re: Hunting/Fishing Close Calls

When I was 9 I ran over both my legs on a three wheeler.

Still puzzled why it didn’t look like a wishbone.

I’m 73 was 18 at the time and we were squirrel hunting my younger friend who was 16 fell and his single shot 22 hit a rock in the wrong place and shot himself in the stomach. We were a long way from our car. There were five of us and we carried him until we finally got him to the car. It was about 25 miles to the hospital and we got stopped by a state trooper who then escorted us the rest of the way. He spent about 12 hours in surgery, the bullet went through his mid section and out through his arm. He survived and served in the Marines in Viet Nam. He’s still a friend today.

There is a reason I don't duck hunt.

Lusk, Wyoming. First time out. arrived to the Ranger trailer. Few cars or trucks in the lot. We got our blind and went out to the lake. Ducks smarter than we were. Single island in the middle of the lake ....no ducks flying. We had three Coleman heaters turned up to max and could not keep the Coffin concrete receptacles warm. 10 am , we give up ..in the truck to drive to Cheyenne ....Cold as hell. News announcement ....The temperature is 25 below zero. NOT wind chill actual temps. Stay inside where possible.

They beg me to go out the following weekend...This time 70 and driving in a RV. Cooked breakfast while everyone else ate cold sandwiches. Drive out to our blind. First flights coming directly over us before sunrise......suddenly Bang, Bang, Bang my first shot the "borrowed" shotgun stock comes off in my hands. I sat down and used my knife to tightened the stock screws. Stand for the second shot. Took aim, lead duck folds his wings and heads down ......I sat down in shock. Looked at the floor of my separated section of the blind trying to focus ...heard water running. Looked at the floor and thought ...."Ducks cannot bleed this much" Suddenly Chuck yells "Why isn't Ray shooting?" Ron stands and looks over the wall between us. Yells back "We have to go NOW!" They are pulling me out of the blind. I looked down and saw the point of my nose was not there anymore. They got towels from the RV and finally stopped the bleeding. Broke my nose, pushing it to the right side of my face. Two hour drive to Cheyenne. Into the Hospital Emergency Room. They couldn't find the Plastic Surgeon for hours.
He walks in looks at the X-Rays and says "You broke your nose." "I didn't look like this when I left the house this morning" "We can go down and set this now or wait until Wednesday." "Why Wednesday?" "In a few hours that nose will swell like a balloon. It won't start back down until Wednesday.' "Down we go."

There is nothing like having two prep nurses that are anti gun anti hunting nuts. I finally said "Look, Daffy Duck didn't meet his demise this morning. Be satisfied I paid the price."

To this day I refuse to go duck hunting. The gunsmith had the pieces of the shotgun handed to him. My friend's brother had dismantled the gun and put it back together wrong. I don't use "borrowed" guns either

When I first got into the business, I was like most young folks...impatient. One afternoon in Missouri I was so ready to get out of the stand, I decided to go down without using a pull up rope for my camera.

Video guys always have to sit around waiting on the hunter to get his things together, go down, untie their bow/gun and then untie the video camera, packs and so on.

I knew better than to do so, but it was getting dark and I didn't want to pull my headlight out of my pack. So down I went with camera in one hand and holding on to the ladder with the other. About 10' up my free hand slipped and down I went. I hit the ground hard, broke the viewfinder off the camera and my head hit a log, knocking me out.

I woke up a few minutes later, staring up a the first few stars beginning to show. I was lucky, I didn't break anything but a couple of ribs on my left side.

I never climbed down again without putting my camera on a rope after that.

I don’t know how close of a call this actually was but it puckered my b hole.

Duck hunting in the basin, walk in hunt and water was high, mid to late January. With a buddy who left to go to his truck because he was cold. Had a good hunt and walking out by myself I hit a slough or hole and all of a sudden my feet weren’t touching the bottom and I was floating. I tread water for a moment before I get back to higher ground where my feet can touch again. My head never went under, I was wearing heavy neoprene waders and my game vest had several ducks in it that together they kept me buoyant.

Got caught in a nasty storm on MS river. Tornado warned. Was camping on sandbar fishing and drinking all weekend with the guys, hammered on whiskey and went to bed in the tent. Woke up hour later to my emergency alert going off and pulled up the radar. Warned stormed headed right for us, wind was whipping up. Pitch black out, fire had died down. No spotlight. Took tent down and grabbed gear and just tossed it in the boat without securing it and hauled arse. Was only a 16ft flat bottom with a 50hp. Had about 10 miles to the landing, only light was from a barge coming towards us with its spotlight. River was rolling, wind blowing 40-50mph and raining. 3 guys and all that gear weighing down the boat every time we hit a wave water would come in the boat we all huddled at the rear to keep the front up and had bilge running and used our whiskey cups to bail water. Finally made it to the oxbow lake and had wind at our back the remaining 5 miles and could open it up. Got back, loaded the boat and beat the storm by about 2 minutes. Ate Shoneys buffet at 6am soaking wet to sober up

Bow hunting and crossed a 50 yard wide swamp during the daylight. Water was about an inch beneath my boots. End of day and realize my flashlight batteries were dead…had to walk through that swamp in the pitch black with water about to flood my boots. Scary moments.

Almost feel out of a tree once about 20 ft up.

I used an air mattress as a boat while wearing waders to paddle across a borrow pit to a ridge when the ms river was high. The deer were swimming over from Davis island and I wanted to go watch. My brother in law had a paddle so my dumb arse decided I would hang off the back and kick. I kept slipping further down with no grip on the shitty air mattress, I finally lost all grip and managed to get out of my waders and swim. I thought I was a goner and was for sure going to drown. That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done in my life in cold arse the water.

Friend of mine buy a guided duck hunt at the local DU chapter over at the Delta. Front comes thru that morning with light rain and wind. We jump in a boat right off the diversion canal and head to the blind. Get to a T in the bayou and pull up to a massive floating blind on some type of floatation. The boat goes underneath and we crawl up into the blind, pitch dark, one by one. My buddy goes first, then me, then the guide, and as the owner of the lease steps out of the boat on the floatation, the blind starts to flip over. The guide hollars at the owner and he steps off the floatation, and the blind straitens up. I'm sure somebody would have drowned if that thing goes over. With the rain, it soaked into all the brush on top of the blind and made it top heavy.