I hunt a property in N. Wisconsin and usually I get decent phone service up there. Well, for some reason I had no service at all last weekend. I hunt this place alone and I must say I felt really isolated and a bit nervous about being cut off like that. If something happened to me out there, I would be screwed big time. Not to mention not being able to check the forums, weather, etc, really sucks! I do get service at the road, so I make arrangements to always call a family member midday and at the end of the evening. They're 5 hours away but if they don't get a call, they are to call a neighbor down the street to check on me. Do you guys always have service? If you don't, do you worry about it?
some stands I do, some I don't or it's spotty. not worried, but time stands still without being able to play on the phone
I hunt alone most of the time myself. it costs a few bucks but I went with the Spot™ Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger Personal Tracker as my backup / emergency communications in case my cell phone isn't getting coverage. I started with its predecessor and have used them for the last decade or so. enables me to send preset messages to email addresses that I'm fine and then if I do get in trouble can press a SOS button and the ground station will call the nearest help to my location. makes my wife feel easy about my hunting and for me is well worth the cost. works around the globe except for the center of the major oceans.
There is a creek bottom where I have two stands and can only get enough signal to text. Calls get dropped and web surfing is a no go. That's ok though. One of my goals this year is to spend less time on the phone in the stand.
I do but it eats alot of phone battery. I usually turn my phone off and check it every hour or so for during a 4 hour hunt. Sent from my 0PJA2 using Tapatalk
Some places I do... some of the more recent properties I've started hunting (including deep in a couple National Forests) I don't. Not having cell coverage isn't necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it may save you. Several years back, my boss called me to ask why I had more cell usage in late Oct and all of November than anyone else in the company. I told him it must have been a glitch, as I honestly couldn't think of any reason. A few weeks later it hit me, as I was on stand almost every day during that time playing around on the forums.
I'm lucky if my phone works anywhere within 5 miles of home and my hunting properties. Our local cell service signals suck. Our growing dependancy on this crap tech scares me a little. I wonder what some of the old timers that braved the frontier would have thought if we could sit down and explain to them how insecure we now feel when we're disconnected from technology.
I don't have service most of the time. I never have really worried about it. I usually make a call or text to say 'out of the woods' when I get back to service. I always make sure that some one knows where I am going so I take comfort in knowing that somebody knows where to start the search if anything were to happen.
I usually have full service LTE on my place these days. One of the public land spots I'm hunting on this season doesn't really have any service. Every now and again a text will sneak through, but no chance I could make a call. If I was hunting out west on a trip, I would probably get a Spot or something like that but whitetail hunting around here I don't think it's necessary.
I strictly hunted public land last season and I discovered this: If I do get service, I see a ton of hunters and no deer. This season, I plan on seeing if the opposite holds true. I'll mark a map for the girlfriend each time I leave (showing different possible stand sites in an area), and make the "on my way" call when I get back into range.
There are four stands in my property that get perfect cell service I try not to bring my phone during bow hunting but prefer to have it with my rifle although all together I would rather be cut off from the world that's just part of "the camp" but unlike yourself my camp is only an hour away from the house so if someone gets to worried bout me they know where to find me!
80% of the time. No. But it's not like there are endless miles of rough wilderness, bears, lions and rattlesnakes around here. Oh.. wait. If you're in a canyon you definitely won't have service. Like this. But if you get up high enough on the right peaks, you might get 4g. I am a klutz and I live by the saying "Hope for the best but prepare for the worst" so I usually carry a satellite phone.
Out in my woods(NW Wisconsin), I can't make or receive a phone call, but texts/SMS will go though and all my family know that and are on elevated awareness.
I always have full cell service. There are times I wish I had none.last year I took a trip and for 8 days I had no service it was the best 8 days once I got used to no cell phone or iPad I loved it.
I seem to always get service from the tree but there are a few places that if I'm on the ground, it's a no-go. Blessings........Pastorjim
