Worst was falling in cold water after tripping over a log hunting a roost slough. Thankfully my buddy was there to make sure I got out and made it to truck after a long walk out. Stupidest was coming within 10 feet of running up a barges ass end one foggy morning going bow hunting by myself. That one shook me up. First time in my life to see a barge running in those conditions I’ve always seen them tied up on the bank until the fog has lifted. That’s was on tombigbee in epes. Pretty sure that was my last trip by myself running the river before daylight. Winter and water is a bad combo

Probably more than I can remember but lots of beer late at night doing what we shouldn’t have been doing and my buddy blew a hole in my floorboard and transmission with my rifle. The three of us rode silent till my buddy who caused the accident asked if his foot was still there. Took a guy hunting and loaned him a rifle. We went for a walk at lunch with my buddy and when we got back to the truck and started unloading guns the gun I let him use went off. My buddy and me felt around for bullet holes but luckily he had it pointed away from us. I never took that guy hunting again.

Non really other than deer jumping off cliffs and needing a helicopter to get them.lol

Wasn't hunting, but was clearing out a spot at the camp to park our camper for the season. My dad, brother, and I were clearing out a spot for the camper and there were vines hanging from trees right over where dad wanted to put the camper. We had just about got it cleared and there was one more vine hanging. I pulled and pulled on it and couldn't get it out of the pine tree it was hanging from. I finally jumped as high as I could, grabbed the vine and the pine limb it was hanging from broke. Limb was about 6' long, about 6" in diameter, and about 30' up. When it broke, I hit the ground and was trying to get up when the limb hit me square on the head. Knocked me out cold and split my noggin wide open. Wound up having 18 stitches and concussion

I picked up a stone cold dead gobbler with a pair of daggers by the feet one time. He decided to death flop and ran a spur through my thumb and twisted it up until I thought the joint was going to pop. I finally subdued the floppng and I was able to untwist him before my thumb popped out of place. Always pick your gobblers up by the head initially, no matter how dead they are.

Was coon hunting one night, and while shaking a vine to make the coon look a 8” rotten limb broke and hit me square in the head. It knocked me out and, I am sure I had concussion from the symptoms for the following days. My buddy was able to bring me back to conscioness and we knocked out that coon and 2 more that night. Should have went to the ER, but I was to stubborn.

I also had the bottom of a climber with bungees drop off my feet. Luuckily I was able to drop myself down from the top and hook it with my feet to get it pulled back up, with a rifle on my shoulders. Stlill not sure how I managed to pull it off. I didn’t have the top and bottom tethered together, nor did I have a safety harness on. All of that stopped that day as I realized that I was not a ninja. I also stepped on a rattlesnake the next fall and decided that snake boots or chaps weren’t a bad idea either. God has looked out for me is my only excuse.

Cracked some ribs when I fell on a cypress knee pulling a deer out of a swampy area. Had my rifle on the other shoulder when I slipped - fell flat with no way to brace myself for the fall and took the knee directly to the ribcage. That one still hurts at times years later.

Few years back, I killed an axis buck. While cleaning him, I slipped in blood and put a tine about 5" deep in my right thigh.

Helicopter ride to Brooke Army in San Antonio kept me alive.

Damn, that is some tough luck.

It included downed barb wire in a creek bottom and a 4wheeler

AU Coonhunter jogged my memory , I've had mishaps being spurred by dead turkeys, several climbing tree stand near misses and a coon huntin' episode .

I was about 14 , I was coon huntin' with some other fellers way over in Paint Rock Valley. I was gonna shoot a coon out with a other fellers old 12 ga single barrel . I didn't know it had a super "hair trigger" . Feller told me after it was too late. It went off before I had it tight to my shoulder and jammed the action release into my hand , at the web between the thumb and index finger. What a bloody mess , wound up getting some stitches the next day.

I had a similar accident with camo coveralls while turkey hunting. It was the last day of the season and the coveralls were pretty worn out, so I just left them there. Definitely learned to take coveralls completely off and put them far away when doing jobs like that.

I was squirrel hunting with a cousin when I was 15 and we decided to split up for a while and then meet back up near our starting point. I got back before he did and sat down against a big tree. He came along and saw part of my head sticking out from the tree, decided it had to be a squirrel, and blasted me with #5 shot. He was about 40 yds away and most of the pellets didn't penetrate. One just missed my eye, but I didn't know that the pellet was in me until I had an x-ray a year later. It's still there and shows up any time I have a medical scan of any sort.

