Lets hear about some close calls with bow

[bofish-IL]

I thought it would be a learning experience to hear some incidents that happen during hunting.

One I still remember well was I had just started hunting with traditional equipment and was after the mighty squirrel. Had one in a hedge row about 12 yds away. If you ever been around hedge you know they have tons of limbs and twigs. Pulled back let her fly arrow clipped a limb flew over in the next hedge tree bounced off a couple other limbs and stuck in the ground by my toe. Never even spooked the squirrel.

Another was stump shooting with a rubber blunt. Pulled back at a knot on a hickory tree about 12 to 15 yds and just very missed my head as I ducked out the way. I think that thing flew backwards faster than the bow shot it.  :eek:

[J-dog]

Had a wheelie draw on me in the dusk when I walked by with all white fletching bobbing behind me. Knew he was there but could not see him good in such low light. I was standing there looking up and he was at full draw with a bead on me - lucky I said "hey" when I did or he was gonna loose his arrow. I shoot purple or yellow fletch these days.

Oh yeah I had walked out into a field and then into the corner where he was located - when I was in the field he had grunted at me, just about the time I turned and headed in his direction. Funny how little details lead to disaster.

Man so many others but not for here.

J

[GingivitisKahn]

Let's see - not sure if this counts but ...

This season (in October), I was sitting with my bow in my final position for the evening, I was busy thinking the deep thoughts that hunters think (this seat stinks - what if I were to make a hammock chair; shoulda brought another apple; I'm chilly *and* swatting mosquitoes - one or the other) when something made me look to my right. I think what got my attention was the noise of the wind streaming over a pair of rapidly approaching hawk wings. The red-tail hawk saw me turn my head and swerved at the last second (about 5 feet away) and landed on a neighboring tree rather than on me.

Not sure what he had been planning - maybe i was twiddling my thumbs and he wanted to attack them or maybe he was planning to land on my head. Whatever - I'm glad he decided against it. Though I outweigh him by a fair bit, he has sharper talons than I do and the element of surprise was very much in his favor.

[bornagainbowhunter]

I had the same thing happen with an owl about 2 years ago.  I think he thought my eyes were food, they were the only thing not in camo.  He may have been after the beaver balls on my bow, i don't know.  All that I do know is that he was coming talons first and I almost jumped from my tree.    

[Hoyt]

Many yrs ago when bow quivers first came out, some didn't have covers for the broadheads. We were at a friends house before daylight getting ready to go to the woods and a friend started stringing his recurve. He stuck one tip under his insole and was sliding he string up the top limb when it slipped and a broad head sliced his inner bicep cutting a main artery.

Blood was spewing everywhere. Got him in the pickup and sped the 18 miles to nearest hospital in about 10 minutes. Floor board was full of blood and nurse said a few minutes later and he would have been dead.

[HOWITZER]

Had an interesting "accident" this past year during deer season.  
Was sitting in a treestand for about 6 hours when 11 deer came trotting through the woods toward my stand.  The first deer came right up to the tree I was sitting in and started licking the tree she looked straight up at me and saw something wasn't right.  She snorted jumped to my left and started walking away at about ten yards, I thought ooo a nice "chippy".  However, I didn't shuffle my feet and just rotated my hips. Well I picked a spot and let the arrow fly, I heard a loud snap the bow jumped from hand flipped in the air and fell to the ground.  The arrow stuck in a tree eye level at 90 degrees to where I was aiming.  
The string had raked across my chest and caught on my safety harness buckle and yanked the bow from my hand.  The 11 deer exploded and I thanked the good lord for I was not harmed and my bow was just fine! Fewww!

[Don Stokes]

I think it was in the '60's. I was walking into the woods and tripped, and had my arrows in a tube quiver in my hand. I fell on the end of the arrows, and the nocks made a serious bruise in the middle of my chest. Good thing they weren't turned the other way! A real learning experience for me.

[bofish-IL]

I had an odd thing happen in Missouri this year with an owl. Like others I have had them come swooping in then at the last second veer off.

