What’s the gnarliest situation you’ve been in while hunting?
- Thread starter HorseCreek
- Start date
505 I know you didn’t doubt me I was just adding to the story. My defibrillator is a smart model that stores information. That was the reading of my device a few days after my incident.
I’m glad I’m still here too. Thank you!
LongWayAround
WKR
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2015
- Messages
- 2,653
Netman, your story is incredible.
The lightning bolt symbol is pretty obvious but could you explain that chart a bit?
Also, out of curiosity, what became of that bull?
LWA the first part of the chart shows my heart out of rhythm. I could feel something bad coming on. I was looking for the bull and seen some tines down the hill. About then I gave out a death moan and fell to the ground. I don’t remember going to the ground but I do remember the moan.
The lightening bolt is when the defibrillator fired. Then you see my heart back in normal rhythm. I didn’t feel anything. At some point I remember laying there dreaming. I thought to myself I don’t have time for a nap I need to get busy with the bull. I then opened my eyes and raised up to see I was buried under snow.
My chest was hurting. I immediately took a couple aspirin and a nitro tablet. I thought I had a heart attack. It didn’t dawn on me that the defibrillator had fired. I thought I was about to have another heart attack.
I got my InReach out and sent my wife a message that I had just awakened from a HA. I told her my chest was hurting and I was going to need help. I told her I was going to try and walk to the road. It was miles away.
It was snowing so hard I could barely see where I was going. I had walked into where I was by walking around a ranch. I was behind a ranch on public land. I decided that since it was an emergency I cut across the private property. When I got to the road there was a guy driving through the gate. I flagged him down and told him what had happened and if he would give me a ride to my truck so I could drive myself to the hospital.
He said no way he would get me help. He drove to a cabin that had a landline phone. He called the Sheriffs Office. They said they were sending a deputy and ambulance to meet him.
When I sent the message to my wife it gives my gps location. My wife called the Sheriffs Office I retired from and told the dispatchers what was going on. They took the coordinates and called the Sheriffs Office in Montana and told them what was going on.
So I’m with the rancher and we’re driving to meet the Deputy and EMS. While driving he asked me where I was hunting. I told him. I told him I had shot a really nice bull before my heart troubles. He asked me how big and where did it run after the shot. I told him everything.
So we meet up with a deputy. He gave me a ride to the ambulance. I was about two hours from the hospital where I met up with the rancher.
Upon arrival at the hospital give me the once over but they did not have the equipment to read my defibrillator. So I get put in a room for observation. My wife calls me to say she is flying out immediately. She tells me that she had called my friend I had met elk hunting years before and told him what had happened.
He calls me to tell me his best friend from college lived about an hour away from where I had shot the elk. He said his friend would go out and recover it for me.
So the next day the friend and another buddy go to my elk location with the gps coordinates.
He called me to say there was truck tracks in the snow that had backed up to the elk. There was a large gut pile. The truck tracks lead from the gut pile across the NF property and onto the ranch.
I was in the hospital for a few more days then my wife drove me to Butte to get my device read.
The lightening bolt is when the defibrillator fired. Then you see my heart back in normal rhythm. I didn’t feel anything. At some point I remember laying there dreaming. I thought to myself I don’t have time for a nap I need to get busy with the bull. I then opened my eyes and raised up to see I was buried under snow.
My chest was hurting. I immediately took a couple aspirin and a nitro tablet. I thought I had a heart attack. It didn’t dawn on me that the defibrillator had fired. I thought I was about to have another heart attack.
I got my InReach out and sent my wife a message that I had just awakened from a HA. I told her my chest was hurting and I was going to need help. I told her I was going to try and walk to the road. It was miles away.
It was snowing so hard I could barely see where I was going. I had walked into where I was by walking around a ranch. I was behind a ranch on public land. I decided that since it was an emergency I cut across the private property. When I got to the road there was a guy driving through the gate. I flagged him down and told him what had happened and if he would give me a ride to my truck so I could drive myself to the hospital.
He said no way he would get me help. He drove to a cabin that had a landline phone. He called the Sheriffs Office. They said they were sending a deputy and ambulance to meet him.
