What are the two most dangerous things that has happened to you while hunting ?

[Skyline]

Had to shoot a grizzly that came through the side of our tent one time a number of years ago.

Charged by cow elephants a few times........bluff charges for sure, but when it is new to you it 'feels' really dangerous and is something you will never forget.

[Lilred]

I dont rightly know if this would be classified as stupidity more than anythin else...a few years back i went squirrel huntin fairly early in the season..was still kindly warm..bout 50 degrees that afternoon. I got comforable by a fell over pine..I sat next to the stump. I was there bout 20 minutes er so when I felt somethin crawlin on my back. I thought it was a beetle er somethin crawlin outta that rotted stump I was wallerin on. So i swatted my back a few times and it quit. I figgered I whooped up on it perty good...then I felt the dern thing crawlin crost my britches leg. I done got riled up by then..this here critter was interferin with my huntin. Looked down and i was a dern big ole moccosin slitherin crost my legs! I aint kiddin ya'll neither...at that second I aint know wether I shoulda take off runnin er shrivel up in a ball lol....but I gathered my wits real quick like...picked him up by his head and threw him as fer as I could and I shot him in the head w/ the 22 rifle.

The second was on a huntin trip with my dogs...my ole warhorse Scooter was burnin a rabbit up when the rabbit hit the swamp. All the other dogs stopped but her. This aint no ordinary swamp...and the dogs knew it. They had done got in trouble in there fore..she kept on runnin and fell through the ice in a big ole hole..bout 12ft wide...she couldnt git back up..she had only broken a small hole. So Lilred the idgit jumped in..broke the ice with the butt of my shotgun and swam to her...got her out ok...but that hole was every bit of 8 ft deep..and it was bout 20 degrees out...with a mile walk back to the truck. I was by myself too. I trotted with all 6 beagles back to the truck...good thing I did too ..probaly woulda froze to death iffin I'd walked...it took bout 2 weeks to git the cold outta me.

[fabsroman]

Utterly amazing. I clicked on this thread because I thought of one "dangerous" thing I dealt with while hunting a year or two ago. Then I read Lilred's thread and it turns out to be almost the same thing.

I was planning on goose hunting the last day of the season, because the farm owner had told me that the geese had been coming in and a "friend" of mine had been clobbering them for two days straight. I called the "friend" to see if he wanted to hunt with me and my dad, and he told me that he had 4 or 5 guys coming up the next day and that he would hunt a different farm with them. Of course, he "forgot" to tell me about the goose that he left embedded in the ice in the middle of the pond. So, the last day of the season, my dad and I set the decoys up and waited in the blind for the sun to come up. After we had enough light to see, we figured out that there was a dead goose belly up in the middle of the pond. I had hoped that it wouldn't affect decoying birds, but it did. We watched two groups lock up and then flare off. So, I sent my yellow lab, Nitro, in to retrieve the bird off of the ice. Everything was fine until he got to the bird. He was so excited that he pounced/jumped on it and broke right through the ice. He couldn't get himself out, and after watching him for a little while, I decided to go out on the ice and try to get him. My dad told me to go out on my belly to distribute more of my weight across the ice, but halfway out I could hear the ice cracking, so I scooted back to the bank. I went around to the other side of the pond where the ice was thinner and tried to encourage Nitro to break through the stuff, but he couldn't. Of course, I had left my waders at home thinking that I wouldn't need to get wet because I had the dog along. Well, my dad went to look for a rope as I watched Nitro for a couple of minutes. He started to look really frantic and that is when I made the decision to go in with my bibs and pac boots on. That feeling was rather funny. The boots filled up first, and then I could feel the water coming through the clothes from the boots up. I was breaking the ice with my hands and ended up cutting them up pretty good. Luckily, the water only reached shoulder high, so I didn't have to do any swimming. However, it was tough walking through all the runoff mud/silt in the pond. Half way back to the bank, with the dog in two, my dad was walking up to me with the rope in his hand. At that point I was just screaming to him to bring the truck around because it was a couple of hundred yards away and I was cold. He continued to walk my way. I think he was in disbelief for a couple of seconds seeing me in the pond. Anyway, he got the truck, and he actually had a change of clothes in it. That was lucky for me too because everything I brought was soaked. I changed my clothes as we let the truck run and the heat get warm. Then, I took a long nap with the heat running and the sun shinning in through the windshield. When I woke up, I saw my dad and Nitro out in the field together. The dog had already forgotten about the ordeal. When they got back to the truck, we watched a couple of groups of geese come in, and that was the end of that hunting season for me.

