Almost met my maker this week.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Thanks for sharing your story on here, Marc.

Lessons to be had for sure. The older we get the more we need to slow down and double check to make sure things are in order.
Shit can and will go sideways at the first opportunity.

Glad you are ok and able to tell your tale.


SSS

[webley]

You are very lucky, stay safe and go and buy a lottery ticket.Steve!

[IronNoggin]

KeRist!
That's about as close as you can get!
Luck was on your side this time.
Happy you survived, learned from it, and shared the story so others can too!

Cheers

[Spy]

Wow glad you are ok, just goes to show how quickly things can go from good to very bad.

[ACB]

I can easily see the bottom so I jump in to grab the motor, well shit my head goes under and I don't touch bottom. My head pops out of the water as water is rushing into my chest waders. Life jacket is nicely tucked in the boat and I'm wearing a t-shirt an a camo sweater. I muckle on to the boat and try and ift myself to stop the water from filling my waders as the dog tries to use me as a boat ladder to get into the boat. I still have my call lanyard on and it's hanging in front of me and there is a lip around where the top and bottom halves are fiberglassed together and my calls are stopping me from getting into the boat as they are under the lip and my chest is pushing against the boat. i let myself roll back into the water enough I can grab my call and pull it off and toss them into the boat.

I'm getting tired and heavy as hell with the full waders. there is a angle iron that separates the cockpit between me and the dog. I reach up with both my arms and pull myself in the boat as much as I can being careful not to flood the boat in the process. I know I've only got one, maybe two tries left in me before I"m to tired to pull myself into the boat. I have to get a leg in soon or I'm done I"m thinking. first try almost get it but not quite. Second try I give it all I have now knowing the extra weight of the water that's now in my wader boots. I finally get a leg over and manage to roll myself back into the boat. I kneel in the boat and grab the dog by the collar and pull her in. The nest thing I do is grab my phone and take a waypoint so I have a general idea where the motor went down.

So now I"m in the boat with the dog and the goose is still swimming and I"m now in survival mode. Paddle is in the back of my truck remember, I have my shotgun and a salmon net for a paddle. I start paddling with the salmon net and luckily the wind was in my favour and blowing towards the shore. I see another hunter set up a couple hundred yard away from me but I didn't see another boat come in so I assumed he was on foot. When I got about 30 yards from my decoy spread a boat shows up behind me, it was the other hunter and he had collected the bird we were chasing and he handed it over to me. I explained to him what happened and that I didn't even have a paddle and if I could get a tow out at the end of the hunt and he said sure.

Man, I'm glad you made it out of that predicament safe and were able to still get some birds, that said you should consider getting a lite weight auto/man inflating PFD. Me personally, I don't leave home without one when going to play on the water anymore, things can turn bad very quickly, as you know.

[mikeman20]

Scary ordeal.
I have been getting lax about safety lately, this is a good kick in the ass to stop the bad habits!

[BCbillies]

How many of your 9 lives do you have left? Close call on that one . . . glad you lived to see another day!

Always a lesson or two to learn on these outings.

[moosinaround]

Few years back now, I lost my best bud and hunting mentor to just the exact thing you experienced! He was in his belly boat, and went in, his waders filled up, and down he went! We all try to get as much time in the field as we can, we lose sight of dangers, wanting get that renewing energy our passion gives us!! Glad it turned out like it did Marc, and you were able to share in the first person! Be careful out there HBCers, you all have many more adventures to write about!! Moosinaround

[Dano]

Good to hear you’re ok.
You’ve potentially saved people from serious injury or death by posting your ordeal.
Those of us old enough to remember “This happened to me” stories in Outdoor Life magazine saw these type of stories every month and are more prepared in the event something happens to us because someone told their story.
Thanks for posting.

[lorneparker1]

Marc, Firstly im glad you are ok. I could actually envison what happened as i was reading it and its damn scary!

Secondly, if you dont have your dog e collar conditioned to HERE, you defintely should. You should never have to chase your dog down because it wont come back cahsing a cripple. I know first hand what happens when that prey drive kicks in and the only thing stopping it is sound recall and correction if need be

Lorne