Thread: PLB saves hunter

This was on Stewart Island see article here

Great result. I don't know why you would go bush without one really

As said above great result, everyone should have one.

Good result once the button was pushed. But why would you involve SAR on the first evening?
Are we becoming that soft that a night in the bush is going to hurt us?

Have to assume the worst I suppose and no doubt they took his age into account

Good lesson for us to talk to our hunting party and come up with a plan if someone doesn’t return to camp and when to ask for help

difficult one in some ways 74 not exactly young - Forest Service and DOC hunting we always had a rule of 10 am next day to raise alarm - PLB were not out then - but one needs to be prepared a survival blanket will get one thru the night - along with a decent possie out of the wind - for someone of that age or a child maybe the right thing to raise alarm when they did - the rest of us a cold night perhaps

Make me panic ol man and his crew there atm lol

When my dad and I hunted together(same camp but hunted separately) we had a system where if someone didn't return, someone at camp would fire a shot on the hour. Usually a couple of hours after dark.
One shot reply from the one out meant all's well just got ballsed up. See you tomorrow.
Three shot reply meant I'm in the crap, need help now. Never got a three shot reply, had a few one shot replies.
No reply was a bit concerning but wind, rivers etc can make it hard to hear and things always turned out alright.
We always carried PLBs once they were available.
We didn't spend may nights out, but it did happen.

good advice there 7mmwsm only ever spent one night out cold even with fire

they are certainly life savers literally
a personal mate of mine but also a member here had to pop his plb a few years back after taking a huge tumble while hunting
it's an essential part of any outdoor kit be it fishing hunting tramping

it's the one bit of kit you buy intending to never use but they'll save your life if it all turns into a cluster fuck

I got told a funny story about that a while back with the fire one shot on the hour thing - new guy got turned around and didn't return to camp that night. Deal was if you got waylaid or something else fire a shot on the hour and someone would reply. No shots heard so everyone figured all was OK.

He turned up the next day around midday quite upset - no ammo left and quite pissed off that no one had fired a shot as agreed or come to try and find him. Huh? Didn't hear a thing...

Yeah, he'd gotten a bit panicky and forgotten to take his suppressor off! All worked out in the end, and lessons learned.

PLB's are an essential now, the only thing that goes with that is the number of people that put them in their pack and then take their pack off and go off on little side missions. Must stay with you I reckon!

Have had one the last few years since I've got really old, always treated it as a Emergency Locator Beacon, if misplaced in the bush uninjured would never activate it. May have second thoughts after 24 hours if misplaced became lost.

Did he not have a GPS and a torch?? I don't go bush without my GPS, phone with topo map on it, a torch and rain coat. It doesn't matter if I'm only going for a morning hunt and its the middle of summer with no rain in the forecast I still always carry those 4 items. Actually 5 items, always carry my PLB too.

I do wonder way people/hunting party's set off there PLB after being lost for less than 24 hours. Obviously it's a different story if you injured.

To be fair - I would rather someone set of a PLB and get rescued in one piece and not requiring an expensive trip to hospital, than wait until they are needing a fair bit of medical attention and still charging the rescue cost plus medical at hospital and tying up those resources as well.

Yes ideal world we should all be self reliant, resilient and able to work our own way out of a situation but...