I'm I the only one who fears a solo hunt...

[IdahoElk]

Start with a solo backpack trip this summer

^this
Gotta learn to walk before you can run

 

[elkbowhuntr]

It really depends on where you hunt; for most the 2 legged predator is more of a risk than any of the critters you may encounter. I hike in the dark all the time - at first it was very unnerving but I have gotten used to it. I hunt in Grizzly, Cat, and Wolf country it really doesn't bother me - I prefer to hunt alone ( I do have a Glock 29 - 10 MM with 220 hard cast bullets strapped to my side). For me its hard to find a partner that doesn't drag me down - attitude is everything - nothing worse than hunting with someone that has a bad attitude - its too contagious!

Because I hunt in grizzly country; immediately after a kill I move the quarters away from the kill site and hang them high. I have never had a problem doing this - I will go back in after a week and examine the original kill site - the elk rib cage etc. usually has been pulled a long way from the original spot.

If your camping in the back country - know your area. In Grizzly country hang your supplies, keep a clean camp site etc. I personally think it just adds an extra element to the hunt.

 

[Randle]

My experiences showed me . It's not a 12 ft grizzly outside my tent at 2 am it was a bull winkle, man that breathing and brush popping had my imagination on overdrive.
The summer trips will easy your mind.

 

[rob86jeep]

Thanks for all the replies! I am planning to do some solo camping and potentially hunting trips this season (likely out of necessity). I've done a lot of solo whitetail hunting back east, but that didn't require overnights like my hunting does in the mountains.

 

[Agross]

Sorry for derail, but I've seen it in a couple threads lately. What the hell is a skin walker?

 

[rob86jeep]

Sorry for derail, but I've seen it in a couple threads lately. What the hell is a skin walker?

It's a Native American myth (kind of like bigfoot) that can change between a person and a wolf. I'm sure someone else will chime in with a more detailed answer though.

 

[Beendare]

I dragged a trail that was 10' from my tent on a backpack deer hunt in Nevada 2 years ago...fresh Mountain lion tracks on it every morning.

I've bumped many bears on the trail in the dark in NorCal....some sows with cubs snapping and making ll kinds of racket.

My buddy shot a lion with his bow that snuck in on him to 15' in Co 2 years ago while he was cow calling.

Back packing in on a bow hunt in a western state I must have bumped 15 rattlers- every 300yds at the start of the trail down at lower elevation going in...some so camouflaged I couldn't find them.

so many examples.....

Sure there are critters in the woods..........thats why we trek in there, right?

_______

 

[HuntHarder]

I dragged a trail that was 10' from my tent on a backpack deer hunt in Nevada 2 years ago...fresh Mountain lion tracks on it every morning.

I've bumped many bears on the trail in the dark in NorCal....some sows with cubs snapping and making ll kinds of racket.

My buddy shot a lion with his bow that snuck in on him to 15' in Co 2 years ago while he was cow calling.

Back packing in on a bow hunt in a western state I must have bumped 15 rattlers- every 300yds at the start of the trail down at lower elevation going in...some so camouflaged I couldn't find them.

so many examples.....

Sure there are critters in the woods..........thats why we trek in there, right?

_______

Those damn rattlers mess with me. Too many times I have stepped within striking range. Turtle skin gaitors have helped my mind tremendously. I hate watching my every step over analyzing sticks and the sounds those damn insects make that mimmick a rattler.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I used to be afraid of the dark. But I pretty much lost that fear with enough hikes in at 3 am to make the edge of clear cuts by daylight. I never had an issue sleeping though... dunno why. But I love hunting solo for all the reasons mentioned previously.

I think my issue now is that I’m too unconcerned about griz. I sleep just fine in bear country even though I probably don’t keep camp as clean as I should. I DO practice situational awareness in choosing a camp, and in hiking. The way I see it, shit’s way more likely to get western when I’m moving in thick stuff. The odds of a bear deciding to taste the strange burrito are a lot lower than of a surprised bear charging me from the willow patch.

 

[Mule3006Elk]

I was never scared. More alert for sure because I don't have another set of eyes/ears to help out. I find my senses, when hunting solo, are much more in tune with my surroundings. My focus and concentration are much better. I hunt better when solo. With that being said I don't have a strong preference one way or the other.

 

[BuzzH]

The only thing I fear about hunting solo is knowing I'll eventually have to leave to go back to work...

 

[Trial153]

I have made bowhunting a priority in my life, I found that doesn’t transcend to the other people I hunt with or would like to hunt with. It’s not a knock on them, they have different priorities. With that said I realized early on that if I was to experience these things that I need to make them happen on my own.

 

[BroodBuster]

I love solo hikes and hunts. I also love hiking in at night. I do not do afternoon, heat of the day, 3000 ft climbs. That means I hike in at night after work, in the dark.

