I cant get this story I heard last week out of my head. Was wondering if anyone els had any hunting horror stories? Last week I was in Sportsmans Wharehouse in Anchorage and I met a guy from Anchor point. He was limping and we started Bs-ing. He's and older guy and said "ya, the limp gets worse as the weather turns colder, its my unsoliceted barometer".

I asked him how he got the limp and he said "Oh, years ago I was on a moose hunt with a real dip s####. He was walking behind me with an m1 garand and caught me with two rounds. One in the hip that grazed me and one stight in the kisser. He was only 5'5" and about 140 so wasnt much help on the 12 mile walk back". There is a little more to the storie but there are the bullet points...

Two 30-06 rounds and a twelve mile walk. Anybody top it?

Who packs a moose 12 miles?

read a newspaper article about two men who were on their way to favorite hunting spot. early am, dark highway. had a flat tire. while the guy was changing the tire he was hit and killed by a passing car. hunting stories can't get any worse than this one.

In 2006, Dad and I were on a turkey hunting trip........the night before the season opened, we were visiting with my cousin and his wife.........in the middle of a sentence, Dad suffered a ventricular fibrillation and died.

That's my worst hunting story........

No chitt.Better off building a cabin and eating it there.

Hotsoup,

That happens alot more than you might think. Not just on hunting trips.

I always tell people, if you have a mechanical, get as far off the highway as possible even if you have to drive some distance and tear more stuff up in the process. In the long run, it's a lot cheaper than the alternative. And never sit in your car on the shoulder of the road- especially at night.

Last year two retired men that had been friends and hunted together for several years went out on opening weekend of deer season. In the early morning hours the one man pulled up and shot what he thought was a deer. It turned out to be his friend that he shot in the upper leg with his 30-30. He didn't have cell phone signal and had to drive to town for help. His friend bled out and died. The guy that shot his friend had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. He survived. This all happend only a few short miles from where I was hunting and I did hear the shot that morning as it was the only one that was that early.

I have a lot of property damage and delay/disorientation stories, but no one ever died or got hurt bad on my trips.

I understand accidents can happen, but shooting a person is not an accident; it's negligence, at best.

Pretty much any hunting story involving Doyle Moss and crew.

Locally here last year a hunter mistook a grizzly for a blackbear and shot it. Wounded, it ran into the alder, pursued by the hunter. The bear attacked and was mauling the shooter when the hunting partner arrived at a run to the screaming and commotion.

He killed the bear with a single shot, but the bullet passed through and killed his partner as well.

Every hunter can imagine the grief from this tragedy.

Group of young men came black bear hunting here last fall. One guy shoots and wounds a bear. He and his buddy go looking for it. Well it was a grizzly instead of a black bear and it charges and nails the non shooter. The original shooter then tries to shoot the bear off of his buddy and ends up shooting and killing his pal who is on the ground under the bear. Bear also ultimately died. A real disaster all the way around!

were i the guy on the ground i would rather risk taking a bullet than my buddy standing around doing nothing....least the bullet would be quick....

yeah the situation sucks but i would rather have a buddy that tries and helps me, risks to me be damned...

Told to a friend on his flight out west for a hunting trip a few years ago: This guy had made arrangements with an outfitter, I think in Montana. He flew out, the guy picked him up at the airport to drive to the motel from which they'd head into the hills the next day. On the way, the outfitter pulls over, tells the guy they're almost there, head up this fenceline, just up over the hill and sit at such and such a place, might pick up a good mulie. The outfitter will take his stuff to the overnight accommodations and come and pick him up in a couple of hours. Guy takes the bare essentials and hikes up the hill, never saw anything, but on the way back down gets picked up at the road by a game warden who tells him he's trespassing. Guy says, but so and so told me I could hunt up there. He's just gone up to the motel... Warden says, what motel? There wasn't any motel, never was a sign of the "outfitter" again, or of any of the guy's gear, cash that was in his luggage, spare rifle......

