Hunts THAT CRASHED & BURNED!!!

Jay

Jay

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Well gentlemen, I've had a rough go of it lately wrt hunting & thought I would share. PLEASE FEEL FREE to post your stories so we can laugh at OUR misfortunes!!!

Okay, here's my tale.

It's hard to believe it, but I am back home from moose season having not even taken my rifle out of its case... A year of planning, preparation and of course, some expense ALL DOWN THE DRAIN!!! So, WHAT HAPPENED?

After arriving at my friends house on Saturday evening, we chatted & prepped for our departure Sunday morning. We headed north early Sunday morning, met the guys at the rendezvous point & headed in 10km by atv over rough trails to the moose camp.

By Sunday evening my eyes were watering like crazy & by bedtime there was puss oozing from them. Being 10K back in the bush with my eyes swelling shut and having to wait for first light to take my ATV out & get myself to the local Hospital was very uncomfortable to say the least. In fact, it downright SUCKED because my eyes were almost swollen shut by daylight & seriously affected my eyesight.

Anyhow, at first light the guys went hunting & I got myself 10km through the bush to my truck & went to the hospital. At the Hospital, the doctor had to make sure I didn't have something in my eyes & put a yellow dye in them. This caused LOTS of tears, but with two lights he could tell that my eyes were not damaged, he confirmed I had a SEVERE case of bacterial pink eye & I was prescribed antibiotic eye drops...

I filled the prescription, dosed myself, returned 10km's on atv trails to the hunt camp & packed my stuff, not wanting to pass the infection to any of the other hunters... The trip out & 5+ hour drive home took the wind out of my sails... Bummed about missing moose season, bummed about being sick, BUT, I know that despite this little bump in the road, I am a blessed man with my gorgeous wife & beautiful daughter.

And, to add some humour to my situation, I attached a pic of the 2000 pound bull that would NOT let me back to my truck at our rendezvous point... Causing me to have to take another trail that I GOT STUCK ON!!! Out came the ATV winch, and I finally got my half blind & mud covered a$$ back to my truck!

Oh, and I did consider shooting the bull!

So, how have your hunts 'gone south'?

Cheers
Jay

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Your hunting partners are total dicks!

There is no way I would have let you make the trip out to the hospital alone by ATV OR truck.

I have had a few hunts go belly up over the years... a couple quite recently... when life hands you florescent orange lemons, you make florescent orange lemonade.
 
hoytcanon said:
Your hunting partners are total dicks!

There is no way I would have let you make the trip out to the hospital alone by ATV OR truck.

I have had a few hunts go belly up over the years... a couple quite recently... when life hands you florescent orange lemons, you make florescent orange lemonade.
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I sort of have to agree with the above unless you absolutely insisted they don't help you. Even then I would tell my buddy to stop being a hero and just drive him myself.
 
hoytcanon said:
Your hunting partners are total dicks!

There is no way I would have let you make the trip out to the hospital alone by ATV OR truck.

I have had a few hunts go belly up over the years... a couple quite recently... when life hands you florescent orange lemons, you make florescent orange lemonade.
Click to expand...

I completely agree, and even if Jay had put up a fuss about going alone I would have told him to shut up and get in the truck.
 
The guys are good guys, moose season is very short here in ONTerrible, less than a week for rifle...

Bummer for me & got me thinking of putting together a medical kit, stuff like Polysporin Antibiotic eye drops for pink eye, antibiotic cream & bandages, suture kit etc... Unfortunately, pink eye is so contagious that even if I had the medical kit with the drugs in it, I would have felt compelled to leave camp anyway so as to not get the other guys sick.

Dogleg, SHARE SHARE SHARE!!!

Cheers
Jay
 
Sorry to hear about the messed-up trip, Jay. Glad to hear that it all worked out.

It's always good when friends stand by their hunting partners, though. Sh*t can happen and it sucks when your vision is f-d up due to infection. How do I know? I came down with conjunctivitis at the outset of my 2011 leopard hunt. Pure dumb luck (OK, "preparation" and foresight) that I packed some polysporin for eye infections in my kit. It literally saved my hunt.

Next best "story" was slipping on ice formed by overnight freezing rain (in a ravine on the Blackstone River) during an October elk hunt. That resulted in getting a spiral fracture of my left fibula (breaking the long, skinny bone below my left knee). Had to cut a makeshift crutch with my Spyderco pocket knife and limp back to my ATV. Doc said that type of fracture often goes through the skin. In this case, I was wearing Russel Mocassin Co.'s "Joof" boot and it prevented the bone from puncturing through the skin.
That said, we packed up and my hunting partner drove me (four hours) to the hospital.
 
