Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Close call

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Close call

    Got the ole ticker pumping this evening.

    The wife wanted to get out of Houston since nothing is going on so we came up to the ranch today to enjoy some peace and quiet and possibly try to put an axis in the freezer. After an uneventful hunt this evening i get back to the cabin and take a shower and by this time it has gotten dark out. On the way to the ranch i picked up a bottle of Codigo anejo and was looking forward to trying it tonight. After i get cleaned up i ask my wife who is six months pregnant if she would like to go sit on the porch and enjoy the full moon. Well we get all set up and we both are kicked back in a couple chairs with our feet up on the hand rail and my chocolate lab comes strolling by sniffing away and she goes right under my legs and i can tell something is up as soon as she gets close to my wife the dog flinches and basically falls backwards. Now she has been through snake avoidance training multiple times and that is the only time i have seen her do that is when we have been to the refresher classes. I immediately knew what was up but didn’t want to freak my wife out since the snake was under the hand rail her feet were on. I told her to keep her legs in the air and i was gonna pull her chair back. Once i get her at safe distance i ask her to turn the light on her phone on and next thing i know drinks are flying and she’s *** and elbows back in the house. I hurry in grab my gun and go back out and make sure quick work of our unwelcome rattle snake guest. To say i am grateful to my lab tonight is an understatement but my wife hasn’t let go of her and keeps giving her treats and kisses for saving our future baby boy. So far since this incident she has received chicken fajitas, cheese and a hot dog.
    So much for our peace and quiet tonight.

    What are some of yalls close calls?

    #2
    Originally posted by Gclyde12 View Post
    What are some of yalls close calls?
    The other night we were getting ready to go out to dinner and my wife asked if her new dress made her look fat.

    I said actually, it does.

    Her: WHAT!
    Me: What?
    Her: You said I'm fat!
    Me: Did not.
    Her: You said I'm fat!
    Me: I misunderstood the question. You know I'm deaf.

    Comment


      #3
      Glad it didn’t get either one of you guys !

      One night in Rocksprings my cousin and I set one of the hog traps , we had been up really late and decided to go check the trap before going to bed .
      So as we pull up to trap I open the door to step out (in crocs) and apparently straddled a 5ft rattle snake with the truck if I would have stepped out I would have stepped right in the middle of him !
      Lesson learned I never wear any thing but snake boots no matter what !


      Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

      Comment


        #4
        Man, I haven't had an encounter with a snake like that yet...although I went to put a cover on a riding lawn mower. Before I did that, I started 'er up, ran it in place for a few minutes, got off, kicked the tires, lifted the back end up and set the wheels down on the tarp... Then I go to lift the front end to put the other end up the tarp under the front tires... I hear the rattle... Message heard loud and clear. I don't know where you are, but I'm ok with the mower getting rained on until I come back a month later

        The closest I've probably ever been to being in a really bad spot though was when I had a 12' high platform with a homemade ladder made of extra 2x6 I had... I was too cheap to buy a real ladder. Well, I was going up there for an evening hunt one night and I got about 10' up, took the backpack off and set it on the platform, then the next thing I know I'm head straight down. The rung I made broke.

        It's crazy how much you can think in the milliseconds you get before you hit the ground. I literally remember thinking about the possibility (probability) I was going to break both my legs, how to communicate with my buddy I had fallen, and what the best possible way to try and land was. I ended up with nothing more than a scratch and a ripped pair of jeans. I landed on both feet, ended up on my butt really quickly.

        Comment


          #5
          Close calls that could have hurt me? A lot.

          Close calls that could have killed me? It's hard to say since I didn't die but I can think of like 6 for sure that could have been the end of me. Maybe more but I can't think of them right off the bat. I've done a lot of stupid things and have had a lot of stupid things happen to me so who knows.

          I quit counting close calls with snakes since I provoke those so things are bound to happen. So far only two bites and one scratch on my finger. That fang barely missed.

          Comment


            #6
            Was @ the beach, helping a 4 yr old niece fly a kite when the string broke. Kite landed about 100 yds out in the salt grass. I head out in my flip flops and shorts and get about 10 yds from said kite when I hear the buzz of a rattler. Stopped dead in my tracks. Couldn't see it. Then saw movement in the grass headed away from me. Decided the rattler could have the kite!

