Close call

[EarleyBird]

My son and I were at the creek a couple weeks ago and I stepped on a water moccasin. He, surprisingly, didn't strike. We filled him with .22 Stingers. Killed him and three regular water snakes that morning.

[Big pig]

Well poo. I can’t follow that.

Thanks for the story.

BP

[huntingfanatic]

Close call

Airing up a tire on a tractor I kept hearing what sounded like a leak. I looked over front part of tire looking for a hole and couldnt find one. So I stuck my head around the back tire. This guy was about 12 inches from my nose. He didn’t strike but I got a big knot on the back of my head trying to get out from under there

[Gclyde12]

But did you like the codigo?

We weren't impressed and went back to the Don

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It was definitely easier to drink when trying to come back down off of a good adrenaline rush.

[Quackerbox]

It was definitely easier to drink when trying to come back down off of a good adrenaline rush.

Lol.

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[dustoffer]

#1 -- Was at the La Salle county lease one dove season, and walked down the tank dam thru the weeds to get to the clear bank to sit. Happened to look down and saw the diamonds between my feet!!! The 20-ga took care of the problem most quickly. Then when I dragged it out of the weeds I really got shook---it was about 4' long, but had no rattles----end of its tail looked like the end of my little finger--

#2 -- Sitting in my tripod with the pole pruner in hand---had just finished up cleaning up the shooting lanes. Hot and sweaty, collapsed the pole, rolled the rope around it, and tossed it, never thinking about the orientation of the curved saw blade on top. Well, next thing I know it felt like someone had hit me on the jaw with a baseball bat. Stunned, I had my head down and then I was wondering where the blood on the platform was coming from. Took my dirty sweaty t-shirt off and put it on the source of the blood, climbed down one-handed, and walked back to the truck. Once at the truck I debated whether or not I should take the t-shirt down to see the cut---but finally did. Wasn't as bad as I expected, and surprisingly, the bleeding had nearly quit. Clamped the t-shirt back on my jaw, drove home, and wife nearly fainted. I didn't want to drive the 30+ miles to Ft. Sam Houston to the ER so called the advice nurse hoping they would authorize a local ER visit--Nope. Since the bleeding had stopped and it didn't involve eyesight, it was drive to the ER or pay for it out of pocket. Well, I got some steri-strips, closed it up, and it healed up nicely. Lesson learned though was lower the dang pruner by the rope, it isn't a spear.

[Mertzon Man]

The One That Got Away (ME)

It was September 1996 and we were hunting Barren Ground Caribou in Alaska. We were hunting the Mulchatna herd, west of Lake Iliamna. I was using a 62”, 65 lb draw weight longbow with Port Orford cedar arrows tipped with a 2-blade Magnus broadhead. There were three of us on the hunt; me, Russ, and Dennis. We had been dropped off at a high mountain lake by a Beaver float plane. There was a small grove of trees above the lake that had a nice little stream running through it. My buddy Dennis had hunted the area the year before and had traced the stream out to its head where it came out of the mountain just above camp and discovered there were no beaver with access to the stream due to its steepness, so we knew it was safe to drink out of. Many streams in Alaska look inviting but contain Ghiardia so you must be careful. The water was ice cold and had a great
We set up camp, with the kitchen facilities 100 yards from the sleeping tents. We rigged up ropes to hoist our food supplies out of the reach of the bears. There were lots of bears in the area. We stretched a blue tarp between trees to provide a dry area where we could relax. After we got camp set up we gathered firewood and relaxed for the afternoon. In Alaska you can’t hunt on the same day you’re airborne. This was on the tundra so there are very few trees. Fortunately, there was a lot of driftwood piled up on the shores of the lake and this supplied a ready source of fuel for the fire.

Next morning after a good breakfast of flapjacks laced with fresh picked mountain blueberries we set out to hunt. I made sure all my necessities were loaded into my backpack. When hunting wilderness areas like this you need to be prepared for any emergency. Besides the normal hunting gear that I carry in my backpack, I had added some emergency items. I had a 2 day supply of freeze-dried food, bottle of water a small folding back-pack stove, stainless steel cup, a space blanket, water purification tablets, extra socks, extra down vest, rain gear, water proof matches, small first aid kit, extra compass, signal whistle, signaling mirror and paraffin fire starter. I also had a walkie-talkie but figured it would be of limited use in the mountainous terrain. Russ and Dennis would be hunting the ridges north of camp and I would be hunting alone on the mountain south of camp.

