Your Close Calls

[D4570]

I was out calling a few years back, by myself. I try not to do that at 70+; there are plenty of things that can go bad. I was doing a simple walk out less than half a mile when I came to an ancient barbed wire fence. No problem, I thought, I pushed down on the top two rows of wire and stepped over. I almost got my foot back on the ground, and what sounded like a rifle shot. What it was was the top wire snapping in two, like a large rubber band. As it went by, it sliced through my wool coverall crotch, my Denum pants, and my long underwear. Just barely scratching the skin. Just fractions of an inch from my femoral artery. If it had cut that, I would have died standing over the fence. I carry quick clot, but there would not have been time to use it, I'm sure. Shit happens in the blink of an eye.

 

[R.K.]

Floating a river in Missouri, fishing a deep bluff hole. An old rotten oak on top of the bluff chose that exact moment to break apart- no wind or anything- and come crashing down around us. Still have a small piece that landed in the canoe.

Archery hunting Montana. Two miles from the truck. Making a loop. We got into some bad matchstick blowdown as it started to rain. Pants weren’t waterproof. The last half mile, I was exhausted and shivering bad, falling every now and then. Lost an arrow out of my quiver on one of them, lucky I didn’t land on it. Took a few hours in the sleeping bag and heated tent to get warmed back up.

Worst was nearly drowning in college. Fishing solo in the Ozarks, mile or so from an access in a fairly remote section. River spilling off a riffle over a gravel ledge into a deep rootball. I get snagged on the front of it, so gingerly make my way to the head of the hole and perch on that gravel ledge trying to get unstuck. Happened damn quick, but with the slow motion of panic- the current scoured the gravel from under my boots, I slide down the face, current grabs me and my waders, sucks me to the bottom, legs under the rootball and chest pinned to the front, head completely underwater. Was down there a while, couldn’t really move. Not sure what changed, but eventually (couple minutes) was able to grab a root above me and start dragging myself up to the surface. Got a breath, then was able to roll off the side and get to shore. Peeled off my gear/clothes, sat there a while, then went back in after my fly rod- miraculously there lure was free. Back to shore, dried off a while, then called it a day and went home (for clothes, then it was the bar). Just glad I’d been training for a free diving trip, and my breath hold was close to 4 minutes at the time.

 

[kansasdad]

We were “on holiday” from my Nairobi school and at the beach home of dad’s friends on the Indian Ocean. The beach we were on was right where a big river made its way into the ocean. The shallows dropped off into deepness just a few steps from the shoreline.

I was standing on the edge of the drop off when a wave broke over my head and sucked me out beyond standing depth. I was a decent swimmer for a nine year old, but I hadn’t had any experience with waves. Choking and sputtering I started to make for shore when another wave caught me by surprise and I inhaled quite a bit of ocean water. Hacking and coughing took over from swimming and I started to drift further out with some undertow.

I was faced with a decision…did I keep swimming for shore, or turn the other direction to try for a fisherman’s boat anchored further out? I let the current pull me out further and latched on to the side of the boat where I could cough out the seawater and catch my breath.

Holding onto the boat I regained my strength, and when I was ready I was able to swim back to the beach. No adult “watching” our group saw what had happened. It was self rescue or tragedy.

 

[np307]

Ive never really been in a life or death close call, but probably the situation with the most downside potential was back in '20. I was about 2 miles back on some public land, which for my area is about as remote as you can get. This was during muzzleloader season and I was camping and hunting further back than I had been on this piece before. Ended up killing my best buck to that point during the first evening. By the time I got the deer quartered and loaded in my pack, my phone was on 5% and I didnt realize that I left my portable charger in the car. I quickly opened OnX and just stared at it as long as my phone stayed alive, trying to memorize the topography. Thankfully I had camped on a main creek and from camp I could pick up the trail system. A few minutes into my journey back to camp and my headlamp died too. Thankfully I made it back to the trail system in one piece and started back to the car. With about 3/4 of a mile left, I tripped and went face first directly into dirt with a full pack. Thankfully I didnt break or tear anything.

Objectively, I really wasn't in that much danger. I had plenty of food, clothing, and water with me and the weather was pretty good. It wasn't too far to roads and houses in any direction and the trails were pretty commonly used by hikers. It did really open my eyes to the need to stop being so young and dumb about the way I was hunting though. That trip is responsible for a lot of the systems I now have in place when I'm hunting.

 

[406dn]

This didn't happen to me, and it ended up beyond a close call.

Not long after we moved west, so over 40 years ago, this was in the outdoor section of the Billing's Gazette. A hunter, between Cody and the park had killed an elk while hunting solo. While doing that, he cut his femoral artery, bled out , and died.

One of the most dangerous times on the mountain is when you are dressing a large animal. Often, they are on a slope, partially hung up, or some other complication. Combine that with an excited, tired hunter, and it can go real bad, real fast.

I have kept that man in my head, whenever I am quartering or dressing an animal.

 

[Clarq]

This may not be what you had in mind, but I'll share in case there's a lesson in it for someone.