Best advice I’ve got is carry a tarp, a stove and a pint of whiskey. If you start talking yourself into quitting set up camp, fire up the stove and have a nib. I call my parastove a 3lb TV set. Much better alternative than hiking 5+ miles out just to be pissed when you get to the truck thinking, “WTF, I’ve forgotten why a bailed!”

 

[Billinsd]

I think it's perfectly natural to fear a solo hunt and the dark. I still do, however it gets easier with time. There is no denying it's safer to go with another person. However, if you take precautions, like a cell phone if you're in an area with coverage and/or cell phone or satellite texting like in reach and you tell loved ones where you are going and when you will return, and don't take chances, it's much safer.

 

[264win]

To the OP,
most people have some concern/ uneasiness about hunting solo in the back country at first.
In reality its not that dangerous if basic precautions are taken, but the Fear of the unknown can be very real.
I think part of the satisfaction comes from pushing past it.

Try and do a few shorter trips in warm weather to get yourself and your gear dialed in

 

[*zap*]

We all die but not everyone lives.

 

[HuntHarder]

I will add a funny story to this topic. Last year we had a caribou hunt in Alaska. The weather was crap on our day of arrival so our outfitter only had time to get either me or my partner out the first day. My partner won/lost, however you look at it the coin flip and he was going to go out in the bush by himself for 1 night and I would arrive the next morning. This was our first time in Alaska and really our first time being literally in the middle of nowhere. The feeling you have knowing that if something goes wrong, you are not gonna hike out, you are probably not going to see anyone else and there will be apex predators around you in abundance.

Long story short, my partner gets dropped off on a sand bar that contains fresh Grizzly tracks, fresh Wolf tracks and he has literally 1 hour to set up camp and settle in before dark. He has never set up this particular tent because it was supplied by the outfitter, it is raining and all he has is a handgun, rifle and an inreach. haha. To top it all off, the next day the weather is shit again and I do not arrive to camp until 6pm. When I arrive my partner acts like it was an eternity and tells me of his mind played some serious tricks on him. It was so bad that when we were getting taken out of the field, he demanded that he go first and I sit and wait for the pilot to come back to get me. He was literally done with being in the Alaskan Bush by himself. It's funny because the both of us routinely hunt and spike out by ourselves here in AZ, but being in a new environment with new predators messed with his mind,

 

[Bubblehide]

I guess I am sort-of a different breed. I remember going camping with my family as a kid. we were all cramped in a big Ford station wagon, with my older brother sleeping on top (the weather was good). In the middle of the night, he saw a bear wondering the campground and was in a panic to get inside the station wagon. The whole family was in a panic. Then there was me, I wanted to go outside and see it, follow it... Call me a stupid kid, but I have not changed much. That does not mean I am stupid, for example, when walking through the tall grass in Alaska, to get to a different lake and realizing we were constantly crossing grizz tracks; with two buddies that were in a panic, not knowing to keep going or turn back and unable to make a decision. I made the decision to turn back following the trail we made.

On t he other hand, I got married late in life at 38. My wife grew up in the countryside in Guatemala. But on a trip to the bay area and north in Ca, visiting some of her family, I brought camping gear for the trip back (on a holiday weekend). My wife had never camped before and she was scared to death to camp for a variety of reasons, but most revolving around all the stories she heard growing up. She wanted to stay the night in a motel. So I stopped at every hotel on the back till the wee hours of the morning. In short, I was falling asleep behind the wheel of a manual transmission, truck which my wife did not know how to drive. So I was stuck behind the wheel the entire trip. I pulled off the freeway made a right and an immediate left, which was a dirt road. LOng story short, I swiftly unloaded the truck inflated an air mattress in the bed of the truck. I laid out sleeping bags and blankets and told her to crawl in and get under the blankets. I climbed in next closed the shell door got under the blankets. Once I was in and barely comfortable, right on Q, it sounded like 50 coyotes started howling almost at once. My wife went from slightly nervous to starting to panic. She ask if we would be okay. When I responded in my calmest voice that coyotes could eat through metal, glass and fiberglass, and they would get to us before long, she recognized that sarcasm and calmed down a but, enough to fall asleep.

On a subsequent trip to Big Sur, she was certain some dreadlocked hippies illegally camping in the campground near us would rob or kill us. That was until I invited them for breakfast, in which she almost had a panic attack, until they got to camp. It wasn't until she was chatting with them that she realized they were simply normal people on a budget experiencing a short getaway from the daily grind. They were not mass murders looking for their next victim.

My point here is that we are all different, with different levels of tolerance and different levels of fear. As was pointed out earlier in this thread, fear is healthy, but panic is not. If you can keep your head on straight in the face of fear, you will likely fare well.

To the OP, pace yourself with this, and you will be fine.

 

[Ralphie]

Don’t worry about the sounds in the night. Until it’s coming through the tent you aren’t going to hear a bear.

 

[Oregon]

Just do what I do. Pack enough Crown Royal to enjoy a couple stiff drinks after dinner.
sleep like a baby.