I didn't expect so many serious accidents in this thread.

Been lucky a couple times. Closest call was in Jackson Co in the 90's as a young hunter. Hiked way up towards the top then down a ridge. Had food and water for an all day sit. Fell asleep sitting under a big beechnut and woke up with snow covering the top of my legs. I figured I better start down the hill as I only had about 1-1/2hr till dark. Decided to go straight down hill to the valley rather than retracing steps and ended up on a bluff. I tried to go back up but kept sliding down. I was stuck. Luckily the old men always made me carry rope but it was only enough to lower my pack and rifle down but still about 7 ft off the ground. My only option was to jump to a small tree and try to coon it down. Took about 30 min to get the courage. I tried again to go up but would slide and feared I would pull a Hank Jr and fall down the whole Mnt. Jump was successful but that tree wasnt big enough so It bowed over and I rode it to almost the ground when it popped. Only fell about 5ft or so but a rock caught my head. Saw stars and had a bloody noggin but was walking down the hill towards camp in a blizzard when I heard a gun shot. I fired a shot back to answer. The old men were coming to find me. I heard their yells and walked towards them. They could tell I was a lil shook up so they doctored my head and gave me some whiskey. You could tell they were worried but also kinda proud the young buck made it out. Almost like I gained their respect that day.

I've been lucky over the years and never really had an "accident". I've been spurred by turkeys and kicked by not so dead deer a time or two but that's not really an accident. The closest I ever came to an accident was in a climber when I was a teenager. I had just shot a decent buck with my bow and was tying it to the pull up rope to lower it when the stand shifted to the side and about threw me out. I chucked that bow out of the tree and grabbed the pine before I went overboard. Broke both limbs on the bow when it hit the ground but totally worth dumping it.

Almost 20years ago Rushing down a dirt road with a buddy running late predawn going on a Turkey hunt, going probably 35-40mph rear ended of my jeep broke loose and slung us into a ditch and 4’ bank.

Jeep hit the ditch/bank with the right front tire and climbed right up on the bank at probably 35mph.

Jeep rolled so hard the passenger door hit my buddy in the head busted out the glass and buckled the door out.

We both bounced around like popcorn for a few seconds. I Got it to a stop luckily upright, but our gear and everything we had was slung through the soft top and windows in the back.

My right hip broke off the console between the seats and I’m pretty sure we busted heads a few times.

We regathered our bearing and figured out we were stiff and sore but not injured badly just roughed up pretty good.

As we were slowly trying to gather our gear out of the dirt road and licking our wounds, we had a gobbler let loose and fly down and cross the dirt road about 300 yards on up the road.

Both of us were too disoriented and stove up to go after it for a while.

I still don’t know how neither of us avoided going to the ER. Nowadays I’ll just run late, that running through ditches and banks is rough on a feller.

Not an accident but real close... back in high school buddy and me decided to go dove hunting behind his house. He had got a brand new 870 Wingmaster for Christmas the year before but had broke off the the silver piece that feeds the shell into the chamber while trying to unload a stuck shell with a screwdriver. We're standing in his car port and he's trying to load the gun and it goes off. The blast barely missed me but blew a hole in his dad's brand new Bass Tracker aluminum boat. After I gathered my wits I figured it was time to go and we never dove hunted that day...

I've had a couple treestand mishaps but I was younger then and bounced better than I would now. Guess the worst I've been hurt was on a 4 wheeler. It was prior to daylight and I was in high gear coasting the last couple hundred yards. I killed the headlights and just after the front right ball joint broke and I did a front flip. I thought I'd hit something initially. Took me a minute to get myself together. Lined the ball joint and put a ratchet strap around it a limped home to lick my wounds.

