This was on Stewart Island see article here
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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...
I know of someone who spent a week out injured simply because he had no PLB was lucky to survive.
Me on the long line
Attachment 270853
Pretty cool when you look back on it 10 years later
The PLB made a very bad day end pretty well.
I probably would have survived a night on the hill.
But only if my foreign hunting companion could have gotten to our camp and back to me that night.
Then we would have had another 3 days waiting for the scheduled helicopter pick up to find our abandoned camp and raise the alarm.
That would have been agony for us both
great photoQuote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
isn't it
funny how when the dust settles, and the pros arrive to save the day the focus changes back to "I should document this" good thing he did Aswell that is one truly good photo
Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
In 12 years of owning one, I have never pushed the button on mine but I reckon it doesn’t owe me anything either, I still do all the usual of letting someone know my eta at home, trip plan etc, but since I have had it, I have had much more confidence to do bigger trips solo. My partner quite often does solo trips too since I bought one for her.
One thing I have always wondered about and am interested to hear the forum wisdom on, is what about if you’re ok but overdue?
Example scenario could be due home Sunday night but still waiting for a flood to subside on Tuesday morning. You’re dry and warm and fed but you know people are worried and maybe even looking for you.
Should you press the button so they can find you fast and get on with their day?
Plb is for life and death onlyQuote:
Originally Posted by longshot
If you run out of food two days ago and still unable to get out then maybe
But simply to let you family know your ok nup
That is where the inreach or the new starlink satellite text on modern phones is the go
This is me on the long line out of the hole I was inQuote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
Attachment 270865
Then they landed me on the ridge and did another assessment
Attachment 270866
Came back and landed beside me and loaded me inside the machine with my head by the pilots feet and looking up through the rotors
Two helicopters up on the ridge and another waiting in Franz with a 4 person medical team to start work there
Going in the door
Attachment 270867
My hunting buddy came out with me
The other machine was there to pull the crew out that couldn't fit in the machine whith Max and I
Agree let others raise the alarm if your ok but arent in serious trouble. That's why I got an InReach to add to the PLB. Primarily to give a means of non emergency communication to avoid a callout in the situation I have to wait for a river to drop etc. Or i used it when I ended up with a scalpel in the thigh to get medical advise whether i should use the PLB.Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
I don't have one. Have spent two nights out unexpectedly over the years and it doesn't hurt you, just long boring nights. As for being injured, I always think your more likely to have a car crash on the way there. I think these news articles unintentionally emphasise the danger of it and make it sound worse than it is. But I make a point of not getting lost.
I have called the police and had a search and rescue operation for a friend of mine who got lost. He was out for two nights in winter. He was fine, mostly his trauma was mental. He told me a lot of what went on was between him and god. I said, you should learn how to read a fucking map and then you wont have to go to church.
In some country, limestone etc, even if you do have a torch you are better to just wait for daylight. Especially if you don't know the area.Quote:
Originally Posted by Huntn
This is 100% incorrect.Quote:
Plb is for life and death only
The decision to activate a beacon is far more circumstantial than that black and white statement.
Someone reading that and taking it as gospel may make a very poorly considered decision one day on their own, or someone else’s behalf.
This is correct, nothing worse than blundering into a tomo in the dark... Just about done it once in daylight, scared the crap out of myself thats for sure. Was taking the shortcut through the flax bushes, bastard bushes hid the edge.Quote:
Originally Posted by 7mmwsm
Not getting lost isn't going to help you when you are at the bottom of cliff with a massive flap of your scalp torn off and both your shoulders dislocated.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Duxbury
It would also be pretty bloody useful at the car crash you are more likely to have on the way to your hunting trip.
I think it depends on how you read "life or death" if you take it to making sure decisions are made about it early and the fact a response will take time. Ie after cold water exposure before hypothermia sets in. If your lost and the only issue is your hungry it's a bit different to your lost it's raining and you have no shelter and will likely become hypothermic overnight. I do think it's should be made only for life and death situations but that you should be realistic about what could be life or death ie dont wait till you are on deaths door and required response times, whether over time your ability to make rational decisions will decline.
I don’t mean it in the sense of letting family know you’re ok. It’s more if it was at the point that LandSAR were probably searching.Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem
I knew there'd be one who just had to respond.Quote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
If I am falling off a cliff, then it means I went and got LOST. I dont own a parachute either, which would also be useful in that bit of conjecture.
It was a true storyQuote:
Originally Posted by John Duxbury
I wasn't responding to you
I was warning others against the stupidity of your statement
Yeah, you were.Quote:
Originally Posted by akaroa1
But, it didn't happen to me, it sounds like it happened to you. Stop falling off fucking cliffs.
There are lots of cliffs to fall of that don't require being lost. I hunt in terrain that could result in a slip or fall constantly. Mountaineers do the same. I think your being a bit obtuse. Accidents happen and you can't avoid them completely.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Duxbury
I'm not being obtuse, I am being sardonic. Meanwhile, I am not a mountaineer, no one said that I had to be in order to hunt deer, and I have avoided an accident for fifty years, and it wasnt hard. I even enjoy being outdoors, and am rarely anxious.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stocky
I maintain the risks of being in the bush are much lower than you clumsy types are making out it is. Reading articles like that do not concern me. 48 people died scuba diving last year. THats something to worry about.
I know some bloody good outdoors people who have needed to push the button. One had the ridge he was walking on collapse underneath him. The other got swept out to sea in his Kayak when a combination of tides and wind became too much for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Duxbury
Stop falling of cliffs is a silly statement to make!
No one intends too, But also no one, that I know anyway, Is as perfect as Mr Duxbury.
I carry one because Ive learnt that I can make mistakes.
I remember reaching the top of a cliff and hugging a tree with shear relief. After having the scariest climb of my life because halfway up I realised I couldnt get back down and that the climb was too difficult for me.
I fell through ice into a crevace. Luckily it had a blockage. Ive attempted mission that were harder, wetter, longer and colder than I anticipated. All those factors can induce bad decision making or simple mistakes. Mistakes have a habit of compounding.
It doesn't happen now so much. Because I learnt from those close calls how better to prepare and make better decisions.
And one of those preparations and decisions was to carry a fucking PLB!
Another story about my dad, he was having some heart issues.
So me and my brother and sister were always joking with him and saying"if you even feel slightly dizzy, push the button so we can find your body".
Explaining that with no body recovered all his assets would be frozen and we wouldn't be able to get at them. I think he realised we were joking (sort of).
You are being deliberately obtuse.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Duxbury
I find it's ironic your clearly acting the hard man but you are scared of hunting challenging terrain and think those that do are anxious the whole time. I carry a PLB just in case the things I don't control go wrong. Never used it but have been close.
I would also get bored shitless if I hunted such boring country that there was no risk (no such thing anyway). I'm glad you have been lucky but acting like it was anything other than luck and that you had complete control of how it played out is in fact being obtuse.
In all honesty the way you are talking makes me think you should get out and hunt more and stop being a miserable old prick claiming superiority due t9 not carrying a PLB. If you have never had any close calls in 50 years of hunting your either getting senial and forgetting or you didn't really hunt that much.