When I was growing up, my grandpa went fishing once a week with his buddies, and I tried to tag along with him as often as I could. Grandpa was in his late 70's at the time, and while he was still very mentally sharp and capable, I sometimes worried about his driving. His reaction time was a little slow and I questioned just how good his eyesight actually was. Still, I tagged along because I loved being outdoors and I loved being with him. He is the wisest person I know, and was one of the only people I knew growing up who made me feel like I was good enough as I was, no strings attached. I have many great memories from those fishing trips.

I took it upon myself to keep an eye on the road and do my best to spot potential hazards. Over the years, I'd spotted road debris a few times and many deer off the side of the road. We'd never really had a close call and I was never really sure how much difference I was making. On one trip I was particularly tired and found myself dozing off. I distinctly remember thinking I probably ought to wake myself up and keep eyes on the road, but my exhaustion got the best of me and I went to sleep. You can probably see where this is going...

I woke up about a half hour later. As I sat back up and looked at the road, I saw a herd of four deer standing in our lane. If I'd have been awake and vigilantly watching the road, I'd have seen them much sooner. As it was now, we were barreling downhill at at least 65 mph and we were almost upon them.

I shouted a warning, way too late but possibly just in time. Grandpa swerved hard to the left to avoid hitting one (or two) of the deer. In the process, he took us into the lanes of oncoming traffic. If someone had been driving the opposite direction, we'd have been in a head-on collision with both cars going 65+ mph. Thankfully, there was a gap in traffic and no one was there.

We found ourselves headed for the shoulder of the opposing lanes, so Grandpa swerved hard to the right to get the car back on track. He corrected a few more times as we fishtailed back and forth while regaining our course. Before we knew it, we were back on track as if nothing had happened.

We sat in silence for awhile before agreeing that Grandma would not be informed about the incident that just occurred. I also determined for myself that Mom and Dad didn't need to know either. If they knew, they might not let me tag along anymore. As scary as the incident was, the thought of possibly no longer being allowed to go on our weekly fishing trips was unbearable.

Grandpa scheduled an appointment with the eye doctor a few weeks later and ended up getting surgery for cataracts. I never again fell asleep while he was at the wheel.

 

[HerkHunter]

I was in middle school I think and we were at Flathead for our annual family meet-up. Went out on the boat with my parents, aunt and uncle and grandma. Joyriding around when a storm blew in. At first it was just bumpy and we all laughed as we would hit the waves. Then we took on lots of water fast and it got serious. Life jackets on, etc. uncle got it close to shore, and my bad-ass of an aunt hopped into the water with the rope and tied us off to someones dock while we used anything we could to rid the boat of water. Icing on top was the home owner coming out screaming at us for trespassing lol. Also got to listen to my grandpa chew my uncle’s hind end the whole way back to the cabin.

Another time, was driving home from a day hunt with a buddy on Hwy 200 in MT, and there was a dead deer in the other lane and a car swerved into our lane to avoid it. Was probably seconds away from it being a head on at 70mph

 

[LuketheDog]

When I was a senior in high school I fell asleep while driving home after duck hunting the morning after a late school dance. The highway made a gradual corner and there was an offramp that continued on straight, apparently I didn't make the corner and went about 100 yards down the offramp before my cousin whacked me in the shoulder and said "Hey, where the heck are you going? I have to get home! Wait, were you ASLEEP?!" I snapped out of it pretty quick and told him not to tell anybody, my aunt would've ripped me a new one if she found out I put her little angel in any sort of danger. We were pretty lucky, there was a steep berm on one side leading down to an irrigation ditch, I would've rolled the truck.

 

[ammo]

When I was a senior in high school I fell asleep while driving home after duck hunting the morning after a late school dance. The highway made a gradual corner and there was an offramp that continued on straight, apparently I didn't make the corner and went about 100 yards down the offramp before my cousin whacked me in the shoulder and said "Hey, where the heck are you going? I have to get home! Wait, were you ASLEEP?!" I snapped out of it pretty quick and told him not to tell anybody, my aunt would've ripped me a new one if she found out I put her little angel in any sort of danger. We were pretty lucky, there was a steep berm on one side leading down to an irrigation ditch, I would've rolled the truck.

This happened to my dad - he was 20 years old driving home from college. Ended up in a full body cast for 6 weeks. Glad he made it or I wouldn't be here! He still laments about how the dumb shit you do when you're young your body ends up paying for when you're older.

 

[ammo]

Re lightning: This summer a friend and I were climbing in the ridges literally behind our house. We were 5 pitches up a 6 pitch route. The only way to truly bail was up and over. Suddenly the sky opened up and lightning was hitting all the peaks around us while I climbed fast (in pouring rain). I was scared and also trapped, no way to go down as my friend was above me belaying, the longer I took on the route the more exposed I was leaving her. By the time I summited and we started scrambling down the storm had passed.

The thing is - we had cell service and we were watching the radar - the really horrifying part was the storm that hit us had "jumped"/morphed northwards from a small storm passing south of us that we weren't paying much mind to. The big slow moving storm we were really keeping our eyes on hit when we were back at our packs and hiking out of the park.