Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Moments that you were truly worried about not surviving.

A bunch of times Harry.

I had a couple in the Navy and a close call working at Electric boat after I got out.
But this was the closest I think.

Mostly highway experiences and a DaNang rocket landing between the shoulder blades of a plane I was servicing.

Yeah, not any kind of service stuff and getting shot at. That’s next level I can’t speak to and wouldn’t want to.

I was in a 16’ foot Lund on Rangely with two other pretty hefty males, doing an early spring salmon troll. Just behind ice-out, water was like 43 degrees. We k ew big winds were coming late morning, but had to go out and try to beat them and get some fishing in. Three day rental of property. So we did. Waves stacked up on us really fast from across the lake. It was way too much for that little boat, capable as it was. We were head to toe in rubber rain gear, and hunting boots. Woulda sank like stones. And two of us are really strong swimmers. Not was taking water over the bow and stern heading into the waves. Not [bleep] when I say 3 foot waves, on a stupid little lake. I was in bow seat. I’ve never looked for a life-jacket before in my life, and realized there was no point to even put one one. I was looking at shore and guesstimating if I could make it there before I went hypothermic, IF, I could [bleep] off before I sank like a stone.


No way I would have.

There was one other big boat on the lake at that time. It was far away hiding in a deep cove that we were at the mouth of, before we started trying to sprint back to camp. Full-sized fiberglass hull boat. We eventually lost sight of them.

Anyway, I was on a lake forum some matter of weeks later relating this same experience, and a poster chimes in that they were this boat, and they were watching us, and preparing to run to help. Expecting they would have to.

Comforting in a way, but no excuse for our arrogance and idiocy.

As an ‘adult’ I’ve never feared more for my life as I did at that time. That sticks out in my mind.

Ironically, F&G fished out the bodies of a couple snowmobilers who went though in the lake in early winter. Ice had prevented their search and retrieval.

Was limbing a big fir tree and climbed up the limbs as far as I could get,

And was knocking off limbs as I started down.

Stepped on a branch near the top, about 80-90 feet up, and it snapped.

I swung my left arm around the tree and started giggling like a little girl.

It didn't take me long to get out of that tree!

Bought spurs and a climbing belt before I went back up a tree.

Virgil B.

Flunking a stress test.

Rolled a tractor 12 years ago and got squished between it and a tree,broke 4 ribs off my spine,cracked 3 in the front and punctured a lung and my liver.You do see stars! Could feel stuff cracking on the way over and remember thinking this was it. First thing I did was spit-happily no blood. Was laid up for a couple months.Nearly died from covid,laid up 7 months.

Ya, my RN leaning over and telling my "Al, you're going to the OR as soon as we can get you there. The surgical team is waiting for you." And then the cardiologist who was going to be doing the bypasses walks into the room, grabs my gurney and wheels me to the elevator and then into the OR.

A few close calls in the inner-city. Never while out in nature.

Bit in the throat and face by neighbors 90lb German Shephard when I was 7. No one there to intervene or help, only one home was their 7 yr old son who observed from inside their house. I had to get outside the radius of its leash, and was near its anchor point when it first bit me, guessing 15 or 20 feet radius. Adrenalin kicks in and memory shuts off. Somehow I got away and made it to our back door. Two hours of stitching, 65 total, ripped through check in three places across Adams apple and just missed jugular vein and eyeball. At least it didn't have rabies. It had bitten at least a few other kids but nothing as serious. This time it was put down.

A couple of times offshore.

More than a few times. Rio7

The Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, aka Last Rites, at birth, but I wasn’t too worried at the time.




P

I flipped a swingset when I was about 7 years old. Couldn’t breeve for about 10 seconds. Knocked the wind outta me

Life flashed before me. How would Sparrows baseball little league team make it with out me , my Huffy bike gettin stolen, my blue tick hounds, I could see myself in the pistol smoke

All good after a few seconds. Mama fixed me some spaghetti O’s and my frozen kool aid toothpick pops were finally good to go.

Seeing the pointy end of a 1,000 mph surface-to-air missile from a 150 mph Cessna.

(We had two "evasive" maneuvers: You could count to 10 or wind your watch. If you finished either one - it missed.)

Couple of times in aircraft..
Like an idiot I turned up a box canyon on the Big Island of Hawaii in a T-28. Too narrow to turn around or do a wingover and not enough speed to perform a loop. Climbing at max angle of climb airspeed, I made it with about a wingspan of clearance at the far end. Close!

Another time in an F-4 when one of the nose tires blew up in the wheel well at 30,000’ while waiting for my wingman to join up after launch off the Midway. The explosion blasted the top of the wheel well into the controls right below my feet. With the controls jammed, we diverted to MCAS Iwakuni. By doing a control check we found reasonable control at 190 knots or so. At the time Iwakuni was single runway with arresting gear in the landing area, at midfield and at the far end. Perfect.

Of course the weather was pretty crummy at Iwakuni but we broke out OK. Shortly after, the nose pitched up to 30 degrees nose up and 30 units AOA so essentially we were stalled but I was able to control the angle of bank with rudders. It took both hands but I was able to free the controls and we hit the runway pretty hard.

At 190 knots we were too fast for the short field gear so on touchdown I put the drag chute out but waited to drop the hook until we crossed the wire. We caught the mid-field gear and stopped OK. Holy $hit! Holy $hit! Holy $hit! Made it. 😳

While we were waiting for the crash crew to get to us, my knees starting shaking uncontrollably. When they arrived I shut it down and climbed out and could barely stand up. I didn’t kiss the runway but I did kneel down and pat the runway with my hand. 😁 The crash crew guys just smiled.

We were in Base Ops waiting for a ride and the CO of the base, a Bird Colonel walked over to speak to us. He had been circling by the tower in a C-117(?) waiting for us to land. He asked if we were flying the F-4 and I answered “yessir that was us.” He said “well, that was a pretty spectacular show on final and he thought we were about to shell out.”

I told him that if the wing had dropped I would have been pulling the handle. My new RIO looked over at me and asked, “is that right?” That was when I realized how alone I really was that afternoon. 😳😁

I think there's more than a few must have been pretty sure they weren't going to make it as many covid shots as they got...

Nearly died after “routine” surgery 3 years ago. Doped up in the hospital. Had no clue gravity of my situation.

A couple weeks after I got home and started thinking clearly, reminded my family of the agreement: max 10 days on life support. Then pull plug.

Oldest daughter looks over at me…

“Dad, we had that conversation…”

Sleep apnea almost got me one night.

Me first marriage, never thought I would make it outa there alive, by the skin of me wallet, I did.