How to Survive if Injured during a Hunt

Guest post by Sam Ott

At its core purpose, hunting is about survival. We hunt to eat and we eat to survive, but as we progress as a culture, it also serves as a great past time for families to pass on from generation to generation, hunters to enjoy as a sport and even to prevent overpopulation with animals. Sometimes, however, the tables take a turn for the worst and we’re left alone, stranded and injured potentially miles from safety and our chances of survival deplete as time goes on.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you’re injured during a hunt, it’s important to understand what to do in order to survive and get back home, to camp or to some other form of refuge. Before analyzing the plethora of situations where you could be injured while on a hunt, let’s first take a look at what you could’ve and should’ve done to prepare for the situation you’re now in and potentially can’t get out of.

Prepare for the Worst

What is “the worst”? If you have an imagination, it could be anything. “The worst” is merely to keep people aware of the “what if’s” of any given scenario. It’s an exaggeration because anything could be worse than what it actually is. The key is to get you in the mindset of preventing and surviving unfortunate situations.

Stay in Shape: If you keep your body in shape, you’re more likely to survive any situation. If you have a broken leg and/or are losing blood, your body will be able to counteract the fatigue longer if it’s in better shape, which gives you more time to get back to safety or find help.

Understand Basic Surviving Skills: It never hurts to understand basic survival skills such as, tending wounds, preventing blood loss, how to avoid predator attacks and other tricks of the survival trade. The catch is to know what you’ll need to tend wounds, prevent blood loss, etc. and making sure not to forget those items before going off on your hunt, which brings us to the next form of preparation.

Bring Necessities: If you’re going to prepare for the worst, you need to have the necessary items that will assist you during these times of survival. Bring food, water, bandages, a compass and whatever else that will help you during “the worst” situations.

Know Your Environment: This is very important; know your environment. The more you know about your environment, the better you’ll be able to prepare for the worst and potentially even avoid these situations altogether. Your environment includes, layout of the land, common predators in that area and other potential hazards that you should know about. The more you know the better chance you’ll have of surviving and give you an idea of what you’re up against. If you’re hunting on unfamiliar territory, make sure you scout the land prior to hunting or even take advantage of a hunting outfitter or guide.

Survive the Worst

Now’s the time to analyze some of the worst scenarios you have the potential of facing. Some of the most likely cases of survival come down to blood loss and (near) immobile injuries.

If Losing Blood: Blood loss can occur from many cases such as, a predator attack, you take a nasty fall or even injure yourself with your own weapon. Make sure you know how to tend the wound, disinfect it, stop the bleeding, if you can cauterize it and, for bonus points, know how to stitch yourself up. This article has a lot of information on how to treat a cut or scrape and stitch it up.

If Injured Foot, Leg or Back: If you’re in a situation where your foot, leg or back is injured, maybe even broken, and you’re far from safety, you’re in a very difficult situation to survive. My father broke his back by falling off a ladder to his deer stand. Luckily he was only a ½ or ¾ mile away from his house and he managed to walk back. For others, they may not be as fortunate.

Always bring a phone with a full battery. If you’re hunting in an unfamiliar and desolate place, make sure people know where you are and what they should do if you don’t come back by a certain time. A satellite phone would also be a good investment to guarantee you better reception.

If you are in a situation where you don’t have a form of communication, make a crunch out of your rifle and slowly make your way back. This will be one of the most painful experiences of your life, but that’s what survival is all about.

If you’re in a dangerous area, utilize a stick instead, so you can save your gun for defense, rather than risking blocking the barrel with dirt. Make good use out of your food to give you the energy you need to get back to safety. Finally, if you’re finding it difficult to stay energized or keep going, I recommend walking 15 or 20 minutes and resting for 5. You don’t want to exhaust yourself to the point of not being able to continue, yet you also don’t want to rest for too long and risk falling asleep or passing out. Make a routine of this until you make it back to your refuge. You need to get back to safety as soon as possible to treat your wounds and/or broken bones, so it’s important to keep going in order to survive your hunting injury.

Sam Ott writes for KT’s Trophy Hunts, experienced and professional Missouri hunting outfitters ready to guide you on your next hunt.

Keep preparing!
Angela