Ever gotten in trouble while outdoors alone?

Oh, lost keys and lost phone 2x
Found the phone both times, friend found his keys and had to drive to another friends house to pick up keys and another friends wife had to drive 1.5 hours to meet us to drop off keys…keys got locked in the vehicle the second and third time.
 
Locked keys in trunk while duck hunting. That was no fun. Luckily found a piece of wire out near the road, was able, after about 8000 attempts to unlock a door, but this was back when cars did not have remote trunk release and well before cell phones.

Then had to basically take the back seat out of the car to access the trunk and found keys. All told i would guess took me roughly 4 hours. Car was a 1974 Ford Maverick.

Also buried a van in mud way back in a field. Had to dig with my hands and I stuffed branches, bark, floor mats to get free. That was even worse I think because I had skipped out of work, didn't tell wife and she expected me home at about 5:30pm. Got home near 9:30. Again, pre-cell phone.
 
I've had to many close calls to mention. I did a lot of stupid crap in my younger days. My wife doesn't think I'm all that smart now! Some that come to mind are, could have easily drowned twice, hopelessly lost in the Minnesota wilderness, blew an A.C.L. in the middle of the National forest.
 
Forgot the best one. Was duck hunting and waded out to get a downed bird in my lake. Got about 40 yards and the muck was so deep could not get me feet out. I struggled to get loose for over an hour and figured I was going to die out there. Every attempt to get feet loose led to a deeper, more stuck predicament.

Finally filled my waders with cold water. That provided enough lubrication to get my feet out of the waders and I swan, crawled back to shore. (after getting duck). Nearly froze to death and those waders are still somewhere out there.
 
While beaver trapping I heard dogs barking in the distance. Insistently, like they had something cornered. Curiousity got me and I just followed the barks to a small frozen pond with 3 dogs broke thru the ice dead center of the pond. Long story short I got them all out with a ladder laid flat to disperse my weight and a piece of rope with a lasso on the end. Figured worst case scenario I break thru I could use the ladder to get up on the ice. My truck was right there. I briefly considered shooting them until I found the ladder at the nearest house. My Dad once ran a broad head arrow in his ass cheek…nother story for another time.
 
Murph reminded me of my mud story. Four years ago I was hunting snow geese by a lake and it was a Monday and I was alone. I had knee high muck boots. I decided to take a shorter route back to the truck at sunset that brought me close to the lake bed, There was a drought and the water was way out. Well the ground started to turn white and I knew I was in trouble. I could see solid ground about ten yards away. I got stuck and thought I don’t want to get out of here and have to leave my boots. I am a tenderfoot, I could never go barefoot even as a kid. I had a folding chair which I tried to use to get out. it is still there unless somebody got it. My calves are huge so my boots were very snug. There is a joke in my family I could have been a calf model. 🤣 My daughter dated athletic guys in high school and college and they would say what work outs does your dad do for calves. She would laugh and say my dad work out. I finally got out and got my boots out. Now I am muddy, sweaty, and cold and still almost a mile from the truck. So I haul ass to the truck. I remember while driving to the motel I had to pull over because I was coughing so bad. Struggling in that cold air was hard on my lungs. I get to the motel sneak in the back way because I was really muddy. That mud was half clay and half super glue. OMG a regular wash cloth in the shower would not get it off me. I showered for 30 minutes. I thought I might get a call from the motel saying I owed them some new towels. 😀

I think I told my only other bad situation when a cow moose tried to stomp me in the ground. Jeez, maybe I should give up hunting and take up something like stamp collecting.
 
Fishing below a dam on the Missouri River in SD, we got too close to the dam in our rental boat and were casting but not going downstream we were being suck into the vortex. I yelled at my buddy driving the boat to put it in reserve, he almost swamped the boat when he gunned it. Lucky for us it was enough to get us floating downstream to safety. Yes of course we had life jackets in the boat, young and dumb.

My big male lab bloated two miles from the truck in the National Forest. He weighted 95 pounds, so carrying him wasn't an option. I had to out walk him and keep calling his name. If I stopped, he stopped and laid down. We made it to the truck and 45 miles to the vet and they did surgery (it had been 2 plus hours at that point). He lived to hunt a few more times but his stomach was never right (it would fill with air at times, he looked like he swallowed a basketball). No more big labs for me.

Like Carp I fell through the ice in the cattails on the Hi Line of Montana (probably 15 years ago). It was a blizzard and the ice was bad, my buddy went to the truck. I was wet to the waist, but I kept hunting and killed a limit, then went to the truck. My female lab saw the truck at 1/2 mile and bolt for the truck, she had never done anything like that in there life, apparently she had, enough! It took hours for me to fully warm up.

