Hunt or Adventure Moments of Death

[BeastOfTheTrees]

Let’s hear the moments where you thought holy shit this it, I’m going to die out here.

 

[mike.adams.467]

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[lyle_destroys]

I can't remember if I told you about it, but last season before you showed up, I climbed up to treeline in the dark. Found myself in the middle of a new avalanche chute that wasn't on OnX. My headlamp wouldn't shine the whole way across and looking up and down the mountain was just black nothingness. I got to the middle before realizing how slippery everything was. Serious pucker factor. But I'll never forget the climb to where we killed those mule deer either.

 

[lyle_destroys]

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Pretty common name huh? Lol that's insane man, hope I never end up in that situation. Have you talked about it on here before?

 

[jolemons]

Worst was lightening storm that was on top of the open alpine basin I wad camped in. I had my fingers in my ear because thunder was deafening and was crouched on the balls of my feet to limit ground contact. I should have hauled tail to a lower elevation, but the tent offered some psychological safety.

The other close call was while hiking into some elk bugles before light with only the red light of my headlamp. I was starting to get cliffed out, but preceeded cautiously. Later that day, in the daylight, I saw where I had been and realized how perilous my position was. A fall probably wouldn't have resulted in death, but broken limbs would have been a certainty.

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[mike.adams.467]

Pretty common name huh? Lol that's insane man, hope I never end up in that situation. Have you talked about it on here before?

I don’t remember; I’ve told the story many times. The NRA article sums it up pretty well.


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[bgbuck153]

Took my daughter that was 11 at the time for an archery evening hunt near our house. We had a high wind storm 20-30 mph + that day. As we were walking in she was about 15’ behind me I turned to look back at her and when I did I heard a tree break right beside me. I look up and here it comes straight towards my daughter. I turn to run towards her yelling RUN then realize she’s not realizing what’s going on so I go into dad mode....I turn towards the tree raising my arms to catch it in hopes of stopping it from hitting her. I completely brace myself for impact, when it hits me I try pushing it but it’s so heavy that it pushes me to the ground and as I’m falling under its weight I’m able to watch as it smashes to the ground 1 foot from my daughter.
Now this all transpired in seconds but it felt like minutes. I had so many thoughts going thru my head such as she’s going to get crushed and killed, she’s going to watch me get crushed and killed in front of her eyes and how is she going to get out of the woods to get help if she’s okay. I seriously thought I was going to get killed because of what I was trying to do but I never had any other thought in my head as it had to be done. Weather or not I pushed the tree or not we both walked away.
min the end She didn’t get touched and what saved me was I was carrying her crossbow on my shoulder and when the tree pushed me down the butt of the crossbow hit the ground and stood straight up and the tree hit the cocking foot bar and crushed it into the top of the crossbow then the tree rolled onto me.
I crawled out and we hugged like never before and got back up to my truck. As we were driving home reality set it and I bawled like a baby with thoughts of how bad that could have gone and we walked away.

 

[Fatcamp]

Lightning. Several times.

Wind in burns. Ya, that sucks, too.

 

[Beendare]

Let’s hear the moments where you thought holy shit this it, I’m going to die out here.

Which Time? .......Grin


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[Nickofthewoods]

Do these specifically need to be near death experiences while Elk hunting or was this thread meant for the General Forum? I usually feel like near death after a long Elk pack-out, if that counts.

 

[DAVIDE1333]

Was fishing from my boat last year and a t-storm was rolling in. Made my last cast before deciding to head in. As I was attempting to hook my lure to a rod eye I felt a bunch of static electricity while grabbing my lure. Thought for sure I was going to get struck by lightning before making it back.

 

[Indian Summer]

I was guiding two hunters and we were riding in along a creek on the first morning. It was freezing cold and snowing. I was riding a spunky little mule named Bucky. (red flag?) The hunters were both scared of horses and it took us awhile to get going so I was in a little bit of a hurry. We came to a creek crossing and the creek was frozen. Bucky stopped right at the edge of the ice. I gave him a kick or three but he wouldn’t budge. So I gave him a little slap in the neck with the reigns. And that’s when things took a downhill turn. Bucky lived up to his name and proceeded to launch us both out onto the ice. The ice was plenty thick so when he landed instead of punching his hooves through it both front feet slipped straight forward and spread out and his chin hit the ice. In the blink of an eye I was sailing with both hands out in front of me. I landed on my hands and knees. I was sliding pretty fast across the ice. Before the acrobatics I noticed that on the other side of the creek on the downstream side there was a hole in the ice. It looked like I was about to get a hole in one right into some fast water that kept the creek from freezing in that spot. I’m sure my eyes were wide open. I wasn’t slowing down! Then I stopped like a golf ball right on the lip of the cup. I froze for a second afraid that if I moved I’d either slip toward the hole more or just fall through the ice because I knew it got thinner closer to the hole. One muscle at a time I crept backwards until I finally stood up and walked off the creek. Bucky was nibbling on some grass along the opposite bank so I went that way. I looked over at the hunters and their eyes were WIDE OPEN. Lol I grabbed ahold of my lead rope and said ok guys give em a kick and let’s get rolling. Haha

It took me 20 minutes to get them off their horses and get everything across the creek.

