Registered: Jun 2003
Location: COLLINS MO.
Posts: 218

HOW SAFE ARE YOU ANYMORE OUT AT NIGHT ? I JUST CAME IN AND I HAD SOMETHING HAPPEN THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE. I SENT 2 DOGS IN A BIG BOTTOM AND THEY GOT DEEP AND TREED. DROVE AROUND TO THE NEXT BRIDGE AND STARTED IN TO THEM. I HEARD 2 CARS COMING AROUND THE ROAD SO I SHUT MY LIGHT OFF AND WENT ON IN TO THE DOGS. AS I WAS COMING BACK OUT THE CARS CAME BACK BY SO I SHUT MY LIGHT OFF AND WAITED ABOUT 300 YARDS FROM THE TRUCK. THE CARS STOPPED AND SAT THERE FOR A LITTLE BIT. I REMEMBERED THE KEYS WERE IN THE TRUCK AND THE DOORS WERE UNLOCKED SO I TOOK OUT MY SPOTLIGHT AND SHINED THE TRUCK WHEN I DID THE CARS SPUN OUT AND LEFT AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED. WHEN I GOT IN THE TRUCK I HAD LEFT THE WINDOW DOWN AND IT WAS FULL OF BEER CANS AND TRASH. WITH ALL THE THINGS THAT GO ON ANYMORE IS IT REALLY SAFE TO HUNT ALONE. I HUNT THAT WAY ABOUT HALF THE TIME AND ALWAYS HAVE. I KNOW ONE THING FROM NOW ON I WILL LOCK THE TRUCK AND ROLL UP THE WINDOWS BEFORE I LEAVE IT PARKED. THIS HAPPENED 7 MILES FROM TOWN AT 2 IN THE MORNING SO YOU KNOW THEY HAD TO BE OUT LOOKING FOR TROUBLE. WHAT WOULD STOP THEM FROM WAITING TILL YOU CAME OUT AND BEATING THE TAR OUT OF YOU? THESE DAYS YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN. MAYBE IT WAS JUST A ONCE IN A LIFETIME DEAL BUT TIMES ARE SURE CHANGING.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: SC
Posts: 2046

I'm always packing a pistol when i go to the woods,doesn't matter if it's legal or not,i'm not taking any chances.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Warsaw, New York
Posts: 4242

Hopefully this is a one time deal, probably some kids out causing trouble. I know it ruins your whole night when people mess up your vehicle or cause damage. I have had my tires flattened once and once I forgot and left some coon in the back of my truck while I made a second drop and someone stole all three (hides were worth about $20 - $30 then).

Here is what I do to try to prevent theft and damage.

I always try to get permission to park off the road, ask the farmers or land owners. I have had them tell me to park right in their driveways but I don't like to come out at three in the morning and get the house dog all stirred up so use common sense. I like to pull down the farm lanes or pull off as far as possible.

ALWAYS lock up and close windows even if you are just making a quick stop to pick up dogs.

Always hide an extra set of keys somewhere on your vehicle in case you get locked out or loose keys while hunting. I never take my keys to the woods I hide them at the vehicle, but don't make it obvious where someone will find them.

I still remember as a kid we always left the keys in the car and the house unlocked, but no more. Good luck!

Oh, I also chain my dog box to the truck with a pad lock and keep the storage area locked. If people want something bad enough they will find a way to get it, so keeping out of sight is the best advise I can give. Also might want to think about a car alarm that gives a loud alarm if someone touches the vehicle.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: mobile,Al
Posts: 14

Dave

I hunt alone alot as well and sometimes on those dark lonesome back roads it gets kinda scarey when a car comes by at a slow rate of speed while your in the woods, I always got my rifle when I go into the woods, I dont care if its legal or not IM not going to get caught without it!!. Theres too many crazys out there nowadays . All I can tell you is try to hunt with someone as much as you can and be very carefull where you hunt .

