Some buddies and I decided we would do a public land deer hunt last fall. A general location was agreed upon and we would go there for a wknd of camping and scouting to narrow down a few spots to hang stands a couple months before opening day.
The guy who was doing the driving had bought a new club cab truck that wk and volunteered the transportation and would pick each hunter up along the route as we headed for our destination. He was an hr late meeting the first guy, so that put us behind schedule right off the bat.
An hr or so after we were all finally loaded into the truck with camping and fishing gear as well as our bows and a couple practice targets, we were runnin down the highway and the right rear tire on the truck blew out, sending pieces of rubber up through the fender well, shredding metal, which then got lodged under the left side fender of the trailer we were pulling, that belonged to another friend, and we now had a flat tire on the trailer. My first thought was that we were the target of some lunatic shooting at us from the nearby woods, though once the reality had been discovered, it was time to pull over and evaluate the damage. By now it had begun to rain very hard with a little hail mixed in.
The driver of the truck decided we could simply make a u-turn right then and there and get onto the other lane, and make it to a gas station we'd just recently passed. Instead of accomplishing a proper u-turn, he dropped the right front wheel off the edge of the pavement, which then caused him to lose control of the truck, and we went straight down an embankment of large boulders, poking a hole in the sidewall of the right-front tire and denting in the right side front fender on a tree, which then sent us in a spin into the creek and back up onto the pavement, heading in the same direction as we'd been going before he decided to attempt the u-turn.
Now we've finally come to a complete stop and my buddy in the front passenger seat decided to get out of the truck and when he tried to open the door, it got kinked and jammed because of the dented fender and would only open up about a quarter of the way.
As I crawled out the rear sliding window, hands and arms first, I put my hand down in the bed of the truck to help myself get out and inadvertently put my left hand on someone's arrow quiver, ramming a broadhead and shaft through my palm, just left of my thumb.
In reacting to what I'd just done, I swung my other arm around to take some weight off of my hand that had the arrow sticking thru it, and when I swung, I broke the back glass of the truck. Hearing me scream in pain, my other buddy who was riding in the back seat with me startled, and during his reaction, jumped out of the truck in a hurry in order to help me, but slid down the wet grassy road ditch, coming to a stop in 2 ft. of mud.
Finally, after everyone else was assured they were ok, and I was the only one hurt during all of the commotion, a couple of the guys used a folding saw to cut the arrow in-two and pulled it out of my hand. The rough, serrated teeth of the saw really vibrated though my hand, adding to the pain, but at least we got the arrow out easily enough without having to pull the fletchings through.
Once I was bandaged up with some old rags we found under the seat, we got the truck going with a spare and plugged the other tire and loaded our gear from the trailer onto the truck. I think this part of the episode last around 2 hrs. We had to leave the trailer at the side of the road. I don't think anyone ever went back to get it.
After finally getting back down the road several miles, the truck ran out of gas. Yep, stranded again. No one thought of bringing along a can of gas, so one of the guys was able to wave down another vehicle after what seemed like an hr and a half, pouring down rain and all. He hitched a ride to the nearest town, which was 30 miles one way, got some gas and a box of a dozen Casey's day-old doughnuts, and thankfully returned to us, lookin like a drowned rat.
Anyways, they got me to a hospital and I was back out of there in no time after a few stitches and iodine. We said the heck with scouting that wknd and just turned around and headed back for home. We got to the first guys house to drop him off and when he went to let the tailgate down to get his belongings out of the bed, the tailgate slipped from his hands, crashing down on my other buddy's hand, breaking several bones in his fingers and crushing his wrist watch.
When the tailgate dropped on his hand, he jumped back and knocked over my other friend, the driver, onto his backside, landing on top of my other buddy's turkey fryer, which he'd recently taken off of the truck. Thankfully the grease wasn't hot, of course, but he sprained his back and dislocated a couple vertabrae.
I don't think I will be hunting with these guys from now on. Anyone got room for a new hunting partner?
