I’ve always believed hunting and survival are closely related. The skills—and often the tools—are nearly identical. If the world ended tomorrow, surrounding yourself with a group of experienced backcountry hunters probably wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
But capable doesn’t mean invincible. You can prepare for dozens of scenarios and still encounter the one you never saw coming.
This fall, I found myself hunting a particularly nasty piece of country—steep, loose slopes covered in deadfall, with plenty of places where one bad step could turn into a serious problem. As I picked my way through it, I kept thinking: What happens if I fall here and break a leg?
I was miles from another human. Could I treat myself? Could I stay warm overnight? Could I communicate with anyone? Would my hunting partners even know I was in trouble?
September is National Preparedness Month, an annual reminder to prepare for emergencies before they happen. That preparation starts well before the trailhead, particularly when planning a demanding Western hunt.
Editor’s Note: The author is the founder of Uncharted Supply Co., which manufactures emergency-preparedness products mentioned in this article.
How the Four-Layer Backcountry Hunting Safety Plan Works
Backcountry hunters obsess over their gear. We spend months considering every ounce in our packs and weighing the likelihood that we’ll actually use it. We want to be light, fast and effective.
Preparedness requires balancing that mentality against the “what ifs.”
I approach it as a series of concentric circles. At the center is what’s on my body or in my pack. The next circle is camp. Then comes the vehicle and the route out. Finally, there’s professional medical care.
The farther you move from the center, the more resources you can have. But every layer needs to be capable of getting you to the next one.
The Four Circles of Hunter Preparedness
| Circle | Location | Primary Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 1: On Your Person | Body or pack | Address immediate threats, protect yourself from exposure and communicate |
| 2: Camp | Base or spike camp | Add supplies and redundancy; reassess and stabilize |
| 3: Vehicle | Truck or other vehicle | Provide greater shelter, resources, communications and mobility |
| 4: Professional Help | Evacuation route and medical care | Get beyond what you can safely handle yourself |
Circle One: On Your Person
This is the gear that matters most because it’s the gear you actually have when something goes wrong.
The goal isn’t to carry everything. It’s to carry a small amount of durable, lightweight equipment that solves a surprisingly wide range of problems.
Think about the basic problems that can turn a bad situation into a deadly one: bleeding, exposure, dehydration, getting lost and being unable to communicate.
Your kit should give you an answer to each.
That philosophy also shaped a project we worked on with survival expert John Barklow: building a compact emergency kit around the problems a hunter is most likely to need to solve in the field.
The resulting Uncharted Possibles Pouch includes supplies for basic first aid, water purification, emergency shelter, fire starting and signaling without taking up much room in a pack.
I carry one every time I leave the trailhead, but the specific kit matters less than making sure you have those basic needs covered.
For a broader breakdown of what to carry, see our guide to building a hunting first aid and survival kit.
I also carry a dependable knife, which can handle everything from basic camp tasks and gear repairs to food preparation and countless unexpected jobs in the field.
Equipment that helps you survive is only half the equation. You also need a way to tell someone you need help.
That’s why I carry a Garmin inReach.
Phones have become incredible backcountry tools. Apps such as onX and Spartan Forge allow us to download maps and navigate without cell coverage, and newer phones offer increasingly useful satellite capabilities.
Hunters heading into unfamiliar ground can also use e-scouting tools to study terrain and access routes before leaving the trailhead.
But I still want a dedicated satellite communicator that lets me message my hunting partners and family, receive weather information and initiate an SOS when an emergency is beyond my ability to manage.
Lastly, I never leave camp without my rain gear and puffy jacket. If you spend enough time in the mountains, you know that the forecast lies, and it’s not uncommon for a sunny day to turn into a hailstorm. With the right gear, it’s a nice time to sit and relax. Without the right gear, you could be facing a very uncomfortable day or even hypothermia.
The objective of Circle One is simple:
Stop the immediate problem, protect yourself from the environment, communicate your situation and buy enough time to reach the next circle.