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: pembroke, ga
Posts: 11

My Fear.....other than spiders and snakes..... I hunt close to home in the back of a big field, you can usually see deer or hogs in this field. My real fear is some idiot with a rifle shooting me or someone with me..... If I am not in the woods, I pay close attention to any car that even begins to slow down, I'm quick to cut the light on and let'em know I'm there.


noah

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Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

I park on the road, keys in, doors unlocked and never give it much thought. Never had anything touched and never heard of anyone else. Guess it just depends on where you are.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Minnesota
Posts: 1610

I hunt 99.9 % of the time by myself, I just remember the 23rd Psalms and enjoy the night.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Talala, Oklahoma
Posts: 5208

Back in Oklahoma I had an incident or two, but there were a lot of thugs in that neck of the woods, especially for such a rural area.

Where I hunt now in Kansas, I really don't worry much at all. I live 25 miles from town out in farm and ranch country, and those kind of people don't usually get out this far.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: bowdon ga
Posts: 59

i have been known to carry two pistols with me when i hunt by myself.when i come out of the woods i circle around my truck to makesure nobody is hiding around it. one of the pistols is loaded with hollow points and the other with rat shot for snakes.i hope i never have to use either one,but snakes are quite bad around here,but very selodm see any. i had rather be safe then sorry.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Missouri
Posts: 4321

Between the pot patches, the mobile meth labs, and the 5 acre city farmers, it isn't hardly safe to be outside at night, anymore.

I hunt alot by myself and I figure I'm the safest if I avoid all human contact. There's a guy or two at the club that thinks its pretty funny because if they come up on my truck along some road they KNOW I will not be there, lol. But, if they identify themselves, I "might" come crawling out of the road ditch, lol.

I've been locking up every time I leave the truck since several years ago when a car stopped by my truck as I was coming up through a cornfield (light off). I heard a car door shut and they sped off. I got back to the truck to see that my radar detector was gone. My tracker was laying in the seat and I had some other valuable "tools" behind the seat, bu tthey left that.

I've also considered what some others have suggested: carrying some additional "protection", whether its legal or not.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 2967

I have run into meth labs while hunting. Fortunately for me, I was with a law officer who was hunting with me and it was in the daytime. Like John said, there is getting to be too many one acre owners trying to run everyone out of a whole section. I hunt by myself alot and it sure can be dangerous out there. I do most of my hunting during season and am carrying a rifle with a loaded clip in with no round in the chamber. I hate to shoot a junkie but I would if it came down to it.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Weyers Cave Va
Posts: 13416

It depends on where I hunt as to if I lock the doors or not.If I hunt the state land I lock the door and dog box.If I'm hunting the farm I lock the gate behind me when I go in and no once else comes in behind me I'll leave the keys in my truck and windows down some nights.My dad came up and went with me one night and stayed at the truck and waited on me.I had left the keys in the truck and my window down when I came back the window was up and the doors locked and my dad was sitting inside.LOL My wife asked me once what I did with my key ring while I was hunting.I told her I either carried it with me or left it in the truck....She FREAKED OUT on me.Her fear is someone will kill me and then come home and attack her!!
I hunted with Larry Gilman one night in Ky and he had a 357 strapped to his hip when we left the truck.I asked him why he carried the gun? He said he had walked up on some guys one night while he was hunting and one had pulled a gun on him and threatend to blow his brains out.He said ever since that night he had carried his 357.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: COLLINS MO.
Posts: 218

THIS PART OF THE COUNTRY IS ALOT LIKE EVERYWHERE ELSE I QUESS. WHEN I 1ST STARTED HUNTING BY MYSELF I WAS 16 YEARS OLD AND I WOULD NEVER SEE A CAR OUT PAST 10 OCLOCK. NOW IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW LATE IT IS SOMEBODY JUST MIGHT COME BY. MOST USUALLY IF THEY ARE OUT THAT LATE THEY ARE UP TO NO GOOD. I'M GETTING OLD ENOUGH NOW THAT I DON'T KNOW THE YOUNG KIDS ALL LIKE I USED TO. BEFORE THEY MIGHT STOP AND VISIT OR LISTEN TO THE DOGS. NOW THEY ARE UP TO NO GOOD AND LOOKING FOR TROUBLE. I HAD THE GUN WITH ME LAST NIGHT BUT A CB CAP MIGHT JUST MAKE SOMEONE MAD. I KNOW ONE THING I DID TODAY WAS GO HAVE 2 EXTRA KEYS MADE AND GOT THE OLD TRUCK OUT OF THE FENCEROW TO HUNT AROUND HERE LOCALLY. THE NEXT TIME I'M OUT BY SELF I WILL PAY MORE ATTENTION TO CARS GOING BY AND WILL NOT SHUT MY LIGHT OFF. IF I HAD LEFT IT ON LAST NIGHT THEY MIGHT OF JUST DROVE ON BY.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Oregon
Posts: 243

