My 2nd year hunting I used a ATV. I was going up a very steep hill and the front came up and rolled over me. It snapped my fibula. Three weeks ago (7th season) I was going down the same mountain. It was raining and I slid into a ditch. My mule rolled over and I stuck my leg out as a natural reaction. Tore my ACL and have to have surgery (again), after my wedding this weekend.

Pooped just a little on my camo overall staps a long time ago. Can’t overstress situational awareness when pooping in the woods.


Have been very lucky. All through my 20s I never used a safety harness w’ climbing stands & 99% of the time I was hunting alone, out of town, & w’out a cell phone. You think nothing will happen to you at such a young age. Am much wiser now

I had a wood ladder stand come loose from the tree when i was about 14…only about 15 ft but i jumped out and throwed my bar about 20 ft away from me freaked me out but i just picked up my gun an walked home..i had a hunter in texas almost shoot himself in the face trying to clear a jammed pistol..i took his pistol from him an give it back to him after i took it apart..

Stupid mistake not using a climbing harness. Platform of climber ratcheted down the tree and I fell from about 15-feet. Broke my fibula on my right leg. Thank the Lord my brother-in-law heard me and helped get me out of the woods.

I don’t want to jinx anything so I’ll just say I’ve been very fortunate throughout all of the years I have hunted. In my younger years it was nothing for me to climb 25’ with no harness. Very fortunate that nothing ever happened. Now my harness is part of my checklist. If it’s not on me I don’t climb.

Shaw wins this one everytime. He's lucky to be alive.

Gutting a deer for an older gentleman. Used his knife. Didn't know it was sharp bout halfway up the back of the blade. After cutting the contents out of the chest cavity noticed my thumb was burning. Split it down to the bone 😵

Congratulations on the upcoming wedding James!
Hate to hear about the accident and injury. Hope you have a successful surgery and a quick recovery!

Mine was the accident that never happened.

I was about 14, hunting at a family friend/farmer's property outside of town, back in the late 80s when doe days were only about two weeks of the season. I had never killed a deer despite hunting since I was young, and killing any legal deer would have been an accomplishment for me, and I'd hunted this property outside of doe days and knew there were lots of does that came out just before dark. I was hunting a large area of sage/field with woods along one side, with the road running along the woods' edge. Just before shooting light ended, a deer stepped out of the woods into the road about 200 yards away. I shouldered my rifle and put the deer in the crosshairs.

The "deer" was the teenage son of the farmer, he was wearing zero orange and was decked out in a buff-colored jacket and pants. He had walked down the road to come get me, and he was hidden in the shadow of the woods until he stepped out into the road as he got closer to the stand.

I lowered my rifle. While I never took the rifle off safe or put my finger on the trigger, I felt like I was about to faint from the fact I'd put my crosshairs on him thinking it was a deer.

I've told that story to my kids more than once, and I remind my son about it every season, even though we are still hunting out of the same stand for now.

One morning in LA I picked up movement and threw Pops aught six up and waited for a shot safety on finger off the trigger me thinking how much damage that 150 Speer HotCor over H4350 would do....and that dumb SOB wearing a white t-shirt and tan pants boots and shirt steps into the field and walks across it. Not as exciting as the time I shot that hog underneath my guide in Georgia nobody got hurt but yeah Dave almost made a horrible decision.

Didn't hurt me, other than some good natured ribbing from friends, but it didn't work out to well for the nub buck that I thought was a doe. Oops!

Falling out of a climber on the edge of a bean field.

Teenager with no harness. Bottom platform fell when I was about 20’ up.

I dangled from the top part and tried swinging to the smaller tree next to me so I could shimmy down but that tree turned out to be a dead one and I took the tumble down. Fortunate I wasn’t seriously injured but I was almost impaled at the bottom. Weeks prior, I cut down a small tree nearby so I could get a better view. On my way down, my rib cage missed the 18” tall and 4” diameter stump by about half a foot.

Tore some tendons in my pinky finger dragging a buck out. Evidently the rope was wrapped around it and when the buck hit a log it wrenched my finger sideways. Turned black and blue and wouldn't straighten out. Took 5 months in a splint for it to straighten out. Also got a stick stuck in my eye twice and had corneal abrasions. Not bad though considering how much time I have spent in the woods.

I honestly don’t even like to talk about it because I was so stupid looking back. I had my son who was 4/5 at the time. Had the ATV loaded just working in the woods. We were going up a hill I had climbed before but this time the ATV flipped back on us. I don’t remember doing it which is why I firmly believe God saved us but next thing I know I’ve got my son under my chest while the ATV rolled over me. Miraculously my son didn’t have a scratch on him. I was just about knocked out and the machete had cut the backs of my legs bad. I am lucky my son didn’t get hurt that day and it was a miracle of God he didn’t. I never made that mistake again. Still bothers me I did in the first place

Broken neck and torn L5/S1 disc due to a 15ft fall from a ladderstand on the morning of November 8, 2009. Just so happened to be the day of my 42nd birthday.

Only a close call. I missed the last step climbing out and fell backward across a large log that had about an 18” broken off stob that just slid across my rib cage between it and my arm.

december 22 1992.fell 22 feet from lock on a friend put up. out of work 79 days. he left a rotten limb above it and i grabbed it. limb looked good in the dark before daylight. now if i dont hang it i dont hunt it

worst I've had was twisting my right knee when jumping up to get a gobbler I had just shot. Bothered me for years.

LUCKILY ive never had one.. Came close a few times when i use to climb but iv ebeen lucky..

Early 2000’s hunting ducks on a big river late in the year out of a two man kayak with a buddy. Got dumped over in the river with no life jackets in full hunting gear and we had to swim to a bank. Didn’t drown but we were in bad shape and had to act quick. Knew of a guy not to far away so we had to swim across a slew to a boat and eventually got to the owner for him to get us out of there and keep us alive. Doesn’t take long for your body and mind to start shutting down in cold water and freezing air.