            Comment


              #7
              Was walking back to the cabin after an evening hunt many years ago and felt a thump on the side of my boot. I stopped and looked down as the little rattle snake hit my boot again. He was only about 16 inches long he got stomped before he was able to hit me again. I walked the rest of the way to the cabin pulled off my boot. He didn’t get through the Danner elk hunter boot but the inside lining of the boot had yellowish stains where he hit the boot.

              Comment


                #8
                Eyeball to eyeball with a Grizzly at 20 yards in a blueberry patch. All I had with me was my Longbow.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I lived in Colorado and had a lot of Prairie Rattlers around. I caught one and put him in a fish tank and made a makeshift lid for it. I used to film him when I would throw a mouse in there. It was pretty wild watching him hunt and strike.
                  One night I was getting ready to hit the light switch and head to bed and for some reason I look over at the fish tank. The Rattlesnake is on top of the tank looking at me. I am wearing shorts, no shoes and realize I need to do something quick before he gets down and into a couch or something making for a long restless night. So I reach for what I could find and pick up a shoe and a deer antler and go at him. He is pizzed off and starts striking at me while I'm trying to whack him with the shoe. He looks up and strikes my antelope mount above the tank, I guess he's had enough of being cooped up. I start whacking him with the antler and I break the top of the tank and after chasing him around the living room avoiding his strikes and beating him to death finally. I decided to tan him and put him on my hatband which is why my nephew nicknamed me Rattlesnake Dan.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Phillip Fields View Post
                    Eyeball to eyeball with a Grizzly at 20 yards in a blueberry patch. All I had with me was my Longbow.
                    Tough to beat this 'close call'! Geez

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Phillip Fields View Post
                      Eyeball to eyeball with a Grizzly at 20 yards in a blueberry patch. All I had with me was my Longbow.
                      Rest of the story!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        She went by “Big Candy”.[emoji4]


                        Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by Mertzon Man View Post
                          Rest of the story!
                          The One That Got Away (ME)

                          It was September 1996 and we were hunting Barren Ground Caribou in Alaska. We were hunting the Mulchatna herd, west of Lake Iliamna. I was using a 62”, 65 lb draw weight longbow with Port Orford cedar arrows tipped with a 2-blade Magnus broadhead. There were three of us on the hunt; me, Russ, and Dennis. We had been dropped off at a high mountain lake by a Beaver float plane. There was a small grove of trees above the lake that had a nice little stream running through it. My buddy Dennis had hunted the area the year before and had traced the stream out to its head where it came out of the mountain just above camp and discovered there were no beaver with access to the stream due to its steepness, so we knew it was safe to drink out of. Many streams in Alaska look inviting but contain Ghiardia so you must be careful. The water was ice cold and had a great taste.

                          We set up camp, with the kitchen facilities 100 yards from the sleeping tents. We rigged up ropes to hoist our food supplies out of the reach of the bears. There were lots of bears in the area. We stretched a blue tarp between trees to provide a dry area where we could relax. After we got camp set up we gathered firewood and relaxed for the afternoon. In Alaska you can’t hunt on the same day you’re airborne. This was on the tundra so there are very few trees. Fortunately, there was a lot of driftwood piled up on the shores of the lake and this supplied a ready source of fuel for the fire.

                          Next morning after a good breakfast of flapjacks laced with fresh picked mountain blueberries we set out to hunt. I made sure all my necessities were loaded into my backpack. When hunting wilderness areas like this you need to be prepared for any emergency. Besides the normal hunting gear that I carry in my backpack, I had added some emergency items. I had a 2 day supply of freeze-dried food, bottle of water a small folding back-pack stove, stainless steel cup, a space blanket, water purification tablets, extra socks, extra down vest, rain gear, water proof matches, small first aid kit, extra compass, signal whistle, signaling mirror and paraffin fire starter. I also had a walkie-talkie but figured it would be of limited use in the mountainous terrain. Russ and Dennis would be hunting the ridges north of camp and I would be hunting alone on the mountain south of camp.

