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Harriest predicament you've ever found yourself in while in the woods?

Bushape said:
The picture of the bucks down the hole reminded me of just how crazy things can get with barely a moment's notice so I figured there had to be some good stories on here.
I don't really have anything too wild but I stuck a doe during archery season one year on a 40 acre pasture (family land) surrounded by young pines (papermill land). Buddy that was helping me look for her in the dark wanted to leave toilet paper squares every so often on the blood trail but being young and stupid I dismissed it. After all I had been all over this land all of my life I thought. Eventually we abandonednthe search for the deer when I realized every pine tree looked just like the other and I had no idea where my truck was. Wondered around for what felt like an eternity before coming out of the pines on a seperate private pasture land. No real chance at death that night but learned a valuable lesson.
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At my age I have found it impossible to load a larger deer onto a four-wheeler by myself. I have found the easier thing to do is use the winch with the cable over a tree limb, Hoist the deer pull it back, lower it onto the front rack. So when I killed a somewhat small doe on the last day of the season in 2018, by myself, I began looking for a suitable tree limb. The mature Oak Forest I was hunting in offered very few possibilities. I finally located a sorry tree with a limb That Grew somewhat parallel to the trunk not that far away. Using the ATV I dragged the doe to that tree. I then began the frustrating process of trying to throw the twisty cable and steel hook through that crotch in the tree. I tried a bunch of times each time worrying that the falling heavy steel hook would damage something on the ATV or me! No matter how many times I threw that heavy hook in there I couldn't get it to go through the crotch in that tree. Out of frustration I climbed up onto the ATV and stood on the front cargo rack. I gave a mighty heave with the hook felt off balance, and said oh shot. That is all I remember. I regained consciousness and I was laying on the ground with a splitting headache. I stood up in the first thing I saw was my glasses lying about 5 feet away. I put my glasses on and felt the back of my head I had a goose egg literally the size of a goose egg. I looked at my hand and there was blood on it. I felt again and I did not think I was bleeding and I noticed a deer's head in my armpit! I had fallen on top of the deer as well as the ground. I tried to stand up and it was extremely difficult I staggered like a drunken sailor to the ATV and sat there for a minute. I am not sure how long I had been unconscious. My thoughts were I'm glad the coyotes didn't find me or a crow come and pick my eyeballs out. I resumed trying to throw the cable but this time all I did was walk around to the other side of the tree slightly uphill and on the first try the cable and hook went through the crotch in the tree! So I picked up the small deer and did not raise it as high as I needed to. I grabbed the hooves on her back legs and picked up on them and I felt something crack and break in my chest! That's when I actually started to get worried. My left arm was all spastic and wouldn't cooperate for a few minutes. So eventually I got the deer on the ATV strapped so it wouldn't falloff, drove, very slowly I might add back to my vehicle put the ATV on the trailer and the deer in the bed of the truck. When I got home I unloaded the ATV, then told my wife we needed to go to the emergency room. But first I had to change my clothes clean up a little bit and drop the deer off at the processor! Anyway it turns out I had a fairly severe concussion I could not tell them how long I had been unconscious. I had what was called retroactive amnesia. That is I remember standing on the four wheeler and then being on the ground nothing in between. And a day or so later I determined that my left collarbone was dislocated. It still is actually but doesn't bother me. The scary thing is no one knew where I was and I was by myself. Could have been much worse but turned out okay in the end. I'm glad God looks after people even when they do stupid things. The embarrassing part was explaining to people, no, I was not riding the ATV, I was standing on it.
 
