Hunting Safely

It’s never too late to review the basics to help keep you safe while out hunting. 

Click her for some information from the USA Forest Service regarding basic safety while hunting.

 There are a couple things important points from this link that I would like to highlight:

1. Always let someone know exactly where you are going to be hunting (in case of a mishap) and always carry a cell phone. If you are accidentally injured, a cell phone might save your life.
2. Be careful when using fall protection in a tree stand. The last thing you want is to have the fall restraint device cause more injury to you than if you hit the ground! My feeling is that it is best to treat your harness as a “restraint” device. This implies that you are tied off in a fashion that will keep you from falling out of your stand (or can easily get back into the stand if you slip).

If you fall completely out of your stand, it is not uncommon for hunters to not be able to get back up and end up getting stuck hanging there until help arrives.  This is not good. Orthostatic intolerance is when blood starts to pool in your legs from hanging in your harness and you eventually pass out (and can be fatal).  This phenomenon can occur in as little as 15 minutes if you stay static and don’t get the blood moving properly in your legs. 

Make sure to carry an adequate knife to cut yourself free in case this happens. Ideally, make sure you tie yourself off tight enough to keep you from free falling out of your stand in the first place. Certainly, you want to have enough movement on the stand to be able to comfortably shoot your gun at various angles, but you must think through the consequences of a fall when in that deer stand.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 7:45 am and is filed under Safety Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.