Roller coaster ride of emotions ( the story of my buck ) Well this last weekend was a crazy emotional ride for Frank and Myself. This story has been heavy on my heart all weekend and Im not even sure where to start it out at. So to get things rolling Im sorry for the long read but here you go. Back in October Frank and I lost one of our buddies to a tree stand accident. He was Franks in laws next door neighbor and grew up his whole life living next door to Franks wife and family. He was 32 years old, married and had a 2 year old daughter. I had played sports against him since the fifth grade and fished with him and his dad down on spoon river quite a bit while we were in school. He fell 20 feet and broke his neck. It was a pretty humbling time around here and he will never be forgotten. Guys and Gals we have to take the time and the money to make our selves safe. The safety part of hunting has been really heavy on my heart over the last year. Im not sure why god has placed it there but I think about it a lot. Ive gave away every spare harness that I have had to people who tell me they don't wear one. I talk about safety as much as I when we are out and about talking hunting to people. Fast forward to the rut. Frank and I have been fortunate this season to be working on the same job this fall. It worked out great in October then the time changed. I have been able to leave early but Frank hasn't. This has cut into a lot of our hunting time and was starting to get pretty Frustrating. Last Friday night I was heading home from work and received a call from one of our best friends JAKE MEYER. He was breaking up real bad but I heard him say they were hunting down below my house. I figured they had killed a big deer and needed some help if we weren't hunting. I lost his call. Frank called next and said Jakes dad fell out of the tree a mile from my house and they needed help. I couldn't believe it I instantly went into overdrive Clinton under pressure work mode and got after it. Jake called back and said the only thing that was wrong was he hurt his shoulder and needed help getting him across the creek. ( Jake was still driving there and had talked to his dad on the phone). Thankfully I didn't take his word for it and went prepared. Before I left home I Grabbed our camera pack. Ripped off our survival pack that my father in law insists that I keep on there. ( Brother in law Ty brought in home for us from Afghanistan) Then I grabbed some rope, a blanket, a coat and some boards. While I was getting the rope out of my barn I saw my black heavy duty plastic Ice fishing sled hanging on the wall. ( definite god thing) I grabbed it and headed off. When I got there I rushed through the woods with everything in my sled. When I got to him Jake was there with him but I immediately new it was way worse than he had said and went to work. He was gray as you can get and was shaking pretty bad. I was pretty sure he was in shock and his son Jake was pretty shook up also. I really wanted to call 911 and was scared to move him. I quickly went through the pros and cons and figured It would take them and hour to get back in there and get him out. I thought we could have him out and at hospital in 45 min. So I told jake that we needed to get him supported and moved over into the sled. When I slid my hands down the back of his shoulders to try and give him some support it felt like a bag of rocks. We couldnt slide him in to the sled. Next try was to roll him on his side. I supported his back the best I could and Jake got the sled under him. We then proceeded to get him flat on his back and supported the best possible way in the sled. Then we took off pulling one of my best friends dad who I have grew up with for 20 years through the timber. We moved every log and branch we came across to keep it a smooth ride. I was still really concerned about his back. He was starting to shake worse and was getting in worse shape. When we came to the creek I scouted us out a good path and we slid him down very slowly and floated him across in the sled.( 18 in deep ). The back on the other side was super steep and to much work for two of us to safely get him up. I heard some trucks coming so I ran up the bank and flagged down Frank and our buddy Derek. I cant explain the look on Franks face when he saw FID laying there in that sled but it tore Frank up pretty bad. We pushed and pulled him up the bank as carefully as we could and got him in the truck. Jake took off and rushed him to the hospital. He had a crushed shoulder and hip. Plus it blew his shoulder out the front of his chest when he hit the ground. He had bled through both of his long sleeve shirts that he had on under his jacket. He had Surgery yesterday in Peoria and they reconstructed his shoulder. He has a long way to go but hes not DEAD. The next morning we decided to go hunting. When we reached the base of the tree the wind was blowing like 30 MPH. This tree is