Hunting is dangerous. Some hunting is more dangerous than other other hunting. What is the closest you have ever come to being hurt by an animal that you were hunting?

This is my closest & scariest. In 93, I hunted Malapati & Naivasha in the Gonarezhou for 21 days. We had lions on a bait near a river. A blind was built. A trail was cleared for a long distance in order that we could slip in undetected from the lions.

We got out of the truck in the dark more than a mile from the blind. We could hear the lions roaring. We started to walk quietly to the blind. This was done with no lights on at all. We followed the trail that was made. There was the PH, the appy & then me last. The appy had a light. I had one in my pocket. I had my 416 firmly in my hands.

Let me digress. These guys would love it if you got so scared that you wet your pants. It would have been hysterical to them. I was having none of their pranks. At some point, we bumped in to a bunch of zebra. They took off. I could clearly hear hooves, yet these fools were whispering shumba, shumba trying to get a reaction from me. I told them to f off I wasn't buying it. We quietly giggled and proceeded.

We were perhaps half way to the blind but still a long way away (maybe a half mile) and we stopped to listen to the lions roaring. The PH asked what I thought. I told him I didn't think they were still on the bait. He agreed as did the appy. Off we go to the blind.

At some point, I sensed something behind me. I was not giving these buggers the enjoyment of knowing I was scared.I said nothing. Then I heard it. It was right behind me. I mean RIGHT behind. F@#k them I thought. I swung around shouldering the 416 & yelled for the appy to turn on the light while I clicked off the safety. When this happened, the critter behind me took off. I could hear some others in the bush. I was a bit nervous but not all that bad. The critters did run off. I wasn't sure what it was.

We decided to stay there until daylight. When it got light, we inspected the trail for tracks. Now keep in mind that we were walking slowly. What we found was lions tracks exactly 6 of my footsteps behind me! We had apparently bumped into the lions in the dark and they were stalking us from behind!

I told the PH that I was last in line. He corrected me. He said no Larry, you were first in line.

Was I scared? Hell yes. Was I hurt, no.

I was nearly knocked off a motorcycle by a redfish.

I was charged by an elephant that I was hunting in Zim. It happened so fast I didn't have time to get scared. My 416 Rigby came to the rescue at 12 yards.

I think if you hunt Africa long enough you'll have some uncomfortable situations that might not have caused you any harm but certainly had great potential.

The PAC bull I shot on the first day of my first safari was up on the road with us and made several rushes at the Cruiser. He had a festering wound on his forehead and was in a foul mood. Hmmmm! Iadmit to being a little phincter tight. A lioness in Cameroon cross our path just at first light, crouchedat the side of the road and made a full on charge at the Cruiser. She was gaining on us for amoment to thegreat discomfort of the trackers. In Zim I wounded a cow buffalo. It was June and the cover was thick in Chewore. We followed up with all of us looking ahead except Sadie who noticed a small tree swinging in the wind. Since there wasn't any wind she brought that to my attention and I pointed this out to the PH. All stop!!! Yep! The cow was waiting for us just off the trail. Her wagging tail was making the tree sway. We finally found an opening in the bush and finished the drama but who knows? The PH and trackers were convinced she was waiting to hammer us.

Mark

Would you believe a Wildebeest charge stopped by a .22LR? Hopped out of the truck to dispatch a dead-but-didn't-know-it Blue Wildebeest. He came up fast and I hit him in the head with the stopper cartridge .22 LR.

The second wasn't in Africa, it was on my ranch and was witnessed by our member L. David Keith. My friend and guide, Mike, and I managed to subdue a Fallow Deer with a pop-up blind wrapped around his antlers. I squatted over him covering his eyes while Mike cut the blind off his antlers with a dull knife.

When he finished, I said, "Ok, I am going to get off him and uncover his eyes."

In Fallow Deer language, that must mean "Stand up and see if Wendell can ride a bucking Fallow Deer."

