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Worst hunting-related injury

It was about 10° one morning and I had on a lot of clothes. As a result I had to lean way in to see through the scope. My face was about froze and when the scope hit me, I thought the gun had blown up on me. When it finally sropped bleeding enough for me to see, I figured out what had happened.
 
BSK said:
I have cut a finger/thumb with a limb saw more times than I can count. I've already done it twice this year.
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Earlier this year, was trying to clear the area in front of a trail-camera. Was swinging my folding limb saw like a machete trying to cut greenbrier vines. One vine just wouldn't cut, so I grabbed it and pull it tight while swinging the saw with the other hand. Saw hit the vine, ricocheted off, and hit the back of my index finger. Saw the spurt of blood before I felt the pain. And as always, my first thought was, "Can you get any dumber than that?" History proves that I can!
 
Have been pretty lucky to not have any serious injuries. That said, the worst was probably when I was working on a steel home made ladder stand, quite a bit heavier than store bought stands. I had the trailer behind the tractor. I was pushing the stand up while standing on the trailer and it twisted slamming me to the ground in the process. Had a concussion, and a bad sore neck for days.

Have had a few falls while hanging stands where I was caught by my harness. Walked away from those with bruised ribs and abrasions.
 
I am fortunate, other that the scope busting my nose and needing to get glued, the most painful was on a bow hunt. I was climbing up the ladder and as I went to get onto the stand and piece of bark splintered under my fingernail. I know that's petty but it hurt like the devil. I ended up getting down early from the stand to go home and try and dig it all out.
 
Hunting related but not actually in the act of hunting. I was screwing 4 blade Wasp broadheads on a some shafts with nothing but fingers. The last one broke loose and spun just to cut my thumb and index finger. That burned sort of. Took me 45 minutes to clean the blood off the wall I slung it on. Probably needed stitches but just glued the cuts shut and taped them.
 
Lost Lake said:
Wow! That's bad! Up until that point, I'd heard that a poke from a Locust thorn could make a person sick, and after that, I was a believer.
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I've never heard that before. Learn something new every day! Glad I've never been on the receiving end of a locust thorn. Lord knows I've cut & milled enough of them that it could have happened.
 
Ski said:
I've never heard that before. Learn something new every day! Glad I've never been on the receiving end of a locust thorn. Lord knows I've cut & milled enough of them that it could have happened.
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Locust thorn stabs become severely inflamed and are VERY painful. Don't know what is on the thorns, but it's definitely some type of irritant.
 
Urban_Hunter said:
I've been fortunate as others with many close calls.

My worst was hunting with a first gen Mathews Monster. Violent draw cycle if you know the bow. Full draw turning on a walking deer and my right elbow bumped the tree, causing me to unexpectedly and uncontrollably let the bow down. Tore my rotator cuff and stretched my labrum. The pop was like two pans banging together, saw stars and mind numbing pain. Was between jobs and insurance hadn't kicked in yet so I nursed it. Finally went to the doc and I've been to a few different ones, but none of them want to touch it because my labrum stretched and didnt tear, now they're afraid any repair would just make it worse. Shoulder pain all the time, sleep on my back, etc
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All matthews have horrendous draw cycles. Sent the v3 back the day after i bought it!
 
Didn't happen to me but I was there firsthand. 2013 my cousin and I hunted that morning and in between hunts went to change out a lock on stand. We wore harnesses that morning hunting like we always do. After the morning hunt we went and grabbed breakfast and went back to my property. We put the stand on the 4 wheeler and took off. About halfway down my cousin said "we forgot our harnesses". I stopped the 4 wheeler and we made a quick decision that we wouldn't need them. We got to the tree and I walked over to pull the SD card on my camera first. He started up the sticks and I told him to get down that I would do it. He said no he's already up there so he'll get it. We had 2 straps on the stand and the ratchet was on the other side so instead of cutting it he climbed into the stand to undo the ratchet. When he did that the other strap broke and here he came falling. It was all slow motion and I was having a hard time taking in what was really happening. He landed on both feet so for a split second I thought great he's ok. Then he said my right leg is broke. I got him set up on the 4 wheeler and was going to take his boot off and he said don't even do that let's just go. So we had about a 600 yard ride out on the 4 wheeler to the truck.

