings and evenings and skip the mid day because of the heat. Well, Saturday evening, I was talking with one of the other guys about doing some more scouting in parts of the property where we haven' t been. He was staying at the cabin over night and going to scout Sunday morning. I told him that I would be back Sunday evening to stay the night and hunt Monday and Tuesday. I was expecting to be at the cabin around 3:30-4:00. He said he would be gone by then. After going through a tiff with the wife about staying at the cabin, I finally left home around 4:00. Stopped off for a few essential supplies and finally reached the cabin at about 5:30 or so. Well, to my surprise, my buddys truck was still at the cabin with his 4 wheeler in tow. I walked into the open door of the cabin to find him laying on the couch in a major sweat. He was having trouble breathing and could barely speak between breaths. He was able to tell me that he had been through 2 Heart Attacks in the past and that this one was the worst he ever felt. The first thing was to call 911. That was a fiasco. Neither of us knew the name of the road to the cabin. I tried to give them directions into the place, but that was not good enough. She had to have a name. I even gave her GPS coordinates. Still not good enough. I had to drive down the road to find the name and come back to the yard to get a signal on the nextel. She than told me I would have to meet the rescue squad at the road. So I get back to my buddy to let him know whats happening. He was haveing severly labored breathing. I stayed with him for a few minutes before going out to the road, and tried to check his pulse. It was very irregular. They finally got there and loaded him up within minutes of their arrival. Got him to the hospital and stabilized.

Everything is ok now. But this all goes to show, you don' t have to fall from a stand to be in a bad situation. Be sure that someone knows where you are. We, have a aerial photo on a cork board that everyone is supposed to peg in/out on. This way, if another hunter is out there I will know where he is supposed to be if he does not show up to peg out.

As for my buddy, he was out of the hospital 3 days later and back in the woods 5 days after the heart attack. The doc told him that he could use the walking but not to climb any trees or over exert himself. Talk about a guy with a love for the outdoors..... He knows he was lucky.

By the way, for those of you out there that know you have a heart condition, CARRY YOUR NITRO PILLS WITH YOU. We would all like to see you around to hunt another day.



Smitty

Sorry for the book.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone better than 50% I would guess. My wife knows the general area where I am. Two of my cousins hunt there and know every stand like the back of their hands. I never go without telling the wife which part I' ll be hunting or without my cell phone. If I' m not back in a reasonable time after dark she' ll call my cousins then head to the woods herself. It is not fool proof by any means but then again something terrible could happen if you were hunting with someone. Be safe and good luck.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

These days, practically all of my hunting is done solo. I try to remember to tell my wife which farm I' ll be on, but she wouldn' t know where to begin looking for me.

What' s worse is when I head out to western MD for 2 weeks of spring turkey season. I hunt some pretty rugged terrain and don' t call home but 2 or 3 times a week.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I' m happy your buddy turned out o.k. Smitty, and thanks for telling the story. He of all people should have had somebody with him. If he had the attack out in the woods someplace it could well have ended differently.
Like most others responding to this, I too hunt alone most of the time. It is getting harder every year to find anybody to hunt with. Schedules change, people move and interests change.
There are a few things you can do to insure that you can be found if you do get hurt. Before I write them down, I will admit that I typically don' t follow my own advice many times. Most everybody that responded does the one thing that can help the most, telling somebody where you are going to be. I find that difficult because I may change my mind between leaving the house, and getting to where I am going to hunt and the area I hunt is huge.
When I was in the Coast Guard, we encouraged everybody to " File A Float PLAN" This included telling somebody where you intend to be, an estimated time of return, a detailed description of your vehicle (make, model, color and tag number and any special features. You would be amazed at the number of spouses that do not know the tag number of their husbands/wifes vehicle) For hunters and fishermen, leave a note in the vehicle with a brief message indicating what direction you went when you left the vehicle, the date and time you left and an estimated time of return, this can take a lot of guess work out of a search and rescue effort.

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RE: Hunting Alone
 

Yep that' s me. The two buddies of mine that used to hunt like I do, haven' t spent hardly any time in the woods in the last 5 years. We used to always be out there, all of us. I still go, whether anyone else does or not. Just be sure to let someone know where you are, and when you plan on being back.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I have hunted alone for many years now. Being a shift worker, I get to hunt a lot during the week. Because of this, I am usually the only one on the property.
Back in the days before cell phones, I would go into town a couple of times a week and call home.
I have never had any real problems being in the woods alone. I try to be a little more careful about what I am doing though.
Now days, I have a good friend that works the same shift that I do and he hunts the same club that I do too.
On this lease there is a guy that is retired and owns some land and a camp near our hunting club, so he is usually somewhere on or near the property.
I also carry my cell phone (turned off) and call home after the hunt.
It is nice to have a hunting buddy at camp during the evenings, but I think that it was easier for me to hunt longer and harder when I was alone!

