Solo Hunting

[pashok23]

Personally i don't think its a good idea.went black bear hunting solo in Montana few years back and to be honest its a little scary and weird to be alone in the woods.While hunting there run in to the Grizzly bear,good thing my quad was not far from me.i still do hunting alone once in the while,when i have no choice.try avoid that tho.good luck 

[Hangfire]

I guess I don't see the concern on getting a deer out or hunting alone. I started deer hunting in 1953 when I was 11. I almost always hunt alone. When I was in high school I drug them out, may take a few hours and get dark but I have a rifle and young. I now have a pack board in the pickup and go back for it if conditions are not good for dragging. The last deer I shot ,year before last, drug out 1/2 mile to pick up and loaded. My wife knows where I will be and about what time to expect me home. I have brought one deer out in a wheelbarrow, more work than if I had drug it because of dead falls, ended up with a double hernia. Elk is obvious, cut up, put on pack board and head out. When I get to old to carry them out I will call my son or hunt where I can drive close to them, not quitting yet. If I have a heart attack or other medical emergency whether I am by myself or with others isn't probably going to make much difference. Don't worry about it.

[deaner]

2 people is twice as much smell sound and movement in the woods to spook game. 

[Kc_Kracker]

its alot easier to be quiet alone, its hard to find a dedicated quiet serious partner, i booted mine because he was like a bull in a china cabinet walking on Christmas tree bulbs  go alone you'll do better 

[j_h_nimrod]

I have personal hunted alone 95% of the time my entire life but have also been a professional guide and hunted with or "guided" many friends and acquaintances. I prefer to be on my own, I always have a good time by myself, even when the $?!& gets deep because I know I am doing it from my own choice.  But, I have seen way too many people with an overinflated sense of their abilities get in deep trouble but personally am fairly conservative yet fully competent and cognizant of my skills. I don't worry over much about my safety, accidents can happen at any time and if you are relying on someone else it is more likely to happen. That being said, I would not mind having a SPOT or something similar for the unlikely event that something did happen.

I hunted in Alaska brown bear country (sometimes for bear) by myself for years and never gave it much thought, I get a laugh of people's phobias of wild animals attacking, you are much more likely to choke on your Mountain House and die than be attacked be a wild animal.

A good pack is your best bet, I am rarely anywhere a cart would be useful so have not even thought of one.

Mt 3x3 mulie last year was somewhere over 250# field dressed! I am a strong 6'2" ~225# and it was all I could do to drag it uphill the 200yds to the nearest point I could get the truck. Got ~120# of meat off it. If it had been farther I would have quartered it or boned it depending. I try to get it out in the biggest chunks I can because butchering it at the house wastes much less.

Just my opinion, take it slow and learn as much as you can. Good luck.

[boneaddict]

   A good opinion.   

[7mmfan]

I hunt "on my own" 99% of the time. The only time I hunt with someone in tow is if I'm showing someone a new area, or teaching a new hunter. That being said, I am with a group 75% of the time and we always have a plan and a schedule. Everyone knows where everyone else is going and if they aren't where they say they are going to be when they say they are going to be there, we head in and find them.

As far as packing game out, totally depends on where you're at, you've gotten good advice on this thread about how to handle animals.

[Jonathan_S]

2 people is twice as much smell sound and movement in the woods to spook game.

In my experience, with my wife.  It's more like 10x the noise and movement 

Since I've been about 14 I prefer to not necessarily hunt alone but be alone.  If I'm hunting "with" someone, we split at the truck and hunt separate stands or areas.

[James]

I mostly hunt alone, and I prefer it for the most part.  I just completed a solo 8 day backcountry hunt and had a blast.

Things I do to mitigate risk: I have a small emergency bag that is always in my pack.  It includes necessities to survive, I have a PLB incase things go WAY wrong, maps (I like to have three diffrent ones of the same area), compass, log a float plan with friends/family.  I recently added a GPS to my gear, and while it’s not something to rely on, it’s another tool.

I was raised in an outdoorsman family so I have a pretty good skill set and am in very good athletic shape, far from invincible, but it’s the little things that add up.

