How to Prep for Unexpected Outdoor Dangers during Hunting Season

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is a well-known maxim that means it’s better and easier to stop a problem before it starts than to fix it after it has already occurred. The phrase was coined by Benjamin Franklin in 1736 to encourage the citizens of Philadelphia to be more vigilant about fire prevention. As an actual firefighter, I implore everyone to be vigilant in fire prevention, but today we want to assess and address your preparedness when it comes to hunting and being in the outdoors. Too many of us take for granted our level of safety or the safety net of calling 9-1-1. If you are in the wilderness or the “back 40,” you probably don’t have cell reception – or, if you do – first responders won’t easily find you when you fall out of your treestand in a forest while wearing no harness. So, here is a list of things you can do to prepare for unexpected outdoor dangers during hunting season.

Prepping for Danger Coverage on AllOutdoor

Unexpected Outdoor Dangers – Med Kits are for Everyone

You don’t need to be a certified EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) or a First Responder to own a medical kit. They are becoming more abundant everywhere you look and cheaper by the day. Also, you don’t need a college degree or some high level training to understand how to care for a fallen comrade in the woods. Splints, Band-Aids, tourniquets, and Aspirin are all super basic necessities all of us can intuit how to use, or could easily learn how to implement by watching a few YouTube videos on our lunch break. If you want to improve your knowledge, read a few articles here on AllOutdoor on what kits are good, and what you may or may not want in your medical kit.

Unexpected Outdoor Dangers – Prepare your Vehicle for SHTF Scenarios

Oftentimes we are not hiking from our house to wherever we are hunting. Instead, we are jumping in our vehicles to go somewhere. Knowing this, you should attempt to prep your truck for those once-in-a-lifetime SHTF scenarios. This could be as easy as having a fire extinguisher handy, that coveted med kit we mentioned, a spare tire, snacks, tools to work on your truck, among other things. That ounce of preparedness can be applied to both us and our vehicles.

Unexpected Outdoor Dangers – If You Go Up, Get Down Safely

When most of us go hunting, we often are ascending a tree to get the “upper hand” on whatever we are hunting. This could be in a hang-on treestand, ladder stand, climbing stand, or an elevated box stand. Whatever your choice of stand is, if you go up you need to ensure that you can get back down safely. Some stands are safer than others (elevated box stand with a ladder, a traditional ladder stand, etc), but if you are deploying one of the more precarious stand types (hang-on treestand), you would be smart to use a safety harness as well. A handful of hunters die every year because they fall out of trees while hunting. An easily preventable incident if you plan ahead.

Unexpected Outdoor Dangers – Communicate your Location with Friends & Family

Before cellphones were wildly common like they are today, we had to communicate everything by word-of-mouth. Where are you going? When will you be home? Stuff like that. Those simple practices of keeping friends and family informed of what you are doing shouldn’t cease simply because we have technology now. Let your loved ones know what you are doing. So, that in the rare event of something happening to you, they can hopefully find you and help you.

Unexpected Outdoor Dangers – A Little Extra Firepower Never Hurts

This isn’t directed towards having concealed carry conflicts with sasquatch out in the woods – but you never know! Rather, we are alluding to times when you might be hunting and you don’t necessarily want to use your .30-06 Sprg rifle – or whatever you’re hunting with – to dispatch a problem. Like, an overly-friendly skunk you cross paths with… or, a coyote you find at your deer after following a blood trail… or, that squirrel that won’t shut up while you’re hunting (just kidding… maybe).So, bringing with your EDC pistol (everyday carry pistol), might not be a bad idea.

Unexpected outdoor dangers aren’t always fighting off a grizzly bear that is trying to maul you. Oftentimes, it is you spraining an ankle and you’re 2 miles from your truck. Or, you cut yourself while gutting a deer and now you have an authentic fear that you might bleed out. The best thing to do in nearly any situation is to remain calm, process what has occurred, and identify what you might have on you, or near you, that could help remedy the situation. When people panic, freak out, or become hysterical, it often exacerbates the situation and makes it 10x worse.

Med Kits are for Everyone
Prepare your Vehicle for SHTF Scenarios
If You Go Up, Get Down Safely
Communicate your Location with Friends & Family
A Little Extra Firepower Never Hurts

As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below on how you would handle some unexpected outdoor dangers! We always appreciate your feedback.

Adam Scepaniak