If memory serves me, there was a story on this august forum several years ago about a fellow out in Texas that was invited hunting by a guy. He rode with the fellow out into the boonies and arrived at the trailer late. The guy that drove him out and a guy that was already there got to drinking and, after getting obnoxiously drunk, started snogging.

I think I'd take the grizzly.

Another story I heard in the past few years was about two older turkey hunters that got down in a hollow, chasing birds. The first guy has a heart attack and the second guy has a heart attack trying to drag his buddy out. Both died.

This one prompted me to start carrying a cell phone when turkey hunting.

One of the odder stories I heard was from a guy that had been at deer camp. Somebody had a new brother in law that was a real jerk. He showed up at camp thinking deer camp was a code word for drinking and whoring. He finds out different and huffs off into the night only to return after the bars closed with a skank, and retired to one of the outbuildings for the night. Somebody called up the wife and she and her mother showed up and shot up the shack. Luckily nobody died-- everyone was too drunk to hit anything.

That would really wreck your opening day. That was a deer camp I never bothered to ask for an invite from.

The hunting story that always stuck with me, I heard during a hunter safety course from the officer who investigated.

There was a pheasant hunter, who tried to flush a rooster. It wouldn't flush and just ran in front of him. He chased it for a bit and decided to shoot it on the ground. The rooster ran into some brush and the hunter shot into the brush, expecting to kill the rooster. There happened to be another hunter, squatting with his pants down behind the brush. He took a load of #6 shot to the back of the head and neck and died instantly.

They all begin with the same phrase, "this one time at band camp..."

Died doing what he loved.
Hunting

Don't hunt with stupid people, for sure.

When I was in South Africa hunting with JJ Hackiewiescz, a PH told me this story- just after I had killed a Zebra.

A hunter with this PH wanted to kill a Zebra badly. The next day, they find a group of Zebras and the hunter shoots one in the group.
Before the PH could stop him, he runs up to the zebra on the ground and goes to look it over an pose for pictures. As soon as he goes to put his arm over the Zebra's head, it whips its head around and bites the hunter's arm clean off at the elbow.

There were a couple other doozies-
A hunter is sitting in a "hide"- South African for a pit blind built with brush over the top to conceal the hunter inside. This hunter enters the hide to have an extended sit to watch the waterhole out in front and gets comfortable. About an hour later, he looks and there is a snake crawling through the brush "roof" of the hide. He quickly jumps out of the hide and gets the PH's attention by way of radio. The PH gets there in just a few minutes and dispatches the Black Mamba with a shotgun.

At one of the places we stayed, the owner had a young son (about 10-12 years old) that was always hanging around talking to the hunters and generally in good cheer. Great kid and really knew his way around the ranch we were hunting.
He had a couple scars above and below his eye on one side. Talked to one of the PH's and it turns out that while he was sleeping in his bed one night with the door open to cool off his room, a Cobra crawled into the room and bit him on the face. They just barely made it to the hospital in time for the anti-venom and other than the scars he seems to be fine now.

Bob

not to be to technical but king cobras live in India and southeast Asia....a number of cobras, couple good sized ones, live in Africa but no kings....

Okay, fixed it..

Worst was several years back I was staying at a bed and breakfast in my native PA; it had a real family feel with several groups of multiple generations hunting there that came back year after year. That year there was a Grandfather, sons with two grandsons all from Conn. On either the first or second morning the two boys� ages 12 & 13 were sitting together. Only the older boy was hunting his little brother came along to watch.

As we were told at supper that night during the day a deer came by and the boy raised up his Model 94 30-30 and cocked the hammer seeing it was a doe he laid the gun down across his lap. I little while later another deer came up the trail; he again picked up the gun and not realizing it was cocked he accidentally fired it into his little brothers upper thigh. The adults came right over and tried to get him to the Coudersport hospital in time. Problem was they were from out of town and could not get clear directions to the local emergency team and there was a delay finding them and the boy past away soon after arriving at the hospital.

That was indeed a sad time and it was one of my last hunting trips back to my home state.

