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'Accidents' while on a hunting trip?

Cranky

Banned Henchman #27
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This includes guns going off when they weren't supposed to. In the mid 80's a buddy of mine got his 77 Dodge big block Power Wagon floorboard shot up when another buddy grabbed a high powered rifle and it went off. The bullet went through the floor on the passenger side and put a good sized hole in the exhaust pipe cross over and just nicked the transmission. They were out in the middle of nowhere and that could have been a bad situation had the trans got a hole in it. Odd that my buddy said no one had been drinking at that point. Knowing him and those other guys I just said sure lol. I never was much on going hunting especially with known big drinkers even though I've done that but that time I didn't.....
 
Went elk hunting with a buddy during high school. We were up on the side of a steep mountain and weren't having much luck. There was a big boulder and we decided it would be a good idea to roll it down into the canyon below to see if we could scare out some elk. My friend rolled the boulder but forgot he set his rifle on the ground few yards below. Rock rolled right on top of the rifle and it fired. We we're damn lucky it didn't hit one of us. Can't remember the caliber but i'm pretty sure it was a magnum. That was really stupid.
 
Probably about 30 years ago I was driving my 45 Ford GPW with a load of brush busters down a trail where we were to spread out and hunt off the side of a ridge. A big old rattle snake was stretched out across the trail. I stopped for a second or two and then said screw it and jumped on it, planning on running over said snake (I hate those things). Soon as the jeep lept forward there was a load explosion right behind us. Turns out a dipshit in the back had stood up, planning on shooting the snake right over me and the front seat passenger. When I started forward, he fell out the back landing flat on his back, at the same time his 30-06 discharged. Once we determined that nobody had any holes in them that they didn't have earlier, I drove off without dipshit.
 
Out squirrel hunting when I was 10 years old with 15 year old cousin. Taking a beat on a squirrel just as I to shoot a big dumb head of my cousin stepped in front of me. He died this spring, could have been 63 years sooner.
 
Not sure of this as an accident, more self inflicted. Opening Day of Big Game, late '80's, in Pembroke, NY.
I went in to my stand, solo hunt, behind my In-laws place, cold rainy day, then temps dropped, turned into snow. Sat all morning, into early afternoon, til I couldn't sit anymore, shaking so bad. I did a slow walk, down hill, and leaned up against a tree, not sure how long. A buck walking in front of me, probably just as cold as me, about 10yds away. I leveled on him, pulled the trigger, and looked, he was gone. I stood for a few minutes, thinking what was that ? I looked around, and wondered if I was dreaming, still shaking so bad, I couldn't focus. I walked over to where I thought I shot at him, and sure enough, blood on the snow. I turned to my right, to start tracking, and there he was down, about 10 yards away. I never saw him run after the shot, but he dropped right there. I came to, and started moving enough to warm up when I gutted him, and drawing heat off him, as I figured I was hypothermic, and probably not far from that Final Walk. I owe my life to that Buck, and My Guardian Angel...
 
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No real accidents but scared the crap out of myself once being an idiot. I climbed a tree in a climber, once I got high enough I realized I hadn't accurately accounted for the reduced tree diameter and decided to readjust the platform cable to compensate at 25'! Fortunately I was strong enough to get the situation under control but not before there were several panicked minutes spent in that tree going through different scenarios of how I was getting back down with only the top portion.
 
I had a couple that were hairy enough I don’t even like to tell the stories. Seemed to involve the same guy.
Pick your hunting buddies carefully.
 
I love to pheasant hunt, a guy I worked with wanted me to take him. He bragged about how great of shot he was. My dog gave him 5 or 6 solid points and he never touched a feather. While we were walking a fence line we came on a fox in a drag trap. He wanted to kill it, grabbing his gun by the barrel he tried hitting the fox. The dumb *** still had a loaded gun. We were done then. I am very choosy who I hunt with now.

When I was 14, I was tracking a fox that I had wounded. It crossed the ice. I went through the ice, it took everything I had to get out. By the time I had walked a mile or so to a friends house my clothes were froze stiff. His mom put me in a luke warm shower to warm me up.
 
Many years ago at a typical Maine hunting camp with about 10 people staying there, we all were off hunting our preferred areas in the big woods. 5 of us had gone about 10 miles from camp and hunting this place we called Buffalo. Since Buffalo stream ran through this area we felt the name was perfect.

We were about done for the morning and all trying to get back to the truck, I heard a distant shot and we all contacted each other by radio and determined it wasn’t one of us. A few moments later a car with 2 flat tires, leaking oil came pulling up to John, Jeff and Bruce in our group. One the guys had accidentally shot his buddy in the leg as they were walking in the woods. He had a Winchester model 94 and wasn’t familiar. Went to click hammer back after loading in the that wonderful safety position and it slipped discharging the weapon. John, the older brother in our group grabbed the kid and got him into the back of his pickup truck and off the went for the hospital. We were about 40+ miles away from any hospital! Two others in our group went along to help.

