As most of my closest friends and family know, I have 3 passions/obsessions: girls, guitars, and last but not least, waterfowling.

Last year on Christmas Eve, we walked out to our hole at 2am. It was a decent morning with two ringnecks on the water. There was only one problem. The ducks were in too deep of water to retrieve, and me and my bud had no dog. What to do? "Shouldve brought the fishin' pole," we thought. But we had no time to think about what we shouldve done. So, got into our swimming state of mind. It was 25 degrees without the windchill, but we took off the waders and I RAN without stopping for about two miles
to get some towels. I tried to walk out to the ducks one last time, but it was too deep. So, we filled the decoy bag up with the dekes, and used it as a floatation device to swim out to the ducks and retrive them. It was literally below freezing and we could have caught hypothermia. However there was no way we were leaving those ducks in that marsh.

Just thought this would be interesting... alot of hunters say they are serious about their hobby. Well, I want to know HOW serious yall really are. Do you think what we did was insane? Or do you love your sport so much that you would have done the same? What is the most "hardcore" or "stupidest" thing you have done for your obsession?

i like hardcore.......wait, what are we talkin about again?

I took a swim in a snow storm once. I was out retrieving a duck and tripped over some grass and went head first into the drink. When i got back one of the guys heard me splashing around in the water and was like what happened. I took off one of my neoprene gloves and poured the water out and said that i took a swim. So we hunted for a little while longer but the ducks had stopped flying so we picked up and left. On the walk back i was trying to carry as much stuff as i could just to try and generate some body heat. And last year i packed out 190 goose decoys about 1/2 mile myself just to get 3 geese. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

hmm nothing too crazy i cant think of anything

Chris, great story. Did the same thing two years ago. Couldn't stop shaking for about 30 minutes. The coolest thing was, before I swam to get the downed bird an Eagle was circling overhead and I thought for sure it was going to pick it up.

I think waterfowlers are the most hardcore of any type of hunters.

trackin deer if the tracks big enough, say....a 35 whelen cartridge will fit in it sideways ive crossed rivers before in november. so figure water thats about 33 degrees.....sac deep

Heres my list.

broken right ankle
broken left ankle
broken right wrist
three broken ribs
torn acl,mcl, broken growth plate left knee (surgery)
broken right hand (surgery)
broken left foot
torn rotator cuff right shoulder
separated AC joint left shoulder (Surgery)
broken left colar bone
right hip contusion
7 concussions

Thats all I can think of right now...... I know this was about hunting but i think this applies under the "hardcore or stupid" thread haha... The majority of these are from dirtbikes.... a few are tubing in the winter (most would call it "hardcore" tubing...haha....) I enjoy being challenged and action sports are what I do... bmx, motocross, all types of water sports, free running... base jumping is next on the list! I imagine Ill be pretty sore when Im old, but right now Im just loving life!!
-Jake

To the thread at hand...the closest I've done is called the polar bear swim.... sharon PA has it every new years day to raise money for homeless people and I've been doing that the last few years. My friend holds the record of being in the shenango river for two minutes, the paramedics made him get out.
-Jake

Having a broken leg but going camping anyways to goose hunt, when i saw the geese were flying on the other side of the lake i walked on lava rock carrying my gun and a single crutch to get to the other side, didnt get anything, but when i made it back my dad said a friend of his invited me to go fishing on the other side of a little hill, so i exchanged the crutch for my fishing pole and tackle box and carried the gun pole and box down a small cliff, the whole time i was in a brace

I walked through snow and mud while in a boot after having surgery on my foot the week before, two years in a row. I went while I had pneumonia once. Then I went after I blew my knee in a football practice. I have never missed an opening weekend for any reason, all those things took place on opening weekend

Then while Audad Hunting I scaled a sheep trail, which wouldn't be that bad except for the 400 foot drop that was three inches from my foot.

I sat through a Tornado on the edge of a canyon so I could shoot a pig.

And thats pretty much all my hardcore hunting experiences.