Got lost in the Bob Marshall Wilderness hunting mountain goats in the fog. I pulled out my compass and argued with it for 10 minutes, how the hell can it be off by 180 degrees (I finally admitted, I was off by 180.....).
 
BrowningCitori said:
Fishing below a dam on the Missouri River in SD, we got too close to the dam in our rental boat and were casting but not going downstream we were being suck into the vortex. I yelled at my buddy driving the boat to put it in reserve, he almost swamped the boat when he gunned it. Lucky for us it was enough to get us floating downstream to safety. Yes of course we had life jackets in the boat, young and dumb.

My big male lab bloated two miles from the truck in the National Forest. He weighted 95 pounds, so carrying him wasn't an option. I had to out walk him and keep calling his name. If I stopped, he stopped and laid down. We made it to the truck and 45 miles to the vet and they did surgery (it had been 2 plus hours at that point). He lived to hunt a few more times but his stomach was never right (it would fill with air at times, he looked like he swallowed a basketball). No more big labs for me.

Like Carp I fell through the ice in the cattails on the Hi Line of Montana (probably 15 years ago). It was a blizzard and the ice was bad, my buddy went to the truck. I was wet to the waist, but I kept hunting and killed a limit, then went to the truck. My female lab saw the truck at 1/2 mile and bolt for the truck, she had never done anything like that in there life, apparently she had, enough! It took hours for me to fully warm up.

Got lost in the Bob Marshall Wilderness hunting mountain goats in the fog. I pulled out my compass and argued with it for 10 minutes, how the hell can it be off by 180 degrees (I finally admitted, I was off by 180.....).
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I’m a sugar tit (obvious)…most of my emergencies involved having milky way’s not snickers, that kind of “situation”…there’s some serious stuff mentioned here…😬
 
2point said:
My weirdess one was elk hunting. I was trekking up a super steep mountain and it then got even steeper. I was grabbing bushes to pull myself up the mountain. Of course I was out of breath and had my mouth wide open. One of the branches broke and a small twig flew in my mouth and went down my windpipe. I hacked and cough and thought OMG what a way to die. Finally got it out and went back to the truck. That probably was a one in a million shot.
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I don’t mean to make light of that, but it is a bit funny just how wild it is!
 
As far as hunting related goes, I fell a couple years ago on some slick ice walking the edge of some cattails. I fell and dislocated my shoulder and was about a mile from the truck, temps were around 0 with about a -10 windchill. Trying to carry my gun, keep the dogs in check and navigate cattails to get back to the truck was excruciating! I then had to drive back 2 hours to a hospital by home and had to wait another 2hrs there. All told it was about 5-6hrs from the time I fell to when they put it back in. The doctor was amazed I didn't pass out from the pain while driving back. He said my pain threshold was amazing as most people would have lost it after about an hour of it being like that. I can confirm that it is some of the worst pain I have felt. Luckily I have done it 2 other times since then so as soon as it happens I know and head straight to the ER.
 
waterdog09 said:
As far as hunting related goes, I fell a couple years ago on some slick ice walking the edge of some cattails. I fell and dislocated my shoulder and was about a mile from the truck, temps were around 0 with about a -10 windchill. Trying to carry my gun, keep the dogs in check and navigate cattails to get back to the truck was excruciating! I then had to drive back 2 hours to a hospital by home and had to wait another 2hrs there. All told it was about 5-6hrs from the time I fell to when they put it back in. The doctor was amazed I didn't pass out from the pain while driving back. He said my pain threshold was amazing as most people would have lost it after about an hour of it being like that. I can confirm that it is some of the worst pain I have felt. Luckily I have done it 2 other times since then so as soon as it happens I know and head straight to the ER.
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I separated my shoulder in a bad fall skied, and that was very very painful!!
 
2point said:
My weirdess one was elk hunting. I was trekking up a super steep mountain and it then got even steeper. I was grabbing bushes to pull myself up the mountain. Of course I was out of breath and had my mouth wide open. One of the branches broke and a small twig flew in my mouth and went down my windpipe. I hacked and cough and thought OMG what a way to die. Finally got it out and went back to the truck. That probably was a one in a million shot.
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This one's not on that level but it reminded me of one. Coon hunting miles from the truck through heavy timber and brush. Walking pretty fast to see what my wire was fighting and rammed a stick in my good eye. I'm blind in one so I thought I was in trouble. I sat down on the ground and when I reached up to my eye, I felt this little stick sticking out. I didn't know what to do so I pulled it out. Miraculously, it went into the outside corner over an inch. There must not be anything important in there because I pulled it out, blinked a couple times and took off. Never even felt uncomfortable. My wire had an opossum.
 
