What injuries did not keep you out of the woods

[g8rvet]

Not me, but figured I'd share.   This is pretty hard core.   My Mom was battling breast cancer, just had a mastectomy and was going through chemo.   Naturally the chemo drained her energy and kept her sick the majority of the time.  She said she could be sick in the woods just as easy as in bed so she hunted as hard that year as any in the past.  She managed to kill two while dealing with all of it.   I've killed a few birds in my life but have never earned one as much as she earned those two.

God Bless your momma!

Some of you sound like you need to be more careful when you ain't in the turkey woods!

My son's first bird was the day after he had badly sprained his ankle- a jake when he was 12.  He limped walking in more than he did toting that bird out for sure!   When he had a torn meniscus and surgery right before the opener, we decided to see of we could repeat.  I drove him close to spot and he strapped the gun on and walked on crutches the last half mile.  We did hear some gobbling birds, but too far for him to try (and through a swamp).

My best was tripping in the swamp and taking a cypress knee to the face on a wood duck hunt.  Thought I had knocked out a tooth at first, but i felt around and was fine so I kept hunting.  Was cold that day, so my nose was running and I kept wiping it in the dark.  Killed a couple and worked the dog.  Walked out to meet my nephews and they looked at me and said "WTH happened to you" with shocked faces.  I looked at myself in the truck mirror and that was not a runny nose, it was blood and I had wiped it all over the back of  my gloves and face.  It was not a bad cut really, in my moustache, but I bled like a stuck pig. 

[Cottonmouth]

I missed October and November deer hunting 2 yrs ago when I got hit in the head by a pine tree. Fractured my skull in 7 places. Still dealing with headaches from that. This past turkey season dealt with a 16 mm kidney stone the entire season but didn't miss a day.

[Yoder409]

Missed a Gould's trip in 2006

Was supposed to go with a bunch of guys from our pro-staff.  I ended up having lumbar surgery AS they were in Old Mexico killing Gould's birds...................  VERY hard pill to swallow.  But I basically lost an entire year of doing ANYTHING over that one.

FORTUNATELY, my buddy Manuel rolled my hunt over to 2007.  Only thing was I had to re-buy were the 2007 license.  Killed2 absolute SLAMMER Gould's toms in 2 days and spent the 3rd day in the hacienda sipping fine, FINE tequila. 

[Cut N Run]

I'm lucky to be on this side of the dirt.

On April 21, 2007 I was T-boned by a drunk driver who ran a red light at 70 MPH and hit my side of the vehicle. I was on the way home to get to bed so I could meet up to turkey hunt with a couple of buddies at my old lease the next morning.  I ended up in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, broken pelvis in 2 places, shattered left shoulder, 5 broken ribs, and permanent injuries to the 4th cranial nerve in my left eye (I have permanent double vision in 25% of my field of view...it was 100% when I first came out of the coma).  I did miss the remainder of that turkey season.  I was in a coma for several days, then put in a medically induced coma for another week to allow the swelling in my brain to go down.  The swelling went down the day they were prepping me to have some of my skull cut out to help relieve the pressure in my brain.

I was out of work for 9 months and had to re-learn to do many things.  Some memories are just gone and I have trouble remembering the names of roads. I suffer from unexpected migraines and probably will for the rest of my life. I did not forget how to call or hunt turkeys, though my mobility has been slightly restricted.  I learned that slowing down is not necessarily a bad thing in turkey hunting.

I've had multiple surgeries on my left shoulder and got clearance to hunt 4 days before the next opening day, though they wanted me to shoot right handed.

My first year back I killed a nice gobbler on opening day and another one to tag out in the last week of the season. Both left handed.  The first one was easier than expected and the the second was pretty challenging.  I am thankful for any day I get and especially happy to be able to hunt turkeys.

Jim

[rifleman]

Not an injury but I lost about 3 days to lyme disease and the meds. to help me.  I was too tired and sore to go for a few days.

[TRG3]

In early March, 2015, I broke my right ankle at the fitness center. A month later, the opening day of the turkey season found me hobbling my way across a 20 acre picked soy bean field on a walker while my 110#wife of 50 years carried the decoys, ground lounger, and shotgun. After assisting with the decoy setup, she headed back to the truck for some shut eye. An hour later, my 12 gauge 870 woke her up. She carried the gobbler back to the truck while I now had the rest of the gear to manage along with my walker. While other turkey hunts have faded with the years, this one will be remembered forever.