ronnycl said:
Years ago a buddy and I went into the MS River Bottoms to squirrel hunt. 18 miles from a paved road and we are the only truck. We walked in a logging road early that morning and a guy steps out with a crossbow. Shocked us! He looked dirty, nasty. He asked a few questions and asked to see my squirrel rifle. So I proceeded to unload it and hand it to him while concelaing my 9mm on my side and he said nice rifle and was checking it out. He gave it back and asked if he could have our squirrels he had not eaten in a coupe days. gladly gave them to him & he said he was deer hunting and someone dropped him off from a boat days back. we went on and my buddy and I thought maybe he was on the run, the lesson never hand your loaded gun to a unknown. My buddy said I am glad you didn't hand over that rifle loaded! Reminded me of the movie MUDD and not far from
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Back in the late 90's I bought a cool import pistol. A 9x18 Russian Makarov. I couldn't wait to go to an actual range to shoot it so I went to a forestry road. It was several miles to a dead end with a high mud bank. Perfect. I did not pass a single vehicle on the way in. No surprise, remote and not hunting season. I had a blast and shot up every round of both boxes of Chinese ammo that I had brought. On the way out with a pistol with no ammo I was surprised to see a guy walking toward the highway. I had not passed a vehicle to that point on the way out. He turned and waved his arms to stop me. As I slowed and began rolling my window down I got suspicious. That's when I saw the 2 others who lunged for the door handles. I floored it and sprayed gravel! No other vehicle all the way out to the road, very scary. Lesson learned, never shoot up all your ammo. Save 1 magazine full for the drive home.
 
Went fishing with a guy from college in South Georgia. Coming out a dirt road a old tall guy stepped out with a shotgun and then his buddy stepped out. I had heard a crazy man lived in the woods beside the river we were fishing I thought deliverance. He walked up to the drivers side window and told the guy with me to get out. Made him open his trunk. I didn't know the guy I was with had been there earlier in the day fishing, and had stolen the guys rods, tackle boxes, boat paddle, life jackets, and even the guys cooler with fish in it. And still had it in his trunk. My stuff was in the trunk but I thought the rest of the things was his. With the other guy holding a gun on me I told the guys I had never been fishing here before. They said they saw him and his car earlier in the day at the end of the road where their boat was.
They believed me and one held a gun on me while the old guy beat the crap out of the guy I was with. When we got back to campus, I never spoke to that guy again. The worst part was we were at a Christian college, both music majors, and he actually led a church choir.
 
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rifle02 said:
At my age I have found it impossible to load a larger deer onto a four-wheeler by myself. I have found the easier thing to do is use the winch with the cable over a tree limb, Hoist the deer pull it back, lower it onto the front rack. So when I killed a somewhat small doe on the last day of the season in 2018, by myself, I began looking for a suitable tree limb. The mature Oak Forest I was hunting in offered very few possibilities. I finally located a sorry tree with a limb That Grew somewhat parallel to the trunk not that far away. Using the ATV I dragged the doe to that tree. I then began the frustrating process of trying to throw the twisty cable and steel hook through that crotch in the tree. I tried a bunch of times each time worrying that the falling heavy steel hook would damage something on the ATV or me! No matter how many times I threw that heavy hook in there I couldn't get it to go through the crotch in that tree. Out of frustration I climbed up onto the ATV and stood on the front cargo rack. I gave a mighty heave with the hook felt off balance, and said oh shot. That is all I remember. I regained consciousness and I was laying on the ground with a splitting headache. I stood up in the first thing I saw was my glasses lying about 5 feet away. I put my glasses on and felt the back of my head I had a goose egg literally the size of a goose egg. I looked at my hand and there was blood on it. I felt again and I did not think I was bleeding and I noticed a deer's head in my armpit! I had fallen on top of the deer as well as the ground. I tried to stand up and it was extremely difficult I staggered like a drunken sailor to the ATV and sat there for a minute. I am not sure how long I had been unconscious. My thoughts were I'm glad the coyotes didn't find me or a crow come and pick my eyeballs out. I resumed trying to throw the cable but this time all I did was walk around to the other side of the tree slightly uphill and on the first try the cable and hook went through the crotch in the tree! So I picked up the small deer and did not raise it as high as I needed to. I grabbed the hooves on her back legs and picked up on them and I felt something crack and break in my chest! That's when I actually started to get worried. My left arm was all spastic and wouldn't cooperate for a few minutes. So eventually I got the deer on the ATV strapped so it wouldn't falloff, drove, very slowly I might add back to my vehicle put the ATV on the trailer and the deer in the bed of the truck. When I got home I unloaded the ATV, then told my wife we needed to go to the emergency room. But first I had to change my clothes clean up a little bit and drop the deer off at the processor! Anyway it turns out I had a fairly severe concussion I could not tell them how long I had been unconscious. I had what was called retroactive amnesia. That is I remember standing on the four wheeler and then being on the ground nothing in between. And a day or so later I determined that my left collarbone was dislocated. It still is actually but doesn't bother me. The scary thing is no one knew where I was and I was by myself. Could have been much worse but turned out okay in the end. I'm glad God looks after people even when they do stupid things. The embarrassing part was explaining to people, no, I was not riding the ATV, I was standing on it.
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This thread has been a great reminder to always let somebody know exactly where you are hunting. My wife knows who to contact if I don't come home from hunting but when minutes count how quickly could your members find you on a large lease??
 