one of the only sets that we have that doesn't have a lifeline in it. I started to climb got my linemans rope around the tree and climbed in to the stand. When I looked down Franks was just standing down there. I didn't think he was going to climb the tree. Like I said it really tore him up. Im not going to go into the full story of the rest of the morning but I will leave it at this. We had one of our target bucks with a hot doe bedded right under us. He got away and that as far as it goes. We were devastated. Sunday night we went after a deer that we called ONE EYED JACK. He was hitting some beans trying to recover from getting his eyed tore up during a fight. Longer story short He fed down the field for 15 min. He was 38 yards and Frank was trying to get me to shoot him. I think frank thought I didn't think he was big enough. It wasn't that at all. It was just a lot of pressure. We had been through a lot the past few days. We needed to be successful and I needed to make a great shot. Frank was right he wasn't going to get any closer and I could make the shot. But man I just felt so overwhelmed with emotion in that moment that I just set there and soaked it in. The deer wasn't going anywhere. He was hungry and had no clue about the two emotionally train wrecked guys that were 38 yards away. I said a quick prayer got by breathing under control and pulled back on the string like hundreds of times before. The shot was good, we celebrated and I didn't go full Todd Prignitz with emotions but it was close. I wont go any farther. You can watch the story in a couple of weeks. PLEASe IF YOU READ THIS AND DONT WEAR A HARNESS GET ONE. IF YOU CANT AFFORD ONE GET IN CONTACT WITH ME OR SOMEONE ON HERE AND WE WILL GET YOU ONE. WE NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB GUYS. WE HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND EVERYONE SHOULD MAKE IT HOME EVERYNIGHT. NO ONE SHOULD BE TO BIG OF A MAN TO WEAR A HARNESS. IT CAN HAPPEN I EXPERIENCED IT FIRST HAND. PLEASE BE SAFE.
What a whirlwind of emotions your crew went through. Congrats on the buck, but more so on keeping a calm and collected head when retrieving gear and such after the phone call. Sorry to hear about your friend and glad to hear Jakes dad is alive. Your story should really put things into perspective for every one.
Thanks for sharing Clinton. I can't imagine what you guys have been going through. Keep up the good work man.
Congrats on an awesome buck!!! Very sorry to hear about the loss of your friend and the injuries your friends father suffered!! Will keep him and both of there families in my thoughts and prayers!!
wow......hope he heals/feels well soon. PEOPLE..... I HAVE TWO EXTRA SAFETY HARNESSES....PM ME IF YOU NEED ONE I WILL GIVE YOU ONE FREE!!!!!!!!
Matt, They are getting so faded they are white. Plus Zarr is always on my butt about them being the old camo. We needed a change in luck so I left old faithful at home
Really good story. Glad I took the time to read it. Hope your friend heals quickly and somebody learns from his mistake. Properly use a safety harness from ground to stand.
Clinton I understand exactly how you feel. A close buddys dad fell out of a tree stand about a month ago and was life flighted to OSF with a broken back. This was around the Mapleton/Glasford area. Since this happened I am switching all of my stands over to lifelines instead of the linemans rope and just a tree strap. The $30 for a lifeline is cheap compared to the cost of not being able to hunt the rest of the season or worse.
Just. Wow. I really appreciate you taking the time to write that. I am really sorry to hear about what you and your friends and family have went through recently. I've been bowhunting for about 7 years and just started using a harness this year. And it is only in one out of 3 stands. Ignorance and stupidity I guess. I won't be another stand without one.
Clinton or whoever else needs them I have 4 brand new web style harnesses that came with ladder stands I bought. Just let me know they are free for the taking!
Wow, what a read. Quite a month or so for you and all involved. Glad there is a positive to this story. Congrats on your buck, and prayers to all involved and recovering.
Congrats on a nice buck. I can't imagine going through all of that. I hope he pulls through and recovers. I don't understand why people will get in a tree without a harness. Life is too precious. We are all going to be headed to the great beyond one of these days. No point in rushing it by being lazy and wanting to cut corners.
Wow. I don't know what to say honestly. I have a friend who refuses to wear a harness. He has 1 that came with his stand and I've even offered him my more comfortable one but he wont. He just says he won't fall. I'm to the point in telling him I'm not going to hunt with him because I don't want to be the guy to find him dead at the base of a tree. So sorry for all you have been through man.
