Who Hunts By Themselves?

I hunt more often than not by myself. One reason why I like Dove hunting so much as its "the more the merrier" type hunting.

I have more concern mowing now a days. Little more than a decade ago I would have been thrown from one of our tractors had it not been for my legs hitting the steering wheel and stopping my momentum. Would have been less than ideal to get caught up in the PTO or mowed over.

Nothing that "exciting" has ever happened while I was hunting and unfortunately I spend more time on a tractor than I do hunting.

jmorris said:

I have more concern mowing now a days. Little more than a decade ago I would have been thrown from one of our tractors had it not been for my legs hitting the steering wheel and stopping my momentum. Would have been less than ideal to get caught up in the PTO or mowed over.

Nothing that "exciting" has ever happened while I was hunting and unfortunately I spend more time on a tractor than I do hunting.

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Tractors and hilly or irregular terrain are a dangerous combo.

About 6 years ago my grown son was bow hunting with a buddy a hundred yards away. He was 18-20 feet up in a climber, Hooked up his safety harness (not) in the dark. He evidently leaned out expecting the harness to hold him and fell on his head. His buddy found him bloody and dazed walking around in the woods. There were some lower branches that evidently broke his fall. He didn't fall on an arrow or a sharp stick or cypress knee either!!! As luck would have it no brain doctors were on call so he had to be taken a couple hours away to get checked out. He has no lasting injury but that fall could have been deadly. He has not bow hunted much since then but he is raising a young family and doesn't have a lot of free time.

Take home message use a safety harness in a tree stand and be dam sure you clip it on correctly.

Bull

jmorris said:

I hunt more often than not by myself. One reason why I like Dove hunting so much as its "the more the merrier" type hunting.

I have more concern mowing now a days. Little more than a decade ago I would have been thrown from one of our tractors had it not been for my legs hitting the steering wheel and stopping my momentum. Would have been less than ideal to get caught up in the PTO or mowed over.

Nothing that "exciting" has ever happened while I was hunting and unfortunately I spend more time on a tractor than I do hunting.

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I've heard of folks being tossed and run over by a shredder. Gives me chills thinkin' about it. I think I'll stick with my Cub Cadet and let the farm boys play with the real thing.

I have a cousin that has 7 lives , he was plowing and fell of the tractor and the tractor ran over his head . The ground was so soft it didn't hurt him . He was also hit by a train in his car and didn't get hurt .

your not alone. I used to hunt alone all the time until I sustained a work injury to my leg several years ago and now if I go alone its close to home. I used to go every weekend 1.5hrs from home and hunt but I had cell service. I once drove 3hrs one way alone with a truck full of camping and hunting gear cause everyone backed out of me at the last minute so I got pissed and decided to go alone. This was a very bad idea as I got there and after I got my bearings it dawned on me I was going to be camping in the middle of the Appalachian mountains alone for a week alone! I tore down camp and headed for town 30min away and got a hotel and the next morning I headed for my spot and in a hurry I forgot my orange vest in the truck so I had to turn around and head back to get the vest and decided I would take a shortcut and head down the hill. well I slipped and slid about 50yards on my butt down a steep hill and said screw this and when I got to the truck I just went home 3hrs away. I never did that again.

I carry a concealed handgun anytime I'm in the woods. You never know who or what you could encounter and I want to be ready. fullsize handgun with 3 mags, emergency whistle, knife, and full battery cell phone. You want to talk paranoid. I wear green cargo pants and some sort of green or dark shirt and a hat incase I have to bug out when in the woods scouting or hiking.

I used to enjoy just being alone and no one to bother me but now I'm afraid of my leg acting up and me being stranded and I'm also a little overweight so if I do the rugged public land hunts I take someone with me. If I'm around home I got alone unless invited to a buddies farm.

Bull Nutria said:

About 6 years ago my grown son was bow hunting with a buddy a hundred yards away. He was 18-20 feet up in a climber, Hooked up his safety harness (not) in the dark. He evidently leaned out expecting the harness to hold him and fell on his head. His buddy found him bloody and dazed walking around in the woods. There were some lower branches that evidently broke his fall. He didn't fall on an arrow or a sharp stick or cypress knee either!!! As luck would have it no brain doctors were on call so he had to be taken a couple hours away to get checked out. He has no lasting injury but that fall could have been deadly. He has not bow hunted much since then but he is raising a young family and doesn't have a lot of free time.