Jay said:
The guys are good guys, moose season is very short here in ONTerrible, less than a week...
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With all due respect, Jay, your partners ARE dicks. Do you know how easily that could have gone bad... with your vision buggered it would not be hard to roll the quad on yourself, or a myriad of other catastrophies... I know that you are an independent guy, and probably insisted on not ruining someone else's hunt, but if you were my partner, I would have duct taped you to the rack and took you out... missing a moose hunt is nothing compared to living with the guilt of a badly injured or dead friend. AND I LOVE moose hunting AND do it in Ontario... the length of the huntimg season has NO bearing on the issue.
 
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In my hunting party we have been through similar Jay....... I have to say that we would have insisted two of us go with you to be sure you got to the hospital safely.......

Why two? You ask..... because we aren't that nice and would have high tailed it back to moose camp in a second truck once you were dropped off at the hospital with yours... :) ....
 
Pink eye sucks, horrible timing. Save any excess medication in the bottle as there is usually more than enough to treat 2 courses of eye infections.
tip you can use polysporin if in doubt till you get a prescription as it is an antibiotic/antifungal ointment which will treat most pink eye infections.
 
From my buddy Geoff, an account of his duck hunt this morning...

“Be prepared,” is the motto of the Girl Guides. It is good advice, in my opinion, particularly when I set out on a duck hunting expedition with one or more of my hunting buddies. This morning, I set out with Akber, Omer and Ehtisham for some duck hunting on the Rideau River. I prepared for the hunt the night before, knowing from experience that there is always something waiting to go wrong. I learned the hard way that waiting till the morning of your planned duck hunt to prepare typically ends in frustration when things go wrong or crucial pieces of kit are left behind. Despite my foresight and determination to see that I was prepared well in advance of my departure for the marsh, no amount of preparation (at least in my experience) will stave off all that is waiting to go wrong. This time, however, it took the cake!


To date, this season, I took my new boat blind out on local waters twice. Each time, I learned using the new boat blind poses challenges I did not foresee. Notably, this new vessel is longer and heavier than my old boat. I discovered right away that I cannot hitch the trailer to my vehicle by myself, neither can I move it in and out of my driveway on my own. It is just too heavy and unwieldy to move. I share the driveway with my neighbour and there is little space to maneuver when his car is in the driveway. Foolishly, yesterday evening, I thought I could hitch the trailer to my SUV on my own. I struggled to connect the trailer to the hitch, only to have the boat trailer tongue land on the ground. Mika and I tried to lift the trailer, but the weight of the boat, plus the extra weight of the rain that accumulated in the bottom of the boat was too much. We tried using the trolley jack from the car to raise the trailer tongue. We raised it a bit, but when we tried to connect the trailer to the hitch, the jack slipped out from under the trailer tongue and the full weight of the trailer and boat landed on Mika’s left foot. I found the strength to lift the trailer to free Mika’s foot; thankfully, while his foot is sore, he was not seriously injured.

At this point, I called Ehtisham, asking for help. He graciously came at once and with his help we used the jack a second time, under his supervision, and finally got the trailer hitched. “Fine,” I thought, “something always has to go wrong when I go hunting. Hopefully, this is it.” Unfortunately, this was just for openers. I thanked Ehtisham for his help and filled him in on the plan for the hunt next morning. I told him the outlook was hopeful in that the wind storm that blew through the region and the cold front moving in should push some ducks our way. In addition, the forecast for the morning was cold weather and a brisk northwest wind. This is generally good weather for waterfowling. I thought we might get into some ringbills on the marsh we planned to hunt. Our destination was a marsh on the Rideau River between Merrickville and Kilmarnock.

The next morning, everything got off to a good start. I was on the road on time and arrived at Akber’s house at 4:00 am as planned. He quickly loaded his gear and we were on our way to meet up with Omer and Ehtisham who brought my old boat. Akber and I arrived at the launch site at 5:00 am, a little ahead of Omer and Ehtisham, loaded our gear into the boat and made it ready for launch. We had time to drain the accumulated rain water while we waited for Omer and Ehtisham. With the water drained, I inserted the plug to seal the drain–or so I thought. We launched the boat only to find the plug failed and water came pouring in. We had to put the boat back on the trailer and use up precious time waiting while the water drained. Ah, but I was prepared: I keep a spare plug in my kit for just such an occasion. I quickly retrieved the spare and this time the seal held. By the time we launched the boats it was approaching 6:00 am. Legal shooting time started at 7:00, so we still had time to reach our spot–so I hoped.

