Hunting mishaps

[echotrail]

On 11/6 a lot of folks will be in the woods with excitment and high power rifles. We know, but need to remind ouselves, of what can happen with a micro-second of bad judgement or concentration. Lets help each other with the reminders. If you know of a gun or non-gun related hunting mishap from the past and want to share it I'm sure other hunters will learn something. I'm not asking for graphic descriptions and I apologize up front if this post has rekindled a bad personal experience.

[mudman]

Here is a great mishap

Grandpa well it's Grandpa he old fashion 85 this year and a meat hunter that takes head and neck shots,so he doesn't ruin the meat. that enough explaining to set it up.

1999 gramps says, "no need for me to sight in, split a hair on a flee at 100yds" 1998 gramps shot a nice 10pt 10min into opener.

back to 1999 a small spike comes racing in and gramps shoots, nothing not a reaction, shoots again, 3rd time! nothing not a reaction.

deer goes on out of range,gramps chalks it up to the deer running and not leading him enough. 15 min later monster 12 comes quartering in from behind at 80yds, gramps shoots nothing

now it at 50yds nothing again.

Now a monster 12 pter has made he way to the front of my gramps stand, 30yds broadside, with a 30-06 cross hairs are set perfect on his chest for a change ....."CLICK" out of rounds deer runs off gramps is kicking himself

He sited it in right after that and he was a half a foot HIGH!

Needless to say gramps now sites in every year but since 1999 has only shot a doe last year, the curse of the unprepaired we call it. ( gramps nickname chief black cloud) if he around it raining!

[Moose-Hunter]

For those of you heading to the southwest section of this fine state.... Please remember that most deer DO NOT wear orange.

A few years back, the party I was with, started the season walking a small grove. Some posted, some walked. I and the others walking, had just about reached the edge of the grove, when a small buck jumped up almost at me feet and ran straight away from me. As I watched the deer, I noticed that the posters had changed position and were directly in front of me. I heard the report of a shotgun then the frightening sound of a slug flying over my head and into the trees... I hit the dirt behind a large windfall, yelling and screaming, as other slugs came blasting through the brush... One hitting the tree I was behind!!

When the shooting stopped, I got up from behind my tree, holstered my .44 (handguns being legal in shotgun zones) walked to the group (of 6) and asked if anyone realized where I had just come from and if anyone had seen me back there... The answer... "No, we didn't see any orange". After a VERY heated discussion, and not one apology, I figured that they were all too concerned with the deer, (which they didn't get anyway) to think of where the last walker was. I packed it in, and have not hunted with these guys since because I feel they didn't learn a thing from all this and it would be just a matter of time......

My point being.... Although few and far between, there are some real hacks out there. These hacks may very well be in your own hunting party, and only show up when it's the moment of truth. I had hunted with these guys quite a bit before this and look what happened. Was if just a foolish mistake? No, a gross error in judgement, that could have turned out very ugly.

Before you pull the trigger, be aware of your target

AND what or who's behind it...

[mudman]

rule number one that was taught to me at a young age.

never point a gun at something in less you are going to shoot it.

I hear of people using thier scope as bi nocs!

No good!

one little slip of a finger, branch, twig and it goes off!

[Ole1855]

About 25 years ago a friend and I decided to hunt a small river valley, I was going to shinny up this huge deadfall poplar that snapped at around 20' up and was leaning to the ground, he was going to go 1/2 mile down and slow walk the river bottom. Well he chased a few small deer up the valley, nothing I wanted to shoot, so he get's up to me and say's "I'm hungry, let's go to the shack and get some lunch". I was sitting on the poplar and I grabbed a big branch so I could shift my weight and turn around, when I did the branch broke and down I went!! I was about 12-13' in the air, on the ground where I landed was another snapped off poplar, about 1' diameter, and I landed right on my right rib cage and knocked the wind out of me. I was holding my rifle in my left hand and when it impacted the tree, the butt stock cracked as it wrapped itself around the deadfall. After what seemed like 10 minutes, I caught my breath, my buddy say's, "are you okay?", I said yes, his reply was, "good, cause I didn't feel like carrying you up this hill".

I had always brought a second rifle to deer camp but had never needed it, until that day!!

Moral of the story, either don't climb up into deadfalls, or be very careful if you do.