                          After a couple of hours of hiking, I found myself on top of the ridge where I had a good vantage point for glassing. I made myself comfortable and started to glass. I could see a couple of small bands of caribou but nothing I was interested in stalking. I continued to glass and saw more small bands of caribou, still nothing I wanted to stalk. Just before it was time to start back to camp I spotted a black bear on the slope below me. Since, in addition to my caribou tags I had a black bear tag I was interested. He was moving pretty fast so I didn’t think I could catch up to him. But since he was between me and camp I decided to give it a try. I did not catch sight of him again. Russ and Dennis arrived back at camp 20-30 minutes after I did. Russ had taken a small black bear. We put the bear meat in the stream downstream from camp and Russ salted down the hide.

                          Next morning when we got up we could see caribou on the ridge across the lake as well as on the ridge west of us. Since the ridge across the lake was near where I had hunted the previous day I would try for them. Russ and Dennis would go after the ones west of us. It took a couple hours to hike to the ridge top, and when I got there no caribou were to be seen. I prepared myself to spend the day glassing as I had the day before. I saw a few scattered caribou and a couple of black bears, but everything was too small or not in a good position to stalk. When I got back to camp Russ and Dennis were already there. Dennis had killed a caribou cow and he was taking care of the meat. Russ was grilling some bear steaks over a bed of alder coals. This was a young bear and he had been gorging on blueberries. That was some of the best meat I’ve ever eaten.

                          The third morning we elected to hunt the same areas we had the first morning. I got to my vantage point and settled in for some serious glassing. About mid-morning I spotted a band of caribou with a decent bull in the bunch. But they were moving fast and didn’t present an opportunity for a stalk. A few minutes later I spotted a black bear in a blueberry patch on the slope opposite my position. It looked like he would be in the patch for a while so I decided to try a stalk. Using my binoculars, I picked out a route that would take advantage of the alder thickets and a couple of ravines that would keep me out of sight until I was in position. I strapped my backpack on and started my stalk. Slightly over an hour later I had arrived at the head of the ravine that abutted the berry patch the bear was in. It had been at least 30 minutes since I had last been able to see the bear so I was hoping he was still in the patch. As quietly as I could I eased out of my backpack and nocked an arrow. I gave myself a few minutes to slow down my heartbeat and then eased up out of the ravine, longbow at ready.

                          When I cleared the top of the ravine the bear stood up about 20 yards away and stared at me. He was black in color, but he wasn’t a black bear – he was pure grizzly. This was a BIG bear. We stood there and stared at each other for what seemed an eternity. Among the thoughts running through my mind, the predominate one was that if he came for me, I was a goner. What should I do? I thought that if I just stood still he might not perceive me as a threat, but I also realized I was probably within his discomfort zone. He began to show some signs of irritation and began popping his teeth, so I decided I needed to do something. I knew I couldn’t out run him and running would probably provoke a chase response. There were no trees to climb. I was confident that I could kill him with my longbow, but I could not stop a full-on charge. I finally concluded that my best course of action was to slowly back over the lip of the ravine out of sight. I began to slowly back up, never taking my eyes off the bear. When I was out of eyesight and at my backpack, I dropped my bow and unstrapped the .300 Winchester Magnum rifle from my backpack. That big Magnum was a comfort to me, but I didn’t want to try to stop a charge at point-blank range. If he came over the lip of the ravine, he would be less than 10 yards from me when I first caught sight of him. As quietly as I could I gathered up my bow and backpack and eased my way down the ravine, clutching the Magnum at ready. It was still early but I made my way back to camp, I was through hunting for the day.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Phillip Fields View Post
                            Eyeball to eyeball with a Grizzly at 20 yards in a blueberry patch. All I had with me was my Longbow.
                            Mine was pretty similar. 10 yards from 2 brown bear cubs while fishing on the Kenai River. I looked at them and they were looking at me. Luckily, the sow didn’t see me. Only thing I had was a fly rod.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              But did you like the codigo?

                              We weren't impressed and went back to the Don

                              Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X