When I sent the message to my wife it gives my gps location. My wife called the Sheriffs Office I retired from and told the dispatchers what was going on. They took the coordinates and called the Sheriffs Office in Montana and told them what was going on.
So I’m with the rancher and we’re driving to meet the Deputy and EMS. While driving he asked me where I was hunting. I told him. I told him I had shot a really nice bull before my heart troubles. He asked me how big and where did it run after the shot. I told him everything.
So we meet up with a deputy. He gave me a ride to the ambulance. I was about two hours from the hospital where I met up with the rancher.
Upon arrival at the hospital give me the once over but they did not have the equipment to read my defibrillator. So I get put in a room for observation. My wife calls me to say she is flying out immediately. She tells me that she had called my friend I had met elk hunting years before and told him what had happened.
He calls me to tell me his best friend from college lived about an hour away from where I had shot the elk. He said his friend would go out and recover it for me.
So the next day the friend and another buddy go to my elk location with the gps coordinates.
He called me to say there was truck tracks in the snow that had backed up to the elk. There was a large gut pile. The truck tracks lead from the gut pile across the NF property and onto the ranch.
I was in the hospital for a few more days then my wife drove me to Butte to get my device read.
Texasbuckeye
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2019
- Messages
- 933
Ok please tell me the rancher got your bull and took care of it for you but didnt steal it….
Pfffffffff, highly doubt it.
TxxAgg
WKR
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- Dec 27, 2019
- Messages
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Tuned in
Coveyleader
WKR
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Almost kicking two ranchers ass at the same time due to public/private land threats. I think one of them is still stuck in the barbed wire fence. Haven't been back to check.
NWONhunter
FNG
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2021
- Messages
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Got charged by a black bear. Nothing really happened, my dad put a shot infront of her and she ran
Texasbuckeye
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2019
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- 933
Thats a shame. I guess he figured you were laid up in a hospital and the elk woulda been wasted. Too bad.
good thing you had the defib. Had you a previous hostory of arrhythmia or HA to have a defib placed? You think the excitement of the shot and seeing antlers down was enough to put you into vtach them vfib, or you think it was more exertional?
Texasbuckeye a short time before I shot the elk I drank a serving of Mountain Ops Ignite. I had not read the label. I believe the caffeine and? got my heart racing. In 2017 I had a heart attack while racing a bicycle. As a result of the heart attack I had PVC’s. Between the Mountain Ops and the PVC’s my heart got out of rhythm and shut down signaling the defibrillator to fire.
After I had my heart attack I got to know the Electro Cardiologist really well. After he learned that I hunt and fish all over god’s creation by myself he strongly recommended me getting the defibrillator.
I’m glad he installed it.
Since then I’ve had a couple of aggressive heart ablations and have the numbers of pvc’s reduced down to very few.
Before I had my heart attack I was riding my road bike 200-230 miles per week.
On my days off I would ride for 12-16 hours non stop all the time.
After I had my heart attack I got to know the Electro Cardiologist really well. After he learned that I hunt and fish all over god’s creation by myself he strongly recommended me getting the defibrillator.
I’m glad he installed it.
Since then I’ve had a couple of aggressive heart ablations and have the numbers of pvc’s reduced down to very few.
Before I had my heart attack I was riding my road bike 200-230 miles per week.
On my days off I would ride for 12-16 hours non stop all the time.
Texasbuckeye
WKR
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- Feb 15, 2019
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- 933
Wow, being a physician your story amazes me. Obviously not everyone who has a HA get an inplantable defib, so your cardiologist was cery wise affer talkinng woth you to recommend one. Good on you for going through with it.
i am sure the combo if the elk, the adde caffeine and the somewhat frequent PVCs aee what caused your vfib. What a story. Crazy you woke with a foot of snow on you, another tesrament to how resilient the body is to be cocered in snow and not have any ill side effects, could have also been slightly protective on a number of different levels.
But your overall story is also a reminder how delicate the body is…to go from what you were doing to needing a defibrillator, what a story.
i am sure the combo if the elk, the adde caffeine and the somewhat frequent PVCs aee what caused your vfib. What a story. Crazy you woke with a foot of snow on you, another tesrament to how resilient the body is to be cocered in snow and not have any ill side effects, could have also been slightly protective on a number of different levels.