Well, one good buck and I was thrown into a mesquite tree. He bucked and thrashed around. I though he was going to stomp me, so I brought my knees to my chest and kicked him in the ass as hard as I could when came down next to me.

That spun him around and he ran off.

To this day, I cannot believe how strong that Fallow Deer was.

Had a Buffalo turn and do a mock charge from about 100 yards. He stopped, picked up a branch with his horns, threw it in the air and bucked and kicked like a colt playing in the sun. Started to charge again and stopped at about 75 yards. I do not think it was an honest charge, I have no idea what he was thinking, but it got my attention.

The ph was 200 yards ahead of me with another client, so it was me and the tracker on the top of a bald hill with nothing around us. That got the blood pumping.

Don't get me started on how many times horses have tried to kill me. By far, that is the most dangerous animal on the planet.

I've been attacked by a rottweiler when I was a child. Been kicked by a horse. Got the crap beat out of me a couple of times by deer I was capturing. I even had a wounded coon try and rip me appart one time

Closest I ever came to getting dead while hunting wasn't actually the critter that did it. Took a quick trip down a mountian on a Goat hunt a few years back. I made out ugly but pretty lucky.

I've had a couple of dicey moments with, bears, buffalo, ellephants. Actually had an eland try and flatten me when we walked up on him after he was dead. I actually have that one on video. We still laugh our asses off when we watch it.

I had a PH's Rhodesian Ridgeback nearly remove my face one time when I tried to retrieve my bow from the back of the Bakkie. Apparently that dog didn't like people taking stuff from the truck without daddy's permission. Can't say that I blame him

Oh yeah, I have been chased by elephants and charged by a buffalo once but I had a rifle in my hands so that was more better.

Buffalo charge ended at eight steps by a double dose of 500 grain charge stoppers.
http://forums.accuratereloadin...511098211#2511098211

The other was a charge from one of George and Madeline Hulme's dogs at the ARDA camp. I jumped over a wall and barely avoided a bite.

On my very first safari, in Deka, we were charged by a bull elephant. Roy Vincent and I shot at the same time, and stopped him at about 8 or 10 yards. He came silently, with his ears pinned back and meant business. He was the bull we were trying to take, so it worked out well in the end. He ended up being a 58 pounder.

On my next safari, again with Roy, in Charara, we were charged by a buffalo cow from about 15 yards distance in very thick bush. She flew past me at a couple feet distance and nearly gored Roy. My shot was as she went past me, from the hip with my .470 (I missed!); and Roy shot her right in the face at a distance of a couple feet, with his .460 wby. She ran off and we ended up chasing her around in the bush for the next 30 minutes or so, shooting her a bunch of times. Between us, we shot her something like 15 or more times. Good thing I had a buffalo cow on license for lion bait!

I had a warthog come at after giving it a perfect heart shot with my bow - problem was i knew i was in trouble as i would not be able to pull off another shot with my bow (if it was a rifle, different story) so i threw my bow down and jumped and grabbed a branch of the tree i was hiding under and hoysted my feet off the ground. the warthog ran right under my feet and then dropped stone dead three meters further.

but the closest i came to seeing the white light was walking out of the tent in camp in just my shorts and nearly stepping onto a mozambique spitting cobra.... man that left me feeling miff for days afterwards

also had a big elephant bull shake the tent i was sleeping in, not sure what offended him.... snoring or methane gas but he shook the tent by the guy wires and pulled them out of solid concrete (12mm rawlbotls)

ah well keeps one on your toes and makes you realise that you could be gone anytime. like the character Paolo from i dreamed of Africa said "I can't be in one place every day, not even this place. Out there, there's just the moment. One error of judgement, one lapse
in concentration, and it's your last!"

ahhhh my mother always said that my itchy feet would get me into trouble

Had a Mozambique Spitting Cobra rear up out of bush along the border of the Limpobo River once while hunting plains game. Put some distance between him and me really quick.

All this means nothing.

We want to hear stories where animals drew BLOOD from you!

I was attacked by two of the meanest, nastiest, most dangerous animals on earth!