This year I had one land in the next tree to me about 12 yards away eye level. He just sat there turning his head different angles. I thought I'll move my hand and spook him. Didn't work. So I stood up he still sat there. After a minute I waved my arms and he still sat there. I was begining to worry some and he finally took flight. Hate to admit it but I ducked when he took off. He had me a little gun shy.

Thing is he did the exact thing 2 days later. Maybe I was in his stand?

[Mike Gerardi]

Was out bow hunting squirrels one day when my buddy spotted a nice red fox squirrel in a really tall oak tree. He shot and the arrow deflected off a branch. That arrow thumped into the ground inches from my right foot. Now when we go rabbit hunting he has to jump on the brush piles.

[Biggie Hoffman]

I was on the ground in south Florida when I came upon a 200#plus sow with 3 boars, all bifger than she was. It was obviously pig making time and the biggest of the 3 boars was trying to do his thing but the other two wouldn't let him. He'd jump off aqd chase them off, then go back and try again. this went on for sevral minutes and I was getting closer each time the big boar tried to mount.

At 15 yards, one of the smaller (only 200#) boars hooked him again and he jumped off and went after him. Now.........if you've ever been inside the ring with 4 big hogs and one in heat, you know how much squealing and grunting is going on. If not, just know that it is hair raising at the very least.

As the big boar turned back to the sow, he saw me standing there and without hesitation, he came for me. At this point, it went form a hunting situation to a survival one. I drew my arrow way past my normal 32", I faintly remember touching my ear, and tried to hit him between the eyes. He was coming so fast that I hit the top of his shoulders and it went in only about 5 or 6". It stopped him though.

The sow took off and he looked in her direction and thankfully, he decided to go after her.

I had to sit down for a few minutes......

[leatherneck]

1999- We'd been hunting a massive non-typical for 3 years and he was a narly beast this particular year. We had a sighting of him around 3 particular stands. As luck would have it, the next morning the wind would be be good to hunt all three. So me,Ben,and Rob set up and I chose the secret stand. About 8:00am I see some does coming and then it was him. He stopped 10 yards broadside when I picked my spot. As I was drawing my Zipper he looked up at me and I panicked. I rushed the shot and cut his skin on his back. I was sick!!! That gun season a guy about 1/2 mile away killed him. He green scored in the high 180's with 16 scorable points.
The worst part about this story was I hung up trad archery and went back to wheels. After several deer later I decided I was not having fun bowhunting. In Sept. of 2006 I decided that I had made a hugh mistake and I was going back to trad after the season. I sold my wheels and bought a Morrison in Feb. I've never looked back since, and never will.

Mike

[Earl Jeff]

Last year I was stump shooting and neglected to check a carbon arrow that I just hit something hard with. The next shot was my last for the day. The arrow exploded into three pieces and left me with  four pieces of carbonfiber sticking out of my left hand.

[tradtusker]

Had a few bad run in's with Poachers that really could have gone ugly,
we had some real problems with poachers killing game on the farm i was getting sick of it, Id set up to catch them and scare them away, all went to plan until i realized i was out of radio signal and on my own, my blood rushed like iv never felt before when i heard the machete's and sharpened steel droppers banging together and the dogs sniffing getting closer as i pressed my back hard against the base of a thorn tree.
Had i not been armed and if they had known i was alone id hate to think what could have come form the situation.
Give me a angry Cape Buffalo anyday, but men, men are a different beast.


Another time backing up on a Water buffalo hunt, the bull winded the hunter and started to circle us when he got our wind he started coming in at about 20m i closed the bolt, he stopped at about 8m staring us down, the hunter was about to climb the tree i told him one more step and im gonna squeeze the trigger. Stand off and after what seamed forever he turned and left.

Had a few close calls with broadheads that are worth mentioning, the first was a goat i had shot i had put three arrows in him and thought all three had passed through. The Goat had rolled down a very steep bank when i went down i was pulling hard to get it free of the bush suddenly it came free and the broadhead tipped arrow whipped around and stuck deep in the dirt right next to my thigh still sticking out of the Goat, had it hit my thigh i would have been in Trouble!

Another time i had a bad fall down a steep bank whilst hunting Elk in Colorado when i got to the bottom i was still holding my bow i looked at it and there was only 1 of 5 arrows left in my quiver all the others had come out during the fall and its so lucky i did not land on one of them on my way down, both time i was so far from help i would have been in big trouble.
 