When I was 14 dad would take me and drop me off hunting. Come get me at dark. Where we hunted had no cell service or anything. I had a trac phone that barely worked in town let alone the mountains. At dark I started to climb down out of a old lock on. The cable (chain) broke and down I went. When I came to. I stood up only to feel a funny sensation in my left leg. Reached down with my right hand and the 2 middle fingers went into my leg. When I landed a stick had jabbed into my leg and tore as it went. Just missed a artery the doc said. It took 45 stitches to close it up. I was walking out using my bow as a crutch until I finally met dad who was coming looking for me. Learned many lessons on that.

Another time I was skinning a deer at night using a headlamp. Trying to hurry and get it done. I was trying to ring (cut) all the way around one of the deers legs. Somehow I forgot to move my hand. Went through the top of 2 fingers and my thumb. Another 15 stitches for those. That one hurt for months because they was right behind the finger nails on the knuckle joints. Every time I'd try to hold something the new skin would pull apart. Finally took more stitches, glue and my hand in a brace to heal.
 
April 15, 2017 was a pretty normal, nice, Spring turkey hunting day until it all went wrong. I got on a bird gobbling like crazy and got in close. It took a few minutes, but I finally got him to come take a peak. He turned to go the other direction and stopped in an opening at 40 yards, and I pulled the trigger. He started flopping, but it was so steep and thick that I didn't know whether he was crippled or a death flop over the hill. I sprang to my feet to run a few yards to evaluate what had just happened when everything went wrong. On the leading step, I basically hit weird either on a rock or something unlevel and broke my leg. I went to the ground and only thought that I had twisted it a little. It basically felt like it was asleep but not like it was broke. I sprang back up, felt the feeling coming back, and kept going which was a big mistake. I made it three steps and basically my foot rolled up and touched my leg tearing all the tendons and ligaments in my foot. I called my wife told her that I was hurt, had to get the turkey, and somehow get out. I unloaded my gun and started using it as a crutch as I was able to put some weight on my foot which was another mistake. I made it about 10 steps and rolled it again. I came close to panicking but also knew I might have to get myself out by myself and was able to keep myself calm. I was finally able to get in touch with a cousin who came to help me get out. I had emergency surgery that night to put a plate and 6 screws in and spent the night in the hospital. My turkey season was over. I had another surgery to remove two screws in August as I still didn't have full range of my foot. I then had another surgery in March of 2016 to remove some scar tissue as I still didn't have full range. It helped my foot, but I developed disc issues in my back in part due to how I had been walking at the end of 2016 resulting in a blown out disc and back surgery in April of 2017 thus ending that season. That's one turkey I wish I would have never heard gobble.

I had 6 staples on the side of my foot in the picture and 18 on the other side.