And at the end of the fight, I had 57 stitches!

Guess what animals they were.

I know, I know, Saeed, this means nothing, and I wan't hunting, but I was alone in a large pasture one morning and a huge Hereford bull charged me from about 30 yards. I took off running for the fence and just before the bull reached me, he slipped on a small patch of ice and lost his footing, flipping himself upside down. That gave me just enough time to get over the fence to safety. Other than a small charge by my first cape buffalo while hunting, nothing else exciting has really occurred. Well, I take that back. I had seven stitches put into my lower left lip due to a dangerous English white thorn tree that attacked me unprovoked while riding in the back of the bakkie early one evening! It definitely drew blood and lots of it!

Saeed:

I had no idea you knew both of my ex wives!

I was bitten by a horse in British Columbia. I had to have an operation on my leg. There was a thing on my leg the size of a grapefruit full of blood.

well there was this girl

Saeed, was that 28 and 1/2 stiches per animal? And, was it your pet cheetah cubs, or Fluffy?

Guy was waiting for piglets so he brought 243W along. However a big boar appeared - he took it - so far so good, but when he called me to help him found it he was afraid to tell the truth and told me that he made a shot with 8x57 (min. caliber for boars is 7mm here). 10hrs later and 1 klik away on reasonably good lung blood trail I got charged by a boar - my dog was killed on the spot and myself knocked down by a raged beast - fortunately boar didn't pull it through otherwise I wouldn't be writing this down - it was hit low in the chest - pretty sick but still lightning fast and deadly. If I'd wait 4 hours more (and i would if I'd knew it was shot by 243W) I believe none of above would happen.

Wednesday 20th of june 2001 the day I will never forget - 3 y.o. 103 kg - dressed:

I was once charged by a Chipmonk with fangs bared but luckily, I had befriended a stray Tom Cat who took the charge and ate him...

quote:

Originally posted by DLS:
On my very first safari, in Deka, we were charged by a bull elephant. Roy Vincent and I shot at the same time, and stopped him at about 8 or 10 yards. He came silently, with his ears pinned back and meant business. He was the bull we were trying to take, so it worked out well in the end. He ended up being a 58 pounder.

On my next safari, again with Roy, in Charara, we were charged by a buffalo cow from about 15 yards distance in very thick bush. She flew past me at a couple feet distance and nearly gored Roy. My shot was as she went past me, from the hip with my .470 (I missed!); and Roy shot her right in the face at a distance of a couple feet, with his .460 wby. She ran off and we ended up chasing her around in the bush for the next 30 minutes or so, shooting her a bunch of times. Between us, we shot her something like 15 or more times. Good thing I had a buffalo cow on license for lion bait!

Just goes to show that MS is not the only one that gets charged.

I thought that Saeed said that Roy and a lot of PH's that he knows have very few charges in in their careers.

You were no doubt just unlucky to be there on those very rare occasions.

It wasn't me, but my wife was thrown to the ground by the tracker to get her out of the way of a wounded Nyala that came tearing out of the thick brush it was holed up in. It actually stepped on her leg as it ran by leaving a big bruise.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
All this means nothing.

We want to hear stories where animals drew BLOOD from you!

I was attacked by two of the meanest, nastiest, most dangerous animals on earth!

And at the end of the fight, I had 57 stitches!

Guess what animals they were.

Honey badger?

A few dogs, a domestic bull, several bees, wasps, hornets and other nasty insects, a water snake, a plains zebra and an African lion have all tried to do me bodily harm.

None but the insects and the snake has succeeded.

This list does not include the severe damage done to me by Melissa Radke, who broke my heart in the sixth grade.

With you it could have been any animals in the world Saeed. I can think of several here, there and yon that could/would do that. But with that many stitches, I'm going to go with something larger than a badger. Maybe two Baboons. That would be bad. Hope I am wrong in this case.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
All this means nothing.

We want to hear stories where animals drew BLOOD from you!

I was attacked by two of the meanest, nastiest, most dangerous animals on earth!

