I was elk hunting in tall,thick brush on a pretty steep slope. It was early and we'd had a pretty good frost that night. I jumped up on a big gray back log that was laying in front of me running vertical on the slope. My feet hit that frosty log and I started down the log my feet spinning as fast as they would go. As I started to fall I could see this broke off limb about a foot long that it looked like I was going to be impaled on. I couldn't get enough traction to throw my body to the side and down I went. The limb went between my legs and tore my pants about an inch from my hind end. All I could think as I was falling was that my dad and brother was going to have a tough time finding me in that brush and I would be there impaled forever.

Thanksgiving day sometime in the late 1990's: Decided I needed to take a day to refill the woodshed. Hooked the sled to the snowmachine and took off for a patch of dead spruce about a mile away.
Drop a couple tress and buck into four foot lengths. Pack them over to the sled and grab the ax to get rid of the stubs.
I'm sort of bent over and chopping an a stubborn limb....breathing hard in the cold.

All of a sudden a chip of bark the size of a dime flies in my mouth and lodges in my airway. I can't breathe.

I smile a bit thinking no one knows where I am. Nearest human is about 70 miles away. No one will miss me for weeks. What a strange way to go.

Then I spy the crossbar at the back of the sled. I stand on the runners and fall across the handle bars. Two times,, nothing.Finally the third time the homemade Heimlich maneuver works and the bark shoots out of my mouth.

The lesson is...........always keep your mouth shut even when you're alone.

My first one, we were youngsters and would go rabbit hunting behind a warehouse one day we're walking in the field we stopped and one of my brothers started sinking in desert quick sand. That eventually happened to all of us with various quick sand pits. Our buddies brother was the scariest and funniest. He was maybe 5 he started sinking and was fighting it we got him pulled out and he carne out wearing socks and underwear . We were laughing so hard in between getting punished from our owners and our buddies mom.

Lots of near misses with ricocheted bullets flying by my ears.


Trapping related....
Few years back I had a big Tom on a cliff ledge with a walk through set. I was trying to figure out how to approach it as it was a back foot catch and he was not a happy cat. The ground was snow and ice on top of decomposed granite. The only way to to safely approach was from downhill with a 150'-200' drop. Boots kept sliding as I was trying to dispatch. Couldn't tell if the smell was the skunk or my shorts

Wow Ken, that has to be one of the oddest accidents I've ever heard of, but I can see how it could happen. It would be unexpected for sure. My nose has been broke so many times it doesnt work to good so Im always breathing out of my mouth. Im going to remember to keep it closed when Im using an axe!

Fell out of a kayak in a raging creek that I should not have been paddling that day

Great stories all you guys. I now realize I've lived a very dull life.

I was coonhunting one night about 2 miles from a very rural road. A little patch woods/ old abandoned farm. I was standing waiting on hounds to settle on tree and as they began to “lock down” I started walking towards them through the brush. I stopped to listen and get an idea of direction towards the hounds when ground gave out from under me and one leg fell in a hole. I promptly pulled my leg out and began to look at what I stepped into. I found a old sticks and boards covering a the low spot I had stepped in so I pulled a few out of the way. I was horrified, I was standing on a deep hand laid brick cistern or well that had been long covered with brush and sticks. It had to be 20ft deep. Was so lucky only one leg broke through and I didnt completely fall in. No one would have found me for days. I went back days later in daylight and covered the well with a steel plate and tried my best to fence and mark the area around it.

When I was a younger braver dumber fella I was ripping around on a three wheeler one night in a field with a buddy. We had made probably a dozen laps around a small field cutting through a narrow gap in a fence row. When we were done riding and back at the garage having some adult beverages I noticed marks on the crown of the helmet I had been wearing. They were deep scratches in the paint. Got kind of a funny feeling about it and went back out to where we were riding. Sure enough the gap in the fence row had a single strand of barb wire about head high on a three wheeler. The many times my buddy and I had made through that tree line we didn’t know but evidently the tops of our helmets were just barely the height of that wire! Who knows what could have happened if we’d not been crouched down on those 3 wheelers.

Interesting stories. Luckily I do not have any outdoor related ones. I do have 4-5 others where I faced death and thought this was/should have been it. White 17 I can relate to the choking and thinking. Luckily the first (and only) time I tried to take a huge potassium pill the doctor prescribed my wife was there. Darn thing got lodged in my throat and I couldn't breath/talk. My 8 1/2 months pregnant wife figured it out and was trying to do the heimlich which as you can imagine was not working out. I am trying to reach it but to no avail. I start to black out and my thought was "Man. I am going to die choking on a dumb pill." Luckily the heimlich barely worked the last time and I was able to get a breath. I only mention that non-outdoor related to bring up the odd things that cross your mind when you realize that this is it. I have thought a lot the last few months that I believe this Corona has some people so scared because they have never faced death and really can't handle the thought.

