Scary Close

[ChumpMcgee]

#5553

So I decided to brave it and go out bow hunting during the Minnesota gun opener on public land. I set up my tree stand on Thursday and was wearing blazed orange and figure I would be more safe hanging in a tree then I would sitting at gun level. I get out and in my tree roughly at 5:30 in the morning and 30 minutes before sunrise I here the guns start firing in every direction, and every 10-15 minutes another gun was firing. That did not bother me at all and actually hoped maybe it could push deer my way. A little after 7:00 I was standing in my stand and leaning against the tree looking downwind for any orange or deer movement when I heard another gun go off roughly 100 yards away. 1 second later I hear a whizzing sound in the air and it gets louder and louder followed by a thud. A ricochet bullet hits a tree about 30 yards from where I was hunting. I immediately climbed out of my tree stand took my tree stand and steps down and left the woods.

For any of you gun hunters out there please be very cautious of what is beyond your target. I have always respected guns in the past but at this time I am very much afraid of them. Be safe everyone!

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#42174

Yikes – glad you’re ok.

I had a scary close call last year, and it was during archery-only season, when we’re not required to wear any blaze orange in Idaho. A couple grouse hunters were hiking up the trail across the creek from me, and one genius decides he’s going to “take a shot just to get my dogs fired up.” In addition to this silly idea to begin with, he doesn’t just fire his gun up into the air, he shoots horizontally into the trees – where I happened to be sitting. The 12-guage blast hit a tree not 15 feet away from me.

I yelled at them, and got no response. And then I decided to get the hell out of there.

And don’t get me started on how crappy one’s so-called “bird dogs” would have to be, if they need to hear a shotgun go off in order to exhibit any drive… 🙄

[troutbum 1]

#42311

It’s a crying shame, when hunter’s don’t think. Scary.

[Don Thomas]

#42474

I went through one like that a few years back. I was sitting in a river bottom hunting whitetails during firearms season when a truck pulled over the rim above me. One of the geniuses inside got out and started firing blindly into the trees where I was sitting (and where he did not have permission to hunt)in an attempt to flush a deer out so he could shoot it as it ran across the field. I had bullets whizzing right around my head. I got down, sprinted up the side of the coulee and ran them down. I won’t tell you what happened next, but it’s lucky I didn’t wind up in jail. Is it any wonder the non-hunting public is slipping away from us? Don

[James Harvey]

#42924

Smithhammer wrote: And don’t get me started on how crappy one’s so-called “bird dogs” would have to be, if they need to hear a shotgun go off in order to exhibit any drive… 🙄

don thomas wrote: I had bullets whizzing right around my head. I got down, sprinted up the side of the coulee and ran them down.

Haha 😀

[Stephen Graf]

#42965

donthomas wrote: …I got down, sprinted up the side of the coulee and ran them down. I won’t tell you what happened next, but it’s lucky I didn’t wind up in jail…

I hope you didn’t violate your hippocratic oath 😳

[cahaba]

#43067

Glad you are OK. It happened to me also around 8 years ago. I was hunting a management area hunt and it sounded like a war with all the guns going off. I was 20 ft. up in a tree and I hear a gun go off around 150 yards away. Then I hear a ricochet that was very close to me. I got down and left.

[Don Thomas]

#43100

Steve–There was no established doctor-patient relationship. That’s why I didn’t feel badly about kicking the side of his new pickup in. Don

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#43102

donthomas wrote: Steve–There was no established doctor-patient relationship. That’s why I didn’t feel badly about kicking the side of his new pickup in. Don

[Ralph]

#43374

Years ago there was a guy killed north of Amarillo, near Borger, TX., on the Canadian River. He was wearing an orange vest and hat, was buried up in a bush calling turkeys and some damn fool shot the guy thinking he was the turkey.

Also, a good friend and I were bowhunting on the river (public land) during rifle season and we spotted a guy checking us out with his scoped rifle. Never again will we be up there with our bows during gun season. Some people shoot if it moves.

Like someone mentioned, there’s many no thinkers out there, or maybe better said, “don’t give a sh……….ers”.

[grumpy]

#43521

Lucky we don’t allow long range rifles (only the lowly .22, and shotguns), and are blessed with hills, lots of hills. Makes me feel safer. While the shotgun season for deer starts in Dec, the small game season started 2 days before the archery deer season. So while I’m sitting in the bushes, trying not to shiver, and wondering how I’m going to get my legs to work when it gets too dark… I’m listening to BANG….BANG…. then BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG. Which is a semi-auto shotgun with a 5 shot clip. Can you imaging what would be left of some bird after being hit 5 times with a 12 gauge. When I was growing up there was a saying “One shot, one deer. Two shots maybe one deer. Three shots no deer.” And keep in mind most of the rifles were bolt action.

I also remember that we all watched Art, not because he was reckless. He fell down a lot, and nobody wanted to be in front of him when he fell down, while carrying a gun.

[Carl Brickey]

#43534

I’ll add one. Once when I was about 15, I went squirrel hunting with a buddy and his dad across the road from their house. We’d made it halfway through a nice oak flat chasing fox squirrels when I heard a shot. Then another, and another. pretty soon there were whizzes and zings all around our heads and we were hitting the dirt. Whoever was shooting was apparently target practicing with what sounded like a .22. Thank The Lord we didn’t get hit. Short of my waterfowling, I wear orange every time I venture out during rifle season.

[Don Thomas]

#43557

It’s interesting that in terms of getting shot by other hunters, turkey hunting is by far the most dangerous of all. Don

[tailfeather]

#44638

donthomas wrote: It’s interesting that in terms of getting shot by other hunters, turkey hunting is by far the most dangerous of all. Don

Yep….hunter hiding in full camo, impersonating the quarry, and often with a gobbler decoy in front! I hunt turkeys with a shotgun and a bow, but it flabbergasts me that it is legal in my state to turkey hunt with a scoped, inline muzzleloader. An absolute recipe for disaster, given some folks inclination to snipe a strutting turkey across a pasture….

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