‘My Pant Leg Was Turning Red’: How an Elk Hunter Accidentally Stabbed Himself and Live to Tell the Tale

Benjamin Wardell of Submit Falls, Idaho, had been archery attempting to find 5 – 6 years with out engaging in what many Western hunters contemplate to be the top of huge sport bowhunting: tagging a bull elk. On the second weekend of September, Wardell took his grime bike up a ridge on rugged public land in Northern Idaho for a brief hunt. On the morning of September 7, he hiked down from the ridge, situated two bulls, however couldn’t get in vary. He determined to hike again to his bike and head dwelling to prepare for the work week.

“As I bought again as much as the highest of the ridge, I heard this bull rip off a bugle lower than 100 yards from me,” Wardell instructed *MeatEater. “I used to be like, ‘no freaking method!’”

Wardell was in a position to name the bull into vary and took a shot at 10 yards with the bull quartering towards him. He shot it behind the shoulder, and the bull took off. Wardell knew he’d made a great shot on the elk however struggled to search out blood. After three hours of looking out, he noticed antlers sticking from a rocky space about 200 yards from the place he shot it.

“I used to be tremendous grateful and pumped that I discovered him,” Wardell stated. “He was already stiff and coated in flies.”

Wardell rushed to area gown the bull because it was a scorching day, and he didn’t need the meat to spoil. Having labored at a sport processor in South Dakota, Wardell stated he feels significantly comfy skinning huge sport animals. However this time, one thing went awry.

“I used to be down on my proper knee with my left knee straight and sort of downhill,” he says. “I used to be making an attempt to open up the neck a bit. I used to be pushing my blade towards the cranium on the underside of the neck when the knife slipped out. I stabbed that factor proper into my leg. Immediately, my pant leg began turning pink.”

Fortunately, Wardell didn’t hit an artery, and his pack along with his med package was proper subsequent to him. He rapidly bought out QuickClot and a tourniquet. He pushed the QuickClot into the open wound and used his hand to use stress with the tourniquet to restrict the bleeding. However each time his hand slipped, the bleeding began once more.

“It wasn’t squirting out like within the films,” he says. “It was extra like a glass of water being dumped out.”

Unable to maneuver with out bleeding profusely, Wardell referred to as for assist. His Garmin wouldn’t ship out the SOS, however his iPhone 15 did. Then the ready started. At one level, Wardell handed out. When he wakened, he was bleeding once more.

“I used to be going by a psychological battle, like ‘you may’t die out right here,” he stated. “I used to be yelling at myself to not move out once more, being a weirdo. I used to be mendacity beside this useless elk, and there have been flies and hornets in all places.”

Wardell’s physique went into shock, and he began shivering. However he stayed alert. Three hours after calling the SOS, a chopper from Two Bear Air Rescue arrived. Two Bear Air Rescue offers no-cost search and rescue assist in Montana, Idaho, Japanese Washington, and Japanese Oregon. Certainly one of Two Bear’s staffers put a compression bandage and lightweight tourniquet on Wardell’s wound, then helped hoist him into the helicopter.

The chopper pulled him from the backcountry and dropped him off with emergency companies in a close-by city. Wardell was then transferred to Kootenai Well being for therapy. Within the meantime, his spouse had rallied a number of of his buddies, who arrived on the scene of the accident. They collected his gear, completed area dressing the elk, and packed out all of the meat, which meant lots to Wardell.

“This was my first archery bull. It was a giant deal that I lastly freaking killed one. Then I used to be mendacity beside it for hours considering I used to be going to lose the entire thing,” he stated. “I used to be tremendous lucky I had some associates in a position to drop what they have been doing to assist out, and that my spouse was a freaking stud and arranged it.”

Whereas the harrowing expertise turned out OK contemplating the circumstances, Wardell stated he would do a number of issues otherwise sooner or later.

“I used to be rushed. I felt the stress of making an attempt to get this animal cooled off, so I didn’t lose the meat,” he stated. “There was no cause for me to hurry and push it. And I wasn’t paying sufficient consideration.”

Moreover, Wardell says he plans to make enhancements to his medical package—and buy a brand new tourniquet that he can higher function with one hand; the one he had with him required holding stress on it to take care of pressure, which made for a harmful state of affairs when he feinted.

“If the knife hit 4 to 6 inches in some way, I may not be having this dialog proper now. I don’t know if I might’ve been in a position to get the bleeding beneath management if I hit an artery,” he added. “It makes you contemplate if it’s price searching alone. That’s sometimes what I do, however it might’ve been method totally different and simpler if I had another person with me who might assist.”