One day I didn't catch anything but my thumb

Machias just shared a hillariously horrible one in the chat room. Maybe he'll care to share it again.

Went to Cheyenne WY and bought a trapping license one morning. Arrived at my home away from home about noon. Big chunk of my cat line is deeded ground. Get permission for killing coyotes. Went to see the rancher. Its remote. Gets his mail once a week. County guy heads up the road with a trailer and bulldozer once a week in winter. Mailman follows. They stop at each drift and county guy opens the road with the dozer. Road was open had a nice visit. Started snowing. Hard. Wind was blowing. Hard. I headed back. Couldn't see to good. Got stuck in a drift. Wind was blowing snow under my pickup faster than I could shovel it out. Had gas, had food and water. Next morning wind was still blowing but it had stopped snowing. Was bad cold. Truck was buried. Could get out the driver side window. Was 7-8 miles back to the ranch. Was a long walk that day. Walked backwards cause of the wind. Had actually blown the snow off most of the road. His wife opened the door when I got there and asked if had any frostbite as she pulled me inside. I was fine. Just a bit chilly. Helped her husband feed calves then he drove to my pickup with a big tractor and we dug, pulled it out. Could see now so drove off the road up the side of the hill where snow was blown off and around the drift. Did that a couple more times and got back late afternoon right before dark. Lost a day of setting but it all worked out.

I was running a marten line on a snowmachine when I fried the engine about 5 miles in. The snow was midthigh deep with just enough crust to almost hold my weight. I post holed my way out, the last mile on a fairly well used trail without a single rider going by. When I reached my truck a whole group was unloading. I learned to always pack a set of snowshoes.

I check traps and caught nothing....it was terrible.

was walking over a dead fallen cedar tree and had ahold of a limb to help me step down. It broke and I fell face first and hit a staub. There is no doubt would have impaled me thru my upper chest. The only thing that stopped it was the thick jacket I had on and the leather shoulder holster I was wearing that I carry my 22 revolver in. If I had been setting only not checking I would not have had the holster on. Cedar when it dries is hard as steel..

Had a nasty bruise for over a month

Lets just say it involved a Skunk.

Falling into the water mink trapping usually on one of the coldest days of the year. After those experiences, decided I will never join a polar bear club for a winter dip.

Checking beaver traps one really cold clear night. I had to hike in about 100 yards from my sled. Put on my chest waders and snowshoes. Got to the last trap and had a good sized beaver (60+) and put it in an old duffle bag and sinched it on my back then started hiking back when I stepped through the snow about chest deep. Snowshoes got tangled up in some willows under the snow and I fell backwards. There I laid staring up into the sky. With my heavy coat I couldn't get the bag off my back and couldn't reach the zipper. Finally after a lot of flailing around got my coat off and the bag off. Ended up post holeing dragging the beaver back to my sled. Got home around midnight after about 2 hours swimming through the snow.

Probably today was worst, cuz i got distracted
Back tire is off in a deep hole

Asked the wrong guy to go along. 3 year nightmare and lost the best part of my line, too old to fight! That was the worst trapping experience in 44 years!

Beat day was 3 black wolves. Sorry being off subject just needed to clear my mind from the above experience!

I dispatched a coyote w a .22 to the head, got down on my knees to take the trap off his foot, he stood up so I finished the job with my chain stake driver. Scared the crap out of me, thats not supposed to happen.......I will admit I had a not so nice dream about it.

I don't have a worse.

I've had critters come to at the wrong time in the wrong place.