IMG_20150421_094532672 (1).jpg
 
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rifle02 said:
At my age I have found it impossible to load a larger deer onto a four-wheeler by myself. I have found the easier thing to do is use the winch with the cable over a tree limb, Hoist the deer pull it back, lower it onto the front rack. So when I killed a somewhat small doe on the last day of the season in 2018, by myself, I began looking for a suitable tree limb. The mature Oak Forest I was hunting in offered very few possibilities. I finally located a sorry tree with a limb That Grew somewhat parallel to the trunk not that far away. Using the ATV I dragged the doe to that tree. I then began the frustrating process of trying to throw the twisty cable and steel hook through that crotch in the tree. I tried a bunch of times each time worrying that the falling heavy steel hook would damage something on the ATV or me! No matter how many times I threw that heavy hook in there I couldn't get it to go through the crotch in that tree. Out of frustration I climbed up onto the ATV and stood on the front cargo rack. I gave a mighty heave with the hook felt off balance, and said oh shot. That is all I remember. I regained consciousness and I was laying on the ground with a splitting headache. I stood up in the first thing I saw was my glasses lying about 5 feet away. I put my glasses on and felt the back of my head I had a goose egg literally the size of a goose egg. I looked at my hand and there was blood on it. I felt again and I did not think I was bleeding and I noticed a deer's head in my armpit! I had fallen on top of the deer as well as the ground. I tried to stand up and it was extremely difficult I staggered like a drunken sailor to the ATV and sat there for a minute. I am not sure how long I had been unconscious. My thoughts were I'm glad the coyotes didn't find me or a crow come and pick my eyeballs out. I resumed trying to throw the cable but this time all I did was walk around to the other side of the tree slightly uphill and on the first try the cable and hook went through the crotch in the tree! So I picked up the small deer and did not raise it as high as I needed to. I grabbed the hooves on her back legs and picked up on them and I felt something crack and break in my chest! That's when I actually started to get worried. My left arm was all spastic and wouldn't cooperate for a few minutes. So eventually I got the deer on the ATV strapped so it wouldn't falloff, drove, very slowly I might add back to my vehicle put the ATV on the trailer and the deer in the bed of the truck. When I got home I unloaded the ATV, then told my wife we needed to go to the emergency room. But first I had to change my clothes clean up a little bit and drop the deer off at the processor! Anyway it turns out I had a fairly severe concussion I could not tell them how long I had been unconscious. I had what was called retroactive amnesia. That is I remember standing on the four wheeler and then being on the ground nothing in between. And a day or so later I determined that my left collarbone was dislocated. It still is actually but doesn't bother me. The scary thing is no one knew where I was and I was by myself. Could have been much worse but turned out okay in the end. I'm glad God looks after people even when they do stupid things. The embarrassing part was explaining to people, no, I was not riding the ATV, I was standing on it.
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I just clicked on this thread and this is my first read. I had to laugh in horror. Can your collarbone not be put back in place?
 
PickettSFHunter said:
The time I walked up right in the middle of a satanic worshipping act where they were preparing to hang 3 dogs. I was walking out from bow hunting, saw the fire, just thought it was teens partying or whatever and walked right into it. I quickly saw the symbols, the people, the dogs, and just kept walking fast right through it. It was on a right of way into a property of mine. I did find out they were Morgan Countians from car tags, no surprise there. I was 18 or 19 at the time, was pretty sure there was legally nothing that could be done so I just went on. I later returned in the daylight and the hanged dogs were there, hung to where they had obviously kicked for a bit just barely reaching the ground. I posted about it on here and several provided information showing where the animal thing was just something these sickos do. I started carrying after that 😂
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I recall that thier were a couple of east TN teenagers murdered by satan worshippers in the late 90's somewhere.
 