Take home message use a safety harness in a tree stand and be dam sure you clip it on correctly.

Bull

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Thank God there was someone near by. Like you say, give your harness a good hard pull.

“...outside somewhere… alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.” Anne Frank

Jokingly, two years ago our oldest grandson forbid me from going pheasant hunting by myself on Thanksgiving Morning anymore. My going “pheasant hunting” alone, on Thanksgiving Morning is a nearly 40-year old tradition. I not really hunting, and I seldom even come home with a pheasant. Without getting too preachy, every Thanksgiving Morning I just get out in the hills with my shotgun, sometimes a dog, wander around, and “give thanks.” While I’m out wandering around, my wife (the best cook in the world) prepares Thanksgiving Dinner for the family – our daughters, their spouses and our grandsons. They all show up in the early afternoon, usually just before I come home.

Anyway, my Thanksgiving Morning pheasant hunt 2 years ago was a disaster. I managed to slip in the mud going down a hill. I fell, broke my right ankle in 3 places, and put a spiral break up my right fibula. I had a cell phone, but I was afraid I’d scare my wife if I called for help. So I just unloaded my shotgun and kind of used it for a walking stick to get back to the truck – it was only a couple of hundred yards. And no, I didn’t shove the muzzle in the mud. I sat the buttstock in the mud and hung onto the barrel. Then I drove home, about 5 miles.

Well, there went the “not scaring my wife” thing. As soon as I hobbled into the house, she and our son-in-law put me back in the truck and hauled me to the hospital in Pocatello. They x-rayed my leg and ankle, then called in an Orthopedic Surgeon who I took an instant dislike to – that jerk chewed me out for interrupting his Thanksgiving Dinner because, as he put it, “You didn’t have enough sense to not go hunting on Thanksgiving.” Besides, all he did was splint my leg clear to my crotch and tell me to keep it elevated. He didn’t operate on it until a week later.

When he finally did operate, he put some screws and metal plates in there, all of which had to be removed in another operation two months later. And he assigned me to 4 months of Physical Therapy. Because my wife was still working (not retired) then, our oldest grandson usually drove out to the house after school to haul me back into town for doctor and Physical Therapy appointments. When all was said and done, he told my wife that she wasn’t to allow grandpa to go hunting by himself on Thanksgiving Morning anymore.

I mostly hunt alone and occasionally with one other person, my best friend since college days. I'm 70 years old now and much prefer alone unless my buddy is available. I just returned from a 3 day solo prairie dog shoot where I roamed large prairies of NW Kansas. My best day was sitting atop a hill overlooking several miles of prairie while munching a snack and drinking a beer; this followed by a snooze. Also love roaming squirrel woods with my favorite 22 and lots of solitude. Now for deer I prefer a partner. Wrestling a dead deer alone can be more work than I care to do. I hunt out of a blind; don't really like tree stand hunting. I've had numerous invitations to go on large group hunts for pheasants and hogs.........no thank you.

MCgunner said:

One of the reasons I love hunting doves, other than I prefer wing shooting to the ONE shot per year most deer hunters get.. Heck, I can burn through 5 boxes in a 3 day hunt with my buddy. We sit and chat and watch for doves.

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Lucky you. I can burn up 5 boxes in one day. I saw one guy empty his gun and yell, "Go on you little devil. If the world is round you will be back in five minutes."

I'm going to HAVE to dove hunt with my buddy and, hopefully, his boy this year. I have to go until my birthday November 1 before I get medicare and I can get this cataract problem fixed. Last year, I didn't know about it, and Chris, Larry's boy, would say, "there's one to the right of that mesquite". Me, "what mesquite"? I can see 'em when they're in range, but it's nice to be ready.

Dang I'll be glad when I get these eyes fixed. But, this year, I'll have to rely on Chris's eyes, I guess.

Captcurt said:

Lucky you. I can burn up 5 boxes in one day. I saw one guy empty his gun and yell, "Go on you little devil. If the world is round you will be back in five minutes."

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I swear they watch you squeeze the trigger and change direction at that instant. Teal and widgeon are easier to hit sometimes.

Good question.

I'm semi retired and a lot of my friends can't go during the week.

The last lease I had was in no-man's-land.
I took my late Father down there about 10 years ago and he thought I was crazy.

No cell service there either except one spot in a 10 foot radius
of the camp site.

I spent MANY days and nights in a 74' Wild Wood 16' camper.
Beat all to heck. No way to get my 28' Starcraft in there.
Me, the camper, a few guns and plenty of ice.