The guy that invited himself to trap with me.
He has passed now so I guess I can tell the story without making anyone mad.
I had an acquaintance over a few years with the guy. He had been a hound guy but was getting into trapping. He really didn't trap much because of his health but talked about it a lot. I was trapping out of State and I get this phone call he is on the way, totally out of the blue. I had never even discussed him going with me. He showed up and parked his motorhome next to me. He never did much except ride around with me, not a big deal. One evening he comes over to watch me skin. I was living and skinning in a 16 foot trailer. He sat on the bed and watched me skin beaver. Everything else I skinned on the line. That evening I had 13 beaver to skin. and had got through about 4 when he asked if he could try one. I said sure. I had to get some hides in the freezer and do some cleaning up outside. I asked him if he knew what to do to get started on one and he said yes so I went out. I use a fillet knife for whacking the feet off and cutting up the belly. He had that in hand when I left. While outside I heard a minor noise from him and thought, well he probably made a boo boo, no bigey. A bit later I opened the door to unbelievable carnage. The guy has somehow stuck the knife right through the palm of his hand and severed an artery. And then instead of holding pressure on it I guess he went into shock and slowly turned 360 degrees a few times while blood squirted all over the inside of my living quarters. Everywhere, the walls, the bed, sink , cabinets even the ceiling. it looked like a scene from a horror, slasher flic.
I grabbed a roll of paper towels and duct tape and wrapped it as tight as I could, bundeled him into the pick up and off to the hospital. I was in the ER until about 3:00 AM when they decide to admit him for several days. Went back to my trailer cleaned blood off the walls and bed until early in the morning, skinned the remaining 9 beaver and went trapping without sleep.

It ain't over yet though. The doctor tells me the guy has heart failure and diabetes and is in pretty bad shape so when they let him out he needs to get home to his doctor. He had broke his windshield on his motorhome on the way down and cannot leave until it gets fixed. I make arrangements but have to wait for parts so he is back riding with me. The last day he is pretty lethargic so after we get home I check on him in the evening. He is practically in a coma so I call for an ambulance and back to the hospital. They keep him and say he is bad. I called his wife. She said "If he doesn't die you can bring him home"
Anyway, I had to stay several days after I needed to go home so I could haul him home, get his motorhome fixed and finally get out of there. His motorhome stayed and I guess relatives came and picked it up.

Beaver trapping in a narrow deep creek. Have a 750 on a 10' drowning rod that goes straight down and buried solid in the bottom. I'm putting in a castor mound set for a front foot catch. I am squatting behind the small mound finishing the set by bedding the trap. Somehow managed to hit the pan with both hands inside the trap. Lose my balance and slide head first down the rod to a watery death. Wake up but it still sucked.

Took a briar square in the eye on the first stop of the day one year. Had to drive and check the rest of my line with tears pouring out of my eye and a whole lot of pain. Finally got the line run which took awhile because it was one of the better checks I had all season. Made it to the eye doctor who I have been going to forever and all she did was look at me and say "Wow, you did get poked pretty good. I am sure you have some interesting story about this." She was not surprised it happened while I was running around in the woods at 4 in the morning. The amazing thing is after she medicated it and patched me up it was totally healed up in a day or so.

I also caught my thumb in a 220 Bridger magnum. It was a super cold morning and it hit my right where the thumb and hand meet. No gloves just bare skin. Lucky for me my setters were still in reach. It didn't look too bad but I couldn't feel my thumb. It stayed that way for over 6 months. I can now feel my thumb again but when it gets cold I can tell exactly the line the jaws hit me.

Had a feral cat take a good bite out of my finger, on a Sunday. Finally Monday came and I dropped it off to be tested per the health dept request. Received a phone call a couple days later. I answered with great expectation only to be asked what I did with the cat. They called me back 3 or 4 hours later to tell me they found it and were having it tested but the whole ordeal took time off my life I’m sure of it.

It didn’t help that I googled rabies and had every symptom listed and 2 that weren’t on the list. Rough week that was.

one time i didn't catch anything,never let that happen again.

Overflow at -40 below zero, in water for 3 hours, with friend, rode back 14 miles.

Or it could of been catching 8 fingers in a 330, breaking 3 of them, and riding back 55 miles on a snow mobile with 3 BROKEN FINGERS. Pull starting it hurt the worst!

Or it might be when I wrecked my snow mobile, BROKE BOTH MY ARMS, took 5 advil (all I had), and rode back 27 miles with 2 broken arms. Bad head concussion, blood coming out both ears.

But it should have been when I blew up my snow mobile's motor, and had to walk out 18 miles, to the road. Turns out, that wasn't that bad at all, just a long walk on a long day. Got a ride after 6 mile walk.