Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
08-30-2003, 11:04 AM
#11
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 15,451
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
When I was thirteen some guy shot at a deer and the fence post I was standing next to got hit 6 inches above my head. Never seen the guy or deer. Then I was dragging a dead ,field dressed deer down the mountain and a guy shot at it from across the small gorge. He showed up 10 minutes later and argued He shot the deer and accused me of stealing it. All in Pennsylvania in total orange.
08-31-2003, 08:51 PM
#12
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 57
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
My near miss experiences were less than pleasant. The land I archery hunt on is very prime river bottom habitat. The closest house is three miles away, the entire area on both sides of the river is corn, wheat, beans, and clover fields. As the road into the area is low maintenance and there are no houses on it, it is a favorite of game slobs that road hunt it, trespass and in general poach. One night after sunset, I began my walk out of the timber to my truck. As I came around the last bend of the timber 40 yards from my truck, I was lit up by a spotlight and the lead flew. I hit the dirt and began yelling, the jerk took off in a hurry. I tried to catch up and get a tag#, but his truck was a bit faster than mine, and his desire to risk dying driving like an idiot was stronger than mine. The second and third close calls were thanks to some other " hunters" who felt I had spent enough time hunting " Their woods" and began sighting in their rifles at the field the last week of archery season while I was trying to get a deer. Its no wonder more and more restrictions are put on gun season when you have idiots like these folks participating.
08-31-2003, 09:56 PM
#13
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Oct 1998
Location: Hughesville, PA USA
Posts: 18,322
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
While grouse hunting I took a 3030 ricochet in the lower back. The bullet lost most of it' s momentum and the heavy clothes I was wearing stopped the bullet from breaking my skin but it did knock me down and leave a welt and a very frightened young man on the ground.......we confronted the shooters and they didn' t believe me until I raised my shirt and showed the welt...they then couldn' t apologize enough.
The second time was when I was rabbit hunting and was peppered down my arse and legs by a squirrel hunter. I was in a corn field and the hunter did not know we were there until I started screaming....again no open wounds but plenty of stinging welts.....
I guess I consider myself very lucky.....perhaps.
My supervisor at work was shot twice in the face by turkey so called hunters. At close range a boy shot him and the father turned and shot as well....he has some scaring but all in all is totally recovered and well.....as well as a supervisor can be..
I just can' t understand the mindset of those who shoot. In my case, neither shooter could see my location but in mistaken shootings....I don' t undestand.
The second time was when I was rabbit hunting and was peppered down my arse and legs by a squirrel hunter. I was in a corn field and the hunter did not know we were there until I started screaming....again no open wounds but plenty of stinging welts.....
I guess I consider myself very lucky.....perhaps.
My supervisor at work was shot twice in the face by turkey so called hunters. At close range a boy shot him and the father turned and shot as well....he has some scaring but all in all is totally recovered and well.....as well as a supervisor can be..
I just can' t understand the mindset of those who shoot. In my case, neither shooter could see my location but in mistaken shootings....I don' t undestand.
09-01-2003, 04:00 AM
#14
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Williamsport PA. USA
Posts: 293
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
I have had some close calls over the years during rifle deer season here in PA., but three of them stand out in my memory, and are all associated with organized driving of deer. I am all for banning organized driving on public ground in PA, and this is why:
1) while hunting on a mountain top bench about 23 years ago another gang of hunters proceeded to drive through the public ground that I was hunting on. The last man on their drive was skirting the top edge of the bench that I was standing on. About a dozen deer came down on the bench and tried to sneak around the driver and get back in behind him, but he spotted them and started blazing away. I had my sights on a nice big doe and was about to drop her when a rifle bullet hit the tree I was leaning against at eye level and about 10 " away from my face. It blew bark and dirt into my eyeball and even some bullet shrapnel into my ear and cheek. The idiot driver came running down off of the benchtop and started looking for blood, compeltely ignoring me laying in the leaves, thrashing like a banked brookie, and trying to get the crap out of my eye. It got ugly, and when I gained my composure I worked him and his gun over pretty good!
2) Two years earlier a gang of local fellas from the area where I grew up got together in doe season to put on some meat drives. We were driving a very thick, previously selectively cut hollow out into a patch of open hardwoods. It was a very productive drive on the first day of the season for many years. Well, I was the end driver on this one, and when we were about half way through the drive I heard a shot from our watchers. We always set the watchers up so they weren' t firing back at the drivers when the deer came through. And not more than a minute later I hear what sounds like a bottle rocket coming through the woods, cracking and popping hemlock limbs, and a split second later I hear the low report of a longgun. Two or three small hemlock limbs slowly drop and swing back and forth on strips of bark not more than a foot above my head! Turns out another fella snuck in on our drive and was shooting at the deer right in line with our drivers with a 12 gauge slug gun.