[saverx]

That sounds like something my wife would do. Awesome. We are lucky.

[TRG3]

Saverex...I met my wife-to-be in college and, when she revealed that she ate wild game, move to the top of my list and obviously has stayed there for over half a century now. 

[Bolandstrutters]

I had a chrohnes flair up almost keep me out of the woods a few years back.  Between the pain and the needing to use the restroom 30+ times a day it made it tough, but I managed to still tag out.  Littered the woods with TP that year!

[NCbowjunkie]

Mine happened a few years back, me and 2 others had paid for a trip to Colorado to hunt elk with an outfitter, the month before the trip I was getting ready to bow hunt at home and got to feeling funny the night before, to make it short I ended up in a helicopter being flown to a heart center, went into surgery the next morning , a triple bypass.  5 days in hospital  needless to say the trip was off for me, did find a friend that took my place. Eight days out of the hospital our muzzle load season came in ,my son came by and said it would be nice to hunt, I told him to get my muzzle loader and my contender pistol and to drive us to the farm ,he could sit in my stand and I would stay at the cabin . He did so and I got out of truck at the tractor shed ,laid my T/C on fender of the tractor fender ans sit back in truck. It wasn't about 30 minutes when a doe stepped out , I eased from truck and got the pistol and put crosshairs on her then decided not to shoot cause I thought my son would most likely take one also. He didn't and when we got home my wife was raising !!!! . The next week at dr appointment she told him what I did,he asked if I was using a long gun and that I would rip my chest open if I did. When I explained that I had a pistol he was ok with that, I finished our gun season with the pistol. The next year I got to go to Colorado , took a 5 X 5 .
2 years later I had broken my leg just below the knee , leg got bent back the wrong way, just before bow season .had to have surgery to put metal plate and rod in my leg. I was not to put any weight at all on it for 30 days, when the doc said I could start to put weight on it ,I went to woods with bow in hand and crutches that I wrapped in camo tape and took a doe.   I just hate not being able to go to the woods

[eggshell]

Heck I used to think I was pretty tough....after reading these stories I am a certified wimp. Although I did kill a gobbler 7 days after getting out of the hospital from being shot. My buddy called and asked if I'd like to get out and take a ride since I had spent so long laid up. I said sure but can we take a gun and wear our turkey gear, we might see some field birds and it's still season. So we passed a farm we hunt and the owner was coming out the drive and we stopped to ask if we could drive around the pastures. He said sure he had just seen some gobblers up in the high pasture. So we drove up there and my buddy pulled the truck up by a bulldozer pile and helped me out onto a log. He drove away and worked the birds close enough for me to shoot one. I called my wife at work and asked her to guess where I was and what I had done. After telling her she growled, "I married an idiot" and hung up. We're celebrating 38 yeas this fall, so I guess she's ok with being married to an idiot.

[Brian Fahs]

22 years ago I had a vasectomy and my wisdom teeth cut out in the same week. Day after  teeth I went hunting. Still had stich es from both surgeries. Using my trusty mouth call and running were out of the question. BUT I went hunting.

[g8rvet]

so I guess she's ok with being married to an idiot.

Well, my wife and yours have something in common! 

My dad hunted all deer season one year after breaking some ribs in a head on car crash.  He could only use a pistol, but he got three that year. 

[Happy]

22 years ago I had a vasectomy and my wisdom teeth cut out in the same week. Day after  teeth I went hunting. Still had stich es from both surgeries. Using my trusty mouth call and running were out of the question. BUT I went hunting.

Became a gelding to huh? When I had mine done I wanted to watch but the doctor said I couldn't sit up. Some of my buddies knew I was having the procedure and they were lighting my phone of the text messages. The nurse finally grabbed my phone and started reading the messages to me. There were some pretty good ones in there. This got us all laughing so hard the doc had to pause the operation for a few. When I got out the doctor was telling my  wife how great I did and she just quipped "he had better handle that ok. I gave birth to his 9 lb kid without any medications." If you haven't noticed , sympathy is in short supply at our house.

Sent from my SM-G800R4 using Tapatalk

[quavers59]

Last Spring very early- I hurt my right knee by stepping in a pothole. Still went out and hobbled far from the road.