At the risk of ruining what reputation I have acquired, I want to share a incident that occurred this weekend while scouting Elk in the Rawah Wilderness area.
We had stopped for lunch approximately 4 1/2 miles from the trailhead, and I was checking my geldings feet when I found a 1" diameter stick stuck in his front right shoe. I tried to dig it out with a hoof pick but it was jammed tight. The stick had a thin crack running through it. I stuck my 3 1/2" folding knife in the crack and intended to crack the stick in half by twisting the blade. Well, the stick didn't crack in half, but the knife ended up embedded about 1" in my left forearm, just nicking a vein. I shouted, "I can't believe I did that"! My wife turned and saw the blood spout from my arm, and quickly wrapped a sweatshirt around it and cinched it down with my belt.
We headed back down the trail, unhitched the horse trailer and headed towards Laramie, WY. Dr. Paul Ogden in the ER said if the blade had severed the vein my chances of surviving the 2 1/2 hour ride down the mountain and the 50 mile drive to Laramie were doubtful. I will remember this incident whenever I pull out a knife again. I hope the readers of this forum do like wise. Now tell me, has anything like this happened to you? This is a great place to learn lessons from each others mishaps.

Still Here,
Leif Wold

Glad to still have you here and that you can still learn from your mistakes. Now go out and buy a Leatherman Super Tool. I use mine everyday! It's blades lock and the pliers might have saved you a nice gash. I too have made "smoothe moves" like you describe and I'm sure everyone else has too. That is some beautiful country there.

At the risk of piling on, two years ago one of our local sporting goods owners was glassing the mountains for the sheep tag he had drawn.

By sheer coincidence, he picked out an elk hunter caping his bull......and then slashing himself deeply on the inside of his thigh. Only the shop owner's knowledge of first aid, and his horse, saved this man's life, as this was a number of miles into the back country of Idaho.

Be careful, indeed! Dutch.

Yep Wrangler, you sure as shootin put the old reputation at risk with that one. Next time stab the horse instead ( just funnin pardner ).

Can't say that I ever did anything like that but I had to keep OSHA accident reports up to date on workers accidents and over the years the ovewhelming proponderance of workers who sustained injuries ( over 85% ) " did it to themselves " the majority of injuries were self inflicted with no other party involved. Like "Pogo" said- " we have met the enemy and he is us ".

I always pack a pocket knife but I only use it to cut toenails, fishing worms, peel apples and slice peaches.

I would use my Bowie to take a stick out of my horses shoe ( or stab myself ).

Did you spot your elk?

Kendall Dace

Leif,

I tell myself all the time, if ya use a knife all the time sooner or later you're gonna cut something ya don't want to. (Good justification for being accident prone)

I cut the end of my ring finger off my left hand way out in the bush while cleaning a moose in Alaska. I was never in danger of bleeding to death, but I was worried about infection as it was three days before I could get to a doctor.

Boy, did I ever feel STUPID!

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Shoot once!

I always pack a pocket knife but I only use it to cut toenails, fishing worms, peel apples and slice peaches.

Doesn't that make the apples taste funny?

I didn't spot the Bull I'm looking for, but he's in there. I am going back next week. I have to locate a new partner, tho.
Leif