[deermeister]

I almost hate to tell this story, because I still get mad about it.

In 1990, the second day of the Michigan firearms season, I was hunting my family's land. Around 10:00, I killed a fair sized buck, nothing to brag about, but nothing to be ashamed of either. As I was bent over, intent upon gutting it out, I heard a shot; nothing unusual there, it was gun season. I actually heard the bullet flying through the air, about ten feet over my head and to the right. I moved a bit to my left, and continued cutting the deer. Another shot rang out, and this time it zinged through the air about six feet off the ground and to my left! I'm shocked, and all I can think of is to jump behind the deer and lay flat. I grabbed my rifle, pointed it toward the woods where the shooter was and yelled "Hey! Do that again and I shoot back!" This is in the middle of an open field, I'm in plain sight, wearing enough orange to make a highway worker proud, and this idiot in the next section over just opened up on me. After a looong time, I made a break for the swamp all hunched over (all I could think of was Peter Falk in "The In-Laws"--"serpentine, serpentine!") and got the heck out of there.

A couple of days later, I confronted the idiot in his yard, when he was armed with nothing more lethal than a bag of garbage, and let him know what I thought. Turns out that in his mind, I shot HIS deer before it could cross the river to his property, and he felt that was a mature way to deal with it. I pointed out that the deer was a good 150 yards from the river when I shot it, and it wasn't even headed his way. Needless to say, we still don't get along.

The second one isn't so scary, it's just weird. My brother and I went bowhunting together, and decided to hunt two separate stands of pines about 200 yards apart. It was way before daylight. I got to my stand first, and as I was settling in, I could see his flashlight as he headed across the field. With nothing else to look at, I idly watched the light. It crossed the field, went up his tree, and turned off. A minute or so later, I see the light turn back on, go down the tree, travel about 70 yards (the length of the stand of pines), pause, go back and up the tree. Knowing how obsessive he gets about laying down extra scent, I just thought it was odd. We hunted the morning, and about 11:00 I saw him come out of the pines and start across the field toward me. I gathered my stuff, climbed out of my stand, and waited for him. When he got close enough, I asked him what he was doing at the other end of the pines, and he said it wasn't him. He had climbed in his tree, turned off his light and just waited for daylight. I told him what I had seen, and he was more than surprised. It was dead calm that morning, and he had not heard a twig snap, let alone any footsteps. Just makes you wonder...

[fabsroman]

If somebody had actually shot at me, I think I might be really pissed and actually press charges. I think I might have actually done some physical harm to the idiot myself. It utterly amazes me how bent out of shape people get over animals. I guess it has more to do about what they think the proper manners are for hunting. For instance, I get pissed off when guys in fields next to me skybust birds they know will be coming to me. To shoot at somebody though, or even remotely close to them, is utterly insane.

I once saw a guy point a loaded shotgun at somebody on a skeet field just because the guy was making fun of his skeet shooting. I could not believe that and lost all respect for the person. Of course, I was young at that time and alcohol was involved on the pointer's end.

[Lilred]

Dern Fabs, then you can share my pain...of bein froze to death..I tell ya..I was beyond numb that day by the time I got back to the truck. Only thing that kept me goin was adrenilin I think.

As fer as somebody shootin at me.....to hell with that pressin charges crap...I'd be whoopin up on him with a gunstock. There aint nary an ounce of excuse fer shootin at somebody wether you know they are there er not...just aint none. And once they realize they done shot at ya, they'd probaly take off runnin...so pressin charges would do as much good as a 1 legged man in a arsh whoopin contest. I'd run him down and whoop him good...lol

[Skyline]

Lilred you are right................had a close call years ago when I was moose hunting. In those days wearing blaze orange was the law where I was.

Early one morning I spotted a bull moose in a logging block and let him have it in the lungs with my .30-06. The bull walked about 20 yards and then began to sway and finally fell against a small pile of logging debris in a semi-sitting up position, deader than a mackerel.