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When I was 13, I was dying to go deer hunting after having gotten my license. I'd been a few times before as an observer with older cousins and other family members. My dad hated it. Loved small game and bird hunting tho. Anyway I was begging him to take me and instead "lets" me stay at his weirdo drunk druggie friend's house with his insane kids and hunt their property. "Lets" meaning I was told this was what's happening with my whole weekend. My dad was a druggie so he saw no prob with me handling live firearms totally unsupervised with some sketchy teens that I knew from school but purposely avoided. Needless to say, dad drops me off and while eating a PB & J for supper I asked the druggie dude what time were we getting up to hunt, whereon the property, etc. And the older kid (probably 17/18 yrs ol) says "dad's friend ricky is gonna take us hunting." So now someone I have no knowledge of is taking me hunting? Dude shows up the next day in a jacked up 4x4 at nearly lunchtime to drive us around and shoot from the road. I couldn't believe this was the big idea!! I wanted to vomit. This was 1993 and no cell. I wasn't even sure if dad's druggie friend had a phone. I get pressed into going. Within a couple hours, the other younger druggie guy's kid gut shots a big ol buck from the road on an unknown owner's property. Buck takes off, never to be seen despite an hour of tracking. We drive more and eventually its my turn which I refuse to shoot this doe in another unknown landowner's property. It becomes a whole ordeal!! Lots of taunting and jeering, yada yada... the stranger ricky driving us around takes out the rifle and goes to shoot this doe but it takes off angling behind the truck towards a curve in the road behind us. Dude pulls the trigger just as a sedan full of people comes to a screeching halt right as the doe crosses the road right in front of the sedan square in the middle of the curve!!! then dude jumps in the truck and drives like 100 mph away from the scene on these crazy curvy narrow chip gravel roads. scared me to death! next I was threatened with my life not to say anything. I agreed thru tears, not sure if I had just saw someone shot or if the shot missed the car, the insane driving, the fact I've been involved in illegal hunting all day, the fact that my lazy druggie dad had better things to do and the option was leaving me with these pricks. regardless no one wound up hurt. I never saw the driver. i never spoke to those two brothers again. I told my dad and he acted like it didn't happen. It was 17 years before I went deer hunting again. In the meantime I went squirrel and rabbit hunting a handful of times, dove hunting for a few scattered seasons. Just literally took forever to find peace with it all.
 
tanasirivertea said:
When I was 13, I was dying to go deer hunting after having gotten my license. I'd been a few times before as an observer with older cousins and other family members. My dad hated it. Loved small game and bird hunting tho. Anyway I was begging him to take me and instead "lets" me stay at his weirdo drunk druggie friend's house with his insane kids and hunt their property. "Lets" meaning I was told this was what's happening with my whole weekend. My dad was a druggie so he saw no prob with me handling live firearms totally unsupervised with some sketchy teens that I knew from school but purposely avoided. Needless to say, dad drops me off and while eating a PB & J for supper I asked the druggie dude what time were we getting up to hunt, whereon the property, etc. And the older kid (probably 17/18 yrs ol) says "dad's friend ricky is gonna take us hunting." So now someone I have no knowledge of is taking me hunting? Dude shows up the next day in a jacked up 4x4 at nearly lunchtime to drive us around and shoot from the road. I couldn't believe this was the big idea!! I wanted to vomit. This was 1993 and no cell. I wasn't even sure if dad's druggie friend had a phone. I get pressed into going. Within a couple hours, the other younger druggie guy's kid gut shots a big ol buck from the road on an unknown owner's property. Buck takes off, never to be seen despite an hour of tracking. We drive more and eventually its my turn which I refuse to shoot this doe in another unknown landowner's property. It becomes a whole ordeal!! Lots of taunting and jeering, yada yada... the stranger ricky driving us around takes out the rifle and goes to shoot this doe but it takes off angling behind the truck towards a curve in the road behind us. Dude pulls the trigger just as a sedan full of people comes to a screeching halt right as the doe crosses the road right in front of the sedan square in the middle of the curve!!! then dude jumps in the truck and drives like 100 mph away from the scene on these crazy curvy narrow chip gravel roads. scared me to death! next I was threatened with my life not to say anything. I agreed thru tears, not sure if I had just saw someone shot or if the shot missed the car, the insane driving, the fact I've been involved in illegal hunting all day, the fact that my lazy druggie dad had better things to do and the option was leaving me with these pricks. regardless no one wound up hurt. I never saw the driver. i never spoke to those two brothers again. I told my dad and he acted like it didn't happen. It was 17 years before I went deer hunting again. In the meantime I went squirrel and rabbit hunting a handful of times, dove hunting for a few scattered seasons. Just literally took forever to find peace with it all.
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Damn! Your childhood was a challenge of survival!
 