But your overall story is also a reminder how delicate the body is…to go from what you were doing to needing a defibrillator, what a story.
Timeless61
FNG
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2021
- Messages
- 65
If you don’t mind, how many PVCs in a day?
Wags
WKR
In 2005 I returned home from my last deployment about a week before opening day of duck season. Opening day my Dad, Cousin, Uncle and I hit a local refuge. My Uncle is paralyzed from the waist down so we have a system to get him out into the marsh. This includes him sitting on a taller 4 legged chair for him to shoot from. About an hour in we are almost limited out. I call in a group of birds and put them in the hole. My uncle leans back to shoot as the birds rise and the chair tips over. As he attempts to gain his balance and pulls the gun down he pulls the trigger sending part of the pattern of 3" 2's into the outside of my quad from roughly 3 yards.
I remember It was like getting hit with a sledge hammer from behind while injecting lava into my leg. I fell to a knee and when I went to stand up I fell again. I finally was able to pull myself up and look at my waders and it looked like someone had taken a cheese grater to them. I could see my dad & cousin helping pull my Uncle back up out of the water (he'd fallen out of the chair) I was trying to make my way to them through the mud on 1 leg and finally grabbed onto my cousin to pull myself up. My Uncle was freaking out because he'd seen me fall when the gun went off. Cant say I blame him, I'd been a wreck if I were him as well. I told my Dad & cousin I'd been hit and I needed help getting my waders off. I was a Combat Medic and knew all too well that IF I had an arterial bleed I didn't have long to stop it..... If I even could. When we got my waders down I could see that I'd been hit on the outside of my thigh (relief) just above my knee. The bleeding wasn't bad. I wrapped it in a sweater and we pulled my waders back over that and used my wader belt as a redneck pressure bandage.
We'd used a float tube to get my Uncle out to the island we were hunting since he can't walk. We used that to float me across the pond to the levee. We were about 2 miles from the truck. My cousin started running back to the truck and I stayed with my Dad. I remember fighting off going into shock and not letting myself show how bad it hurt. My Dad was scared to death, like any father would be, and I knew If I didn't keep it together he wasn't prepared for that. My Dad was a great Man, but these things weren't his area like they are mine.
My cousin made it back to the truck in what seemed like an hour but was roughly 15 minutes. We're both decent runners, even in waders. A short Code 3 drive back to me and I got into the truck propping my leg on the window ledge. As we were hauling out of there I finally got reception on my flip phone with 911. I was talking to the dispatcher when he hit a bump causing my leg to jump and slam down on the window ledge... I wish I'd gotten a recording of what I told my cousin when that happened....
We got back to the check station and surprisingly it didn't take terribly long for the fire dept. to show up. There was no Paramedic on board and no disrespect to those guys but they were doing a terrible job. I told them to get back on the truck and I had my cousin help me re-wrap my leg. About that time the Ambulance crew showed up. The Medic was squared away and got my hooked up and some much needed MS. Unfortunately there had been a fatal accident not too far away that they'd called Life Flight in for. Since they were in the area they used them to fly me to a hospital about 20 mins away.
The Flight Medic was squared away. This was the first time I'd been in a bird as a patient... pretty surreal experience. I remember as we dusted off we were flying low over the refuge closed zone and I could see all the ducks and geese getting up. I laughed and the Medic asked what was funny. I told her I'd survived Combat mostly in tact and that it would be fitting that we'd take a duck or goose to the rotors and that would be what took me out.... She didn't see the irony being she was in that bird with me..... I also made my peace with the fact that I may loose my leg. Too many of my brothers had far worse injuries than this & I'd treated far worse. It was a sobering feeling but one I accepted. I was just happy to be alive.
We got to the hospital and everything went smooth. They did a scan and found there were still 18 pellets in my leg. The rest were pass throughs. Luckily they were steel so there was no need to go digging around in there to remove them. My Dad , cousin and uncle showed up a few hours later after getting everything situated and loaded back up. The Warden had held them up as well to question them and make sure this was really an accident.... I joked with him when he took my statement telling him that my Uncle was mad because I'd killed my limit in 8 rounds..... he didn't think my sarcasm was funny.... typical Warden.
