Your Most Serious Danger Situation?

[Alden]

CONCLUSIONS
1. The danger isn't while hunting, it is around vehicles and camp at the beginning and end of the day. Loading and unloading weapons is a big area of accidents.
2. A lot of accidents involve other people.
3. What to do????
Hunt by yourself. Leave and reenter camps or parking areas with an unloaded gun. Start out and walk five minutes and then load. Unload in the same area on the way back. A lot of accidents could be eliminated.

If I may add, Rule #1

Always keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction!!!

If minimally you follow that basic tenet of the safe shooting sports only being scared, embarrassed and possibly destroying some property should follow, WORST CASE.

 

[bpd303]

1. The danger isn't while hunting, it is around vehicles and camp at the beginning and end of the day. Loading and unloading weapons is a big area of accidents

Absolutely... A buddy of mine who is trained in firearms, is an instructor and the department's armorer once put a round through the transmission of his truck while removing an unloaded rifle. Talk about being embarrassed. Luckily no one other than the truck was hurt.

 

[hanshi]

I have a friend who took a shot at a deer before he realized his truck was parked in that direction. Missed the deer but killed a truck.

I let a .45acp get of in my house once, decades ago. Scared the living #&%@? out of me. I looked and looked but could never find and hole or damage. A couple months later I was picking up some old magazines and low and behold. Little bits of copper and lead fell out of the stack. There was a gouge where the Old 190grn Super Vel hp hit and came apart. At the time of the accident I just knew I'd got the tv.

 

[Ole Frog]

As a Paramedic of 34 years I have been in a lot of dangerous places and situations. The good Lord has truly watched out for me.

When I look back on the hunting and camping experiences one story sticks out in my mind.
I was in College at the time, me and some buddies decided the best way to spend a long weekend was camping on Brasstown Bald
For those that don't know Brasstown Bald is the highest mountain in GA at 4784 feet above sea level.
We loaded up my car and drove up the back of the mountain. I can remember looking over the side of the road and seeing sheer drops with almost no shoulder.
We got there and set up my tent and it started pouring down the rain. raining so bad we had a river of water running through the tent. Everything and everyone was soaked.
We finally gave up and loaded all the wet gear in the car and set out for the dorm in the middle of the night. Storms, darkness, and sheer drop offs we made it back to Chattanooga about mid day the next day and I pulled into a gas station to fill my car back up. I went into the store and paid for the gas. I returned to the car and as I pulled away from the pump the tie rod broke and the wheel turned sharply to the left.
Can you imagine what would have happened if that tie rod had broke on the mountain?

 

[Supercracker]

The worst situation i've gotten myself into so far (while hunting anyway. lol) was heat related.

Down here you're very likely to be hunting in high heat conditions. A couple of years ago I went hog hunting in the early season. Got off to a good start early in the morning at first light following some fresh tracks way back into the swamp. After Keeping on it til mid morning I stopped to have a snack and rest a bit then got back at it. When I stopped again to have a proper lunch I found that at some point (probably when I stopped earlier) a small hole had been poked in my other water bottle and it was empty. So now it was in the mid 90 degrees, hot enough to be able to actually see steam coming off of the mud and I was miles back in the swamp with no water.

By the time I made it back to the truck I could barely stand up, my ears were ringing, I was getting really loopy and had stopped sweating. I had water in the truck and it took a while of laying the shade before I felt like I could drive out. That was a scary close call. Now you can hardly get me 5' into the treeline without water.

 

[crockett]

I agree Alden but remember- the one mishap wasn't me, it was the person I was with and if I had not bent over right then to tie my boots the blast would have gone into my back or head. SO.......Be careful about the folks with whom you hunt. I've decided I'm not that good a judge of other folks so I hunt by myself mostly (deer hunting)but let others know where I'll be hunting. If a group is involved I think the concept of load and unload away from everyone else can be a huge safety improvement.
There's a lot of variations to this, for example I did a lot of dove hunting last year. The field had maybe 20 hunters and everyone quit at about the same time and headed to the parking lot. The guy next to me, in the parking lot, decides to unload his pump- feeding rounds in and out of the action. I just wasn't thinking about it beforehand but moved off pronto. I wasn't careful because it was hot and the end of a long day and I just wanted to get back to the parking lot. Next time I stayed on the dove field until everyone else was gone.

 

[David W.]

You should have let me know you were so close, we could have met!

I camped next to the Asylum once. That's about as dangerous as it can get.

 

[David W.]

Many years ago, my town held a bicenntennial. There was a black powder shoot, which I entered. I watched while one of them loaded his rifle by his powder horn. I counted one Mississippi, two Mississippi...........finally, he stopped pouring at eighteen. I stood way behind him when he shot!

Another time, it was my doing. I had been hand loading 44 mag's, and accidentally double charged one of the shells. A friend was talking to me while I was making the reloads. Later, my friend was shooting a few rounds, and I heard an unusually loud bang! I rushed over to check, the gun was OK, but the shell was hard to extract. It's a good thing it was a Ruger. Anything else may have flown to pieces.

 

[eugenenine]

Once thought clorox and ammonia would do a great job cleaning. Chemistry was my worst class. Don't ever try that

That one I knew, but one night after the wife went to work I went down to the laundry room and found the cat had missed the litter box and dumped bleach on the floor to clean it up. Opened the windows got the kids out of the house.

 

[eugenenine]

I camped next to the Asylum once. That's about as dangerous as it can get.

You should have let me know you were so close, we could have met!

I knew someone who told the story when they got a flat tire and stopped to change it on the street outside the asylum. Was an older place where you have the brick posts and wrought iron fence so one of the residents stood at the fence and watched. Putting the new tire on he kicked the pile of lug nuts sending them down the drain grate, scratching his head and wondering what to do the resident called to him. Told him to just take one off each of the other three wheels to hold one the fourth. He said that is a really great idea, how did you know to do it. The resident replied "I'm not dumb, I'm crazy"

 

I have a friend who took a shot at a deer before he realized his truck was parked in that direction. Missed the deer but killed a truck.

I let a .45acp get of in my house once, decades ago. Scared the living #&%@? out of me. I looked and looked but could never find and hole or damage. A couple months later I was picking up some old magazines and low and behold. Little bits of copper and lead fell out of the stack. There was a gouge where the Old 190grn Super Vel hp hit and came apart. At the time of the accident I just knew I'd got the tv.

Surprised it didn't set the magazines on fire.

 

[Alden]

I'm not -- they were Water Skiing magazines.
:grin: