had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

Yep took a surgical hatchet to the knee. Let me unfold the event,to start
we pack in7 miles to about 10,000 on horse and foot I have hunted the area for twenty years and have taken my share of Elk from there. This year was well kinda nasty you know lots of snow and no elk. We were forced to go low to the foot hills and hunt scrub oak on sneaks and drives.
well day nine after a long day ofdrives and stalks , I drew my last card
I decided to go to my Honey spot. A ridge of aspens that cliffs out to dense spruce Forest below. So I left the party on foot in knee deep snow
worked my way up. About3:30 pm I came across a vary fresh track and right after that jumpedthree Elk cow,cow, rag-tag. Well being that it was the last day of hunting before pack out and we hunt for the meat I figured it would be good to get four more quarters. So made sure he was legal, in my area you must shot a 4x4 or the bull must have 6 inch or better brow tines, then took him. Well let me tell ya he was so easy to gut and work on I was making great time still lots of good light. Thats when it happened ,while using my hatchet to remove the head, it deflected into the side ofmy knee. Well it was about 2inches deep andwas bleeding pretty good. So I cleaned out the wound with snow and backed an insert with snow and used a strap from my pack to compress it. Then I tried to raise the party on radio but no go. so the hike to camp began it was about 2miles to our tent.from there I had to go down to the ranch some 7 miles.From the ranch it was 30 miles to the near st hospital . well when I was in camp I boiled water,drank lots, put the first aid kit to useand with the help of my family made our way out. Its been one month and Iam getting around about normal, I feel lucky and thankfully no permanent damage.
Good hunting

Elkslayer338
check out www.cafepress.com/elkslayer

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

IMHO field dressing an elk is as fraught withrisk as any part of the trip. Risk lurks patiently for the right chance/error/opportunity.Elk are fairly large, tough animals that don't come apart willingly.

It is one additional reason we like the Alaskan method, though it is no real safety haven either.

Thanks for sharing, I appreciate it.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

This summer buy your self a browning ultra light pack saw I love mine .I'm glad your ok.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

I will no longer use a surgical hatchet for that cut, most likely my Wyoming Buck saw.
You never think it can happen to you, but when it does its a firm reminder that we are just a grain of sand in the palm of nature.
The hike back to camp is for ever burnt into my memory not all in a negative way but more of an eye opener.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

Thanks for the reminder. Good thing you are ok, and made it home.

That is one thing that many of us out west face. We may end up with a bad injury, and have to rely, on our preparation, wits, and common sense to make it out alive, not a cell phone call, or reliance on somebody else to be there in a shot.

I HOPE something like that never happens to me, but I am sure it will, and I am sure I will be able to handle it, whatever it may be.

Good luck

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

Yep thats right I remember when there were no phones on the mountain to.
It was during that time that I came across a hunter who had suffered a major hart attack he was some 5 miles from the trail head and unconscious
when I road up on him thought he was dead. his skin was purple and he had shallow breathing now the reason i was on the trail to get thelast load for campwhile the rest of the guy,s set up wall tent. It took them3 hours to ride out to see if i had a horse wreck or something. Meanwhile I had to administer CPR to the hunter and witness another attack. When
the guy's got there I ran down the rocky trail to a Friends ranch and called 911. elapsed time from the point I found him to the point he was extracted by helicopter 8 hours.For your information he made it and is still alive today up in Canada. So it ended on a positive. but if I had a cell phone or radio I could have climbed up to the top and gotten a signal and cut that time to three hours.
after that I always have my cell phone with booster,and my CB handheld Rhino gps. note in camp for the first time in 36 years were able to call out
threw the use mega antenna booster that we pulled to the top of a big spruce plus we have twocustom soler panelshooked into a motorcycle battery to supply all are equipment with power for recharging.
now the cell phone came in handy on a trip to Wyoming about eight years ago when on a mule deer hunt we spotted the beginnings of a forest fire and by are callthey were able to put it out by the next day.
now I could have called in a rescue at camp whenI cut my knee but it would havecost me 5,000and I had it under control.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

Glad to hear that you are on the mend elk slayer, and that there isn't any permanent damage. Happy hunting.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

That's a pretty hardcore story...who was lucky enough to carry the meat?;)

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

well the job of going to get my Elk fell tomy cousin in law and a friend of my uncle's and they did not mind , but I felt bad. Whats funny about it all is that last year my cousin in law cut his hand when we were working on his elk . he shot it at dawn so we rushed to get it ready to pack see it was a black powder hunt and in September so we had to get it to the freezer at the trailer fast so it did not spoil . well he got his thumb good enough and we figured we better take him in to glenwood springs hospital
all and all we did not ride into camp until 230 amthat night.LOL
So when it came time for me to go to emergency he was right there to
help.

RE: had my first major injury on annual elk hunt.
 

When I fly-in up here, I have a few rules once a critter is down.

1) Only one knife open at a time and only one guycutting at a time. When you are not cutting, in its sheath it goes.

2) No axes allowed in camp---period.

3) If its too dark tohead to camp,we start a fire break out the space blankets and tarps, and stay with the animal all night.