[RavensdaleYoungBuck]

I have personal hunted alone 95% of the time my entire life but have also been a professional guide and hunted with or "guided" many friends and acquaintances. I prefer to be on my own, I always have a good time by myself, even when the $?!& gets deep because I know I am doing it from my own choice.  But, I have seen way too many people with an overinflated sense of their abilities get in deep trouble but personally am fairly conservative yet fully competent and cognizant of my skills. I don't worry over much about my safety, accidents can happen at any time and if you are relying on someone else it is more likely to happen. That being said, I would not mind having a SPOT or something similar for the unlikely event that something did happen.

I hunted in Alaska brown bear country (sometimes for bear) by myself for years and never gave it much thought, I get a laugh of people's phobias of wild animals attacking, you are much more likely to choke on your Mountain House and die than be attacked be a wild animal.

A good pack is your best bet, I am rarely anywhere a cart would be useful so have not even thought of one.

Mt 3x3 mulie last year was somewhere over 250# field dressed! I am a strong 6'2" ~225# and it was all I could do to drag it uphill the 200yds to the nearest point I could get the truck. Got ~120# of meat off it. If it had been farther I would have quartered it or boned it depending. I try to get it out in the biggest chunks I can because butchering it at the house wastes much less.

Just my opinion, take it slow and learn as much as you can. Good luck.

Thanks a lot. I've been talking to so many people and reading lots of postings from this forum trying to cram as much information as I can to get ready for my first hunt. I'm really excited and it's only a couple weeks out.

[Ductsquatch]

Well GOOD LUCK on your first hunt.
Remember to bring a camera.

[Song Dog]

I often hunt alone.  I carry four game bags vacume packed inside my pack and a small 6x6 plastic tarp.  Depending on how far in I have hunted I will either bone out or quarter deer or elk.  I also keep a two wheel game cart in the back of my truck.   

[Hermit]

I always hunted alone. Now that I can't walk much, my wife won't let me. She goes with me in case I fall. I used to get them out with a wheelbarrel. OR if it was a Island deer I just packed it out in my pocket.

[Ductsquatch]

I always hunted alone. Now that I can't walk much, my wife won't let me. She goes with me in case I fall. I used to get them out with a wheelbarrel. OR if it was a Island deer I just packed it out in my pocket.

Your post makes me think this forum should have forum section that deals with hooking up people with disability challenges that still want to hunt with people that are physically able to assist them. I know there is a section for trying to find someone to hunt with, but THIS would be a little different.
I am sorta doing this with my 78 year old Dad now. He wants to hunt. But VERY limited in his mobility.....I have already scouted out 3 different trail junctions where he can blind hunt....close to the road so he doesn't have to walk too far.
I LOVE your comment on the Island deer.......I have cats at home that are bigger than that!

[LittleHunter]

I would say 90% of my big game hunting is solo unless I go out of state. I the kinda guy that thinks I have a rifle in my hand and a tag in my pocket I'm going to shoot something or at least in my case try to. I'm not the puss at home on the couch watching the tube because I have nobody to go with. My wife hates me going by my self expcualy when I do a pack in hunt and gone for 5 days or so. But not going to fill a tag sitting at home. Now that being said.

I'm 6 foot 185lbs pretty strong and do my best to stay fit. But I pushed the limit one year a while back and it seams like I still haven't  learned. I stayed back and only hunted Washington that year do to my wife being pregnant with are first child. She was having some problems through the pregnancy but nothing major. But being young newly weds and paranoid with a baby on the was I wanted to stay close to home foe the hunting season.

The was back to feeling pretty good and not getting out to hunt yet that season. She finally gave me the OK. With elk season only 2days away I headed up to the hills to a area that I'm really familiar with that next morning. Everybody knows how the hills get the few days before elk season. So with the lack of finding a place to camp and hunt that wasn't allready claimed I decided to pack in.I remember going through all my gear seeing what I really needed and fitting it in my pack and as I was walking up the trail in a t-shirt as it was a really worm and sunny day. Not really knowing where I was going to pitch camp just knew I wanted to get far enough back in to where I wouldn't be cought in the opening day morning mess. So I finally after eight hours of pack in I found a little grass clearing that looked perfect to set camp. After getting situated I polled out the binos and spotting scope and started glassing up in the basins to see what I can see. Not seeing a any animals besides the chipmunks in camp I was starting to have my doubts.  Finally about a half hour or so before dark I spotted a small herd of elk allmost at the very top of the basin. From there I was planning how I was going to go after them in the morning without blowing them out of there.

