Wapiti Talk | Elk Hunting Forum | Elk Hunting Tips
 

Whats the worse

Moderators: Swede, Tigger, Lefty, Indian Summer, WapitiTalk1

Whats the worse

Postby Lefty » 02 16, 2021 •  [Post 1]

Most of my outdoor situations have been more of an inconvenience with little or no consequences. Aa few potential and close calls
Ive never had a serious incident in the outdoors,.. close, but Im still here.
I did haul girl out with a compound leg fracture to an awaiting ambulance
Ive gotten 2 flats on one outing, three times
Broke my shoulder hotdogging a snowmobile. It hurt too much to ride out so I walked.
Slipping on a log. A spike going though the crotch of my pants changed my life :o
This year crossing a fence I fell, and the fence dancer put me to the ground, and broke my nose,.. Hurt a bit and made crunchy sounds putting it back in place :lol:
And buddy Dave got heat stroke on a desert elk hunt,.. Real sick, I ranked the AC on the truck, stripped him down and kept dumping water on him,... Well I guess that was bad.
Freezing my feet was pretty bad while beaver trapping,.. life long consequences
A bad case each of poison ivy and poison oak

Any too close that your willing to share
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Whats the worse

Postby wawhitey » 02 16, 2021 •  [Post 2]

Ive yet to suffer a serious injury or a broken bone in my life. If my count is correct ive used up 6 or 7 of my 9 lives. Lotta close calls, near misses, no actual injuries. Just a matter of time before life catches up with me i guess. Kinda feeling my mortality today.
Real eyes realize real lies
User avatar
wawhitey
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 3572
Joined: 02 21, 2013
Location: Stevens co, WA

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Swede » 02 16, 2021 •  [Post 3]

I think the time I fell while descending from my tree stand was my worst experience. I was half way down about 12 feet above the ground when I stepped on a limb that broke. I landed on my head and shoulders, and was out for over 1/2 hour. To keep things short, I will just say that was a close call. Praise God I was not seriously injured.
Another time I descended over hard crusted snow, into a canyon to do some early spring scouting. I wanted to get below the snow to see what the area looked like before the vegetation started to grow back. When I went in, I walked for about a mile on the hard snow that was about waist deep. I went down like a post as Whitey describes, but it was ok going down. After that, I looked around most of the day, and then started back out. By that time it had warmed up, and every step back up hill was through heavy waist deep snow. Every step was a struggle. When I hit the road, I was totally exhausted.
Swede
Wapiti Hunting - Tree Stand Tactics
 
Posts: 10215
Joined: 06 16, 2012

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 4]

Had to go get help as a teenager to carry my dad out of the mountains with altitude sickness. Talk about scary!

Also as a teenager, I almost died of poisonous mushrooms while 7 miles back in the mountains, on the same trailhead as the altitude sickness, no less. To make a long story short, the immature version of something called a Death Angel, looks very similar to a very delicious mushroom called a puffball.

My dad put a broadhead through his hand one time. Alone. Two miles back. Electrical tape and a spare glove held him together to walk out and drive to the hospital.

Almost got heat stroke once here in TX.

One time my grandpa and I helped a girl out who's car slid off the side of a mountain road. She got lucky that the pine trees along that logging road were so stout.
User avatar
Trumkin the Dwarf
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 675
Joined: 06 14, 2013
Location: Montana
First Name: Malachi
Last Name: C

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Billy Goat » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 5]

dang. yall are resilient people!

had a few close calls, but nothing as bad as some of these.

you know how folks have a "phobia" about stuff?

well, ever since I started hunting the mountains, I've always had an almost irrational fear of falling while crossing a blowdown spruce and being impaled by a broken off branch stub. My fear escalates in the presence of snow.

as of yet, no actual slips/falls/impalements, but still a pretty hefty fear!

spruce-branch-phobia? is that a thing?
"First teach a child to love God,
teach them second to love their family
and third, teach them to hunt and fish,
and by the time they reach their teens, no dope peddler under the sun will ever teach them anything".

-Cotton Cordell
User avatar
Billy Goat
Rank: Rag Horn
 
Posts: 285
Joined: 05 08, 2020
Location: Denton, TX

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Fridaythe13th » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 6]

Most things that happen to me are on the drive to elk mountains.
But there was 1 time hunting yotes and the snow was very deep I hook a branch with my snowshoe and fell head first into a 8 foot water way of course full of snow. I was hanging up side down buried in snow with my shoe still hooked on the branch. Luckily my gun was close and I used it as a crutch to pick myself out of the ravine.
Not that close of a call bit scared the sh!+ out of me.
User avatar
Fridaythe13th
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 1014
Joined: 10 24, 2013
Location: Minnesota
First Name: Eric
Last Name: S

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Lefty » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 7]

wawhitey wrote:Ive yet to suffer a serious injury or a broken bone in my life. If my count is correct ive used up 6 or 7 of my 9 lives. Lotta close calls, near misses, no actual injuries. Just a matter of time before life catches up with me i guess. Kinda feeling my mortality today.

