Close Calls

[AZStickman]

With the Fall hunts fast approaching I thought that a thread on close calls might be a good way to get everyone focused on what can and will happen out in the field. There's always a lesson to be learned from the experience of others. Here's a couple of mine to get things started;

I had lived in AZ for around 10 years before I had my first rattlesnake encounter. I was up in the AZ rim country scouting a couple of weeks before the Elk opener. I had worked my way down into the bottom of a canyon that had some real good Elk trails leading in and out from a tank / feeding area on one side of the canyon to a bedding area on the other. I had stopped in the bottom for a few minutes and was taking it all in when in the back of my mind a noise started to register and I thought "man that's a loud cicada". I looked down and 3 feet away was a black colored rattle snake. I don't remember reacting but the next thing I know I was 10 feet away. I suspect I had just learned the secret to Chris Angels levitation trick. The thing that spooked me the most was how the last thing on my mind in Elk country was rattlers. I am now prepared and thinking snakes no matter where in AZ I am.

One other occurence happened on a January Javie / Deer hunt. I had taken off work at noon on a Friday for an opening weekend hunt. I spotted javies right off the bat and an hour or so later my 1/2 mile stalk was busted by a wind swirl. I continued up to the top of the ridge I had stalked the javies on and started glassing. about 10 minutes later and about a half hour before shooting light would fade, I spotted two nice 4x4 muleys at the bottom of the ridge and the stalk was on.
This was one steep slope and as anyone who has hunted the AZ desert can tell you the crushed granite that coats the hillsides can be like walking on marbles. I was slowly taking one step at a time and made the mistake of looking at the deer while I stepped and not where I was placing my foot and the next thing I know my feet are out from under me and I am sliding dow the hill feet first on my butt. My instinct was to dig my heels in to brake my descent but it worked a little too well and the next thing I know I am airborn flying down the hill head first. I remember thinking "this is really gonna hurt". I landed and tried to absorb the shock with my hands and arms but gravity and the 20# pack I was wearing buckled them and I hit my head and was out like a light. I don't know how long I had lay there but when I woke up it was dark and I had no idea where I was or how to get out. I knew I had been hunting and had taken a tumble and that was about it. At that point I felt that panicky feeling start to well up and I got enough control to tell myself to make a fire. Gathering small sticks and kindling took my mind off my situation and as I got the fire going and calmed down my memory and bearings started coming back. As I sat there I finally saw headlights heading down the main road about a mile out. I now knew where I was and made it out to my truck without further incident and had a great hunt the rest of the weekend. I solo hunt a lot and never told my wife what really happened on that trip......... Terry

[Night Wing]

Since I bowhunt in Texas from the ground, I'm always on the lookout for rattlesnakes.

Rattlesnakes are very good in the camo department and if you accidentally step on or get close enough to one without seeing it, you can get bit. Contrary to belief, they don't always rattle before they bite.

And getting bit by a rattlesnake can really "ruin one's day".

[White Falcon]

While climing out of my 10 foot tripod, my first step downand my food slipped. I was lucky, only 3 broken ribs!! I was the only one on the lease that day, could have been worse!!!!!!!!

[Pat B.]

Maybe the luckiest day of my life.....

I love hunting out of the trees in the river bottoms and have done so for over 40 years. About 30 years back I was getting down from a stand and was holding onto a limb and swung around to get on the foot pegs. I had hunted this tree a couple of times and used this limb before. However, this time it broke off at the truck and I was falling. I hit the ground and my legs immediately gave way and I went down hard. I think it knocked me out briefly and when I snapped too I opened my eyes and was looking at leave and grass.. I couldn't seem to move anything except my eyes. In a short time I found I could move my fingers then a hand and an arm. Both my knees burned like fire. I was eventually able to sit up at the base of the tree.
As I was alone and no one knew my whereabouts I started crawling towards my truck.
   Needless to say I survived the incident.. You just can't be too careful when you're in  the trees but I'm sure looking forward to this fall and I'll be spending as much time as possible hunting from treestands.. Be careful fellas !

[stringstretcher]

Four years ago, I went to an area to hunt using a climbing tree stand.  Something told me not to go high that day so I didn't.  Just at the edge of dark, time to come down, I stood up, turned around to come down the tree, and the bottom fell out from under me.  On the way down, I grabbed onto the sides of the top part of the stand, and there I was...hanging about 12 feet from the bottom of my feet to the ground.  The tree was too big for me to get my arms around and try to come down, and to my right there was a somewhat of an incline.  So I started to swing myself back and forth, and at the right time, let go.  As stated  above, all I could think of was this is going to hurt.  Luckly, as my feet hit the ground, my body went uphill and even though only 12 feet...it's a long way down.  Have not been in a tree stand since and have no anticipation of every doing so.

[jhg]

I hunt alone a lot and in deep wilderness. I wear a pack all the time and good boots and am fit and athletic. I know what not to do when walking a down tree or crossing a blow down.

One afternoon I was in an old growth section of big heavy timber with a lot of blow downs. I did not try to cross the ones that were "dangerous".

