Tourniquet: You Bought One, Now What?

If you spend much time hunting, shooting, or outdoors, chances are you’ve heard that you should carry a tourniquet.
Maybe you bought one for your range bag. Maybe it’s tucked inside your hunting pack. Maybe it came with your first-aid kit.
But here’s the question:
Do you know when to use it—and do you know how to use it?
A tourniquet can be a lifesaving piece of equipment when someone is experiencing severe bleeding from an arm or leg. But like any emergency equipment, simply owning one isn’t enough. You need to understand when it’s appropriate, know how it works, and ideally have hands-on training before you ever need it.

When Should You Use a Tourniquet?

A tourniquet is designed for life-threatening bleeding from an arm or leg when bleeding cannot be controlled quickly with direct pressure or when the situation requires immediate control of the bleeding.
Think about a hunting or shooting accident where someone has a severe injury to an arm or leg, and blood is rapidly flowing or spurting from the wound.
That’s when a tourniquet may be appropriate. Signs of severe bleeding can include:

• Blood that is rapidly flowing or spurting

• Blood pooling around the injured person

• Blood soaking through clothing or dressings quickly

• A traumatic injury involving significant blood loss

• Bleeding that cannot be controlled with firm, direct pressure
  When someone is losing a dangerous amount of blood, stopping the bleeding takes priority.

When Shouldn’t You Use One?

A tourniquet isn’t necessary for every bleeding injury.
A small cut from a knife while field dressing an animal, a superficial scrape, or a minor wound that stops bleeding with direct pressure generally does not call for a tourniquet.
Tourniquets are intended for severe, potentially life-threatening bleeding from an extremity.
They should not be used simply because someone has a bleeding wound.
If direct pressure is controlling the bleeding effectively, a tourniquet may not be necessary.

How Do You Use a Tourniquet?

Different tourniquets have slightly different designs, so start by learning how the specific tourniquet you carry works.
The Ally Munitions Life Saver Kit comes with a CAT tourniquet, which is a commonly used windlass-style tourniquet.
For a windlass-style tourniquet, the general process is:

1. Expose the Injury if Possible

Locate where the bleeding is coming from.
In an emergency, don’t waste valuable time trying to completely undress someone. Cut or move clothing as necessary to identify the injury and place the tourniquet correctly.

2. Place the Tourniquet High and Tight

If you can clearly identify the bleeding site, slide or route the band 2 to 3 inches above the wound, on bare skin if possible. If the injury location is unclear or you’re in an immediate life-threatening situation, placing the tourniquet high and tight on the injured limb can be appropriate.
Never place a tourniquet over a joint, such as the elbow or knee, or over the open wound.

3. Tighten It

This is one of the most important parts.
A tourniquet needs to be tight enough to stop the bleeding. Simply wrapping it around the limb and leaving it loose isn’t going to do the job.
With a windlass-style tourniquet, the strap must be tightened so two fingertips cannot fit underneath. Then you want to fasten the hook-and-loop band back onto itself.
Yes, it can hurt. That’s expected. A properly applied tourniquet is uncomfortable because it is intentionally compressing the blood vessels supplying the injured limb.
The goal is to stop life-threatening bleeding—not to make the tourniquet comfortable.

4. Twist It

Next, you need to turn the windlass rod until bleeding completely stops. Once bleeding has stopped, lock it into place by snapping the rod into the plastic clip.
Lastly, document the time. CAT tourniquets have a time strap where the time the tourniquet was applied can be documented. This will be extremely important for healthcare professionals.

5. Don’t Loosen It

Once a tourniquet has been properly applied to control life-threatening bleeding, do not periodically loosen it to “let the blood flow.”
Leave it in place and let medical professionals manage it.

What If the Bleeding Doesn’t Stop?

If the bleeding continues after applying the tourniquet, it may not be tight enough or may not be positioned correctly. This is why it is important that you know how to use a tourniquet before situations like these arise.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and, if necessary, apply a second tourniquet above the first one.
If you have been trained in bleeding-control techniques, use that training.
The important thing is don’t assume the job is done just because the tourniquet is on. You need to confirm that the bleeding has actually stopped.

Training Matters

This is probably the most important part of this entire article.
Don’t wait until someone is seriously injured to figure out how your tourniquet works.
Take a hands-on Stop the Bleed course or other reputable bleeding-control training. Practice with the type of tourniquet you actually carry.
There is a big difference between watching someone demonstrate a tourniquet and actually putting one on yourself.
Training can help you become familiar with:

• How the tourniquet is assembled

• How to position it

• How tight it needs to be

• How to secure it

• How to recognize whether it is working

• How to respond if the first tourniquet doesn’t control the bleeding
  And remember: a tourniquet is only one part of a complete bleeding-control kit.
  There are situations where direct pressure, gauze, wound packing, or a pressure dressing may be more appropriate.

Carry It Where You Can Reach It

A tourniquet doesn’t do much good sitting at the bottom of your hunting pack when someone is experiencing catastrophic bleeding.
Keep your bleeding-control supplies somewhere accessible, and make sure everyone who regularly hunts or shoots with you knows where they are.
That’s one reason we include a tourniquet and bleeding-control supplies in our Ally Munitions Life Saver First Aid Kit.
Whether you’re heading to the deer stand, spending the day at the range, or exploring somewhere miles from the nearest road, having basic emergency supplies with you can give you one more tool when you need it most.
You can check out our Hunt Saver and Life Saver First Aid Kits at AllyMunitions.com.

The Bottom Line

A tourniquet isn’t something you buy just to check a box on your emergency-preparedness list.
From everyone at Ally Munitions: Buy it. Learn it. Practice it. Carry it.
Hopefully, you’ll never need to use it.
But if the day comes when someone is experiencing life-threatening bleeding, you don’t want that to be the moment you’re trying to figure out how it works.
A few minutes of training now could make a very different situation much easier to handle later.