My dad worked for a large lumber company most of his life, and
the higher ups would go on a yearly hunting trip to WY or
somewhere out west. One year one of the guys shot another
hunter and killed him, mistaking him for a deer or an elk,
I dont remember. In less than a year he resigned his position
with the company and was never heard from again.

About 15 or so years ago, we had a hunter who was walking in to his hunting spot with a climbing tree stand on his back who was shot by another hunter already in a tree stand WITH A BOW!!!!!!!!!!

We had an incident up in the Gila a few years ago. An elderly hunter from Georgia was hunting elk with a guide. The hunter shot a nice bull at a little under 400 yds. The guide told him to wait where he was and he would go over and make sure that the elk was dead. Then, he said that he would come back for the hunter and they would go over and take some pictures before field dressing it.

The guide reached the elk and poked the elk with a stick. Then he raised the head so the hunter could see the rack. The hunter was watching through his scope. When he saw the head move, he shot again, hitting the guide in the middle of his chest with a 180-grain bullet from his .300 mag. The guide died on the spot. The DA in Catron County prosecuted the hunter on a murder charge, but I believe that it was reduced to a charge of manslaughter in a plea deal.

This thread sucks.

Not hunting, but one time I ran out of beer in Baja.

Top that.

I posted this up before but my butcher went on a pig hunt down in Florida and when he got down there a different "outfitter" was subcontracted, picked him up at the airport and drove him into the middle of some swamp. They shot a couple of pigs and went back to camp. The only english speaking "Guide" said then that he needed their money, my butcher tells him the trip has already been paid for and the guide says " no, we want your money". Their guns or bows were out of reach and the other non english guides had their guns out and it turned into a giant shake down. There were multiple death threats made and they were held captive for a few days while they gathered up money and wired for more. In the end, they got them for a few grand, broke his buddy's arm, busted up my butchers face and left them. A formal investigation started when they managed to get home and ended up with arrests and a few deportations.

God Bless,

MM

Yeah it does. But it also serves to remind us that there is a certain amount of risk in what we do. The biggest risk being our own carelessness and complacency. Sometimes we can make a bad choice that results an a real flesh and blood human being getting killed, maybe us, maybe someone else. Either way, multiple lives end up impacted and changed forever.

Be careful out there.

I've been to Baja many times and the only way to run out of beer is if you forget to tip Jose when he brings it to you.

The following stories were in the local news.

A 28-year-old Elk Grove man who was accidentally shot in the face during the slaughter of a pig for a family celebration has died, according to the Sacramento County Coroner's office.
An unidentified older brother, 31, planned to shoot two pigs for eating later in the day. A circle of family members had gathered around the two bound pigs. The brother killed one pig, but when he shot the second pig, the animal lurched, hitting the .22-caliber rifle and causing the gun to discharge a second time.

and another one:

BAKERSFIELD -- -- Kern County Sheriff's homicide detectives are investigating a hunting accident that killed a Clovis man who was hunting squirrels and other vermin.

On Saturday 27-year-old **** of Clovis was killed near Lake Isabella when his hunting companion slipped and fell. The Bakersfield Californian reports that the man's finger was on the trigger, and when he hit the ground the rifle fired.

The name of the shooter has not been released.
The California Department of Fish and Game reports there were two fatal hunting accidents in 2010, the last year that statistics are available. One case was the fault of the shooter, and in the other the victim moved into the line of fire.

another:

Forty-four-year-old Daniel Downs was hunting near Sears Point in Sonoma County when the shooting happened Sunday afternoon.

Sonoma County sheriff�s officials say Downs was found dead when deputies arrived. They have not released details about what led up to the shooting.

Sheriff�s investigators and the state Department of Fish and Game are investigating the death.

I was a LONG way from a resort.