I walked up and was standing back of the moose staring at it to make sure it was dead and wondering how I was going to pull him off the log pile and get him over on his back (I was by myself). Now bear in mind I am standing in an open cut block, rifle in hand and wearing a blaze orange vest.

The next thing I know I hear a whop as a bullet hits the moose and then the muzzleblast. I jumped back and there on the hill above me, at a landing (logging landing at the end of a haul road) I see a pick-up truck and a hunter ....the one that obviously just shot........running towards the truck and he gets in and takes off like a bat out of hell.

It scared the ever living crap out of me and I am sure it did him as well. It is also why I have very little use for blaze orange......it didn't prevent that near miss and I have watched over the years and can tell you of dozens of other instances where it did nothing to prevent hunting accidents.

It is a feel good thing.................the reason there are less accidents these days is due to hunter training requirements and more hunters having the 'be sure of yuour target and what's behind it before you shoot' drummed into their heads.

Where this happened has done away with the blaze orange requirement as the government could find no stats that proved it made any difference and in fact it has made no difference to the rate of hunting accidents in that province....the number of accidents has continued to decline since they did away with the blaze orange law. Education is the key.

I won't wear it unless I have to. But that is just me and I know there are many who swear by it. If it makes you feel good do it. It doesn't make me feel good..............sometimes I think it actually attracts attention in certain lighting conditions....but not in a good way.

[Lilred]

Ya know Skyline..that's a point werth "arguin"...so to speak.
Lemme tell ya right off the git-go that Lilred is guilty as charged on doin the very thing I'm fixin to go off about.

We are so used to lookin fer blaze orange that he guy who is not wearin it goes unnoticed. Fer example...bout 10 years ago I was walkin REAL slow to a stand. I took bout 2 steps...stopped..looked..listened and took another 2. I was bout 15 yards from the fool when I spotted him...hunched in a small ditch by a huge fell over oak. Iffin I hadnt been really lookin hard around the area...I woulda never saw him. And iffin there woulda been a buck standin there 50 yards back, I woulda shot. Funny thing was, I dont know iffin he knew I was there er not either, I'm sure he heard me...I dont think I'm that good at bein quiet. He mighta thought I was a wary deer, but he never looked my way. Well..he could have...but common sense would tell you...iffin yer huntin illegally with nary a bit of blaze orange on and you see somebody stalkin in yer direction...then I would dam well let them know I was there! Illegal er not!
Iffin yer that stupid..then natural selection takes over.

But that learnt me to never take fer granted that everybody wears blaze orange....cause they dont. I dont reckon I can prove that this sorta thing is the cause fer most huntin accidents but I think that this is the cause of a few. We caint git lazy-eyed.

[fabsroman]

Lilred,

I have a similar story. I was hunting the shotgun season and I was in my stand all day. It was getting late and I saw a bush moving. I thought that a deer must be on the other side of the bush eating off of it to make it move that much. I didn't own binos at the time, so I looked through the shotgun/sluggun scope. I kept looking and looking, and I couldn't find a deer anywhere. Finally, I noticed the flourescent fletching from the arrows that the idiot was using. The guy was still hunting on the ground with a bow during rifle season and he was wearing a ghillie suit. That pretty much scared me because I had a live round in the gun while I was looking at him. Mind you, I was hunting in some thick stuff, so he didn't look like a bush in the middle of a field. The gun didn't go off, so there was no accident, but you can bet I would have been able to see him clearly if he was wearing blaze orange.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

sitting on the end of cornfield deer hunting, hearing a shot from other end and the whizzz of the round..later asked guy where he shot..into the cornfield..and for no reason either..words never said before were exchanged..
groundhoggin, told guy not to shoot along another cornfield as I was using it to skirt to the fields in the back farm..the field he was watching had live holes close to field edge then a small slope for backround that I had to walk past..while in back fields and inline with his cornfield edge, I heard pow..then whirrzzz..pow, whirzzz..as I dove to the ground and made the crawl back about a hundred yds and the long walk around other side of field heading to his direction with more steam than an old train, I used the same words as stated before..he said no problem and couldn't be his rounds going back that far because he figured they would dig into the backround hillside...yea right..I don't hunt with him anymore either