After a couple of hours of hiking, I found myself on top of the ridge where I had a good vantage point for glassing. I made myself comfortable and started to glass. I could see a couple of small bands of caribou but nothing I was interested in stalking. I continued to glass and saw more small bands of caribou, still nothing I wanted to stalk. Just before it was time to start back to camp I spotted a black bear on the slope below me. Since, in addition to my caribou tags I had a black bear tag I was interested. He was moving pretty fast so I didn’t think I could catch up to him. But since he was between me and camp I decided to give it a try. I did not catch sight of him again. Russ and Dennis arrived back at camp 20-30 minutes after I did. Russ had taken a small black bear. We put the bear meat in the stream downstream from camp and Russ salted down the hide.

Next morning when we got up we could see caribou on the ridge across the lake as well as on the ridge west of us. Since the ridge across the lake was near where I had hunted the previous day I would try for them. Russ and Dennis would go after the ones west of us. It took a couple hours to hike to the ridge top, and when I got there no caribou were to be seen. I prepared myself to spend the day glassing as I had the day before. I saw a few scattered caribou and a couple of black bears, but everything was too small or not in a good position to stalk. When I got back to camp Russ and Dennis were already there. Dennis had killed a caribou cow and he was taking care of the meat. Russ was grilling some bear steaks over a bed of alder coals. This was a young bear and he had been gorging on blueberries. That was some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten.

The third morning we elected to hunt the same areas we had the first morning. I got to my vantage point and settled in for some serious glassing. About mid-morning I spotted a band of caribou with a decent bull in the bunch. But they were moving fast and didn’t present an opportunity for a stalk. A few minutes later I spotted a black bear in a blueberry patch on the slope opposite my position. It looked like he would be in the patch for a while so I decided to try a stalk. Using my binoculars, I picked out a route that would take advantage of the alder thickets and a couple of ravines that would keep me out of sight until I was in position. I strapped my backpack on and started my stalk. Slightly over an hour later I had arrived at the head of the ravine that abutted the berry patch the bear was in. It had been at least 30 minutes since I had last been able to see the bear so I was hoping he was still in the patch. As quietly as I could I eased out of my backpack and nocked an arrow. I gave myself a few minutes to slow down my heartbeat and then eased up out of the ravine, longbow at ready.

When I cleared the top of the ravine the bear stood up about 20 yards away and stared at me. He was black in color, but he wasn’t a black bear – he was pure grizzly. This was a BIG bear. We stood there and stared at each other for what seemed an eternity. Among the thoughts running through my mind, the predominate one was that if he came for me, I was a goner. What should I do? I thought that if I just stood still he might not perceive me as a threat, but I also realized I was probably within his discomfort zone. He began to show some signs of irritation and began popping his teeth, so I decided I needed to do something. I knew I couldn’t out run him and running would probably provoke a chase response. There were no trees to climb. I was confident that I could kill him with my longbow, but I could not stop a full-on charge. I finally concluded that my best course of action was to slowly back over the lip of the ravine out of sight. I began to slowly back up, never taking my eyes off the bear. When I was out of eyesight and at my backpack, I dropped my bow and unstrapped the .300 Winchester Magnum rifle from my backpack. That big Magnum was a comfort to me, but I didn’t want to try to stop a charge at point-blank range. If he came over the lip of the ravine, he would be less than 10 yards from me when I first caught sight of him. As quietly as I could I gathered up my bow and backpack and eased my way down the ravine, clutching the Magnum at ready. It was still early but I made my way back to camp, I was through hunting for the day.

Awesome story, thank you for sharing.

[No-Tox]

Whew, I thought you were about to say you went to get your drink on and found out you forgot it at home....[emoji1]
Glad you and the misses are all good.
How bad were the dog farts last night?

[ThisLadyHunts]

She went by “Big Candy”.[emoji4]


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I think you meant Candi...with an “i”

[firemanjj82]

Years ago in Quanah filling feeders during opening weekend of bow season. Got out of my truck and heard the rattle and knew what it was before I saw it. Looked down and noticed it slithering away. Turned around to grab my 20 gauge, but it was gone when I turned back. Just started lifting up cactus with the end of the barrel until I saw it coiled up underneath one. Pushed the safety off and made one snake into several. Don't know why I didn't freak out or just get back in the truck, but I just remember being perfectly calm and knew that I couldn't do much of anything until the snake was gone. Not sure I'd do the same if it happened again. Those deer just would've gone hungry for a while.

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[curtintex]

I think you meant Candi...with an “i”

Friend of yours?[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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[Drycreek3189]

Eyeball to eyeball with a Grizzly at 20 yards in a blueberry patch. All I had with me was my Longbow.

Well, that beats the hell out of the snake stories.......

[ThisLadyHunts]

Friend of yours?[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]


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Okay, that was good.