Yep I was 19 before I broke my first bone my little toe water skiing then my big toe,. Re-breaks really stunk It took years of close ones. :o


Youve had other guys tell you.
"You will pay for this when your older",.. and boy will you ever
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Lefty » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 8]

Billy Goat wrote:dang. yall are resilient people!
had a few close calls, but nothing as bad as some of these.
you know how folks have a "phobia" about stuff?
well, ever since I started hunting the mountains, I've always had an almost irrational fear of falling while crossing a blowdown spruce and being impaled by a broken off branch stub. My fear escalates in the presence of snow.
as of yet, no actual slips/falls/impalements, but still a pretty hefty fear!
spruce-branch-phobia? is that a thing?


Ive been walking around those trees for years, no phobia,.. I just wanted to turn down the risk factor
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Lefty » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 9]

Trumkin the Dwarf wrote:Also as a teenager, I almost died of poisonous mushrooms while 7 miles back in the mountains, on the same trailhead as the altitude sickness, no less. To make a long story short, the immature version of something called a Death Angel, looks very similar to a very delicious mushroom called a puffball.
Almost got heat stroke once here in TX. .

Dont mess with heat stroke,.. it will wreck you week.

Tell me about the puff balls-death angles.
The last week of the season I though I found the mother load of older puff balls,... my plan was to hit the area in August this year.
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Whats the worse

Postby wawhitey » 02 17, 2021 •  [Post 10]

Amanita phalloides im sure. Destroying angel. Amanitas have a kind of an egg sac looking base. The big red shrooms with the white spots are amanita muscaria.
Real eyes realize real lies
User avatar
wawhitey
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 3572
Joined: 02 21, 2013
Location: Stevens co, WA

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Indian Summer » 02 18, 2021 •  [Post 11]

Oh Lord where to begin....
User avatar
Indian Summer
Wapiti Hunting Consultant
 
Posts: 5247
Joined: 06 14, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
First Name: Joe
Last Name: Ferraro

Re: Whats the worse

Postby >>>---WW----> » 02 18, 2021 •  [Post 12]

Guess I was 9-10 years old when I had this yearning desire to be a paratrooper. I made my first jump out of a barn loft with a bed sheet for a parachute. I've had bad ankles ever since.
User avatar
>>>---WW---->
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 2351
Joined: 05 27, 2012

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 02 18, 2021 •  [Post 13]

Lefty wrote:Tell me about the puff balls-death angles.
The last week of the season I though I found the mother load of older puff balls,... my plan was to hit the area in August this year.

You will need to brush up on identification to be certain, but I believe Puffballs do not have gills. I've never had interest in figuring it out for off trail consumption again.
User avatar
Trumkin the Dwarf
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 675
Joined: 06 14, 2013
Location: Montana
First Name: Malachi
Last Name: C

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Trumkin the Dwarf » 02 18, 2021 •  [Post 14]

wawhitey wrote:Amanita phalloides im sure. Destroying angel. Amanitas have a kind of an egg sac looking base. The big red shrooms with the white spots are amanita muscaria.


I believe you are right. Everyone else in the group was able to make themselves throw up after witnessing the dog vomit from licking the pan... I found out I cannot make myself throw up. Took the full dose all the way through my system. Almost went into a coma, hallucinated for 6 hours, then woke up like I was totally normal. My GI system was never the same though, and I believe it's part of why I needed to have my colon removed this year.
User avatar
Trumkin the Dwarf
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 675
Joined: 06 14, 2013
Location: Montana
First Name: Malachi
Last Name: C

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Lefty » 02 18, 2021 •  [Post 15]

Indian Summer wrote:Oh Lord where to begin....


Share a couple short one for now. My father in law started writing, 387 pages, single spaced


Your great grand kids will know you were a real mountain man
User avatar
Lefty
Wapiti Hunting - Strategy and Tactics
 
Posts: 6926
Joined: 06 25, 2012
Location: Pocatello Idaho
First Name: Dennis
Last Name: H

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Indian Summer » 02 19, 2021 •  [Post 16]

I have only used a 4 wheeler while elk hunting a couple times. I had packed a camp 3 hours in on mules earlier. There was a back way in that is a legit legal 4 wheeler trail. But it’s a 12 mile ride and rugged. It was a dry hot day around 70 degrees out. I could handle that no problem. But then it ends and turns into horse/foot trail. I wanted to go just a couple hundred yards up that hill because I had a big load and figured why backpack it. I’d be at a saddle and it was all downhill to camp from there. I had a cooler, 20lb propane tank, food, other gear and my bow. The plan was for me to get that stuff in during the day and when my brother got done working he’d hike in.

So up the hill I went crawling in 1st gear. I made it through one switchback and was angling right to left coming up the next stretch of trail. I came to a spot where a big rock made a hump on the uphill side of trail. At the same spot there was a little dip in the downhill side of the trail. You see where this is going don’t you?

