While hunting... Ever come close to dying???

Jay

Jay

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Hey Guys;

Yesterday's duck hunt on the St.John river brought up a interesting thought...

How many times have you put yourself in a situation that you look back on and shake your head about???

For me, I can clearly remember 3 times...

(1) Sea Duck hunting on the Bay of Fundy, winds pick up FAST... In out hurry to get out of there, the anchor line ties up the outboard prop. I manage to untangle it and my arms/hands are SO COLD, I'm useless. My friend has trouble starting the motor, it starts and then dies out about a dozen times... He finally gets it running and I "hold down" the front of the boat with my weight, while he screams, "I hope it doesn't quit"... Arriving at shore I realize "why" he said that, he had the friggen start cord for the motor in his hands!!! He had ripped it out of the motor!!! Geez, we were "almost" lost on the friggen Bay of Fundy waiting for the coast guard!!!

(2) Duck hunting on the St. John river... Different friend, different boat... Calm morning, good hunt, then everything goes SOUTH... Winds change DRAMATICALLY and we scramble to collect decoys and get the hell out of there... The ride home, 1.5 km, consisted of us BARELY making headway with my 10 foot flat bottom and 3 hp motor and slapping the boat off each wave, BAILING like crazy to stay afloat, AND my buddy of the day singing the FRIGGEN Edmund Fitzgerald song that Gordon Lightfoot wrote!!! Arriving at shore, we had at least 1/2 an inch of ice ON US!!! My jacket was SOLID ICE!!!

(3) Yesterday... 10 foot with 3 hp, different buddy... I know, I know... Good duck hunt, got bored, decided to take a "tour" completely around Sugar island below the Mactaquac Dam... We notice as we approach the bridge that the farmer use to access Sugar Island, that the current is VERY fast and both decide to "shoot" the current on an angle and get "blasted" out the far side of the island... As we approach the bridge, my "little voice" in my "little brain", says in my wife's voice...

"You don't see any girls on Real TV or Max X doing stupid things and hurting themselves DO YOU???!!!"

At which point I realize that WE ARE GONNA DIE if we try this stupid little trick in my dinky little boat... So, I scream at my buddy, that there is NO WAY IN HELL we will live through this IF we try it... He agrees and...

I'm here today!!! There is a common theme here... It's YOU who makes the activity as dangerous as you want to... PLEASE use common sense and be safe out there... I KNOW I would have tried that friggen bridge yesterday IF I was 18 again AND didn't have my wife "Keeping Me Out Of Trouble and ALIVE!!!"

Cheers
Jay
 
Jay said:
AND my buddy of the day singing the FRIGGEN Edmund Fitzgerald song that Gordon Lightfoot wrote!!!
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Sounds like we got the same buddy. Only time I can say I was ever worried wasn't a hunt but a fishing trip in Port Alice/Winter harbour - overnight the wind had picked up and in winter harbour the swells were ugly, 2 of the guys we were with opted to take to shore but we needed 2 guys to go fetch the prawn traps. It was everything our lil boat had in her to get ontop of some of the waves, turned us a few times and even launched us off the top of many into the bottom valleys between waves only to get half swamped by incoming, sump was running full time and I was driving, my buddy at one point started the old, "The Legend lives on, from the Chippewa down to the big lake they call big'Chinuggin." kept things light at the time and now is a running joke to sing Gordon Lightfoot in any bad weather.
We got the prawn traps ok but one had dragged so far it had collected a broken fishing rod and 20 starfish, wasn't really usable either after that trip.
 
I hate to say it Jay, it sounds like you and boats are a dangerous mix.:D

Went along for a cougar hunt last winter with Nugget, it went all bad. We chased the dogs and a cat down into this steep gorge that was easier to slide down on your behind than try to walk down. In the bottom the powder was up to our waist. Then the kitty decided enough of this crap and headed straight back up the hillside. Got all sweated and chilled so many times I didn't know what was going on. Finally found the dogs after they lost the trail
and then we were all turned around in the bush. Good thing we had the radios so we could listen for the guide to yell back at us to see which way to go. It was close to -15C and I was soaked right through from fighting up and down hills and the snow. Jason (the guide) was spooked when he saw my face once we got back to him, they said I was all ashen faced and looked like I was dead. I think I was close. We never even saw the cat.:mad:

I've had the opportunity to hear bullets zip by me a couple times but got to cover and the other guy's attention before that got any more out of hand. Thank goodness.:rolleyes:
 
I shot a bear with its front paws on the ladder of my stand(after it followed my scent trail like a bloodhound). The Scary thing is the next week my friend was climbing the stand and it fell down. I was very lucky that it didn't let go when the bear was there ya never know what it would've done.
 
I almost died the day before leaving to go up north on our hunting trip this year. Loading the quad on the back of my brand new F 350, quad is almost on, ramp slips out, me on my back on the pavement, quad lands on top of me and the truck needs a new tailgate! Luckily no damaga to me.

