Survival stories from hunters who almost didn’t
Shot by his own gun, shot by a dog and a tree stand fall: These hunters are lucky to be alive after suffering near-death accidents.
Hundreds of thousands of hunters go afield each year and most return safely home at the end of the day. However, no matter how safety-conscious hunters are, mistakes are made and things can go very wrong. Here are the stories of three hunters that are lucky to be alive.
A December 2017 deer hunt started out like most others, but within minutes became life-threatening.
“I’m 69 years old and hunted all my life,” Randy Seals of Columbia told Clarion Ledger in 2018. “I’m just a fanatic about gun safety. My dad was a Marine, so you can understand that.
“December 16, the weekend after the snow, I went out to a little green field before work. I think we had a little light snow about Wednesday of that week.”
The snow may have been light, but it provided enough weight to break branches off the pine tree that his ladder stand was leaning against.
“They had cluttered up the ground to the point I had to kick them out of the way to get to my ladder stand,” Seals said.
Seals’ .300 Winchester Short Magnum rifle was leaning against the base of the tree. Seals had attached it to a rope to safely pull the rifle up to him before he kicked the branches out of his
way. Seals then climbed the 23-foot ladder and settled into the stand. When he began to pull his rifle up with the rope, something odd happened.
“When I started pulling it up, I don’t know what happened,” Seals said. “When I started pulling it up I heard a bell ring. I’m sure there was a bang and a boom, but I just remember that bell ringing.”
A sound that signaled a dire situation
Seals couldn’t figure out what had happened until he looked down at his rifle. The bolt was half open and smoke was coming out of it. He saw a slit in his right boot and discovered his left leg would not work. It had been mauled by a bullet. The ringing sound he heard was the bullet striking the metal tree stand.
Seals managed to climb out of the stand and used the pull rope attached to the rifle as a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. He called 911 and then friends and family.
Once in the hospital doctors found that not only was Seal’s left leg almost severed at the calf, the bullet had first hit his right foot and blew his big toe off.
Seals recovered after several surgeries, procedures and physical therapy, but how the incident happened is somewhat a mystery.
Seals said evidence suggests that when he kicked the limbs out of the way, one found its way into the trigger guard. Tree bark found on the safety makes him think the tree or branches somehow moved it into the firing position when he lifted the rifle. However it happened, Seals knows that if the rifle had been unloaded and the muzzle was pointed down rather than up, it wouldn’t have happened.
“People said I’m alive for a reason,” Seals said. “I guess the reason is to tell people about it because everyone I talk to about it says they do the same thing. Maybe the calling from this accident is to tell people about it and prevent them from doing the same thing.”
‘I knew I was paralyzed when I hit the ground’
Edward Runnels of Mize was setting up a ladder stand in 2010 with his two sons in preparation for deer season. He’d added an extension to it which proved to be a life-altering mistake.
“I was probably 15-foot or a little under 15-foot high,” Runnels said in 2015. “I remember the stand wiggling.
“I asked my sons if they were fooling around and they said, ‘No, the stand’s bending.’ The ladder itself broke. I didn’t have any time to react. When I added that extension to it, it made it weak.”
Runnels crashed to the ground landing face-down and tangled in the stand. He immediately realized life as he knew it had ended.
“I knew I was paralyzed when I hit the ground,” Runnels said.
One of his sons held up Runnel’s head so he could breathe and the other went for help.
Runnels had damaged six vertebrae in his neck and crushed two of them. He also suffered a broken cheek and collar bone.
“I went to hang that stand and I told my wife I’d be home in about an hour and a half,” Runnels said. “It was 63 days before I got home.”
A life-changing experience
And when he got home, he needed someone with him at all times because he couldn’t do anything for himself. The worst of it is he can’t hold his family.
“The one thing I miss is just being able to love my family,” Runnels said. “I can’t even hug them or anything. I can tell them, but I can’t physically show it.”
According to the Mississippi Department
of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, tree stand accidents account for 90% of all hunting-related accidents and issued these guidelines.
❚ Always wear a full body safety harness.
❚ Use a lifeline harness system when climbing to and from deer stands.
❚ Check the straps attaching your hunting stand to the tree for signs of wear.
❚ Check your hunting stand for signs of wear or broken parts.
This hunter was shot by a dog
Hunting accidents are almost always avoidable, but what happened to former Louisiana State University football player Matt Branch was almost unimaginable.
Branch’s story began on Dec. 28, 2018, while he was hunting ducks with friends near Eagle Lake in Mississippi. He’d placed his shotgun in the bed of a Polaris Ranger as he prepared to move to another location. A dog that was with the hunting party jumped in the bed as he normally did, but this time he