Before You Leave the Trailhead
- Tell someone where you’re going and when you expect to return
- Carry emergency medical and survival essentials
- Download maps for offline use
- Bring a reliable communication device
- Pack insulation and rain protection
- Know your route back to camp and the vehicle
- Identify the nearest appropriate medical facility
- Have an alternate evacuation route
Circle Two: Camp
Camp is where weight restrictions begin to disappear.
Whether it’s a spike camp five miles deep or a wall tent next to the truck, this is where I build redundancy into my system.
Extra water. Food. Dry clothing. Batteries. Fire-making supplies. Shelter. A more comprehensive first-aid and trauma kit. Extra medication. Navigation and communication backups.
If I’ve treated an injury in the field well enough to get someone moving, camp becomes the next place to reassess, stabilize and make a decision: Can we handle this ourselves, or do we need to evacuate?
Camp should also be a rally point. Everyone in the hunting party should know where it is, how to reach it and what resources are there.
The same preparedness principles apply well beyond hunting, as outlined in these outdoor safety tips from a Navy Corpsman.
Circle Three: The Vehicle
When possible, I treat my truck as a mobile shelter, communications center, workshop, hospital and restaurant.
This is where I can afford real redundancy.
Water by the gallons instead of ounces. Serious medical supplies instead of pocket-sized first aid. Warm clothing and blankets. Food. Tools. Recovery equipment. Fuel. Power. Communications equipment.
A freak September snowstorm isn’t particularly intimidating when you’ve got dry clothes, food, water, shelter and heat waiting at the truck.
A lot of hunters spend thousands of dollars making their vehicles more capable of getting into remote places. It’s worth spending some time thinking about what that vehicle needs to get you out when something has gone wrong.
My truck is set up with tires designed to withstand rough country, but I also carry an Uncharted Zeus Air that can inflate a flat tire or start a dead battery. I have auxiliary lighting for poor visibility, and my camper gives me a dry place to sleep along with power, communications equipment and additional supplies. Solar power, a portable battery system and satellite internet give me additional options for charging devices and communicating when conventional service isn’t available.
The exact equipment matters less than the redundancy. By the time I reach the vehicle, I want considerably more capability than I had in my pack or at camp.
Build Redundancy at the Vehicle
- Water
- Food
- Dry clothing and blankets
- Comprehensive first-aid/trauma supplies
- Tools and recovery gear
- Backup power
- Fuel
- Communications equipment
Circle Four: Professional Help
The final layer doesn’t fit in your pack at all: your evacuation plan.
Before heading into remote country, know where you’re going if something serious happens.
Where is the nearest appropriate medical facility? Which roads provide the fastest route out? What happens if the road you came in on becomes impassable? Where does cell service return? Where could a helicopter potentially reach you?
Offline maps matter here. So does knowing the country before the emergency begins.
When something serious happens, stress has a way of making simple decisions surprisingly difficult. That’s not the moment you want to start figuring out where to go for medical help.
Preparedness isn’t about carrying enough equipment to solve every imaginable problem. That’s impossible.
It’s about creating layers.
What you’re carrying keeps you alive and communicating. Camp gives you additional resources. Your vehicle gives you serious capability and mobility. Your evacuation plan gets you to professional help.
And every layer buys you the time and capability necessary to reach the next one.
As hunters, we spend an enormous amount of time preparing for the moment an animal finally steps into range. We tune bows, test ammunition, study maps, check wind, prepare vehicles and obsess over ounces.
We should put the same thought into what happens when the hunt doesn’t go according to plan—and what will allow us to deal with the problem safely, whether that means continuing the hunt or knowing when it’s time to leave.
This type of planning can also build resilience outside the hunt, helping us become better prepared to protect our families and others who depend on us.
Being the prepared guy in hunting camp isn’t about having the most gear. It’s about being the person who already knows what to do when something goes wrong.