tanasirivertea said:
When I was 13, I was dying to go deer hunting after having gotten my license. I'd been a few times before as an observer with older cousins and other family members. My dad hated it. Loved small game and bird hunting tho. Anyway I was begging him to take me and instead "lets" me stay at his weirdo drunk druggie friend's house with his insane kids and hunt their property. "Lets" meaning I was told this was what's happening with my whole weekend. My dad was a druggie so he saw no prob with me handling live firearms totally unsupervised with some sketchy teens that I knew from school but purposely avoided. Needless to say, dad drops me off and while eating a PB & J for supper I asked the druggie dude what time were we getting up to hunt, whereon the property, etc. And the older kid (probably 17/18 yrs ol) says "dad's friend ricky is gonna take us hunting." So now someone I have no knowledge of is taking me hunting? Dude shows up the next day in a jacked up 4x4 at nearly lunchtime to drive us around and shoot from the road. I couldn't believe this was the big idea!! I wanted to vomit. This was 1993 and no cell. I wasn't even sure if dad's druggie friend had a phone. I get pressed into going. Within a couple hours, the other younger druggie guy's kid gut shots a big ol buck from the road on an unknown owner's property. Buck takes off, never to be seen despite an hour of tracking. We drive more and eventually its my turn which I refuse to shoot this doe in another unknown landowner's property. It becomes a whole ordeal!! Lots of taunting and jeering, yada yada... the stranger ricky driving us around takes out the rifle and goes to shoot this doe but it takes off angling behind the truck towards a curve in the road behind us. Dude pulls the trigger just as a sedan full of people comes to a screeching halt right as the doe crosses the road right in front of the sedan square in the middle of the curve!!! then dude jumps in the truck and drives like 100 mph away from the scene on these crazy curvy narrow chip gravel roads. scared me to death! next I was threatened with my life not to say anything. I agreed thru tears, not sure if I had just saw someone shot or if the shot missed the car, the insane driving, the fact I've been involved in illegal hunting all day, the fact that my lazy druggie dad had better things to do and the option was leaving me with these pricks. regardless no one wound up hurt. I never saw the driver. i never spoke to those two brothers again. I told my dad and he acted like it didn't happen. It was 17 years before I went deer hunting again. In the meantime I went squirrel and rabbit hunting a handful of times, dove hunting for a few scattered seasons. Just literally took forever to find peace with it all.
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What a First post!
 
tanasirivertea said:
When I was 13, I was dying to go deer hunting after having gotten my license. I'd been a few times before as an observer with older cousins and other family members. My dad hated it. Loved small game and bird hunting tho. Anyway I was begging him to take me and instead "lets" me stay at his weirdo drunk druggie friend's house with his insane kids and hunt their property. "Lets" meaning I was told this was what's happening with my whole weekend. My dad was a druggie so he saw no prob with me handling live firearms totally unsupervised with some sketchy teens that I knew from school but purposely avoided. Needless to say, dad drops me off and while eating a PB & J for supper I asked the druggie dude what time were we getting up to hunt, whereon the property, etc. And the older kid (probably 17/18 yrs ol) says "dad's friend ricky is gonna take us hunting." So now someone I have no knowledge of is taking me hunting? Dude shows up the next day in a jacked up 4x4 at nearly lunchtime to drive us around and shoot from the road. I couldn't believe this was the big idea!! I wanted to vomit. This was 1993 and no cell. I wasn't even sure if dad's druggie friend had a phone. I get pressed into going. Within a couple hours, the other younger druggie guy's kid gut shots a big ol buck from the road on an unknown owner's property. Buck takes off, never to be seen despite an hour of tracking. We drive more and eventually its my turn which I refuse to shoot this doe in another unknown landowner's property. It becomes a whole ordeal!! Lots of taunting and jeering, yada yada... the stranger ricky driving us around takes out the rifle and goes to shoot this doe but it takes off angling behind the truck towards a curve in the road behind us. Dude pulls the trigger just as a sedan full of people comes to a screeching halt right as the doe crosses the road right in front of the sedan square in the middle of the curve!!! then dude jumps in the truck and drives like 100 mph away from the scene on these crazy curvy narrow chip gravel roads. scared me to death! next I was threatened with my life not to say anything. I agreed thru tears, not sure if I had just saw someone shot or if the shot missed the car, the insane driving, the fact I've been involved in illegal hunting all day, the fact that my lazy druggie dad had better things to do and the option was leaving me with these pricks. regardless no one wound up hurt. I never saw the driver. i never spoke to those two brothers again. I told my dad and he acted like it didn't happen. It was 17 years before I went deer hunting again. In the meantime I went squirrel and rabbit hunting a handful of times, dove hunting for a few scattered seasons. Just literally took forever to find peace with it all.
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In some ways, what you went through right there might give you even more of an appreciation for doing things the right way, than someone who has never experienced that. Glad you survived it.
 
