Fears & Injuries

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Darin
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Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Darin » Tue Jan 29, 2013 7:42 pm

Have you ever had a fearful experience while deer hunting? Or even gotten injured for that matter. And what did you do? This could range from animal fears/attacks....tree stand injury...etc..

Example: 2 seasons ago I was in my tree stand on an early season sit and little to my knowledge I was sharing a tree with a snake. Now it was only a grass snake BUT, im deathly affraid of snakes. Like running for the hills affraid :lol: . While I was sitting away, I felt a "movement" approach down my shoulders and onto my chest. There it was! Looking down, inches away from my chin. I jumped up, yellpt, and lost my balance to a fall. Mid stumble down the tree stand I managed to latch onto the ladder steps to save myself. Needless to say, I grabbed my bow and ended that hunt. This was before I started using a safety harness and Im thankful I was in my ladder stand that day.


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Crazinamatese
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Crazinamatese » Wed Jan 30, 2013 1:30 am

Well, I think I was the most terrified hunting during gun/deer season back in 05 when I heard a long volley of gun shots coming from across the field and hearing the bullets whizzing and smashing into the tree tops above me. I climbed down off my stand and laid on the ground for a few minutes. Thats all I could really do. There was a small hill in the middle of the field, so the other guys on the other side of the field couldn't see me. At that time, I then understood why we shouldn't shoot over hills. I have had a few close encounters with bears also. I almost tripped over one laying in its den during a deer drive once. That was kinda freaky.
The cave you fear hides the treasure you seek!!!
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby wmahunter » Wed Jan 30, 2013 2:48 am

Years ago before the hss safety system came out I had a tree climber slip down the tree with me in it about 6 ft.. It scared the you know what out of me.

I was fearful of heights after that for a couple of years.

Than I bought a new climber with a railing system, 25 - 28 ft is norm. unless I using the lone wolf stand than it is 15 ft.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Elk2782 » Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:20 am

When I use to guide in the mountains in Wyoming we went in 33 miles on horesback in the most remote wilderness in the lower 48, I had some nasty falls on horses and were times packing elk quarters out that u just knew you were being followed by grizzlys, in fact in a single day I saw 9 different grizzlys when we were doing migration hunts near yellowstone. Probally the most scared I ever was hunting at times
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Knute78 » Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:38 am

My biggest fear is being shot in the tree while bow hunting. Years ago, in my high teens, I was sitting about 50 yards off of a gravel road in a grove of trees. I was on the back side of the tree facing away from the road. I'd often see 5 to 10 vehicles per hunt. One evening I had a crow sitting on a branch behind me making tons of racket. Here comes a car down the and slows down drastically almost to a stop. Boooooommmmmm! The back of the tree I am in gets peppered with shot and the car takes off. The best or worst part is I knew the car. It was my dumb cousin (other more profane word should be inserted here), who minutes later got a but chewing at my grandparents farm. He was going to visit them and I saw him as he slowed and pulled into the driveway. It took everything I had not to clean the floor with his face. I never sit that close to the road anymore even if it seems like a good spot.

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BigHills BuckHunter
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Wed Jan 30, 2013 4:48 am

Was on public land 3 years ago and fell out of my treestand. I was about 10 feet off the ground. Amazingly I only got cuts and bruises. I hit one of my steps on the way down which gave me a good mark. Im lucky I didnt get paralyzed or killed.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:09 am

Sitting on opening day of Archery on public land and a guy and his girlfriend decided to target practice at the knoll I was perched on.
At first it started out as a .22 cal, then the big booms started...
I figured I better yell at the target practice people because the big booms where gonna hurt a lot more than the .22cal...

I think they were as scared as me and they abruptly left appologizing for winging bullets in my direction.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Dewey » Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:19 am

My incident had more to do with fear and luckily no injuries.

I was bowhunting near Custer and the Black Hills of South Dakota one year and had a very scary situation. The area I was hunting is prairie on the edge of the Black Hills. There are plenty of free ranging cattle out there but most of the time they don't cause any problems. One night after an all day muley spot and stalk I was walking back to my truck in the dark and heard and then saw two [glow=red]HUGE[/glow] angus bulls fighting and being very aggresive. I skirted around them but ended up on the edge of a 300+ foot cliff and canyon. At this point both bulls stopped what they were doing and stared at me while moving closer! So there I was with a huge cliff behind me, two huge aggresive bulls and nothing but wide open prairie behind them with not a tree in sight to climb into if I had to. My heart was racing and I am not ashamed to say I was extremely worried and knew I was in a very bad situation. Having worked on a farm I know just how unpredictable a bull can be much less two of them! :shock:

They watched me very closely for a few very tense minutes but thankfully lost interest in me and went back to whatever they were doing. I snuck out of there watching my back the whole way!!

