close calls in the bush?

Came home from a hunting trip with my wife along and when we got home there was a 30 calibre bullet hole in the canopy just above the passenger seat where she was sitting.

Six inches lower and I'd have had a dead wife with a bullet in her forehead.
 
MD said:
Came home from a hunting trip with my wife along and when we got home there was a 30 calibre bullet hole in the canopy just above the passenger seat where she was sitting.

Six inches lower and I'd have had a dead wife with a bullet in her forehead.
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Sounds like someone wasnt using safe firearms practices :eek:
 
Shot a turkey carried to a fence and tagged it. Went back to where I shot from to pick up may gear and when I got back to the turkey he started to run away, luckily he ran into the fence. Wonder if a CO would believe that storey if I was checked hunting with no tag?
 
this isn't really in the bush but I was out potting groundhogs at a cattle farmer's place, shooting into a 400 yard depression from next to a barn. To get a better position I crawled inside an enclosure next to the barn and proceeded to nail 5 of them from inside the paddock in a prone position. All of a sudden I heard a snort behind me and turning around slowly saw the bull of the herd about 5 yards away. I guess he had come to investigate the commotion.

there nearly was a change in the normal barnyard aromas that day.:redface: ..
 
tracker said:
Shot a turkey carried to a fence and tagged it. Went back to where I shot from to pick up may gear and when I got back to the turkey he started to run away, luckily he ran into the fence. Wonder if a CO would believe that storey if I was checked hunting with no tag?
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Huh?

The turkey wasn't dead? or was it a second turkey?
No tag, I thought you tagged it?
 
Had my hand slobbered on by a "dead" bear once......I felt one tooth rake across the back of my hand.

He had been shot alot and had his head submerged in water. I reached and grabbed him by the inner rear leg and he snapped his head back and tried to bite my left hand (like I said I got slobbered on and one tooth raked my hand)......I shot him again and he put his head back in the water.....I left him there for 15 minutes and dragged him out ..... I figured if he was still alive after 15 minutes underwater, he can have me.
 
I was moose hunting, and we seen a cow and calf from the boat. Well two of use jumped out and went to look for them, seen nothing but as we were walking back to the boat I stepped in a "mud puddle" the only exception was that this puddle was super deep. My one leg fell in while the other was stretched out over the hummock I was just on and Im clinging onto another hummock. Needless to say it was a cold boat ride back to camp.
 
Lost for 6hrs at night in -15C weather. No compass, no GPS as I was only going for a quick walk.:redface:

Not a good story - but I found it quite disconcerting.:)

Anybody else get lost?
 
moose_hunter said:
yes yes i know that i have it all covered
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I find it funny that you say you have it covered. You are thirteen and were riding a quad by yourself in the bush.

Please explain how you had it covered. BC law seems too be very simple too understand. What you posted would be called a close call, but if we were trying to be legal, where was your daddy :confused:
 
Had a compass go wonky on me once, and didn't realize it until I cut my own tracks after walking in a circle. A bit disconcerting.
 
[QUOTE said:
tiriaq]Had a compass go wonky on me once, and didn't realize it until I cut my own tracks after walking in a circle. A bit disconcerting.
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[/QUOTE]

Unless you had metal close to the compass or were on a huge mineral deposit a compass is very reliable, still, I carry a spare compass in my pack. If it were the latter I would go back accompanied by a person with a free miners permit.


It was at the end of the day of helping a buddy cut trail on his trap line. We were on our way out, the chainsaw was strapped to the packboard when we caught sight of a bear ghosting though the bush. It looked like a decent sized bear so we followed it at a brisk pace to get a better look. We were in a stand of thick jack pine but we knew it was headed toward a draw which was sparsley timbered and we figured we would get a good look at it as it headed into the ravine. We broke out of the timber to the edge of the ravine and the bear stood no more than 40 yards away. It was a huge black bear with the prettiest white Y on it's chest. This bear was standing it's ground and I can honestly say it is the only time I had a animal look right through me. Both of us knew we were in trouble and had made a very bad error in judgement and without a word we both backed away avoiding eye contact with the bear. It could have ended up a mess but thanks to the bear's good judgement it didn't.
 
Same buddy was out checking the state of affairs on his trapline when upon looking into a canyon sees a respectable buck bedded down a ways down the canyon and decided this buck warrents closer inspection. He makes his way toward the deer and looses cover so decides a belly crawl was in order to pull a sneak on this buck. Proceeding head first down this rather steep decine he is about ready to take a look when a rattlesnake starts telling the world how big and bad it is and this little bugger is close. His focus changes from amnimal to serpent and sees the snake about four feet away and any attempt to back up results in slipping closer to the snake. Being at higher elevation this would have been a Timber Rattler, a rather larger cousin to the Pacific Rattler which frequents lower elevation. He finally is able to turn sideways and remove himself from the proximity of the snake. Had he got bitten it would have been a long climb out of the canyon and he woud have probably got bitten in the head so it could have been a mess. After avoiding the snake he continued his sneak on this buck and got within 30 yards and came back to report this was an animal we should try keep track of.
 