 

[Blackstorm]

Duck hunting always has been my passion and created my worst situations, on lake Ontario which is very deep the lake never freezes fully but does freeze solid next to shore. this ice is often 9-10' thick next to shore for a hundred feet or so. on one particular late season date in January the temperature was extremely warm like in the mid 70's and we used my sm aluminum boat to set a few long lines of decoys from shore and set up in the shore ice. We saw the black cloud line approach, but it was too late to retrieve the long lines and we barely made it off the ice to solid shore. the waves on the great lakes are never to be messed with and these were the largest I have ever seen probably 20-25' and the wind gusted to over 80 mph. T?he wind sailed the boat over 300' away, lost my blind & chair to the lake as it shattered the shore ice. Lost my rimless glasses it blew so hard, had to wait 5 days to get what was left of my long lines.
second real bad situation was hunting Oneida lake off the islands in our 21' duck boat in the first half of the season. Had a great day hunting and the three of us were in great spirits when another of those strange wind events happened. Oneida is generally a very shallow lake generally under 5' and has a lot of shoals so you have to navigate carefully to avoid the shoals. We were working our way back to shore when the wind really hit, I was not driving but in the middle of the boat when we started to hit the swells. All i saw was a wall of water over 20' behind the transom of the boat, when my hunting partner saw my eyes he never looked behind but put the throttle on full. It took us over 45 min to get back to shore fighting swells and the wind the whole way. The dog we had that day never would hunt out of a boat again, we took on so much water that the bilge pump on the boat had to run for over half an hour so we could load on the trailer.

 

[11boo]

Got caught in a lightning storm before, more than once. Felt like I had artillery coming down and I ran like a little girl.

 

[Moserkr]

Water is always the most dangerous, next probably lightening. Been chased off the mountain from that but so was a big muley paralleling me on the way down....

Hunting on Flathead Lake, buddy me n 2 dogs had a great evening shoot. Nice mixed bag of mallards, teal, and widgeon. Lake was glass until sunset, then off the western hills low black rolling clouds started coming down. Dogs never retrieved decoys before, but as they watched us rush to clean up, they started to help. They knew too. We hit the lake and had to cross to the other side to get to the launch in a 14’ tin w/25 horse tiller. Went from glass to 4-5’ swells in no time with us in the middle. Motor was cutting out due to lack of gas so every time we went down a swell it was dead then would roar back. Super sketchy but we made it, still wearing waders n all. Buddy kissed goose sh!t grass when we hit shore.

Another duck story, was floating the bitteroot river in a 12’ flat bottom and the water was low. Buddy me n my pup didnt have any luck, and then the river turned n dropped down a small rapid section. No big deal except it spit us out into deadfall. Now if you float rivers you know to row against the current to avoid obstacles. My buddy rowed us right into the deadfall with the current. He went under a branch but it pinned me in the back of the boat to the stern. My view was blue skys as my waders and the boat started filling with water. Quick reaction was push myself deeper under the branch into the water, and the current moved us past the deadfall. Boat was buoyant enough to pop up and still float. Hauled it up on the shore n dumped it, then called it a day.

Told this one before here, mule deer hunting solo in a hot tipi, stove clogged and i woke up at 2am lightheaded and tipi full of smoke. Stuck my head out the side for fresh air, cleared the clog and tent, then went to sleep again.

Those were the worst ones, the rest not nearly as close. Now that I have a kid and I am older, Im a lot more cautious.

 

[trophyhill]

The day I decided to become a bowhunter. I remember it like it was yesterday. Opening day of rifle season. I’d killed a deer shortly after sunup. At the time I knew nothing about the gutless method. I was shoulder deep cutting away the last of the deflated lung tissue when WW3 broke out and bullets were ricochetting of the rocks 10 feet from us. I looked at my buddy while shoulder deep and told him I was a bowhunter next year as he let go of the legs and hit the dirt and told me “I don’t blame you, I think I’ll join you” and we haven’t looked back since that day in 2007

 

[FatCampzWife]

Lightning. Several times.

Wind in burns. Ya, that sucks, too.

Really, that's what comes to mind first? So...what about the straightline winds while in a nonsecured tent in the back of the truck on the penninsula event?? Seriously thought we were going to be blown into the lake & drown trying to get out of our tent filled with waterlogged bedding...