Ole

[Granny]

My dad loaded his 30-06 in the basement as he was heading out to stand one morning. As he closed the chamber the gun went off and left a hole in the cement floor about 3" deep and 6" in diameter. It shot debris up into the basement ceiling sheet rock, but lucky enough nothing hit him. It shook the house and woke up the family.

Moral of the story: Load you guns outside or after you get up into your stand.

Now back to fishing!

Granny

[echotrail]

Falling out of something be it a portable stand or a tree is why I prefer a well placed ground blind. I hunt a couple of miles from my nearest party member and walk a mile to my site. Too far to carry a portable and I get too cold sitting high and exposed to the wind.

[bigbucks]

Check & recheck your safety. I always do, but this still happened to me once. A deer got up between me & another driver during a drive & went back on us. As it was past us & there were no back posters it was safe to shoot. I started to swing my gun on the deer & it went off. I still don't know how it happened, I don't think my finger was in the trigger guard yet, but obviously the safety had been left off. I was so shaken I didn't even try to shoot at the deer after that. Be very, very careful out there...

[WB make the CUT]

Heres a dumb move by yours truly, I was leaving my stand, decided to lower my guy with my rope, I was too lazy to unload....stupid.... well I'm not a sailor and I tie bad knots.....guess what...gun falls to ground Thank the big guy it did not go off. Broke the stock in two....take your time!!!

[Gus]

Falling out of a treestand.

Portable stand, setup the night before, a drizzle that night. You can probalby put the picture together from here. As I went to put my foot onto the stand from my last tree step I slipped on the ice/frost that was on the stand and lost my balance. Down I went. Lucky for me gun was on the ground with a rope and I did not land on anything hard. I still had the wind knocked out of me. I hunted off the ground the rest of that day.

BE CAREFULL OF FROST AND SNOW.

[cheektowaga]

Lost

First year of hunting and full of energy and emotion I went for a walk to try to scare something up on a cold afternoon. It was a huge peice of Federal land I walked and walked and walked.....

Finally hit a road, walked forever until someone picked me up, drove me to where I had started and was amazed I had come so far. I never got nervous just real tired. Lesson learned: have a plan.

[Double D]

Unfortunately I have a very bad story about a very close call to share.

I have always hunted with my brother in MN. He lives in WI but always comes back for the MN hunt. He stated he was going with a different group in WI this year and he did not know a lot of them. Any how, he goes back for his WI hunt. One guy in the new group always unloaded his gun and for some reason took the safety off and dry fired the gun. They had asked him to stop doing this in the cabin but of course he doesn't listen. My brother went to bed when all of a sudden POW in the next room. He went out to start chewing some rear end when someone pointed out the blood gushing out of the side of his stomach. He stayed alert for a minute or so and kept on chewing rear end. The local sheriff was alerted and an ambulance was about 25 miles away. He got loaded into a truck and met the ambulance on the road. Then off to a local race track and into the helicopter, over to Duluth for emergency surgery, a week in the hospital and no work for 2 months. The bullet by some miracle went between his spine and main artery. The doctor said he was extremely fortunate not to either bleed to death or be paralyzed.

I hope this little story reminds people of some things:

Safety's on!!

No dry fires (there is no reason for them)!!

Assume all guns are loaded!!

This is stuff this [commercial-or-naughty-word] should have learned in 5th grade gun safety class. By taking simple precautions he could have avoided this mishap, not to mention the lost work and massive medical bills.

Let's be careful - it can happen to you.

DD

[Mark Christianson]

As far as I remember, there was one fatality in MN during firearms deer season last year.

A guy shot his good friend from his own hunting party.

A friend of mine used to hunt with that group of guys.

Don't even think about pulling that trigger unless you know what you have in your sights, and what is beyond that target you want to shoot. Too bad we all think about this advice when we are on forums or chatting with friends.

In the heat of the moment, sometimes people just lose their senses for a split second and........ The rest can be history.

Be careful. Think. And think again. You cannot be too cautious.

[echotrail]

A few years ago a member of my hunting group had finished a morning hunt. He unloaded his rifle and leaned it aginst his vehicle while he put other things away. He remembered the rifle just after he drove over it. He brought another rifle along and didn't loose hunting time. I'm sure he would sell it but it's only good for shooting around trees and boulders without moving. Lesson to be learned: You need to double check everything.