I was bow hunting early season years ago and fell backwards out of the stand. I remember seeing my feet past my head and thinking I was gonna land on my head. Somehow I flipped and hit square on my feet. Broke my back
In three places and crushed my left heel. I was alone and ended up dragging myself out to my truck then driving to a golf course where some golfers call 911. Tough day!!! I still suffer for being stupid enough to hunt without a safety harness.

I can't compete with that, Ken. That's a great story, crazy story. Lots of great stories up above.

One of my old coon hunting buddies used to smoke a pipe. When you are a coon hunter you sometimes have 22 shells in every pocket you have. He kept his pipe tobacco in one pocket and reached the pipe in and packed it full. Proceeded to fire that thing up and crack !! He had accidentally packed a 22 shell into the pipe. Blew a nice clean hole right through the bottom. He told me he just stood there for a little while because he thought maybe it had hit him and he just didn't know it yet. He set the pipe above his fireplace.

I took a date on a walk out on Lake Michigan to check out the push ups and ice volcanoes. We were having a great and daring time. I slipped and fell into a crevice. I wasn't hurt, I caught myself but that was probably one of the slowest and scariest moments of my life.

This fall while trapping fisher I picked up a tick attached to my side. Thought nothing of it, my wife helped me remove it, we washed the wound and put peroxide on it, and forgot about it.
About a week later I became very, very sick: High temperature, Tremors, chills,shortness of breathm.. and hallucinations.Went to the doctor and they tested for the flu and for covid. Next day they called and said I did not have the flu, but Covid test would take several days to come back. I rapidly became weaker. The following day I was so sick that my wife insisted on calling the doctor and he advised getting me to the emergency room. I was so weak that it took me an hour to change clothes to go.
When I got to the hospital one of the questions was if I had been bitten by a tick and when I replied in the affirmative that set off some bells. I thought sure I had Covid, but a 2hour test proved that to be negative. They ran all kinds of tests, drew blood, and stuck me with all kinds of needles. After 5 hours they came back and told me they were admitting me; that I had anaplasmosis.
They were running IV's in both arms. When I got to my room I was panting from shortness of breath. Turns out that much IV liquids was filling my lungs.At lone point I had two doctors and two RN's working on me. I could not sleep because of the hallucinations.
The next day I was a little better.One nurse that was a friend of mine told me that I was near death when they received me.
This disease has an adverse affect upon your organs and it had affected my kidneys, liver,lungs, and weakened, my heart. The treatment was doxycycline for a month and gradually everything returned to normal. I had a friend pull some of my traps and when I was strong enough my wife and I pulled the rest.
My doctor told me that I was very lucky, that he had patients that had died from this, particularly older guys.Also he said many survivors have long term adverse affects. I have none.
I'm not going to stop trapping fisher, but I sure am going to take many added precautions. My clothing is going to be sprayed, fishers will into a bag and be sprayed, and a daily shower and self exam is critical. I've been bit by ticks in the past and fisher seem likely to carry them. Caution is the name of the game and you can pick up a tick outdoors without ever contacting an animal.
I hope my story can help prevent this happening to any other trapper or hunter.

Blew a jug on a snowmachine on the ice on the Arctic Ocean coming back in from a muskox hunt. Walked 16 mile Death March into a 30 mph wind at -30 degrees to reach the village of Kaktovik. Froze several places on my face. (I'm done hunting musk-ox....)

Accident with team of sled dogs in 1979. Traumatic dislocation of L shoulder. Humerus did not go back into socket; it went back up UNDER the socket. My buddy got it back in (I passed out during this process.) Bad weather, couldn't be medevac-ed for 2 days. My pain meds were asprin and whiskey! Finally got flown to a hospital. (I'm done caribou hunting with a dog team...)

2007, hunting in Australia, squib load exploded in the .308 I was using. Blew out the side of the rifle. Wood splinters, bits of burned gun powder and shards of brass imbedded in my R eye. Four hours out to a paved road and another hour to a rural clinic. Then sent to a small hospital. Finally the Royal Victorian Eye/Ear Hospital in Victoria. Finally flew back to the States where I had the eye operated on and the shrapnel removed. Had the stitches in my eye for 3 1/2 months. Finally healed up and most vision was retained. (I'm done hunting kangaroos too!)

Pete

Pete for the WIN!!
Glad you’re still kicking!

I year vacation in Southeast Asia 68-69. Chui Hoi.