[skeeter@ccia.com]

after watching tv show with my kids on friday night (movie happened to be about monsters in the woods eating people) and getting up early to spring turkey..walking a horse trail over a grown up field on a ridge to my stand I had to pass many a honeysuckle bush in moonlight,stars..stopping now and then to take it all in while listening to the whipperwhill call,,all of sudden, this monster jumped out of a bush, grabbed my shotgun off my shoulder and tried to wrestle it from me..he was as big as the bush and hairy with fangs about a foot long and foam dripping from his mouth..the meanest honeysuckle bush I ever seen..after the laughing outloud to myself, I decided no more monster shows the night before..
hunting for my lost buddy after a day of bear hunting in north east pa woods..and finding him a mile down the road sick, overheated and everything else a lost hunter in the big woods can be, I tossed him onto the deer rack on back of the truck (first thing hauled on it too)..then drove him back to camp where I got him in his bag while I set up camp and made him coffee..he never left the back of the truck the next 2 days of the hunt either..

gettin shot by bunny hunter when he pulled a chenny on me..don't hunt with him either

having my beagle shot only 5 yds in front of me in brush..by another hunter..he had to sell his 69 chevelle to pay for my dog and I don't hunt with him either.

having turkey hunters on the side of quad trail that seperates gameland and private property (my daughter and I on gameland side) walk over my deks and under my orange ribbons hanging on limbs in their face only to set up 20yds faceing our direction and start calling birds..even after I put my orange vest on and stood up from the tree with about 4 orange hats and orange ribbon tied around the tree.. to defy him to not know we were there..2 of them..I ended up having to walk the 19 yards to his face and say words I didn't even know I knew that my daughter said wooo..never seen you so mad dad..I told him I would crawl up his gun and shove it down his throat so far the drs wouldn't even be able to remove it..he stated he was on private land and I told him things I can't say here about him and his private land... I still set up on this spot and is where I have taken 6 new hunters for their first spring bird.
the list goes on and on over the years..and I have to leave this thread now as the hackles are popping up in the neck thinking of other times that qualify for this post.....and my wife just hates it that I hunt alone (unless with my daughters) since the bypass and 5 heart attacks and numerous stents from the past..
what scares me the most isn't having ticker problems while alone out there or the bugs,ants etc that will find me but is the possum that will find me..lol..I will be found with butt tucked into the tightest tree stump I can find...and I told her just look for the crows in a few days and I will be there..with a smile...lol..

[Skyline]

Fortunately I do not live or hunt in the conditions you guys do......and never will thank God. I hunted in Oregon once during an open elk season years ago and I will never go back...it was an absolute zoo and it was not fun.

On the other hand I hunted in Wyoming and Montana a few times on private land (paid a small tresspass fee) and had a great time and rarely saw another hunter.

If you are going to have things set up in areas with huge populations so that it is a free for all on the small areas of BLM land and tags are just bought over the counter as opposed to a longer time period of staggered seasons with draws, then I guess you just have to put up with it.

I

[fabsroman]

Skeeter,

You have been through a lot. Don't know if I could go through all that and continue to hunt. Good for you.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

fabs, my 2 daughters are the only huntin buddies I trust out there now..the love of it all ..can never give it up..I figured if did..I would only be givin in to the same reason people quit anything..because you don't like doing it in the first place and was just looking for an excuse for yourself to quit..I just don't put up with stupid people out there so do it alone most of the time ..that way only have to keep eye on one stupid person..lmao..
oh and the honeysuckle bush thing, my sling got caught on a branch..I said whew as the monster melted back down to a sweet smelling bush..

born to be outdoors...thanks dad

[8X56MS]

First would be the time some years back, when hunting in Camp Blanding near Jax. I bent down to tie my boot laces, and at that exact instance, a bullet thwacked into the tree I was leaning against. Were it not for the untied lace, I would have taken the bullet about the center of my throat. Never had any idea of who fired it, and I did not hear the shot.
I did not hunt Blanding for a LONG time after that.

Second, would be the time I was hog hunting in what we called 'bottomless bay' (Impassable Swamp) north of Lake City. I had a large boar charge me just as I pulled myself up out of the water onto a hammock. Shot him at point blank range. Although I blew out the back of his skull with the 240 grain .44 mag, his momentum carried him off the little ledge, and on top of me. With all the noise, thrashing, and weight, I was not sure whether I was dead or alive. Had to quarter the hog to get him out, and that took several trips. What a day that was.