All in all I made a 99% recovery. I was back out hunting the next weekend still bleeding through my bandages. I had to get back out and get the monkey off my back. It took some time to get my strength and flexibility back but I was back to climbing and running within months.
God was on my side that day..........
I remember It was like getting hit with a sledge hammer from behind while injecting lava into my leg. I fell to a knee and when I went to stand up I fell again. I finally was able to pull myself up and look at my waders and it looked like someone had taken a cheese grater to them. I could see my dad & cousin helping pull my Uncle back up out of the water (he'd fallen out of the chair) I was trying to make my way to them through the mud on 1 leg and finally grabbed onto my cousin to pull myself up. My Uncle was freaking out because he'd seen me fall when the gun went off. Cant say I blame him, I'd been a wreck if I were him as well. I told my Dad & cousin I'd been hit and I needed help getting my waders off. I was a Combat Medic and knew all too well that IF I had an arterial bleed I didn't have long to stop it..... If I even could. When we got my waders down I could see that I'd been hit on the outside of my thigh (relief) just above my knee. The bleeding wasn't bad. I wrapped it in a sweater and we pulled my waders back over that and used my wader belt as a redneck pressure bandage.
We'd used a float tube to get my Uncle out to the island we were hunting since he can't walk. We used that to float me across the pond to the levee. We were about 2 miles from the truck. My cousin started running back to the truck and I stayed with my Dad. I remember fighting off going into shock and not letting myself show how bad it hurt. My Dad was scared to death, like any father would be, and I knew If I didn't keep it together he wasn't prepared for that. My Dad was a great Man, but these things weren't his area like they are mine.
My cousin made it back to the truck in what seemed like an hour but was roughly 15 minutes. We're both decent runners, even in waders. A short Code 3 drive back to me and I got into the truck propping my leg on the window ledge. As we were hauling out of there I finally got reception on my flip phone with 911. I was talking to the dispatcher when he hit a bump causing my leg to jump and slam down on the window ledge... I wish I'd gotten a recording of what I told my cousin when that happened....
We got back to the check station and surprisingly it didn't take terribly long for the fire dept. to show up. There was no Paramedic on board and no disrespect to those guys but they were doing a terrible job. I told them to get back on the truck and I had my cousin help me re-wrap my leg. About that time the Ambulance crew showed up. The Medic was squared away and got my hooked up and some much needed MS. Unfortunately there had been a fatal accident not too far away that they'd called Life Flight in for. Since they were in the area they used them to fly me to a hospital about 20 mins away.
The Flight Medic was squared away. This was the first time I'd been in a bird as a patient... pretty surreal experience. I remember as we dusted off we were flying low over the refuge closed zone and I could see all the ducks and geese getting up. I laughed and the Medic asked what was funny. I told her I'd survived Combat mostly in tact and that it would be fitting that we'd take a duck or goose to the rotors and that would be what took me out.... She didn't see the irony being she was in that bird with me..... I also made my peace with the fact that I may loose my leg. Too many of my brothers had far worse injuries than this & I'd treated far worse. It was a sobering feeling but one I accepted. I was just happy to be alive.
We got to the hospital and everything went smooth. They did a scan and found there were still 18 pellets in my leg. The rest were pass throughs. Luckily they were steel so there was no need to go digging around in there to remove them. My Dad , cousin and uncle showed up a few hours later after getting everything situated and loaded back up. The Warden had held them up as well to question them and make sure this was really an accident.... I joked with him when he took my statement telling him that my Uncle was mad because I'd killed my limit in 8 rounds..... he didn't think my sarcasm was funny.... typical Warden.
All in all I made a 99% recovery. I was back out hunting the next weekend still bleeding through my bandages. I had to get back out and get the monkey off my back. It took some time to get my strength and flexibility back but I was back to climbing and running within months.
God was on my side that day..........
It was a high percentage. I’ll ask my wife what the actual number was as she remembers stuff like that better than me.
I’ll report back shortly
I was wearing my Sitka outfit. Not once was I cold or wet. This was on opening day of elk rifle in 2019 when the blizzard hit and dumped a lot of snow. It was perfect weather for hunting.
I was not only excited for shooting my first bull but a really nice bull. But after being a LEO for nearly 30 years I don’t show excitement very well.
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