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone almost all the time, mostly on my own 100 acres. As I am retired and my wife also, she knows usually where I will be. She knows where all of my stands are as she helped me build and erect most of them. No place on our land is more than 1/2 mile from the house and I generally don' t stay in the woods more than 4 hours. The wife knows when I shoot, (.35 Whelen) as the other hunters don' t have the report that it has. I have accidently shot 3 times (in the course of hunting) while out there and the wife was checking on me in less than 15 minutes on her 4X4. I have a map of our property with the stands marked and numbered, so she has a good idea where I am. If I am hunting off property, I usually am hunting with others.
Russ

RE: Hunting Alone
 

While I enjoy the company for the ride out/back and reliving the days events with buddies. I tend to do most my hunting solo, even with a group or another guy we are a long ways apart and really don' t know where each other may end up...sure we tell each other approx direction but those plans often change while on route or in chase mode. When hunting alone I leave instruction on where I will be going with my wife and always take a cellphone, 2 way radio, compass, gps, trail marker, matches and so on just incase. Never been to lost or had to spend the night in the bush, my wife doesn' t expect me home until 2 hours after dark knowing I hunt a ways from my truck and that I maybe pursueing an animal or dragging. If I do need more time I will go to the truck and phone home to explain my where abouts and what I am doing, this way she knows I' ll be longer and if I don' t show up as I suggested can send my hunting buddies out after me.

As a solo hunter a certain element of risk must be assumed, but as long as you go fully prepared than it should be no different then going with a buddy. I think it is always good to have another hunting buddy or buddies know where you like to go to be available just in case something should arise.

Good Luck & have a safe season!

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I enjoy hunting on my own. My dad and I tend to argue a lot, which takes the fun out of it sometimes. I tell somebody where I am going, and usually don' t go more than 2 or 3 miles from my truck when I am alone. Last year, I went up on a Friday afternoon by myself. My dad was supposed to be up that night. When I got up there, I ran into another hunter. I ended up talking to him and told him the general area that I would be hunting. In the morning when I woke up, my dad was still not there, but I went out hunting anyway. He had truck trouble on the interstate (about 80 miles from our hunting location by dirt road only and no cell phone reception so I had no idea that he broke down). We were supposed to meet at a certain creek. He got there the next morning and saw the other person I talked too and he said I was out hunting. If there was a problem, by nightfall, they would have come looking, and I had enough supplies to last a few days in a survival situation, so there was no worry. We both know the area and there is a lot of private land around and I stayed within a couple miles of my truck, so no worries. I showed up at noon for lunch to see if my dad made it yet, and there he was. We set up camp and hunted that evening together.
I feel that as long as someone has a general idea as to the area that you will be hunting and you take proper precautions (I have a 16lb survival pack that I carry EVERYWHERE I go) then there should be no problems. Out west here, it may be days before seeing other hunters, and you can be miles (upwards of 50) from the nearest paved road, so you have to come prepared for the worst and train for the best.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I hunt alone a lot. Whenever she can, my wife goes with me. She loves to hunt and loves the outdoors. We camp a lot as well. I much prefer to hunt with her. I had a couple good hunting buddies but they have passed on to that happy hunting ground. Sometimes when I hunt alone I can,t help but feel that they are with me again. Hunting is a happy time overall but its kind of sad as so many of the uncles and cousins I used to hunt with are gone now. Those are some very happy memories as we had a very close family. Good hunting to all of you this season.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

If your really worried GPS units are becoming more affordable use one, get a topo map mark the exact locations on map along with the coordinates leave it at home and if you dont show up they will know EXACTLY where you are.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I usually hunt alone. I don' t know how many times I have had someone say we would me at the gate at this time and then not show up. I wait 15 minutes and if
they don' t show up it' s there loss. You can' t let someone else set your schedule during a season as prestious as this. I believe that if you practice proper safety to the tree, up the tree, and down the tree you don' t have anything to worry about. There have also been days that I would feel like staying on stand after the scheduled meeting time back at the gate. Be safe. Think safe.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

I assume you' re talking deer hunting here since it was in the deer hunting forum. I deer hunt alone about 75% of the time. I love taking my younger bros, but they are all in school and can' t get out nearly as often as I can. I also go w/ friends a lot, but again, sometimes its hard to coordinate a good time.

RE: Hunting Alone
 

Couple of friends have been seriously injured hunting alone but were lucky and survived. They now wear safety belts in their stands.

I often hunt alone but leave word of my intended location and usually check in with the farmer before heading for the woods. I also take a cell phone, and before that a 2 way radio.

I use ladder stands and a full harness safey belt.

I also carry a mini mag flashlight, a few first aid essentials including the large field bandages with the attached tails.

If I' m going to be in a stand, I always tape a small sheath knife to my calf to cut myself loose should I have to.