The closest I ever came to having a tragedy was about 10 years ago. I was bowhunting our club in Lowndes several years ago. I had hung an old steel Summit with the little hand climber on a tree a few weeks earlier. Janet's oldest son, Jeremy was with me that day as we were just riding around the club and hanging out. Anyway, I signed in, spoke to 2 old timers that were there and headed out. I didn't take my harness that day as it smelled like gas so I just took a safety strap that loops under your arm. I climbed the tree with no issues as usual. After hunting, I turned around, looped my boots in the loops and started down. On my second step down the stand didn't bite into the tree. I looked down and was terrified at what I saw. The angle arm that goes around the backside of the tree was just swaying. I instantly saw what was going on. Those old summit's arms had bolts on that angle arm that went into holes on the platform and you had a nut that you tightened. Evidently when hanging the stand that day, we were probably talking and I got distracted and just simply forgot to screw that nut onto the bolt. I had tightened one nut but not the other. Climbing up, the downward pressure kept the bolt in place. However, when I lifted the platform to come down, the bolt on the angle arm just came straight out and I no longer had anything to anchor myself to the tree. My feet were in the loops and I tried not to panic but I knew I was in a world of trouble. I had the hand climber under my arms and was trying to get the platform to bite just a little into the tree to give me something to brace my feet on.

After about a minute or so, I was finally able to get the platform at an angle enough to have some kind of bite into the bark. I was still 90% weight on the handclimber but if I didn't put too much weight on the platform to shift it, at least I could hold for a few minutes and figure something out. Thank God I had my cell phone in my shirt pocket and was able to dial the number of one of the guys I saw at camp. I had tried several times in the past to call him for one reason or another and he never once picked up. God answered my prayer and he answered. I tried to explain my situation to him but he was older and couldn't really understand what I was saying so he handed the phone to his friend. I then told Mike that I was in a bad situation and needed him to come as fast as he could and bring another climber. He said he was on the way! I figured if he could climb up, all he had to do was put the bolt back in a hole and tighten the nut. I had the nuts attached to the stand with wire to keep me from losing them so the nut was there, waiting to be attached to a bolt.

I then called my wife because she was going to worry if I wasn't home and as calm as I could, told her what was going on and help was on the way. She was crying and I had to calm her down even though I have to say, I was still terrified I was going to fall or hang there if that platform slipped. I got of the phone praying that was not the last time I heard her voice. I then spent the rest of the time looking at photos of my kids, my siblings, my dad, and just everything I could. I was praying so hard for God to keep me calm not to let me die out there and please let Mike be able to climb up and rescue me.

After 45 minutes (but seemed like 4 hours) of teetering precariously on that pine, I heard the SxS coming. Finally I saw the lights and he stopped. I had my flashlight and started hollering to him to let him know where I was. He hollered back that he could see me and OMG, seeing those lights coming down that logging road and then turning into the woods headed my way was the prettiest sight ever!

He got to my tree and attached a climber to the base and up he came. He finally got to me and with some effort (my legs were so cramped and fatigued from trying to keep the platform on the tree) I was finally able to level the stand enough for him to put a bolt through one of the holes and securely attach the nut. For the first time in over an hour I was able to stand on two feet on something stable. After some effort and with Mike leading the way, we both jacked down the tree and made it to the ground. I have never been so glad to be on terra firma in my life!! As soon as I got loose I gave him the biggest bear hug I could and was really overcome with emotion. I called my wife and we all just praised God that it turned out like it did. I have never been so scared in all my life but at the same time, had a peace that I was going to be ok.

Lesson now is never and I mean never not have a strap attached to you and the tree. Have a knife in easy each, and have your phone charged and in easy reach. Reliving that evening still haunts me.

That guy, who I literally owe my life to, is now in living in Texas with family and trapped in the depths of dementia and the other man who answered my desperation phone call passed away earlier this year. God bless them both. I will be forever grateful to both of them.

About 13 years ago was hunting on public land in Illinois in an Ole man climber. Was about an hour from the truck with nobody within hearing distance. Got about 12 feet in the air and one of the pins popped out of the arm and the seat disappeared underneath me. My feet were strapped in and I hung upside down for I dont know how long. In a final act of desperation I was trying to break my ankle and the plastic buckle on the strap broke clean in half. I have no memory of falling. Next thing I know im sitting on my but underneath the tree. Nothing hurt and I couldn’t even feel where i had impacted the ground. I was sure shook though. Like all the rest of these stories the Lord was looking out for us.

A lot of people who aren't around to tell about their hunting accident.

Nearly got bit by a big timber rattler..........twice. Both times nearly stepped on em but they were still cold from the night I guess. This was bowhunting in the morning on my way out. Coiled up in oak leaves they are damn near impossible to see. The guy upstairs was looking out for me both times.