Hunting & Accidents…they can happen to you.

By now, everyone knows I had a bit of an accident after hunting the other day. I thought I would take the time to type a post explaining the entire ordeal as it happened. So, read on for a story of a totally freak accident.

I normally hunt with someone else in the area when hunting, but since I could not get anyone to hunt with me – I decided I would go by myself. I have hunted by myself plenty of times, but it is safer, and easier to hunt with someone around. Easier because if there is a kill, then you have assistance with the processing of the game.

So, I went out to Dickens county Texas, a place where I normally hunt. I had been hunting several time this year and had no luck. I had found me a good spot where the deer were crossing, and knew the area well. I setup my ground pop up blind, brushed it in, scattered some corn and minerals to slow them down when they passed this way, and was ready for a hunt. I left after that and decided I would come back the next day.

The next day, I got there well before day break. Grabbed the bow, backpack, and sprayed down. I found my way to the blind and prepared the blind for some good hunting. As the sun began to come up I noticed the wind was blowing like crazy. I was a little worried about the arrow flight once it left the blind, and made note of the direction and speed to correct my shot if I was blessed with a shot this morning.

Sure enough, just before good shooting light, I noticed several deer coming in. They were on the north side of me on the other side of a dried up creek bed and tree line. I had some shooting lanes, but I decided to wait and see what the next hour or so would bring.

I was not hunting trophies, I never do. I have never been able to eat antlers…they are just to tough. LOL  The deer I had been watching were about 35 yards away, but I would have to shoot into the wind, through the lanes in the tree line. I decided to wait a little longer. That is when I noticed a shadow move to the south east of me. I the sun was breaking the horizon good at this point and it was bright. I eased around to investigate the shadow and noticed a buck standing literally 10 feet from the blind. I could see he had a decent spread from the silhouette. I watched him as he slowly walked past my blind into a great shooting spot. He was not very big, nor was he a huge trophy. I looked at the other deer, and then him…decided he was the best bet for a shot since he was so close and I would be shooting with the wind a bit. I also feared he might get a scent on me and spook the other deer.

I waited until he was in a good blind spot, drew back on my bow, and watched him. He stepped forward a few steps, and my Dead-On-Range finder told me he was 20 yards out. I pretty much knew that, but wanted to try this little range finder out. He quartered away from me, and I found my mark – let the arrow fly. He jumped straight up, then trotted about 30 yards out from me and stopped. I noticed the other deer ran further away than he did.

I was about to get my binocs out and see if I did make a good shot, when I noticed his rear end start to drop towards the ground. He stepped forward, and then fell. He was down in a matter of seconds. This was good.

I sat in the blind for a while to see if the other deer would come back into shooting range. The wind kept getting worse and the deer never came back into range. I decided if I cleaned him, I could get back to Lubbock right after lunch. I could stop and get a nice BBQ sandwich in Dickens and then get the deer int he freezer before the kids and wife got home.

So I field dressed him, and loaded him in the truck. Drove over to a friends house to skin and quarter him. They had a water hose and a tree I used many times in the past to process my game.

I had just finished quartering the deer, had it in the cooler, and noticed the wind had blown a Rubbermaid lid, my knife, everything off the truck. I made note to pick up my knife – one because I love that knife and don’t want to lose it, two- because my friend has small kids and I did not want them to step on it or something.

For some strange reason, I got in a bit of a hurry to clean everything up and get out of there. As I knelt down on my left knee to get stuff out from under the truck, I felt a small pain as if I had knelt on a pecan or something. I then slid my right foot back to get on both knees – I felt a bit more pain, yet nothing that would signal a big movement. I picked several things up, and then noticed the knife handle. I reached down and picked up the knife. That is when I noticed it was in my knee. I was a bit surprised. I knew it had been deep, about 2-3inches in…and I knew there are major arteries, etc in that area. I dropped the knife and tried to get to my cell phone in the front of the truck. I could not reach them, because I could not put pressure on my left leg. So I hobbled over to the house and asked for some help.

I kept my breathing calm, and my heart rate down. I had some help getting my boot off, and then told Ashley that she might should call me an ambulance. I did not have much external bleeding, but I could see the swelling and turning of color and knew it was not good. So to be on the safe side, I felt an ambulance would be the smart thing to do after such a stupid move.

This all happened around 10:30AM-11:00. I arrived at UMC in Lubbock around 1:30. By then it was bleeding pretty good, and hurting like crazy. I was trying to keep my pulse low and slow – I watched the monitors and kept it around 88bpm. Then the doctors got a hold of me. That all went out the window. They squeezed it, opened it, and then started working on it. That hurt. The worse was when the injected fluid under my knee to swell it up and see if any of the dye would come out the open wound. It did not, and they said that was good. That hurt so bad, I thought I was going to pass out before they got finished. Jace was there and I think she did not like seeing me in that much pain. Had she not been there…I might have cried. LOL

They did not know if I would need surgery or not, so they would not let me eat or drink. That was a pain in the butt, because I did not eat anything since the night before. I left the ER around 6:30PM…so I was hungry.

Anyway, since all this happened I have been back to the doctor once – and I have to go back again Tuesday. Hopefully they will release me to go back to work. I will only work a week or so before I go on my vacation anyway. My vacation looks like it will be more healing time and maybe at least a couple more hunts. LOL