Now, I could see all this happening but was too far down the road to help at all. I was just getting out of the wooded patch. They took off and left 2 of us. That wa kind of too bad, I was the only one out there with advanced first aid trying. However, the guys that went with him did a great job and handled the situation like pro’s! After realizing we were all by ourselves, we thought under those circumstances, we were perfectly fine with that. As we finally got to the area where they had transferred vehicles, we saw the amount of blood in the road. I knew from radio contact that they were leaving with a gunshot wound victim, but right then I knew it was bad. That amount of blood loss, it had to hit the femoral artery! I tried to reach them on the radio to tell them a tourniquet was probably in order but they were already out of range.

We had lots of daylight and 10 miles to walk and hunt. We were later picked up and given a ride back to camp.

If it were not for John driving those woods roads as much as he did and as well(fast), that kid would have bled out for sure. Bruce and Jeff help with first aid and pressure to keep the bleeding under control. No question the action of those 3 saved the life of this hunter.

It’s still a story we talk about today! Things can happen so quickly to the inexperienced and the pro’s too!

Here‘s an article that came out a bit ago about it.
30 years ago, he was shot while deer hunting in Maine. It changed his life forever.
 
Spent a lot of time in the woods of MN, the mountains of CO for elk, deer and antelope and then surrounding states on the pheasant hunting circuit. Never had to many concerning issues arise other than staying out to late, too far up the Mtn when it had gotten too dark. Some times the word “semi-lost” comes to mind. With us it was prerequisite safety first stupidity waaaay down the line. Stupid people and drinking more then just enough to keep you warm didn’t fit in our camps.

Quit hunting for good when I moved to this God forsaken area - they mostly hunt people out here and stupidity reigns - kept the tools of the trade but haven’t used them since. They’ll be back in use if necessity ever calls……
 
Damn!!! Don't some understand that Guns and Booze never mix??? Stupid is as stupid does I guess:screwy::screwy::screwy::usflag::usflag::usflag:
 
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I don’t hunt anymore, probably won’t again.
My dad had some land we used to hunt on, after he sold that the thrill was gone for me.
I finally figured out the last few years I really only like to hunt alone. Sit under a tree for an hour or so, move to a new spot, and so on. Just to be in the woods and nature was what I liked
 
My brother in law’s buddy was on my right and shot over my head when a pheasant flushed to my left. I “accidentally” punched him in the nose and threw his shotgun into a muddy field.

Does that count?

I don’t hunt with people that I don’t know anymore…
 
In the 60’s my Father and friends had a sawmill cookhouse that they used as a hunting cabin. They might go to it for a week or two. A couple of years they never saw anyone else. Until 1964 they would drive to within 25 miles of moose camp, unload the Bombardier and haul things in another 23 miles. In 64 a year round lumber road was built coming in from the North which went past moose camp. That was the first year I got to go along.
Their hard fast rule! No one left to hunt in the morning if they had been drinking very much in the evening before. It worked.
 
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Small town I grew up in there was a hunting accident. One man shot another man by accident, man died, and man that shot him married his widow. Nothing fishy there:lol:
 
Many years ago at a typical Maine hunting camp with about 10 people staying there, we all were off hunting our preferred areas in the big woods. 5 of us had gone about 10 miles from camp and hunting this place we called Buffalo. Since Buffalo stream ran through this area we felt the name was perfect.

We were about done for the morning and all trying to get back to the truck, I heard a distant shot and we all contacted each other by radio and determined it wasn’t one of us. A few moments later a car with 2 flat tires, leaking oil came pulling up to John, Jeff and Bruce in our group. One the guys had accidentally shot his buddy in the leg as they were walking in the woods. He had a Winchester model 94 and wasn’t familiar. Went to click hammer back after loading in the that wonderful safety position and it slipped discharging the weapon. John, the older brother in our group grabbed the kid and got him into the back of his pickup truck and off the went for the hospital. We were about 40+ miles away from any hospital! Two others in our group went along to help.

Now, I could see all this happening but was too far down the road to help at all. I was just getting out of the wooded patch. They took off and left 2 of us. That wa kind of too bad, I was the only one out there with advanced first aid trying. However, the guys that went with him did a great job and handled the situation like pro’s! After realizing we were all by ourselves, we thought under those circumstances, we were perfectly fine with that. As we finally got to the area where they had transferred vehicles, we saw the amount of blood in the road. I knew from radio contact that they were leaving with a gunshot wound victim, but right then I knew it was bad. That amount of blood loss, it had to hit the femoral artery! I tried to reach them on the radio to tell them a tourniquet was probably in order but they were already out of range.

We had lots of daylight and 10 miles to walk and hunt. We were later picked up and given a ride back to camp.

If it were not for John driving those woods roads as much as he did and as well(fast), that kid would have bled out for sure. Bruce and Jeff help with first aid and pressure to keep the bleeding under control. No question the action of those 3 saved the life of this hunter.

It’s still a story we talk about today! Things can happen so quickly to the inexperienced and the pro’s too!

Here‘s an article that came out a bit ago about it.
30 years ago, he was shot while deer hunting in Maine. It changed his life forever.
Good article.. Chad has done an incredible thing turning a horrible accident into a positive life experience....
 
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