So after making a little fire to cook my dinner I was going over and over in my hear with a game plain and trying to figure out how long it would take me to get up there. I finally had a plan and stuck with it. I was going to head out of camp at 2am and go up the drainage over and cut up to the bench to where I would have a vatage point and wait until light. 2am comes along and I'm heading out and I finally to to where I want to be with 20 mins to spare until shooting light. That was the longest 20mins. Finally its getting to where I can see and I hear rock falling then I catch the accost the basin heading the other way so now I'm on the move to cut em off. I get over there just in time as there heading up and over to see 11 cows and 1 bull and watched go up and over. As I was getting ready to get up and move on I caught more movement. 2 elk strageling behind they were spikes. Now I'm on the gun heart is racing waiting for a clear shot as there almost to the top. Finally as one got to the top he turned broadside. I quickly judged about 300 yards put the crossairs behind the front shoulder and touched off. The bullet hit home. He hunched up going in circles his lunges were sticking out of his side like party balloons. But not going down after the first shot I chambered another round and touched off. He fell over the back side after the second round.

I could hear him sliding down the shell rock shoot and then I hear a Wearid noise thinking that didn't sound good. After sitting there for a few mins taking it all in shooting my fist elk finally the age of 21. I make my was over to him and when I get to where I last seen him I look down and he is wedged up under a tree that has fallen over. I'm not talking about a little tree either. So now have to deal with a big object in the way while cutting him up. After many hours later I finally got him quartered up up with the front quarters and strip meat on my pack and the hind quarters haghing in a tree in the shade. After all is said and done I stroll back in to camp around 5pm. Exausted and legs worn out I crack open one of the six COORS LIGHT that I packed in that happen to be worm but still tasted really good at the moment. Then I crack open another as I'm cooking up one of the tenderloins from the spike I just harvested. I crack open another one to wash my meal down. Sitting around the fire as I was heating up some water to clean up my knifes and wash me up with the t-shirt that I tore up that morning to use after taking a growler on the side of the mountain. Yep I crack open another one. Then reaching into my pack and pulling out the water bottle that I fulled up with some rum (Caption Morgan's).

Sitting by the fire sipping on my worm rum I thinking about going and getting the other half of my elk I end up passing out in the dirt. Not in my sleeping bag in my pup tent. Right in the dirt by a little fire that was burning out. I end up waking up sometime through the night cold and shivering with about 2 inches of snow on the ground. I crawled into the tent hoped in my sleeping bag thinking my last two beers would at least be cold. When waking up that mid morning the weather really turned for the worst. Wind was howling so bad it was snowing sideways. I lit my little torch burner to heat some water for oatmeal and heat inside the tent. Sitting there eating thinking the weather should calm down sometime soon. Two day later with the weather the same I decide to pack up all the gear at camp and as much of my elk as I could and hang the rest in a tree near by I made the long walk back to the truck. Half way down the mountain I noticed the weather change my visibility was getting better. When I finally got back to the trail head there was a few camps there. I was able to worm up by a big fire and change in to dry clothes that I left in the truck. The guys in the camps noticed the spike I was packing out and questioned where the rest of it was. Look back up the mountain where I just came from witch you couldn't see. I pointed and said up there. Once they found out I was up there 4 days alone they offered to take one of the horses to recover the rest of my elk. That night I was able to call the let her know things were fine and that I filled my tag and have to wait for the weather to clear to recover the rest of my elk. After their morning hunt and some grub to eat the weather was nice enough to recover the rest of my elk so up we went . Once we reached to where I was camped one of the guys pulled out his GPS and looked at the tracks and asked if I knew I was 6 miles back in there. Nope. From were I shot my elk was another mile.

This was the first hunt I ever went solo on and even tho I wasn't prepared for it. It was still a fun hunt ant I leaned a lot from it. What to take with you and not  leave in the truck. Just something I thought I would share and hope you like reading it.