And at the end of the fight, I had 57 stitches!

Guess what animals they were.

Women. I wouldn't fight one of them, much less two.

Still anxiously waiting for the real story, Saeed.

sorry but no blood in this story.

the PH, 2 trackers and I were walking along after trying to bump a group of buffalo out of the bush for a while in tanzania. we thought we had lost them so we were alittle casual. we wlaked through a narrow clear area about 5 yards wide, then suddenly we heard a major ruckus in the bush just a few yards to our right. a large number of cape buffalo stormed AWAY from us. i had my .375 pointed in their direction as quickly as possible and i heard the PH jack a round into his .458 to my left. if they had charged us, we would all have been jelly on the ground as they were not even 5 yards away and we wsere completely unaware of them. too fast to even get scared.

You want blood, I'll give you blood!
Safari in RSA, my wife got into the spirit of safari and when the PH offered me a bushbuck, she decided she would like to take it. She made a good shoot at about 100 yards with the buck quartering away. The 7X57 bullet entered the right side just ahead of the flank and angled through the chest. The buck took off and we began tracking. Found it in some really thick stuff that only a bushbuck could get into and my wife didn't want to shoot it again so the PH and I went in after it. It turned out that it had a lot more life left than we had initially thought. The PH grabbed it by the horns as I tried to hold the body down. By the time we got a knife stuck in the back of its skull, it had gored the PH and the hooves had raked my arms so all three of us lost some blood in that rodeo.

quote:

Originally posted by Michael Robinson:
This list does not include the severe damage done to me by Melissa Radke, who broke my heart in the sixth grade.

Let it go Mike ... just let it go.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
All this means nothing.

We want to hear stories where animals drew BLOOD from you!

I was attacked by two of the meanest, nastiest, most dangerous animals on earth!

And at the end of the fight, I had 57 stitches!

Guess what animals they were.

Has to be a cat of some sorts, a horse or a billy goat.

I fell 20-25ft off a cliff in New Zealand while hunting chamois. 4 days laying there and one life-flight to Chirstchurch later (with a nice 7 day stay in the hospital after surgery and then a few months worth of rehab back in the States), I ended up with a nice spreadsheet of injuries.

I have been bitten by squirrels many times after shooting them with an air rifle in India.

Here in NZ we were hunting in the Lord's river of Stewart island. A rough bivy sleeping 5 guys. At night I was getting disturbed by some animal & we thought it was a possum. Switch on the torch & it runs away very fast - definitely not a possum. On day three we identify it as a feral cat. We st a trap & caught the cat next day.

Well I thought that i would sleep well without being disturbed....WRONG. I woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp bite to my eye brow! I screamed and woke every one up. Light on. I distinctly remembered seeing a rat run from my pillow. My friends did not believe me. Then i showed them my eye brow with blood flowing from two tiny holes on the top & two matching ones on the bottom!


Now Saeed...please let us have the full story.

Late one night at the full moon I was stalking thru the isles with my Cannon telephoto taking pictures to place in www.Walmart-people.com web site.

I had quickly rounded a corner into a food isle and suddenly found myself between the macaroni and cheese and a very large and ugly SPANDEX HIPPO. I froze ....scared.

The charge and ensuing cussing I received caused frontal discoloration of my khaki trousers .

Next time I get out the bakkie go in a Walmart after dark be assured I will not forget to take suitable large bore.

If you find this difficult to believe the evidence is posted on www.walmart-people.com

These weird , strange and some behemoth creatures rival any in Africa.


Had a black bear in tent one night. No food etc. in tent. He wondered away but I did have a .41 Pistol. It was bear season. And had one rubbing on a tent corner post once.

Saeed,

My guess is an ostrich.

Wendell: Don't let him fool you. It was his house cat!

I grabbed what appeared to be a dead warthog by the tusk to take a good look at him. He was not dead yet and took exception to my handling him. Everyone went for the truck except myself and the PH, I ended it with one more shot to his spine.

The warthog wrestling was kind of exciting for a few seconds though.