Be Careful with those broadheads!!!

[eman614]

the on;y one i got so far came at the end of a bowfishing trip late one night. i was trying to unstring my bow by putting the tip under the sole of my foot and pushing the limb away. it usually works fine but that night i had fish slime on my hands, and about the time i got the string loose the bow slipped, and hit me square in the bridge of my nose. let me just say that doesn't feel good coming from a 55# recurve. it cut me from the bridge of my nose to the corner of my eye, and i bled like a stuck hog. that was better than getting it right in the eye though. i got a pic of it somewhere i'll try and find. needless to say that was the last time i ever unstrung a bow that way.

also had an encounter similar to biggies, except most of the pigs were in the 150# range and there were about 10 of them. that and when the pigs came after me shooting was the furthest thing from my mind. i ran like a little girl, and climbed a tree

[sleepingbear]

On my first boar hunt I shot a hog with a 48# recurve.  The hit was a little too far back.  I came upon him under a tree in the middle of an open field.  As I tried to get closer to finish him he got up and squared off.  I never knew a hog moved so fast.  He got to about 10 feet away when I shot my arrow.  The arrow went into his mouth and must have hit his spine.  He rammed into my left leg and knocked me off my feet.  Thats why I LOVE BOAR HUNTING!

[bofish-IL]

Good stories. I dug this one up from some old photos. This relates to what we are all guilty of while stump shooting. My friend picked his arrows up and didn't see the cedar shaft was cracked lucky he had an arm guard on. Broke his watch also.

 

[Stinger]

Not my story, but my brother's as told by my Dad.  He and my Dad were hunting Spanish goats on San Clemente Island back in the early 80's.  My dad stuck one that crawled down this thin, steep  trail and disappeared.  Dad was tired and so my brother decided to go after him.  He inched his way down this trail and out onto this ledge that was maybe 30 feet wide.  He is standing close to the edge of this ledge with about a 1000 foot drop behind him and peering into a shallow cave.  He can just make out the horns and eyes on this goat and sees that he is still alive, so he decides to try and shoot him head on in the chest.  He draws the recurve back and lets fly.  What he had not seen is that the goat was lying down behind a rock and the arrow ricocheted off of the rock and grazed his back.  The goat jumps up, puts his head down and charges him full bore.  Dad is standing on up above and watching the whole thing and thinking my brother is a goner.  Now my brother can be pretty cool when he wants/needs to be and he quickly nocks another arrow and drives it straight into the charging goat and drives it clean through him at a little less than ten paces.  The goat keeps coming and then stumbles and falls just to his right and tumbles off the cliff.  They tried for several hours to get to the thing and finally gave up as it was too steep and dangerous.  I really didn't do the story justice here, to hear my dad tell it is something special.  He really thought he had lost his #2 son that day.

[wtpops]

I was attacked by a werewolf, well I guess you would not call it a werewolf it was a coyote and I guess you wouldn’t call it attacked but I was hunting and nature called, the standing kind, so I’m standing there taking care of business and I get that feeling, that one you get when you know something or someone is watching you. Well I turn around with all my glory in my hand and there is a coyote standing about 3 to 4 feet from me just staring at my hand, the one with my glory in it and the next thing I know this coyote is leaping at me, I let go and swipe at him with my hand and two of my fingers end up in his mouth. He grabs on and jerks two or three times like a dog tugging on a rope, then let’s go and turns and hauls butt out of there. I had a couple of shallow rips on my index finger and the one next to it, he must have been young because his teeth were sharp as puppy teeth.

Scared the hell out of me but I laugh about it now, he must have had visions of a veana sausage or something for lunch.

This happened about 30 years ago when I was young and dumb, I didn’t even go to the doc to have it checked out.

On a serious side if any of you out there get bit by something wild go get checked rabies is nothing to mess with

[sleepingbear]

WTPops, That scared the s*** out of me just thinking about it.  I don't know you but maybe you should have clubbed it over the head.

[bofish-IL]

Wtpops That was more than a close call...