 

[Read1t48]

10 years ago. Rifle elk hunt. I’m in the middle of nowhere walking down a skid road with a .300WM slung over my shoulder. Out of nowhere, off to my left, comes a guy out of the woods with a machete. He’s coming straight at me. I start back pedaling, facing him, and backing up the skid road. He’s still coming. I don’t think I have time to unsling my rifle and I’m still trying to figure out why he’s coming at me and if this is really happening. I have a .40 Glock in a Serpa holster on my backpack belt. I continue to back up and think it’s going to be him or me but I’m also thinking how awkward the story is going to be when explaining it to a detective. I back up further asking him to stop but he’s speaking in a foreign language. Now I begin to wonder if there’s a cultural barrier and he’s just wanting to talk and doesn’t mean any harm at all.

I finally unholster my pistol. He immediately stops and quickly disappears back into the woods and thick brush. Iam completely weirded out. I walk back down the road to the truck and see about four guys at the gate with a pile of ferns and other wild plants for floral shops arrangements. Some had machetes.
To this day, I have no idea why he came straight at me up the road and what ultimately could have happened.

 

[PAhunter24]

Been a member since 2018. Forgot my password, now I'm a Newbie again. Here's my story

Was on a Elk hunt 3rd rifle in SW Colorado in a Limited Unit. Horseback hunt. Camp was at 9600FT, We were hunting around 10,600 the second day. My tent partner who will not be named was a guy from Washington state. This guy was also apparently allergic to wood, cause he never got up once to put a log in the stove. Other than that, a nice guy.
Well the second day of the hunt he puts down a nice 315ish bull about 8 miles from camp. It was late in the afternoon as we were breaking down the bull. Hung it in the trees so the outfitter could come and get it out the next day. We could see a storm brewing several valleys over and coming our way fast. Our Guide new the area really well and said we needed to get on our horses and get moving now.
Well the storm was on us before we knew it. We already had a foot on the ground from previous storms. In a matter of moments, we were in the worst white out I've ever been in. It's dark now and can't see but a couple feet. You guys that have been their know how well your headlamp works in these conditions. Like riding into a white wall. Have no idea how much snow we were getting but it seemed like INCHES every five minutes.
The guide is a great guy, knew the area like the back of his hand. But even he was losing his bearings trying to find his way off the bench we were on. Couldn't use the tracks we came in on cause everything was already covered. Every time he went to a ledge where he thought we came up, was a black abyss straight down. After an hour or so I was getting a little concerned. I think the guide was too, but he didn't show it.
I was second in line on the horses and jokingly asked the other guy, if he happened to have a tent in his pack. This is where the story turned south for me personally very quickly. Now I will be the first to admit I am not a veteran horse guy. But I was handling my horse pretty well since we started .

At his point the guide is riding along a step ledge still looking for away down. Their a semi fallen huge pine tree hanging at an angle as he rides under. My horse begins to follow and for some reason spooks.
She now jumps about 3-4 yards to the right and continues under the tree, WHERE ONLY SHE CAN FIT.
As she starts under the tree, I see broken limbs that look like spikes protruding from the tree. I try to grab and break one as she forces me under the 25" diameter limb. Nothing breaks. The horse is now fighting to fit both me and her under this tree. I'm now in tremendous pain, wind knocked out of me as she continues to fight. It feels like my back is about to break because of the compression of my spine. I will say this, if I wasn't wearing a backpack, it could have been much worse.
Finally what seems like an eternity she's almost through and bucks me off. Oh shit, here comes the next issue. When she bucks me off, I go over into the black abyss over the ledge. I thought this was it. Next thing I know I'm sliding down into darkness not knowing how it would end. As you can tell by now, I made it.
Somehow after sliding down 50-60 feet I side into a small sage or pine and hung on for dear life.
After catching my breath, waiting for the pain in my back to moderate and finally waiting for the rest of my pee freeze in my pants, I did manage to crawl back up to the horses. Even though my guide was a pretty tough guy, I could see he was shaken after watching the shti show that just happened. The 8 mile ride was a long one back to camp. We finally made it off the bench and made it back to camp around 9 or so PM.
The other hunter who killed the bull radioed back to camp at some point as we knew they'd we wondering where we were. Everyone was waiting for us when we did get back. I finally made into the mess tent as everyone wanted to hear about the day. One of the other hunters in camp from NC put me out of my misery later that evening as we shared a quart of moonshine with everyone.
God I love elk hunting and can't wait till this November as I'm heading back to the same outfitter. That mountain owes me one. Hope you enjoyed my story.

 

[Fatcamp]

Really, that's what comes to mind first? So...what about the straightline winds while in a nonsecured tent in the back of the truck on the penninsula event?? Seriously thought we were going to be blown into the lake & drown trying to get out of our tent filled with waterlogged bedding...

LOL. You don't remember the lightning that night? It was horrific.

What about motoring back to the ramp with your hair all standing straight up? Should have taken a picture.