That could have been a very ugly situation and glad it turned out the way it did.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Schubox1265 » Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:32 am

wmahunter wrote:Years ago before the hss safety system came out I had a tree climber slip down the tree with me in it about 6 ft.. It scared the you know what out of me.


Did this years ago from about 15 ft on an ice-covered poplar. The climber (HMK?) was one of the first steel-band type climbers to come out on the market. Upon landing, the wooden platform split in half down the middle, between my feet, from the impact of the rock that was there.

I had to find a limb long enough to retrieve the hand-climber, which was still in the tree...
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Dewey
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Dewey » Wed Jan 30, 2013 6:55 am

Schubox1265 wrote:
wmahunter wrote:Years ago before the hss safety system came out I had a tree climber slip down the tree with me in it about 6 ft.. It scared the you know what out of me.


Did this years ago from about 15 ft on an ice-covered poplar. The climber (HMK?) was one of the first steel-band type climbers to come out on the market. Upon landing, the wooden platform split in half down the middle, between my feet, from the impact of the rock that was there.

I had to find a limb long enough to retrieve the hand-climber, which was still in the tree...

I had the same thing happen one year gun hunting in the northwoods. It was raining in the morning when I set up my Summit Viper but turned to freezing rain by late morning. The tree was completely glazed before I knew it and figured it was a bad idea to keep hunting in it so I started climbing down. Even though I had my safety harness on everything went sliding down the tree like a greased pole! :shock:

Luckily I stopped before I hit the ground when my safety strap stopped where the base of the tree tapered!

I will never hunt a tree again in freezing rain. Lesson learned! :doh:

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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby JoeRE » Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:07 am

I fell out of my stand once, when I was a teenager one of my first years bow hunting. I was wearing a safety belt, it caught me. Just falling over the side of the stand knocked the wind out of me, because it was just a safely belt not a harness

If I had not been wearing that there is a good chance I would not be here writing this. I was 25' up over a dry bed rock creek bed. Wear your harnesses guys!!
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby keb » Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:35 am

Was on a out of state 3 week rut hunt this year, I was trimming some branches to hang in cedar tree, I was about 2 feet off the ground standing on some branches, my foot slipped, I reached out with my right arm to catch myself and over exteded it and hear a loud crack.

When I pulled my arm back it hurt bad, my biggest fear was I would not be able to shot my bow and finish the hunt, It hurt bad but was able to keep hunting and got a good one.

I just had surgery two weeks ago after, physical therapy would not work for a tear in my labrum of my right shoulder, 3 to 6 months to recover.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby trdtnlbwhntr » Wed Jan 30, 2013 11:56 am

I was trying to hang a ladder in a tree I knew was too big for it. I put two belts together to get around it and got the first rung secured. The next section of ladder I climbed up and tried to loop the line around the tree and realized I was screwed. I couldn't get my arms around the tree and the ladder started leaning back away from the tree. All I could do was sink my fingers into the bark and squeeze tight. I was in a situation where I could either hold it for as long as possible or try to snag the ladder and stop myself from falling. Neither worked. As soon as I let loose of the tree I was falling. I picked a spot and jumped away from the tree and ladder so as to not get snagged and hit just about perfect. Rolled once and got to my feet. I packed everything in the truck and left. Never again.

It was a crazy awful feeling knowing I was going to have to fall and there was no avoiding it. Now that I have a son, I will not be taking anymore chances.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby Czabs » Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:32 pm

I have never really been fearful of anything in the woods or fell out of a treestand. But I can think of two things. 1st one was coming across bee hives MULTIPLE times while scouting and hunting...that could turn yucky pretty fast. Another time I went hog hunting in Oklahoma with my dad. We tried free range for the first two days stalking hogs but didn't even see one. So we decided to stalk a hog in the fenced in area...well they also have other animals in this fenced in area. Long story short...we came face to face 35-40 yards away from a waterbuffalo...I pooped a little bit, then it snorted and ran away.
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Re: Fears & Injuries

Unread postby xpauliber » Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:06 am

I had a somewhat fearful experience walking to my stand in the pre-dawn. As I was walking, my headlamp shined on 2 sets of predator eyes looking at me about 50 yards away. They were hunkered over some type of carcass but I couldn't see what it was. All of the sudden, they took off in opposite directions, one to the left and the other to the right. I thought they had bolted like most animals do when they encounter a human but as I kept turning my head to see where the eyes were, I could see that they weren't fleeing, but rather they were circling me. I beat feet up to my tree and got up in the stand.

We don't have wolves here, just coyotes, so it wasn't really something to be afraid of, but for the moment, it did make me feel like I wasn't at the top of the food chain. :shock: Didn't have my sidearm either at the time.


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