I don't remember the exact year, but I think it was in the early or mid 80's a group of guys that worked together were camped off the side of a mountain road in North Idaho waiting for daylight and getting ready to head off into the woods to hunt elk. They were goofing around blowing their bugles and loading up gear. One of the guys needed to relieve himself, and walked down the road away from camp and some of the ladies in camp. A rig came up the road and stopped. The guy in the rig shot the guy taking a leak between the eyes with a 444 Marin. The commotion scared the shooter and his partner and they hightailed it to town with some folks in hot pursuit and taking the shootee to the hospital.The shooter turned himself in and IIRC he was charged with involuntary manslaughter and did no time, he said he thought the guy was a bull elk. It was still 45 minutes or more until legal shooting time. Just doesn't seem right the guy kills someone and does no time and the next year in Idaho a guy killed a grizzly and turned himself in and got a $10,000 fine and loss of hunting privliges for 10 years.

My dentists dad (dentist is a female) climbed out of his tree stand and while on the ground, his buddy in another nearby tree stand 'sound shot' him..........dead. They were best friends since grade school.

She was always quite adamant before each hunting season to tell me to be sooooo careful. I always thanked her for her concern and many years ago, I finally asked her why she seemed more concerned for me than my own family. It became pretty clear, very fast.

Be careful fellas..........chit can and does happen.

How about the first bear maul victim I saw on Kodiak Island.

A guide had deer hunters out, and was checking gut piles for an upcoming bear hunt. He found one. It chewed him up pretty bad. When they got him to the hospital, all you could see was raw meat and bones. Arms, leg, face. He spent a long time in rehab over that one.

2 years to the day, exactly, they bring a guide into the ER that had shot himself in the leg with a 44mag. yep, same guy. Back guiding. Except now he is really nervous and carries a 44 every where he goes. He was at a creek getting water when he somehow shot himself.

Hope he gave up guiding after that.

Not being a wise Azz but I must ask because I do not know. Is that possible?

I don't know if that is possible either, the elbow is a pretty big joint.

I do know, because I saw it, that a zebra can get fingers. Saw a kid lose the thumb and first finger joints feeding a peanut to a zoo zebra. Bit them clean off.

From what I saw, Zebras in the wild are pretty nasty critters. The one I took had scars and rips all over it's body from fighting and they have a pretty good set of teeth and jaws to power them. The males spend a lot of time fighting, kicking, and biting each other for access to the females so I would think their ability to bite would be pretty developed.
Just my opinion, of course, but I didn't think the PH was BS'ng me at the time. He seemed pretty serious about this so I approached my Zebra VERY slowly and carefully.

Bob

I don't know if "top it" is the right description, but I have hunted some years ago with a gentleman who is a bit older than me. Back when I was still in college he was on an elk hunt with a group of friends out west somewhere. One morning all the guys except one headed out to hunt; some time during the day one of the hunters was headed back to camp when he saw the "tan of an elk" ahead of him. He dropped it with his .308 and thus began his hell on earth. The guy who stayed back in camp was doing camp jack chores, was wearing a brown Carhart jacket and was stooped over picking up some dry wood for the camp fire. The rest of the hunters were coming in and had to tie the distraught hunter up to keep him from turning his rifle on himself. Thus they packed out, one strapped down laying over a horse and the other tied up and being led out.

I'm not clear on all the details but the bullet-points are right there, Can you imagine the emotions and grief?

When I think of bad things that could happen this always comes to mind:


http://ssqq.com/archive/stupidity%20arrowhead.htm

Very thankful nothing too serious has ever happened to anyone in my hunting party. My hunting buddy of many years badly sprained his ankle this year, with possible hairline fractures that wouldn't have shown up on the x-rays for a week or so and I've broken a couple ribs.

Heck I live that sort of thing, And thinking do't hunt with stuppit people. Well I see a grundle of that. Just about ever time I hunt, by myself kid-ya-not.Kawi

Have heard similar hunting stories that started out right, but ended up with accidents and death. So I'd usually go hunting with a buddy so that somebody can watch my back, and someone can watch his' I carry a small megaphone so that if danger's anywhere near, I can easily warn my buddy even at a far distance. Weird? Only keeping our safety in mind.

Who the hell watches the watchers back? Where does it end? Megaphone? you gotta be chitting us......

DANGER, DANGER, 6:00 o'clock, 400 yds. over and out......