The real stupid part of it all...my quad trailer (lower with a proper ramp) was 20 feet away I was too lazy to hook it up. What an IDIOT!
Don't let it happen to you.
 
running in the bush after a bear with my rifle unloaded (luckly) and a stick when in the trigger gard and pulled the trigger it when click im glad i never had one in the chamber that time!!!! makes you think though what could have happend if there was one in there.
talk to ya all later
Riley
 
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When I was 15 my dad and I were hunting beaver. My dad left me at a pond and he walked on to another. It was in the fall of the year, no snow and there was no ice on the lakes yet. Anyways, I was sitting by this pond and had a pretty good view point where I was. I had seen few beaver but nothing close enough for a clean shot. So I decide to walk across this muskeg which looked okay to walk on. Got about 30 yds from the solid shore and suddenly I started to sink. And I mean sink, up to my knees, then up to my waist, then up to the armpits. Let the 22 go to try to save myself. Could feel myself sinking inch by inch. I started hollering and dad showed up. He seen my orange toque sticking up at of the muskeg. He walked as far as he could and managed to get pole close enough I could grab on to. Got out, but what an experience. Sure learned my lesson.
 
willy11 said:
When I was 15 my dad and I were hunting beaver. My dad left me at a pond and he walked on to another. It was in the fall of the year, no snow and there was no ice on the lakes yet. Anyways, I was sitting by this pond and had a pretty good view point where I was. I had seen few beaver but nothing close enough for a clean shot. So I decide to walk across this muskeg which looked okay to walk on. Got about 30 yds from the solid shore and suddenly I started to sink. And I mean sink, up to my knees, then up to my waist, then up to the armpits. Let the 22 go to try to save myself. Could feel myself sinking inch by inch. I started hollering and dad showed up. He seen my orange toque sticking up at of the muskeg. He walked as far as he could and managed to get pole close enough I could grab on to. Got out, but what an experience. Sure learned my lesson.
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Now that is a cool story, kinda Hollywoodish, sad eding though





kidding
 
Well I am 51 years old. spend 35 years as a commercial fisherman and about the same as a hunter. I would wear out this keyboard tell you how many times I came close to dying. And I wouldn't change one minute if it.
 
Good thread Jay!
I have fallen out of trees, had slugs tickle my ear, gone toe to toe with wounded deer and been chased by Russian Boars... I have even had to "Southpark" a black bear once!
I don't believe in "close"... if you walk away from it you should have learned something... if you don't learn from it... eventually you will not walk away.;)
 
Holy ####!

Yah we have one of those lodge cabins and ones I came back and there was those two bears eating stuff out of our cooler anyway we did'nt have a gun so we hide our truck for half an hour.
The bad thing is the guns were inside.
 
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I have spent 'unexpected' nights out in the bush. Lesson learned: You can make a shelter by firelight....you CANNOT find firewood by firelight!

On another occasion I was hunting alone in an area full of beaver floods. I took a bad step and faceplanted on the ground. A sapling about an inch thick had been 'trimmed' by a beaver leaving it a foot high and SHARP. It glanced off my rib cage, leaving a really cool bruise and me needing a drink. Two inches to the left and I would have been skewered!
 
I almost got shot by my hunting partner. He was putting his gun in his truck butt first when it went off. I was standing behind him. At first i thought he shot himself, then i started thinking how lucky i was to not get shot. This guy has been hunting since he was a wee lad and is a very good hunter. I dont know WTF he was thinking that day . Might be one of the reasons i like hunting alone.
 
BIGREDD said:
I don't believe in "close"... if you walk away from it you should have learned something... if you don't learn from it... eventually you will not walk away.;)
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Like every time I see bear tracks going into willows...like a damn magnet!

Here's another Boomer trap!
a7d2887c.jpg
 
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Filled my waders up in a river, thank god it wasn't very deep and I had a buddy with me to pull me out. I couldn't get up on my own.
Happened the next week to him, same river!
 
When I was younger my Dad and I were up Elk hunting. We were walking up an old wagon trail when My Dad hisses at me to stop and get behind him, he drops to one knee and brings his 308 up just as a huge Boar Grizzly blasts out of the bush(As I've said many times before there is nothing faster than a 1200lbs bear closing on you) The bear heeled up at about 50 yds and did his damndest to scare us off(It was working on me) but my old man told me to stay calm, he said he's dead if he gets any closer! Well the bear left and we went about our day and claimed a nice 5x5 Bull an hour later. I was recalling this event with my Father on his death bed this time last year, he smiled and asked if I thought he could have dropped the chargng bear and I said of course which is when he related to me that his gun wasn't loaded!
 
sean said:
every time I tell my wife I'm going hunting I have a near death experience.;)
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+1
never fails "hunny i'll see you in a couple of days" (Thwack thwack) who invented cast iron pans and who taught my wife to throw like that ?
 
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