3) Two years ago nov. I set my tree climber up in a VERY tall red oak overlooking an old selective cut on a mountaintop. About an hour after I got settled in I saw a few deer milling around about one hundred yards to my right in a little clearing, and not long after that I heard shots, and the crack and snapping of rifle bullets whizzing through the underbrush at the base of my tree. A few minutes later I saw a line of hunters coming in my direction, attempting to drive off the clearing. One of the men spotted me in the tree and yelled over to one of his mates, and the other fella cursed and turned around and walked back the way he had come. The others continued on and when they passed out of sight, I decided to call it a day for this spot and got down. In the process of taking my climber off of the tree I discovered a fresh bullet hole in the trunk of my tree about navel level, and right where I stood when I put the climber on! An hour earlier and I would have been in a world of hurt!
I have been shot three times with a shotgun here in PA, and once drew blood and had me digging shot out of my scalp! Two times in spring turkey season, and once in small game season while rabbit hunting with some friends.
Two of the local fellas where I grew up got shot with rifles during the deer season, and both survived, but one of them had many medical problems for many years after.
1) while hunting on a mountain top bench about 23 years ago another gang of hunters proceeded to drive through the public ground that I was hunting on. The last man on their drive was skirting the top edge of the bench that I was standing on. About a dozen deer came down on the bench and tried to sneak around the driver and get back in behind him, but he spotted them and started blazing away. I had my sights on a nice big doe and was about to drop her when a rifle bullet hit the tree I was leaning against at eye level and about 10 " away from my face. It blew bark and dirt into my eyeball and even some bullet shrapnel into my ear and cheek. The idiot driver came running down off of the benchtop and started looking for blood, compeltely ignoring me laying in the leaves, thrashing like a banked brookie, and trying to get the crap out of my eye. It got ugly, and when I gained my composure I worked him and his gun over pretty good!
2) Two years earlier a gang of local fellas from the area where I grew up got together in doe season to put on some meat drives. We were driving a very thick, previously selectively cut hollow out into a patch of open hardwoods. It was a very productive drive on the first day of the season for many years. Well, I was the end driver on this one, and when we were about half way through the drive I heard a shot from our watchers. We always set the watchers up so they weren' t firing back at the drivers when the deer came through. And not more than a minute later I hear what sounds like a bottle rocket coming through the woods, cracking and popping hemlock limbs, and a split second later I hear the low report of a longgun. Two or three small hemlock limbs slowly drop and swing back and forth on strips of bark not more than a foot above my head! Turns out another fella snuck in on our drive and was shooting at the deer right in line with our drivers with a 12 gauge slug gun.
3) Two years ago nov. I set my tree climber up in a VERY tall red oak overlooking an old selective cut on a mountaintop. About an hour after I got settled in I saw a few deer milling around about one hundred yards to my right in a little clearing, and not long after that I heard shots, and the crack and snapping of rifle bullets whizzing through the underbrush at the base of my tree. A few minutes later I saw a line of hunters coming in my direction, attempting to drive off the clearing. One of the men spotted me in the tree and yelled over to one of his mates, and the other fella cursed and turned around and walked back the way he had come. The others continued on and when they passed out of sight, I decided to call it a day for this spot and got down. In the process of taking my climber off of the tree I discovered a fresh bullet hole in the trunk of my tree about navel level, and right where I stood when I put the climber on! An hour earlier and I would have been in a world of hurt!
I have been shot three times with a shotgun here in PA, and once drew blood and had me digging shot out of my scalp! Two times in spring turkey season, and once in small game season while rabbit hunting with some friends.
Two of the local fellas where I grew up got shot with rifles during the deer season, and both survived, but one of them had many medical problems for many years after.
09-03-2003, 03:23 PM
#15
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Southeast Alabama
Posts: 191
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
a friend of mine had just headed out to his stand one morning during rifle season when he heard a shot very close to the vicinity to his truck.. no one else was supposed to be there so he got down and went to his truck.. some kids were in a field across the road shooting TOWARDS the road.. well his toyota took a shot right to the engine.. hit his main computer chip ...and put a hole in his block i believe
09-03-2003, 08:25 PM
#16
Fork Horn
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: NY USA
Posts: 431
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
ME AND MY BUDDY WERE HUNTING IN AN APPLE ORCHARD AND WERE WALKING OUT IN BLAZE ORANGE AND GOT SHOT AT... THE NEIGHBORS WERE EITHER TARGET DHOOTING OR SHOOTING AT A DEER AND THE BULLETS HIT 25 FEET FROM US... ITS A SCARY THING TO HEAR A BULLET WHIZ PAST YOU.... THEY NEVER KNEW NOR DID THEY CARE WHAT WAS BEHIND THEIR TARGET
09-04-2003, 10:42 AM
#17
Join Date: May 2003
Location:
Posts: 437
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
About 4 years ago I had a rather unnerving experience.