rifle02 said:
At my age I have found it impossible to load a larger deer onto a four-wheeler by myself. I have found the easier thing to do is use the winch with the cable over a tree limb, Hoist the deer pull it back, lower it onto the front rack. So when I killed a somewhat small doe on the last day of the season in 2018, by myself, I began looking for a suitable tree limb. The mature Oak Forest I was hunting in offered very few possibilities. I finally located a sorry tree with a limb That Grew somewhat parallel to the trunk not that far away. Using the ATV I dragged the doe to that tree. I then began the frustrating process of trying to throw the twisty cable and steel hook through that crotch in the tree. I tried a bunch of times each time worrying that the falling heavy steel hook would damage something on the ATV or me! No matter how many times I threw that heavy hook in there I couldn't get it to go through the crotch in that tree. Out of frustration I climbed up onto the ATV and stood on the front cargo rack. I gave a mighty heave with the hook felt off balance, and said oh shot. That is all I remember. I regained consciousness and I was laying on the ground with a splitting headache. I stood up in the first thing I saw was my glasses lying about 5 feet away. I put my glasses on and felt the back of my head I had a goose egg literally the size of a goose egg. I looked at my hand and there was blood on it. I felt again and I did not think I was bleeding and I noticed a deer's head in my armpit! I had fallen on top of the deer as well as the ground. I tried to stand up and it was extremely difficult I staggered like a drunken sailor to the ATV and sat there for a minute. I am not sure how long I had been unconscious. My thoughts were I'm glad the coyotes didn't find me or a crow come and pick my eyeballs out. I resumed trying to throw the cable but this time all I did was walk around to the other side of the tree slightly uphill and on the first try the cable and hook went through the crotch in the tree! So I picked up the small deer and did not raise it as high as I needed to. I grabbed the hooves on her back legs and picked up on them and I felt something crack and break in my chest! That's when I actually started to get worried. My left arm was all spastic and wouldn't cooperate for a few minutes. So eventually I got the deer on the ATV strapped so it wouldn't falloff, drove, very slowly I might add back to my vehicle put the ATV on the trailer and the deer in the bed of the truck. When I got home I unloaded the ATV, then told my wife we needed to go to the emergency room. But first I had to change my clothes clean up a little bit and drop the deer off at the processor! Anyway it turns out I had a fairly severe concussion I could not tell them how long I had been unconscious. I had what was called retroactive amnesia. That is I remember standing on the four wheeler and then being on the ground nothing in between. And a day or so later I determined that my left collarbone was dislocated. It still is actually but doesn't bother me. The scary thing is no one knew where I was and I was by myself. Could have been much worse but turned out okay in the end. I'm glad God looks after people even when they do stupid things. The embarrassing part was explaining to people, no, I was not riding the ATV, I was standing on it.
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Amazon product ASIN B075VYX31BAborist's use a pole and a slingshot to toss a lightweight rope over limbs.Then pull up a a chain for cutting. Glad you survived to tell the tale and maybe prevent others from making the same mistake. I know it's a bad feeling to be alone in the woods and hurt.
 