I have never had a close call in the bush but a couple of pretty hairy experiences with rutting bull moose.

The first would have to be the day I shot a big 48" bull moose while it was fighting another equally big bull. Those moose coulda easily run over me, but stopped 20' from me. Then the bull that was still alive was nasty belligerent... I couldn't scare him away and I thought I might have to shoot him too (in self defense). I actually fired a .338 slug right through the center of his right paddle to try to scare him off and it didn't even fizz on him!! Scared the s**t out of my hunting partner and got me really focused I tell ya'!!:eek:

I had another situation with a big bull that was holed up with a herd of cows. This bull had already charged 3 of us earlier in the day... seriously. Right as dark descended I ended up having to work my way past him and his cows in the dark and I had the urine of another big bull (we had shot a few days previous) all over my boots. That big bull could smell that piss on me and he was making some terrible grunts at me as I snuck by him. I had the gun leveled and the safety off until I knew I was clear of his position!! * :eek:

But maybe the scariest situation was when I lied to my wife!! I promised her I would take the kids to the annual Santa Claus parade, then I casually said how I was gonna go to the rifle range for a couple of hours of target practice; but I lied. I went hunting. While out hunting around Judy Creek, I ended up getting a flat tire and then found out the factory supplied jack in my Tahoe would not raise the damn vehicle high enough to get the spare installed. I was s**tting my pants thinking I had missed the promised time to get the kids to the parade, when some good Samaritan showed up and helped me change the tire!! :eek:

Made it back in time to hit the parade with 10 minutes to spare!! :D


* P.S. I got that bastard the next morning!! ;)
 
When i was on my first succesful hunt with my dad,(downed calf moose 500 yards up a hill, 700 from the truck we had to go back to) When we finaly made it to the top of the hill the cow burst out of the bush about 6 feet away and was walking around us, my dad told me to stand on the brush pile behind us so i did, he took a shot at her foot and she didnt even flinch, one more and she turned around and went down the other side of the hill, 5 minutes later we heard boom boom right down where she walked, next day we found her skin and head beside the road at the bottom of the backside of the hill.
 
My first bear experience felt like a close call, though in retrospect, I don't think it was.

I was about 8, and playing with my dog down by the lake at our cabin. I heard some falling rock on the big sandstone cliff about 40 yards away, and turned to see a big black thing scrambling up a cliff. At first I thought it was this big Newfoundland dog that had been hanging aroung (the cabin is about an hour west of edmonton, not really bear country) but my golden retriever, who was about 11 or 12 at the time, started roaring like a lion and took off after the thing. I saw the brown nose (it's funny, I can still see the detail like it was yesterday), and I realized it was a bear, which now turned and started back down the cliff.

I caught up with the dog before she followed it, dragged her back to the cabin, and stuck her inside. Then, I figured that by walking down the road and over to a lookout about 500 yards away, I'd get another look at the bear, and I didn't think he'd be able to get up the cliff (it's generally maybe 30 or 40 metres high, and he'd tried to climb it at one of the low points.)

So I yelled at my grandma to keep the dog inside, and took off down the road before she could ask questions or try to stop me. I'd gotten almost to the lookout, when, turning a sharp corner in the road, I came face to face with the bear about 15 yards in front of me. I froze - not on purpose, I literally froze - and we just stared at each other for what felt like hours. Finally, he started to back up slowly, and kept going, but he never took his eyes off me.

He was almost around the bend about 50 yards away, and I'd started to get my balls back, and I remembered that you're supposed to be agressive with black bears to scare them off. So I yelled at him.

He turned and stared at me for like 5 seconds, and I almost crapped my pants - I thought he was gonna come right for me. After the longest 5 seconds of my life, he turned and bolted.

My family, who were up in the cow pasture a mile away, some him working through a swamp about 15 minutes later.

In retrospect, it wasn't that close a call - it was a young bear, probably no bigger than 150 pounds, and obviously more scared of me than I was of him, which was a lot. But it sure felt like aclose call.
 
Tiriaq, That ice storey takes the cake for terrifying. Really glad it turned out OK for you, Bears and stuff are scarey but being soaked and alone in the cold is way more dangerous.

Myself, trapped on cliff, bear charge, bear stalk, big waves, stick almost through the eye, mild hypothermia, near miss with trucks not calling on radio controlled roads. Mostly stuff that could have been avoided if I was 'nt such an idiot somethimes.
 
Demonical said:
^ Actually I think those younger 150 lb blackies are the ones that kill most people. :eek:
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Yeah, but he wasn't at all agressive - he was probably going after the beehives, which is why he came back - though if I'd been close enough to him when I turned that corner to have provoked a defensive attack, it might have been ugly.
 
closest call that happend to me, if you can even call it a close call, was when a friend of mine took a 12g. to the teeth.

it was a pistol grip.
 
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