We motored across the river toward our spot only to find someone got there ahead of us. Fair enough, the rule is first come, first served, so we moved on to a secondary spot. My plan was to put out two strings of 12 bluebill decoys and 12 mallard and black decoys, but we were too near legal shooting time to bother with the bluebill decoys. Omer and Ehtisham had 12 mallard decoys on board and took the mallard and black decoys to set for Akber and me. This was to free me to set out the strings of bluebill decoys. We set up on an inlet, on the lee side, well away from our competitors. We had two sets of decoys set about 50 yards apart and set up the boat blinds in the cattails. We were set up and ready just as shooting time started.

I had an opportunity on a decoying mallard early on, but missed cleanly. As I rooted for my GoPro, a flock of green-wing teal came streaming in over the decoys and Akber downed a nice drake. A short time later I downed an hen ringbill out of a decoying flock. Both Akber and I missed spectacularly on a flock of decoying mallards. We had a few opportunities on passing ringbills and missed. Most of the ducks we saw during the hunt stayed out of range and many landed in view, but well away from the decoy spread. I rounded out the morning, bagging a single hen ringbill that decoyed. I pointed out the many pied billed grebes we saw to Akber, stressing how they look like ducks, teal in particular, but are not ducks. They are not game and not to be shot. This point hit home when Omer and Ehtisham mistakenly shot at a grebe that passed our decoy spread. Thankfully, they missed it. Unfortunately, Omer and Ehtisham had few opportunities this morning. Our competitors insisted on sky busting on several occasions, driving away birds that might have come the decoy spread Omer and Ehtisham put out.

We sat until 11:00 am, by then the morning flight was over. As Akber and I set out to pickup the decoys, the hook on the end of my new decoy retrieving pole got snagged in weeds, bent and broke off as I tried to free it. “Sighs, when it rains, it pours.” We used the landing net I keep for retrieving downed ducks to retrieve the decoys. We made it safely back to shore and got the boats back on the trailers. To round out a morning fraught with mishaps, I found one of the ratchet tie-down straps I use to secure the boat to trailer was broken. I got the boat back to Ottawa in one piece, in spite of it. Omer and I will check over the blinds and I will see to replacing the broken tie-down ratchet and decoy retrieving pole in short order. Rest assured, my hunting buddies and I will be back for some more duck hunting before the season is out. As ever, we will be prepared for whatever fortune brings.
 
Jayyyy!! This wrecks my Sunday morning Cuppa! Im spewing for You, what a strike of bad luck with the Infection at a cruicial time!

Damn mate, hopefully next season is your year!

WL
 
WhelanLad said:
Jayyyy!! This wrecks my Sunday morning Cuppa! Im spewing for You, what a strike of bad luck with the Infection at a cruicial time!

Damn mate, hopefully next season is your year!

WL
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Thanks WL, it sure did suck! Hopefully next year turns out better!

Cheers
Jay
 
Superbrad said:
In my hunting party we have been through similar Jay....... I have to say that we would have insisted two of us go with you to be sure you got to the hospital safely.......

Why two? You ask..... because we aren't that nice and would have high tailed it back to moose camp in a second truck once you were dropped off at the hospital with yours... :) ....
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Jay, I would have stayed with you and read you Dr. Seuss books until your eyes cleared up...
 
I wouldn't go as far as Hoyt and call your friends dicks but I can say that I would never have let you do that 10km atv trip solo...that's just too risky and for what, an extra day of watching nothing walk by my stand ;)

Kudos to you for not wanting to spread an easily transmissible however mostly benign condition amongst your hunting buddies but you presumably went home to your wife and daughter? If i was in camp with you I would have insisted you stay - you had the meds, all that was left was to take some simple precautions to make sure you didn't pass it on...the same steps you probably took once you returned home to your wife and daughter. I'm guessing one of the nervous nellies in your camp suggested you pull the plug and that's a shame.
 
hoytcanon said:
Jay, I would have stayed with you and read you Dr. Seuss books until your eyes cleared up...
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I would not leave you with no eyes.....
I would not leave, I'd sympathize.....

I would not let you reach your Truck....
I'd bring you there, don't give a f***......

lol..... I joke...... but for sure, our camp guys take care of our own....... in fact, I will say we have taken better care of our dogs ...... but I wasn't there and can't comment......
 
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