I’m not a risk taker in the hills. I stopped and got off and slowly power walked it to get by the little scary spot. But I hadn’t thought about how top heavy my weight was with everything ratchet strapped on the front and rear racks. As soon as the front tire dropped into the dip and the uphill tire crested the bump she started to roll. I was on the downhill side and for a split second I tried to push it back uphill. A futile Hail Mary effort!

At some point I realized it was time to turn and run but it was too late. I had turned downhill and took half a step trying to get out of the way. The whole thing rolled literally right over top of me. My downhill foot slid straight forward and my back one was uphill. It bent me over forward until my chin was about on the ground right next to my right ankle and I heard the sound of something in my leg tearing apart.

The 4 wheeler flipped 3 times before hitting a tree dead center on the top of the gas tank about 30 yards below me. I rolled over sideways and got leaned up against a tree in a sitting position and stayed put for a few minutes and caught my breath. Then I stood up. My right foot wasn’t pointing forward. It was pointed toward the right at about 2 o’clock. Oh$h1t! I was actually pleasantly surprised that it appeared as if things weren’t much worse. My back was fine which was a miracle. I hobbled downhill and needed to get the 4 wheeler upright. It was on the left side against the tree still. I couldn’t push it so I popped the ratchets and dropped the loads. Cooler sailed 50 feet down the hill. I got the thing on the ground and all the gear together and back up on the trail. But before that it got darker out. Mid day dark. The temp was dropping amazingly fast. I started the 4 wheeler and drove it straight uphill. That’s always better than sidehill right. I crossed over the trail and topped a little rise to a level spot hidden from the trail and parked it. It was only about 30 minutes to camp so I grabbed a few essentials and started hiking. Well... dragging my right foot and limping up the trail. My clothes were in camp and I was wearing a t shirt. I was shivering pretty bad and it started snowing a little. Yep from 70 to snowing in a few hours. I got to camp and immediately built a fire. I had enough wood in camp for guiding bow hunters later that season. The tent just didn’t seem to he getting warm though. I stuff the stove and fed it some air and dragged a cot over next to the wood stove and climbed into my 30 below bag. It got to the point where the stove started to get cherry red and I was still shaking like a leaf. Eventually I realized that it was probably more than warm in the tent and I was in mild shock. There wasn’t really anything I could do but lay there trying to get warmer.


It got dark out pretty quickly and no brother. It would have surprised me if he was on time but by 10 o’clock I wondered if he wasn’t coming in that night but waited until morning. I nodded off a few times and at 11:30 I heard 3 gun shots go off. What! You gotta be kidding me. I’m waiting to get rescued and someone is giving the universal distress signal!!! I didn’t have a gun so I couldn’t signal back. I did blow my trusty referee whistle several times. But I wasn’t capable of going anywhere. At 1am I hear footsteps and in walks my brother. He got a really late start and decided to ride his mountain bike in... with a headlamp on. I got the brains in the family I guess. His batteries died so he had to stash the bike. He was using a Bic lighter here and there to see the trail. Then that ran out of fuel so he was flicking the flint for glimpses..... and he hiked off of the trail onto a game trail that petered out. He hadn’t been in the area much either so he was lost in the pitch black darkness. Haha!!!

The next day there was no way I could hunt but I went up the hill anyway and sat while he hunted a really good ridge topo for awhile. The next day he would drive me out on the 4 wheeler which I was NOT looking forward to. I felt all 999 thousand bumps but I made it. My leg was trashed. Two days later I got into Missoula Joint and Bone where they determined that I ripped the tendon on the outside of my knee off off the bone. It’s actually a really tough little tendon and instead of it ripping a piece of the bone broke off and stayed attached to the tendon. I wore a brace for awhile but tossed that aside to guide 10 days later. I hurt the rest of that year but I knew that I was actually blessed and things could have ended way worse than they did.
User avatar
Indian Summer
Wapiti Hunting Consultant
 
Posts: 5247
Joined: 06 14, 2012
Location: Pennsylvania
First Name: Joe
Last Name: Ferraro

Re: Whats the worse

Postby Old school » 02 19, 2021 •  [Post 17]

We were Bowhunting elk in Colorado and slowly walking a trail thru the woods at sunrise. I stopped suddenly and my son who was walking behind me was looking off in the woods and didn’t see me stop and walked right into my back. He had an arrow nocked and ran the broadhead right thru my pocket on the right side of my backpack. If he would’ve hit me 6” to the left it would have gone right into my kidney. Could’ve turned out way bad. We never walk with arrows nocked anymore. Cost us an elk a few years ago in Idaho when we bumped a couple bulls and they stopped broadside for about 5 seconds. Not enough time to get an arrow out and shoot. Rather be safe and alive though...

Some of you guys have been very fortunate...
User avatar
Old school
Rank: An Elk Nut
 
Posts: 549
Joined: 06 20, 2015
Location: MO


cron