I hunt national forest by myself. I always lock my doors and carry a pump 12 gauge...not for the animals, but any people I come across, hoping the noise of the pump action lets anyone know I don't want to meet them. Have been warned by the wildlife biologist from the mountain where most of the bad guys are, but told me to trust no one out there and leave immediately if i see anyone. I will tell you though...the other side of the road is probably where all the dang coon are, and I have been real tempted to see, but for the warning.
One night i had gone around a loop and was pulling my stuff together, with the lights off, when i car came around...saw me and stopped. I realized they were waiting for me to go away instead of having to pass me. Kinda felt good being the one causing the worry, but made me realize how everyone out there is scared what motives the other one has.

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Registered: Jul 2003
Location: Hohenwald,Tn
Posts: 465

Around here I hardly ever hunt by myself. We usually make two drops one with each dog and if it ain't too late one together. I just found out today that Tn is the number one state with Meth. labs. Ain't that something to be proud of. With all the junkies running around out of there minds making meth here and a pot patch in every other hollar it just isn't safe to hunt alone any more. I find the leftovers of there meth labs on state land fairly regularly and would sure hate to walk up on them while there doing it.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: Los Angeles, MN
Posts: 4236

Posted by : Doug Robinson..........I have had my tires flattened once and once I forgot and left some coon in the back of my truck while I made a second drop and someone stole all three (hides were worth about $20 - $30 then).


Hard to believe someone would do that to such a great guy!!

Last edited by josh on 08-13-2003 at 07:44 PM

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Registered: Not Yet
Location:
Posts: N/A

I want my beer cans back!!!

Just kiddin'. I used to hunt a lot alone, unarmed. The meth labs are pretty bad here anymore, but I've got one worse than that.

A few years ago, I go turn loose with the then landlords son. Dog takes a track deep and gets treed in some real thick stuff. We drive down there and I get out and prepare to go in. The landlords kid just sits there looking at me.

I asked him what the holdup was as the dog was treeing nice and I wanted to get in there to him. Mind you, this is a 20 year old, 250 lb, six foot five inch plowboy who isn't scared of much.

He looks me right in the eye and says that there isn't no way he's going in there because that is the spot where some old hermit come up missing and they found his house in a pile of ashes about nine months prior. They never found the old mans body. I guess the FBI was in there and the whole works.

I leaned up to the fence and called the dog in and we haven't been there since...UNTIL Rob's Blue dog took a track deep a few weeks back and he ended up in that draw. He gets back to the truck and said he has been in an area where a house burned down and a white picket fence was still standing. Said it felt like someone was following him the whole time. I then told him the above story. You should've seen the look! True story.

Be careful out there everyone.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 1170

I live in Gods country. I hunt on deer clubs owned by timber companies. This means the only people coming in the gates are club members at night. I am the only coon hunter in 3 of the 4 clubs I belong to, so that is very unlikely to happen. Besides, I always lock the gate behind me. I am very glad too. I would not hunt much alone otherwise.

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Registered: Jun 2003
Location: California
Posts: 999

LE, sounds like you have a similar set-up to what we have out here. Most of our hunting is done behind gates on private duck clubs where the caretakers WILL go and check out anyone who shouldn't be there. I almost never carry a gun with me but I was sure wishin for one Sat night when the coyotes were tailing me.

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