[Browning83]

When I first started hunting I was always told even the biggest buck/bear or whatever aint worth a dangerous shot. But one mishap happened to a family friend....he was shooting a 7mm and his cousin was shooting a 7mm-08(a smaller cartridge). He misplaced his box of ammo and went into the box and accidently grabbed the 7mm-08 box and tried them in 7mm. He bumped his scope and wanted to try it at the gravel pit. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd shots were just dry-fires but the fourth I guess was a surprise. It blew the scope off, cracked the stock, flew the bolt back over thumb(cutting it pretty bad) and a face full of burnt gun powder badly burning/cutting up face. I was the first to confront him and he was pretty upset and crying and went temp. deaf. But overall nothing too serious happened....just some antibiotics and time to settle down fixed it up. So a reminder to all.....be sure of the ammo in hand cause now I check all the time. People say you learn best from mistakes. Good luck all and keep safe this year.

[CornPirateKiller]

This is a subject very near and dear to my heart. I've got two stories to relate and I hope no one has to go through what I've experienced.

October 25, 1959... two and a half years before I was born. My grandfather went duck hunting on the Mississippi near Weaver. He sat in the front of the boat while his hunting partner that day sat in the back. After getting set up in the reeds, they waited for the ducks. A flock came in and crossed in front of the boat. The man in the back followed the flock and shot just as my grandfather stood to fire. The shot struck him square in the back and killed him on the spot. I never got to meet a great man but I was taught a lot about gun safety and hunting ethics because of that day.

September 23, 1984. I was 22 years old and thought I was invincible. Me and two others headed to SE Minnesota to hunt squirrels on a farm owned by the father of one of the guys. I knew the guy from college, but had never hunted with him before. I didn't usually hunt with unknowns, but I was young and stupid and excited about hunting so I forgot about safety and forged ahead. Had I known what kind of hunter the guy was, I might have stayed home. The other guy was a close friend and a long-time hunting partner.

The three of us headed into the woods dressed all in camo. It was very green and thick, being early fall so it was tough to see eachother through the brush. I spotted a squirrel and hurried ahead on the ridge we were walking, intent on getting the quarry before the others spotted him.

Suddenly, my world exploded in a flash of bright light and intense pain. I'd been shot. I didn't know where, but I thought I'd been hit in my head and I thought I was dying. The guys heard me fall and hurried to me. The guy I'd never hunted with had seen a movement in the brush and snap-shot without thinking. At about 20 yards, he put a .22 magnum slug in my neck with a scoped rifle. The bullet entered my neck on the left and hit the spinous process (the piece of bone projecting out the back of each vertabre) of my 5th cervical vertabre and exited on the right side, getting stuck in my collar. I was paralized instantly from the neck down.

While my good friend stayed to help me, the other guy went for help. It took an hour for the ambulance crew to get to me. I was lucky. The bullet missed the major arteries and veins and only shocked my spine. I spent seven months in the hospital but I eventually walked out with the aid of a crutch which I still use today. My body is pretty messed up from the nerve injury, but I still get out and hunt (killed a turkey on Sunday!) I hope those reading will remember this next time you hunt. You are responsible for the safety of yourself and those around you.

Here's a few guidelines for safe hunting:

Handle ALL guns as if they were loaded

Be visible; wear blaze orange

Be sure of what you're shooting at and what's behind it

Know your hunting partners

Be aware of others hunting around you

If you're uncomfortable with any hunting situation, leave and be safe.

Have a good season and be safe.

[Stratosman]

Wow CPKiller, you got lucky, there are sure some boneheads out there! I got one from the last time I hunted in Wisconsin with a particular group of guys. The guys I hunted with were all about doing deer drives, morning till evening, not exactly my cup of teas, but I was younger and we shot a lot of deer. Anyway, I am part of this one drive and am walking next to an elderly gentleman carrying a side by side 12 gauge, about half way through the drive I hear a shot next to me and think, cool, the the guy got a deer, one shot, good sign. We get to the end of the drive and I walk up to the guy and ask if he got one. Here was his reply "no, my [commercial-or-naughty-word] gun went off accidently". He actually admitted this to me. I said nothing and walked away thinking, what direction was it pointed when it went off accidently. That was a wake up call, and the last time I ever set foot in the woods with that bunch of clowns.