My worse hunting story was in high school when a bunch of us were spotlighting coons & varmit hunting coyotes & bobcats for spending money back when furs were actually worth something.
We were getting out of the truck when one of my buddies old Remington 22 auto discharges & shoots me in the leg. It was a complete pass through that missed bones & arteries, but just barely missed my femoral artery by about 1/2"

Didn't hurt too bad, but it hurt like heck at the hospital when the ER nurse ran what looked like 50 caliber brush all the way thru the wound with no deadening shot for pain & poored half a bottle of alcohol & betadine or what we use to call "monkey blood" on it. That hurt like hell !

This just happened 2 weeks ago.

After hunting the morning on Sunday, I went home to get one of my boys to come out with me. Halfway home, I see an ambulance out at the edge of a woods. Oh, that isnt good I thought. Turns out, a deer hunter shot a big buck. He then started tracking the blood trail and had a heart attack and died. They found the buck and I have a picture of it. It is a huge, heavy buck that would probably score in the 160s.

But the worst one I heard was a guy turkey hunting in southern MN with his son. He saw a flock and told his son to stay there and he stalked the flock. He saw movement and shot his son. The son didnt listen (he was pretty young) and the dad shot at movement. The importance of bagging game is overblown in our culture on many occasions.

Used to deer hunt Dale Hollow Lake a bunch 5-10 years ago.

Watched 5 guys go out by boat one very cold morning. They far exceeded the weight rating for the boat. Not one of them was wearing a life preserver and everyone bundled up with tons of clothes.

Told my brother-in-law that looked like an accident waiting to happen. I wish I would have been wrong.

We found out later that day their boat had capsized and two of them didn't make it to shore. If memory serves, a father and son.

Crime during hunting

Keep in mind that I was 6 or 7 when I heard this story so I am embellishing a little.

In the early 1970's in northern Nevada, a county sherriff stopped by the fire and asked my Dad if we had seen or heard anything in the creek bottom the previous couple of days. We had been out in the hills both days so we had missed the happenings along the creek.

On opening day two grandsons had taken their horses up into some roadless areas. The oldest grandson took a large muley buck and on the way back down the youngest grandson had taken an equally large buck that supposedly looked like the twin to the first deer. At camp that afternoon they hung the deer up on a meat pole, and he and his brother went back up into the hills to find a couple of does for their second tags. Their grandpa and his lap dog staid behind in camp. When the two grandsons came back at dark they found their grandfather dead in his camp chair with a gunshot to the head. The lap dog was hanging from the meat pole with the deer tags tied to its leg. It was gutted.

Keep in mind that these two "boys" were both cowhands on a large family ranch in the area. In the early 1970's they were very much immersed in the old way of life of their grandfather's time. They carried pistols in cross draw holsters. Full leather chaps, and spurs. The real deal.

The boys mounted up and went looking for their deer. They found them just a few miles down the road in a camp full of drunks. The oldest boy asked who shot the big bucks, and one of the drunks started telling the "story" of how he dropped the hammer on the huge deer. Nobody else chimed in on taking the second deer.

The boy asked if the hunter knew that his trophy deer hanging there was a bank robber? What? Its a bank robber. If you go over to it and check that cut in its ear you will find a dime in the cut.

The drunk staggers over and sure enough there is a cut on the ear and a dime is stuck in the cut. The drunk turns around and asked how did you know? Thats when the kid, still on horse back, draws his pistol and shoots the drunk right in the head. The rest of the drunks hightail it into the dark night. The kids disable the trucks and take their deer back to camp.

The reason for the dime in the ear was to tell the two bucks apart we were told. We never heard if charges were filed against the grandsons, but the sherriff said that not all the drunks had been rounded up so lock up and don't leave your keys in the truck.

So we did not hear or see anything, but the sherriff gave me a brand new hunter orange vest and said that on opening day a man had shot his daughter while she was peeing behind a bush and then shot himself. He emplored my dad to make everyone wore a vest. We did anyway back then, but the new one was better than the cheapo plastic one I already had.

Wow,

At least he died with family - doing what he loved. As I think about it, I wouldn't mind going the same way.