357bob
Senior Refuge Member
Seriously debated sharing this but I decided to let my pain perhaps serve as a safety reminder for others. Please keep the negative comments to yourself (I am well aware of how stupid this was) and let this just serve as a safety reminder. Copied from a local forum so I'll explain the location a little. We take a 2 mile boat ride to a dike crossing, and the go another mile from there. Crappy way to end a season.
Started out as a beautiful morning at the Bear River refuge with my son and brother-in-law. Had 5 ducks down despite an iced-over pond, the first being the most gogeous drake pintail I have shot in years.Had a nice greenhead sail out on us and during a break I decided to walk back to the boat and run out and pick it up( it had sailed about 200 yards before dropping straight out and the dog was having a tough time in the ice). My brother in laws dog decided to join me on the walk to the boat. I did the same thing I always do when it is just me going after a downed bird in the boat. I set my double barrel in the decoy box, walked around the front of the boat to get a better angle to push it out of the weeds and just as I had turned to cross the front of the boat and ( in case you haven't guessed) Boom, the gun goes off. I looked back and the dog had climbed over the side and stepped on the trigger. About a half second later I realized I had been shot. I fell down backwards in the water, just from the shock. Got up, called my in-laws because I knew I was gonna need a ride out and didn't to wait for the 3 mile boat ride back to the truck. I gathered my senses as much as possible and realized I had quite a bit of moisture down my legs and was starting to feel faint. I decided a 911 was probably in order. Try explaing to the dispatch how to find you at the winch pole dike crossing while passing out and boating through an inch of ice(lots of noise). Finally made it to the crossing and by Gods graces there was another boat just pulling up in the channel. They gave me a ride across the channel just as the ambulance pulled up. To cut it short(I know, too late) I ended up with 27 number 2's in my rear,1 in my hand and one through shot in my finger. They were able to remove all BUT 24 pellets (they pulled three,everything else was too deep) and the rest have found a permanent home. 35 years of hunting without any accidents, this was a stupid way to break a streak. Whe the end of my season? The 27 holes in my waders would have been tough enough to patch, no way to fix-em up after having been cut off by the EMT's
Started out as a beautiful morning at the Bear River refuge with my son and brother-in-law. Had 5 ducks down despite an iced-over pond, the first being the most gogeous drake pintail I have shot in years.Had a nice greenhead sail out on us and during a break I decided to walk back to the boat and run out and pick it up( it had sailed about 200 yards before dropping straight out and the dog was having a tough time in the ice). My brother in laws dog decided to join me on the walk to the boat. I did the same thing I always do when it is just me going after a downed bird in the boat. I set my double barrel in the decoy box, walked around the front of the boat to get a better angle to push it out of the weeds and just as I had turned to cross the front of the boat and ( in case you haven't guessed) Boom, the gun goes off. I looked back and the dog had climbed over the side and stepped on the trigger. About a half second later I realized I had been shot. I fell down backwards in the water, just from the shock. Got up, called my in-laws because I knew I was gonna need a ride out and didn't to wait for the 3 mile boat ride back to the truck. I gathered my senses as much as possible and realized I had quite a bit of moisture down my legs and was starting to feel faint. I decided a 911 was probably in order. Try explaing to the dispatch how to find you at the winch pole dike crossing while passing out and boating through an inch of ice(lots of noise). Finally made it to the crossing and by Gods graces there was another boat just pulling up in the channel. They gave me a ride across the channel just as the ambulance pulled up. To cut it short(I know, too late) I ended up with 27 number 2's in my rear,1 in my hand and one through shot in my finger. They were able to remove all BUT 24 pellets (they pulled three,everything else was too deep) and the rest have found a permanent home. 35 years of hunting without any accidents, this was a stupid way to break a streak. Whe the end of my season? The 27 holes in my waders would have been tough enough to patch, no way to fix-em up after having been cut off by the EMT's
It could have been much worse!