Christmas Eve 1983 woke up to go duck hunting temp was low 20s wind around 5-10 mph at 8:30 wind was blowing 25-30 supposedly temp had dropped to 8 degrees wind chill -20.we had had enough We got decoys loaded into a 15 ft Jon boat with 3 guys. We made it across the lake and were running against the waves which were blowing spray on us. The boat driver cut back the throttle which lowered the front end. First wave filled the boat up 2nd wave capsized us. Luckily we were only 49-50 ft from shore and less than 200 yds from truck we all lost our hip boots swimming Our wet socks were freezing to the rocks on the bank and this really bruised out feet making walking painful for at least a week. Somehow we drove about a mile to a bootleggers house luckily he was home. We stripped made love to his wood stove and drank his whiskey. We lost all our guns and decoys are still floating somewhere. About 1 week later we went back got the boat which was still upside down washed up on bank about 1/2 mile away. I had nightmares for over a year. Seeing that wave come over the boat
 
TN Larry said:
April 15, 2017 was a pretty normal, nice, Spring turkey hunting day until it all went wrong. I got on a bird gobbling like crazy and got in close. It took a few minutes, but I finally got him to come take a peak. He turned to go the other direction and stopped in an opening at 40 yards, and I pulled the trigger. He started flopping, but it was so steep and thick that I didn't know whether he was crippled or a death flop over the hill. I sprang to my feet to run a few yards to evaluate what had just happened when everything went wrong. On the leading step, I basically hit weird either on a rock or something unlevel and broke my leg. I went to the ground and only thought that I had twisted it a little. It basically felt like it was asleep but not like it was broke. I sprang back up, felt the feeling coming back, and kept going which was a big mistake. I made it three steps and basically my foot rolled up and touched my leg tearing all the tendons and ligaments in my foot. I called my wife told her that I was hurt, had to get the turkey, and somehow get out. I unloaded my gun and started using it as a crutch as I was able to put some weight on my foot which was another mistake. I made it about 10 steps and rolled it again. I came close to panicking but also knew I might have to get myself out by myself and was able to keep myself calm. I was finally able to get in touch with a cousin who came to help me get out. I had emergency surgery that night to put a plate and 6 screws in and spent the night in the hospital. My turkey season was over. I had another surgery to remove two screws in August as I still didn't have full range of my foot. I then had another surgery in March of 2016 to remove some scar tissue as I still didn't have full range. It helped my foot, but I developed disc issues in my back in part due to how I had been walking at the end of 2016 resulting in a blown out disc and back surgery in April of 2017 thus ending that season. That's one turkey I wish I would have never heard gobble.

I had 6 staples on the side of my foot in the picture and 18 on the other side.

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Ouch.
 
WestTn Huntin man said:
Amazon product ASIN B075VYX31BAborist's use a pole and a slingshot to toss a lightweight rope over limbs.Then pull up a a chain for cutting. Glad you survived to tell the tale and maybe prevent others from making the same mistake. I know it's a bad feeling to be alone in the woods and hurt.
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Yes, I've thought about using a weight on the end of a string or twine. The thing is to find a tree limb that's not all that high in that case I didn't have much luck finding something down closer to the ground.
 
On a backpack fly-fishing trip in the Smokey's with my then about 12-13 year old son about 10-12 years ago....we had set up a camp about 5-6 miles from the car in one of the primitive camping spots which happened to be in a fairly steep mountain draw on the west side of the park. We had a small fire going just talking and started seeing extremely faint flashes of light around 8-9pm but we weren't sure what we were seeing until about 30 minutes later we'd started hearing very faint thunder several seconds after the flashes of light.

Based on how far we were from the car, it was too late to do anything except ride it out.

When it first started raining we got into the little 2 man tent and the storm raced right up the mountain. For about 30 minutes we were in 40-50mph winds, tree's and limbs falling all around us, torrential rain and lightning every few seconds that was so close it was the loudest thunder I've ever heard.

At one point I just said to my son, "I love you and if I happen not to make it out of this alive, tell your mom that I love her too."

We were lucky, a limb fell on one of the guy lines of our tent, about 4-5' from us but thankfully just broke one of the tent poles. I remember that a couple of folks who were similarly camped, died in the Smokey's that night.

I've never been more terrified or felt more helpless, there was nothing I could do to protect me or my son.
 

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