Just sayin'. Know what you can and can not do alone.
If you have medical issues, that's a different story.
Take a buddy. be careful. Nothing to it.

You stand a better chance of a car wreck than a hunting accident
especially if you are alone.

I normally hunt by myself. Last year one of my brothers turned 67 in October, retired on November 11 and came up here to hunt with me for our November 15 opener. First time we have ever deer hunted together.

After fracturing my spine seven times over the years I had to start hunting out of a pop-up blind about 200 yards from my truck ten years ago,even if I couldn't walk out I can crawl to my truck.

I've hunted solo most of the last 20 years. All tent camping for elk and muleys except for several days in the back of the truck with a camper shell. Most hunts are 6-8 days and all archery hunts. Sometimes I have a handgun but not always.

I enjoy the solitude and prefer hunting solo although getting back to a cold dark camp alone isn't too fun to look forward to. I don't think I've ever built a fire on a solo hunt although we always have one if there is a group.
One year I had a black bear try and get in my tent on the first night. I think it was a young bear because it scared away easily and never came back. Footprints didn't look that big either.
It's nice to have cell service but most places I go never have any. The worst part by far is having to pack an elk out solo on your back.

It's nice to have good hunting partners but they are few and far between. I don't mind helping a new hunter but babysitting someone who can't take care of themselves is worse than not hunting at all.

MCgunner said:

I had a duck hunting buddy for years, but I've moved. Hunting ducks alone is sort of a drag. Deer and hogs I just walk back into the woods to my box blind or tree stand if it's bow season.

Goose hunting is a pain alone. Too many deeks to put out in usually muddy conditions that are hard to walk in. 300 Texas rags is tough to put out in the dark on your own. Anymore, I get an outfitter and we go in a group.

Doves, I hunt alone or every opener, I run up to Waco and hunt with my buddy. He has 400 acres of good dove hunting near the town of West. We've been doing that since we were freshmen at Texas A&M in 1971, so that's sort of a tradition.

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Oh lord, another Aggie grad eh? I guess you and my wife would make friends immediately lol. I'm jealous of your 400 acres of dove hunting land! I'm hoping I can find the money to buy my wife an 870 Express Magnum so that we can both go dove hunting together.

And to add to this thread, I typically hunt alone. With that said, I didn't meet my wife until mid deer season last year and she did join me on one day. We've also gone hog and turkey hunting together, all of which were unsuccessful in harvesting any game. I seem to prefer alone though.....and if you're worried about getting in touch with somebody, you can always buy a fairly inexpensive handheld radio with a certain range you feel comfortable with to get in touch with the outside world if need be.

Most of my hunting is alone and I prefer it that way. I go where I want, stop where I want etc. Most days I don't run into another person the whole day. I have started taking my brother in law squirrel hunting a couple times a year and that is fun, but its not the same.

I carry 1st aid and fire starters and the usual stuff in case I'm stuck out overnight but my biggest fear is running into tweakers or pot growers. I have never run into one in cold weather but on trail rides in the summer I have run into questionable characters in the woods on 3 occasions now. Haven't actually found a garden or anything but have had them try to stop me on the trail and question where I'm going or what I'm doing. I never go without a pistol and extra mags, and do my best to see them before they see me.

jim in Anchorage said:

These posts fit in perfectly. In Alaska flying in IS driving there.

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Yes, but nobody considers a crash fatality when driving to the lease or hunting property to be a hunting fatality. Similarly, a person killed in a crash going to work isn't a work fatality.

SoonerMedic said:

Oh lord, another Aggie grad eh? I guess you and my wife would make friends immediately lol. I'm jealous of your 400 acres of dove hunting land! I'm hoping I can find the money to buy my wife an 870 Express Magnum so that we can both go dove hunting together.

And to add to this thread, I typically hunt alone. With that said, I didn't meet my wife until mid deer season last year and she did join me on one day. We've also gone hog and turkey hunting together, all of which were unsuccessful in harvesting any game. I seem to prefer alone though.....and if you're worried about getting in touch with somebody, you can always buy a fairly inexpensive handheld radio with a certain range you feel comfortable with to get in touch with the outside world if need be.

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Well, my wife is a tea sip. Yeah, BS from UT. I guess that's not a rivalry anymore since they're not even in the same conference anymore. I lost all interest in college sports anyway when the SWC broke up. The wife did get her PhD from A&M, though, so I guess she ain't all bad.