Broke his leg pretty bad and still has pins and rods in it to this day and it still gives him trouble. All could have been avoided if we had just turned around for our harnesses.
 
Tore my meniscus for the second time. Unfortunately it was in 3 places both times and they were unable to repair so now I am bone on bone.
 
BSK said:
Add in the fact locust trees spread via their roots, and they are definitely the spawn of the Devil.
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I have gotten rid of almost all of mine at this point. Anytime I cut one I pour straight gly 4 on the stump.

I had a thorn poke thru my blue jeans once while cutting some down and stuck my calf. Didn't think about it for a month or so and then one day I felt a knot on my calf. I started squeezing it and a good 3/4" tip from that honey locust thorn came out. It was pretty disgusting!
 
Bow hunting back around 1995 probably, I'd been hunting only a few years. I climbed up a fairly skinny pine tree, and pulled up my bow. Took off the quiver and tied it to the tree, and reached to my pocket to get my release and dropped it to the ground. Crap. Lowers my bow back to the ground and got ready to start climbing down when the bottom part of my climber lost its bite and down I went. When I got my bearings back while laying on the ground I reached up to wipe something off my face with my left hand and poked myself in the forehead with something…it was half an arrow, the fletching end! The nock had slid under my wedding ring and broke the arrow in half as I fell. I stopped and didn't move an whisker looking all over my chest for the rest of the arrow. I felt like I was not injured in any way, so I started to move and get up, not seeing the rest of the arrow anywhere. I decided I wasn't going to hunt that day and walked back to the truck. Next day I thought I would go hunting again and went to retrieve my tree stand and my quiver up the tree. When I got my quiver, the other half of the arrow was still in the quiver! I had naturally grabbed the tree when I started to fall and what I grabbed with my left hand was my quiver…which made my liver shiver.
 
Close call......

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I had an ND & put 2, 150gn Hornady .308s between my big & first toe. No lasting damage & 90% of the pain was the realization that I'm a complete f&%#@ing idiot. But a half inch in 3 of 4 directions & you'd be calling me stumpy!
 

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BSK said:
That makes my stomach turn just thinking about it!

Not hunting related, but still "in the woods related," I was working on a property in southern Arkansas and while driving through an overgrown pasture full of young locust trees, my right front ATV tire dropped into an unseen hole, causing the ATV to tip violently to that side. Instinctively reaching out to catch myself on one of those locust trees, a 16-penny nail-sized thorn went into the palm of my hand, completely through, and was sticking out the back of my hand. Having to pull my hand off that thorn was truly awful. Hand swelled up twice its normal size and hurt like Hades for a week.
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The buck my wife killed back in 2019 had a locust thorn in one of the hams. About an inch of thorn and it was pretty deep in the muscle, no hole in the hide, do if assumed it had healed. It was pretty well encapsulated and a little discolored inside the area around the thorn, figured it had been infected.

I hate locust trees and their thorns. Been jabbed by them several times.

Back on the original topic, I have sliced and stuck myself enough times while quartering deer. A few of those probably should have gotten stitches.
 
BSK said:
I've been very lucky in that I've never incurred any serious injuries while hunting. The closest I've come to serious injury all involved treestands, especially Baker-style climbers. One fall resulted in grabbing for my hand-climber and only catching a wingnut, laying the palm of my hand open. Still carry the scars. Another Baker fall resulted in one knee collapsing the correct way on contact with the ground but the other knee snapping the wrong way. That injury took years to get past.

But again, no serious injuries. But I sure have read some nasty ones on this site. So let's hear them; your worst hunting-related injury...
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I gave up on climbers and lock-ons. I still hunt or use a ladder, and sometimes just a stool. It hasnt hurt my success at all. It just isnt worth it.
 
Not had any real injuries while hunting.I had one close call while shooting my Bear compound bow back probably 40 years ago. Practicing one evening and had a screw backout or something when I pulled back. After finally coming to and gathering what few senses I had, I realized I had been hit right above the eye in the eyebrow area with screw or pulley or whatever. Just a gash and feeling like I got hit with a hammer that hurt like heck for a while. Lucky it was not in the eye.

That just about ruined my bow hunting from then on. Many years later I got to where I could shoot pretty fair again and hunted.
 

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