Southern Gentleman
.....and another sad story.
Hunter Shot Dead At Cedar Creek WMA
http://www.gon.com/article.php?id=3526&cid=158
Tough stories both if them.
In the first story I'm not sure the guy would have been in the right mind to to make that decision so soon after such a life changing event. Not second guessing I'm sure the doctors and family there weighed the information and made the call. As long as they are OK with the events I've not got a problem with it. That situation would be so hard on any family.
The second story to me is just one of those it was gonna happen things. Man drives are just time bombs looking for a place to explode. About 35 years ago the same thing happened just below me in Waxhaw NC. A man shot his son doing the same thing. I knew (and still do) the father. Today he is still withdrawn and had never hunted again.
Very sad
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A Government that pays people to do nothing destorys their willingness to do anything!
The first story is a familiar one. When I was in the hospital I signed a "no resuscitation clause" in case of some catastrophic event that would leave me a "vegetable" or in a permanent comatose state. I also signed paperwork giving Lynn the SOLE right to "pull the plug" if SHE thought it was what I would have wanted. That was quite a load to put on her shoulders ... but luckily, she never got pissed off at me during that time.
That said, I can definitely understand where this guy's head was ... there were a couple of times I "felt" like throwing in the towel, but never really reached that final breaking point. (NOT that I was in the position that it would have been necessary, but sometimes you just get tired of the struggle) There is no way in Hell I'd want to live the rest of my life in bed, totally helpless and hooked to tubes and wires 24/7. Been there, done that, but luckily mine was temporary. Tough, tough call but it seems the family was in agreement.
Man, that is tough. I was sitting up in one our older wooden stands this past Saturday afternoon when the wind started blowing right before last light. I helped build that stand and it's all pressure treated wood and huge lag bolts sunk into the tree. But, it's got to be almost 10 years old and as the tree has gotten wider the support beams are bowing and are taut as a bow string. After a few minutes of swaying and creaking, I got down and decided to go watch a hay field until last light. It seems the older I get the less I like to be up in a tree.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Raoul Duke
I saw that in the news yesterday. Just yesterday morning I got the news that our top athelete in the junior high had a hunting accident and accidently blew off a big chunck of his lower left leg. (The calf area.) Somehow he was lifting his 16ga to shoot at a pheasant and got tangled up or something and blew off the back of his own calf. I can really visualize in my mind how that can happen, but it doesn't matter, because it doesn't change the fact that it did happen. He had to pull/drag/crawl himself off the hill and find help. It was a nasty wound and he lost a lot of blood. I can't imagine how tramatic it must have been for this little 13-14 old kid to do that on his own. Anyway my point is, one careless second while hunting can change a one's life forever...possibly even end it like the hunter who fell from his tree stand. I'm just glad my student is still alive, but it is disturbing to see his seat empty in class today and ponder on the thought of how I would feel if things had gone even worse.
My long-time hunting partner in Ohio had a tragedy in his family years ago. He was deer hunting with his 15 year old son. His son had shot a deer and was tracking it. My buddy heard a shot, thought his son had dispatched the deer and went over to the area to give him a hand. His son walked toward him slowly, said he'd "been hit" and collapsed in my bud's arms. (Evidently, there was another hunter in the woods who thought he was a deer and shot him) His dad carried him (running) all the way back to the truck and rushed him into town to the local hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
BTW, I refer to my bud as my "father-in-law" as his daughter is the mother of my son (we were never married). My son's middle name is Michael ... which was her brother's first name. The law never did find out who shot him.
I used to hunt with a gent that had a stand come out from under him.
It was one of those chain-on stands. I'm not sure exactly what happened but it came loose while he was in it and he fell to the ground. He spent quite some time at Shepard Spine Center (http://www.shepherd.org/ )....It was some time after his recovery that I met him. He told how he had been hunting alone on his lease that morning, but it was not until he didn't show up at home that night that folks started looking for him. He crawled from where his stand had been, back to his truck and spent a rainy night under his pickup. They found him the next day, and rushed him to the hospital. He walks pretty good for a feller that sustained such severe injuries....and he kills a LOT of BIG deer.
That first story happened just a short ways from where I live. It's about 65 miles or so, but close enough that we share the same local news, so it was a really big story around here before it went viral.
"Never try to fight an Old Dude. If you win, there's no glory; if you lose, your reputation is shot."
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