BigB

dropped an unwounded leopard 5-6 feet off the muzzle on a full charge with 12 gauge SSG. oh, and bit by a rattlesnake coiled on the welcome mat at my garage door( at night- never saw him till it was too late).

We hadf two baby raccoons, and they werfe one of the funniest pets around.

We had them in a room here in the house. I used to take them out in teh evening, and let them loose in our living room while we had dinner and later watched TV.

They used to run around, hide and generally be a source of so much fun for us.

For instance, they would chase each other, running over the back of the settee we are sitting on, then around over our legs. Sometimes one would take a detour, by going into the sleeve opening of my t-shirt, go inside, and poke hius head under my chin.

Anyway, we decided to build them a cage outside, connected to our veranda, with stairs they could climb to get beck inside.

I put them into that cage - it is quite lartge, as large as a room.

They clung to me like nothing. They would not let me go.

Eventually I managed to extricate myself and left.

About an hour later, I went to have a look at them.

I could find only one. There was no sign of the smaller one. And the other one was looking really anxious for his friend.

I went looking for the other one.

Apparently he climbed the ladder, and managed to squeeze through the sliding window which was barely open, and hid inside.

I took him back.

He was clinging to me like his life depended on it.

Again, I had a hard job leaving their cage. And after quite a struggle, they attacked me.

I was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

They were biting me where they ever could get hold of.

I got bitten on my legs, my arms, my little finger on my left hand was broken, with bites down to the bone.

I did not want to hurt them, as it would have been very easy to kill them.

Luckily we had a smaller transporter cage inside, and I managed to put both in and close it.

Blood was pouring out of my wounds, I was leaving a blood trail like a wounded animal.

I had 57 stitches.

We took them back in again, and I could not get close to them for about 3 months.
Eventually we became friends again.

One was called Yogi and was called Fatty.

Here a few photos of Hessa playing with Fatty.

I honestly thought about Raccoons, but then I thought Saeed wouldn't have Raccoons (thinking only of US animals) so I ditched the idea and erased my post. Baboons came to mind although you would have probably suffered more than 57 stitches. I had an adult Raccoon charge me once while hunting Ground Hogs. I have no idea what I did to disturb it (it was in a soy bean field during the summer) but I shot it 5 steps from me. Lots of things have gone wrong over the years but I've managed to stay out of harms way. Somehow picturing two pissed off Raccoons working you over seems too big to top. Glad you recovered with no ill effect.
David

Was hunting in Mexico 7or 8 years ago. Had taken a Mule Deer earlier and had just shot a Coues. Lynn, my wife,as trailing us as we carried the deer. Heard a rustle behind us and turned to see a 5 point mulie standing on her ,face down in a cactus patch,raking her back with its antlers. Having advised "Don't move a muscle;I'm going to shoot," I put a round Of .300 Win Mag just behind the shoulder.As I walked toward Lynn. the deer staggered past me. His eyes which had been rut crazed, now said "Hey man,you killed me."He fell and died. Lynn had been first gored in the buttocks and thrown face forward into the cactus. Her back had several puncture wounds to rib depth....none penetrated the chest cavity. Peroxide and antibiotics and up to date tetanus immunizations were the ticket. Next day we were beaching it in San Carlos on the sea of Cortez. Poor Lynn looked like a plum in her bathing suit and could barely move. Here's to our best buddies. Jim

I have been bitten by a burrowing adder (stiletto snake) and spat in both eyes by a spitting cobra. Have also been mauled by a great dane (ended up in a swimming pool), an otter, warthog and two human beings - one a thief and the other a witch. No girlfriends involved. I fought back in all instances except with the great dane but lost all the fights. I overpowered the thief and witch, but guess they were ultimately the winners as I spent many moons fearing I had been injected with the most dreaded virus. I am pleased to report that the burrowing adder was the only fatality, and its killing was not premeditated.

Of all these hair-raising experiences, I was never more terrified than when I faced the wrath of a killer chitsere - see 'seconds from impact' action photo below.