I stepped onto a dry, but still bark covered log and  put weight on my forward foot. I was on my back in an instant despite the care. The pack saved me from taking an eight inch long branch stub about 1 inch thick in a kidney.

Under that dry bark was a wet slime. The bark, though it looked attached all the way around the tree. was actually separated from the log by the slime. Deadly.

A puncture wound like that 5 miles in an old growth forest is probably fatal.

Careful walking logs. Double careful ones that sport broken branches that can go into and through your body.

Do not assume the bark is firmly attached. Assume it is not.
assume all logs you plan to walk are slippery or will "break loose" as you walk them. Plan to jump.

Joshua

[BOWMARKS]

I hope no close calls get to me but if they do I hope I am covered,my son knows where I will be and the cell phone is in my pocket.    
     

[7 Lakes]

Always attach the bottom of the climbing stand to the top.  

The bottom part makes a horrible ticky ticky sound on the way down the tree without you.

[TxAg]

Came within about 7 or 8 feet from stepping on a rattler last season. He was coiled up just beneath my tripod. He didn't rattle, but he did stick out a bit since the dirt was dark and he was a lighter shade of gray. This was the first weekend of the season during the afternoon.


A couple months later when it was quite a bit colder, I came across almost the exact same scenario early one morning.  We have a platform built 20 ft up in a large oak.  At the base of the tree was another coiled rattler that I never saw. I was hunting with my brother that morning...I was videoing and he was shooting.  I climbed up into the tree using my headlamp, then I shined down with my flashlight so that he could make his way up the tree (he didn't have a headlamp).  About that time, he yelled a few explitives and asked me to hold the light steady as he shot the snake with his bow. Unknowingly, I'd stepped right over it...RIGHT OVER IT!  He never rattled either. Thank God it was cold that morning.

[BowHunterGA]

Several years ago I was still hunting in the GA Mountains. It was a cooler morning in late September and I had hiked several miles into a very remote area. This is an area I have hunted and scouted numerous times and there are a few old road beds that are barely noticeable but with some effort you can still navigate them and both deet and bear use the roads.

I was following one of these old roads and came to a section that was easy to follow and the litter was still damp and quite. The combination took my attention completely off the ground and I was looking around the sides of the road for intersecting game trails or other activity. I was moving very slowly and as quietly as possible hoping to spot any deer before they spotted me. I still do not know what made me look down but I did and stopped my foot about 6" from the biggest Copperhead I have ever seen. The snake had moved into a sunny patch to warm himself and the fact that he was still not very warm is probably all that saved me from a nasty bite. I backed away and had to sit down to calm my nerves. Normally snakes really don't bother me but that encounter really shook me up. I know he was at least 2' long as near as thick as my wrist.  

[centaur]

Hunting mulies on a warm October day in central Wyoming, I was climbing hand over hand to reach a spot where I could glass a bunch of country. I saw a blur go by my hand, which was a prairie rattler striking and by a quirk of fate missing me. That's about as close as I want to get to getting bit.
Hunting elk, I was sneaking along an elk trail in black timber when I heard a 'woof!' and looked up to see a big grizzly at what I paced off later as 30 yards away. Happily for me, he turned and ran away. If he would have wanted me, he would have had me.

[Roadkill]

Iwas skinning a griz and was splitting the lips. Looked up to listen to my partner and stuck that knife thru my left hand under the thumb I had to disinfect it, stuff it a sew it up.  Very day I cut the stitches and unpacked the packing, disinfected and repacked and stitched. Fivebdays later the ER doc said I did well.  Alaska is BIG with days between towns and hospitals
Just to prove I did not learn, I did it agagin on a black bear in Idaho 6years ago

[TDHunter]

Called in a Moose along a slash road to about 5 meters and needed him to take two more steps for me to send one home. The whole time as he came down the road I had a second moose coming up the steep slash behind me also getting very close. It came so close that I got very nervous and had to take my attention off the moose standing at 15ft and look down the hill behind me to find that the second moose was not a moose at all , but the biggest Black Bear I've ever seen also at 15ft and also coming to my moose call. Needless to say what I thought was going to be a fabulous day moose hunting went side ways quick, with the moose taking off and the bear huffing, puffing and taking some small bluff charges...............not the hunting story that I had hoped to tell me buddies that evening!!

[PaddyMac]

In 93 I was hunting alone up on Lightning Ridge in Okanogan County, WA -- very isolated -- and wearing my Russell lace up moccasins. I was moving very slowly in broken timber at the top of a very steep avalanche chute. I stepped out onto some dry cheat grass and it was like ice in those moccasins. I went down on my butt and slid about 100 - 150 yards straight down, loaded quiver, knives, bow ... missing rocks, trees and cliffs stopping in a level spot with a very hot butt and a crazy heart beat but otherwise completely intact. There are about a 1,000 ways that could have gone real bad.

I know why the Indians call the Little Bighorn, Greasy Grass.

If you wear moccasins watch out for that. And if you hunt alone ... cell phone.