benelli-banger said:
Been lost a few times, even sharptail hunting in pothole country in ND when fog rolled in…that was a few hour adventure. Other than that, no broken legs, car that won’t start in the middle of nowhere, dog that had to be carried several miles (3/8 mile), being held at gunpoint by rednecks, etc…any scary situations????
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Two memorable times.
1. I fell through the ice in a beaver run on a frozen river. It was single digits that day and getting toward evening. I could just touch on my tip toes, so I threw my gun as far as I could toward shore and gave a big hop up and managed to freeze myself to the ice, my dog was licking me in the face while I crawled my way out of that hole and to shore. Shitty thing was I was on the wrong shore and had to recross again. I was hypothermic by the time I reached the truck. It took me a while to get my body to regulate again.........just dumb!!!!

2. I was on a deer hunt in NE Colorado, rolling hills pinyon pine and sage brush. The fog and snow came in and I was completely lost. I was arguing with my compass, my map, my judgement and I found a Section marker that USGS had put in the ground which told me exactly where I was, and hell, I was arguing with myself that it was misplaced as well. It was mid morning when this started and late afternoon, I saw a truck in the fog and although it looked like my truck, I was convinced that it couldn't be, because it just didn't look like it was in the right spot. I decided to wait until the owner showed up and ask for help.......It was my truck!!!! I was both very lucky that day!!!! I learned a valuable lesson that I hope I remember if I ever find my self in the same situation.......Don't move and trust in your equipment, not your own judgement.
 
Relatively minor stuff (knock on wood). Getting soaked. Getting stuck. Flat tire. Friday Ace found a barbed wire fence (I assume) & required stitches. But the wound hardly even bled. I've been pretty lucky, but I'm more cautious than I once was.

A few years ago I went duck hunting with a friend near Arlington, SD. The slough had frozen over night, so we were breaking ice with his tiny, plastic "Stealth" duck boat. Didn't take long before we started to feel uncomfortable about things & got out of there. The very next day, a couple guys were doing the exact same thing on a practically identical slough only two miles away. Boat capsized & both drowned. One body remained under the ice all winter long before finally being found. That was eerie & made me thankful we turned back when we did.
 
Last spring, I wanted to check out a section of a Waterfowl Production Area that you can only access when the water is frozen. Nila, Sage and I walked back there and there was a small open spot where the water was shallow (the pre 1997 shoreline) and Sage ran over, fell in, but pushed off the lake bottom and climbed out. I figured it was maybe 18" deep or so, but still made a point to give it a wide berth. We made it across and scoped out what I wanted to see (a few pheasants, but they wouldn't be back there with any type of snow) and headed back.

This time, it was Nila who decided to check it out. She goes in and is not able to get back out. After 20 seconds or so of struggling mightily, she starts this awful crying noise and I figured I'd better go get my boots wet and help her out. As I get close to the open water, I can see the bottom of the lake and am guessing it to be about 24" deep when the ice gives way and I'm in over my belly button. I bob over to where Nila is at and lift her out, start trying to climb out, but the ice is soft and breaks. After not too long, I was in knee deep water and the ice held me enough to where I could climb out. I still have no idea how Sage was able to get out so easily when she went in earlier. Magic, I suppose.

Fortunately, it was sunny and in the upper 30's that day. The mile plus walk back to the truck was uncomfortable, but not debilitating. Still, I learned a valuable lesson that day. And it's one I saw discussed on Facebook when the MN hunter died trying to rescue his dog. Some folks will argue until they're blue in the face that it's "just a dog" and a human life is more important. While logically, we all recognize that to be true, I doubt there are many on this forum that would stand on the shore and listen and watch our best friends struggle for the last few moments of their life without doing something. I'd die for my dog, and I know how dumb that sounds, but I can't help how I feel. But knowing that helps me to be extra vigilant to keep the pups on solid ground or hardwater, as the case may be.
 
benelli-banger said:
Many scary stories here involving water, ice, cattails, etc…note to self!
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My thoughts exactly.

My wife and I have an on-going disagreement about me hunting alone. I don't do it often, maybe twice a year, but it really makes her worry. She'd prefer I not do it at all. It helps if I stay closer than an hour or so. Fortunately we don't have a lot of cattail sloughs in the parts of Kansas I hunt. The bigger risk is stepping in a critter hole and jacking up your knee.

No real close calls for me. Stuck trucks, flat tires, icy roads, etc. but nothing that really made me worried.
 
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