I saw 1 Buck and 3 does go over a couple rises away and followed then, and I had a doe tag. So I followed, and then got a medium sized doe about 3 years old. The doe falling spooked the others and they ran down a cut making a hell of a racket. I was looking through the binos to make sure the doe was down, when I heard the racket starting again and coming toward me.
I looked down and say the buck and remaining 2 does at about 300 yds and running toward me. They came straight at me, so I hit the dirt, when they got about 50 yds from me i heard a string of shots from an AK. They do make a particular sound when fired in your direction. I heard the bullets were bouncing off the hill behind me about 10-15 feet higher. The deer kept on coming. Mule deer look dainty when " stotting" , but up close they looked like a herd of clydesdales on a trampoline.
Never saw the " hunter" . He had to be running while he shot, shooting uphill at running deer. The group came to within 15 yrds of me at full out spped. Non were hit.
I saw 1 Buck and 3 does go over a couple rises away and followed then, and I had a doe tag. So I followed, and then got a medium sized doe about 3 years old. The doe falling spooked the others and they ran down a cut making a hell of a racket. I was looking through the binos to make sure the doe was down, when I heard the racket starting again and coming toward me.
I looked down and say the buck and remaining 2 does at about 300 yds and running toward me. They came straight at me, so I hit the dirt, when they got about 50 yds from me i heard a string of shots from an AK. They do make a particular sound when fired in your direction. I heard the bullets were bouncing off the hill behind me about 10-15 feet higher. The deer kept on coming. Mule deer look dainty when " stotting" , but up close they looked like a herd of clydesdales on a trampoline.
Never saw the " hunter" . He had to be running while he shot, shooting uphill at running deer. The group came to within 15 yrds of me at full out spped. Non were hit.
10-03-2003, 09:43 PM
#18
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Elcho and GB Sconny
Posts: 166
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
I havent been shot at, but i just recently went through hunters safety in wisconsin (a wonderful program) and one of the things they stressed the most was be sure of your target and beyond. after these stories i am a little uneasy, but hope that the people i hunt with would be less thick headed than the a$$holes that shot at all of you. these are the kind of people that give all hunters a bad name. they should be ashamed of themselves and i would hope they would think twice before they shot the next time. good luck all and happy hunting!
10-04-2003, 07:07 AM
#19
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: the woods of NJ.
Posts: 5,643
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
About 20 yrs ago,While pheasant hunting with a friend I had one flush between another hunter and myself. we didn' t see each other, My friend yells to hit the deck so I figured he was going to take the shot, I hit the deck and the other hunters shot blew away the branches about head level. From where I was on the ground I could see the other guys feet and my friend aiming at him asking if I was all right. He didn' t hang around long. I don' t know what would have happened to the other guy if he had shot me, at that time the company I kept strongly believed in an eye for an eye.
10-04-2003, 08:15 AM
#20
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Gypsum KS USA
Posts: 1,289
RE: Hunters, anyone almost get shot while hunting?
I' ve had an experience or two with bullets bouncing around me, one of them almost dictating return fire!....
I was hunting a stand that was about 4ft up inside a hollow tree (rotted out like a crescent moon, just took a mount inside, some orange paint on the outside and viola!), it was about 20yrds from the property line, I hear a gunshot very close coming from the other side of the line (where virtually NO ONE was supposed to be hunting), next thing I knew, this loud THUNK-KUNK rings up my tree, I bale out of the stand, and look under my stand, there' s a huge splintered hole coming through the one side of the crescent, and a goodly one on the otherside, so I hit the deck, a good sized doe came running almost over the top of me followed by two younger does, and another shot ripped through the leaves, I hollered out to the ' hunter' , but another shot came, then I heard him running through the brush towards me, I peeked up, and he' s got his rifle leveled almost right at me, I was right between him and the deer, I rolled out a shot into the ground to get his attention and hollered if he didn' t port his rifle I might have to drop it for him...sorry, didn' t see you there he says.
I was hunting a stand that was about 4ft up inside a hollow tree (rotted out like a crescent moon, just took a mount inside, some orange paint on the outside and viola!), it was about 20yrds from the property line, I hear a gunshot very close coming from the other side of the line (where virtually NO ONE was supposed to be hunting), next thing I knew, this loud THUNK-KUNK rings up my tree, I bale out of the stand, and look under my stand, there' s a huge splintered hole coming through the one side of the crescent, and a goodly one on the otherside, so I hit the deck, a good sized doe came running almost over the top of me followed by two younger does, and another shot ripped through the leaves, I hollered out to the ' hunter' , but another shot came, then I heard him running through the brush towards me, I peeked up, and he' s got his rifle leveled almost right at me, I was right between him and the deer, I rolled out a shot into the ground to get his attention and hollered if he didn' t port his rifle I might have to drop it for him...sorry, didn' t see you there he says.