My hunting buddy, Larry, really loves goose hunting, so he comes down here and I put him up during goose season. We book hunts with local outfitters which aren't that bad, about 200 bucks a morning. Worth every dime of it to be put in a private field with lots of birds and also to have the help putting out the rags. Heck, one hunt last year, they even had the rags out for us when we got there and we didn't have to pick anything up before leaving. THAT was awesome.

Larry lives and farms up north of Waco. Lots of birds up there. It's nice to have all the land he has to pick and choose where to go. One of his places is better than the others, though, and we always end up there on a creek next to a sorghum field. That creek is a dove highway and, of course, they like the grain.

I keep telling him to come down some weekend and hunt deer here. He's a busy man, though, but he is slowing down and feeling his mortality. He keeps telling me he wants to slow down and start enjoying the things he likes to do and envy's my retirement. He has WAY more'n me to retire on, but once you get in that mindset of making money, I guess it's hard to stop. He has his goats and cattle, but makes his money in real estate and his independent insurance agency. The farms are just investments and a hobby, really, but they do keep him busy. I don't know how that guy goes so hard at his age.

But, we don't get to hunt as much as we would like together. Most of my year is hunting alone in the woods for deer/hogs and that's fine because I'm not far from the house and have cell service and, so, it's relatively safe to hunt alone.

Hunt and camp solo all the time. If I depended on anyone else to go I'd hardly ever get to.

I used to be part of a hunting club/lease back in GA, and while we all hunted separately, everyone got together at camp in the evenings to eat and have a drink or two.

Since I moved, I've been hunting and camping alone. Of the guys I work with, it seems like most of the younger guys don't hunt, or can't/don't want to put the money towards it, and the older guys are set in their ways as far as hunting areas and partners. I've tried to get a few folks to go, but most who aren't interested enough to have already self-started seem to flake out anyway. I do prefer hunting alone, but sitting in front of the fire alone in the evening drinking a beer and eating hot dogs gets old quick. Where I hunt now is about 3 hours from home, and 2 hours from a cell signal. During the early season there are other folks around, but after it gets cold, it can be pretty desolate up there. I'm thinking about getting a satellite beacon this year, if only to make the wife feel a little better.

Gtscotty said:

I do prefer hunting alone, but sitting in front of the fire alone in the evening drinking a beer and eating hot dogs gets old quick. Where I hunt now is about 3 hours from home, and 2 hours from a cell signal. During the early season there are other folks around, but after it gets cold, it can be pretty desolate up there. I'm thinking about getting a satellite beacon this year, if only to make the wife feel a little better.

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Any chance of your wife getting into hunting? Mine's an avid hunter - been hunting since she married me, 46 years ago. During our working years, we didn't always get to go together, but one or the other of us always went with one of our two daughters. Then later on, one of us would go with our grandson if the other had to work or something. I think our grandson is pretty proud of the fact his grandma helped him gut out his first deer and drag it down.
We're retired now, but we're both too old to get very far from the truck while "hunting." We still go though, regardless of the fact neither of us has much of a chance of killing anything - we've killed enough over the years anyway. We generally think of the dollars we spend on the tags we purchase nowadays as just "donations."

Olympus wrote:
How many people here hunt by themselves?

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I have to hunt alone.

When my wife and I were ready to get married, the preacher said we had to do "pre-maritial counseling". I thought it was silly since we both nearly 30 in an area where most people got married in their teens. But, the preacher insisted. After getting past the pleasantries, the first question he asked was whether either of us believed in divorce. My wife snapped, "We don't believe in divorce, we believe in nasty hunting accidents". That was the end of pre-maritial counseling. That was 30 years ago and we're still married. I can gauge the health of the relationship by looking to see if my wife bought a hunting license this year. Of course, I know if we go off into the woods together, I risk coming back home tied to the hood of the Jeep, so I hunt alone.

I was invited by some friends to go to their deer camp when I was in my early 20's. They killed more cases of beer than they did deer. And while nobody got shot, I saw firsthand there's a reason why they say alcohol and guns don't mix. I never went back.

Mcgunner wrote:
The farms are just investments and a hobby, really,...

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Probably be a good idea to not put that sort of opinion in print should the IRS ever come calling to see if that farm is a hobby operation.

Always by myself, but it's on my home property... With perfect cell coverage and the wife inside. I just hunt the back acreage