I drew my compound back with my fingers after putting in a new peep. Darn string slipped out of my fingers and slapped my forearm. Got that sick feeling in my gut as the bruise (and pain) immediately got to the size and color of a medium apple. Went down fairly quickly or I would have been off to the hospital. Still looks like a 3rd degree burn mark on my forearm. And, it was actually that - a burn from the string going across my skin.

I sent a picture to some other folk that also won't get posted on the site. I'll have to find your e-mail. Some guy got a Thunderhead in the back of the head. Luckily, only the tip of the arrow pierced his skull but they still had to take out a chunk to remove the broadhead. The guy is a big dude - a younger person with a softer skull or someone smaller would have been dead. Personally, I think every bow hunter needs to see the pictures to see what can happen if they shoot without being absolutely sure of their target.

For branches affecting the operation of your bow and having devastating effects, I can relate to that. I remember age 15 shooting a Herter’s 40 pound recurve and unknowingly was a tree limb above me. Upon release the upper part of the bow struck the tree limb above and the arrow instead of hitting a rabbit at 30 yards went screaming at 30+ degrees landing in the side lawn of some fellas house 150 to 200 yards away and lucky nobody was out that early morning. Lesson learned!

As for showing the picture, I haven’t had lunch yet but I can imagine and releasing the arrow knowing it wasn’t on the rest, O”BROTHER! I’m not going to say you can’t fix stupid on this one, but I will say, I’ll bet he will never do it again!

I remember Dad and I was out Mule Deer hunting near Paradise Arizona and one of His friends from the Base Brother was packing a Ruger 22 Magnum revolver with all six rounds in it. As he jumped down into a wash, the stock of his rifle hit the hammer and the round hit the top of his foot dead center. They were gone before we got back to camp. The XRay of his foot, the bones looked like shattered glass!

Yep first time I drew my bow back on an Elk I started shaking like crazy. I let the sring slide slowly forward leand down behind a rock mumbled a few ahh words of encouragement that I cant post. I stood up drew sighted released. All hell broke loose, my camelback tube got caught in the string. I was very lucky. BTW the elk ran really fast lol

I wear eyepro when I hunt. Didnt last week bad things happened (different story)

I have seen photos of carbo arrows that have shattered, the effects are devestating. Keep a tourniquet and quickclot with you when you hunt

I have never had anything bad happen to me personally but in a league one time a guy next to me's string broke and parts and pieces went everywhere. it sounded like a gun shot and scared the crap out of everyone but luckily no one got hurt. check you bow every time and wax your string

I pulled a fare share of fletching out of me hand

Hopefully nothing ever happens to me like these stories

Ummm. I can't remember any significant injury. I've cut myself with broadheads a few times being plain stupid. Other than that the bow is such a simple tool you'll really have to screw up to hurt yourself with it.

was shooting a recurve i just put a string on and the arrow hit the top of target and shot up in the air and landed in the roof of my house about 45 yards away needless to say i don't shoot there anymore.

As I drew on a target with my compound bow, the notch on one of the arrows popped off(these were cheap field points, only $1.88 at sportsman's wearhouse)and I didn't notice, I shot and the arrow, unaware of this, ant the back smacked me in the chin. It hurt, but no blood.

I made the mistake of shooting a cracked arrow once. It snapped in half the middle part of the arrow went through the skin on my hand right outside of my thumb bone, and the fletching stopped it. My mama freaked out and I was sweating cold bullets on the way the the ER. I had to have surgery to remove the carbon fiber splinters, and there are still some in my hand and they hurt pretty bad sometimes. Needless to say I make sure each one of my arrows are not cracked or splintering at all before i shoot them.

wow that is nasty i have seen pictures similar to this but this is by far the worst.

Send the pics to admin @ marshmarauders.org

I will post them up on my site as a learning lesson.

I have had alot of string slap and cut fingers from broadheads. I also had a bow "blow up" on me. Was shooting at a turkey out of an old wooden stand. Did a dumb thing and tried to shoot the ol tom thru the back as he walked under me. When I released, the string hit my leg and kicked it off the cam. Wow, I thought someone had shot a shotgun close by. Oh well, lesson learned!

I recall a story a neighbor told of his mishap from his tree stand. It seems, while bow hunting he accidently dropped an arrow out of his quiver with a 145 grain Thunderhead attached to the aluminum shaft.

It was beginning to get dark as he decided to climb down the ladder of his stand. As he let go of the hand rail, and took his first step from the last ladder rung, the calf of his leg encountered the aluminum shaft with the broadhead sticking straight up with the fullness of his weight, all 325 pounds!

The broadhead penetrated his calf with ease. He started to pass out as he began to go into shock. His buddy found him and drove immediately to the nearest hospital,thirty-five miles away on winding Kentucky backroads.

Twenty minutes into the ride, the hurting hunter "pulled" the broadhead out of his calf, causing the blood to flow at a more consistent and faster rate.

He began to lose consciousness as the driver was now applying direct pressure to the open wound. The hunter was fading in and out as they pulled into the hospitals emergency room.

It was touch and go most of the way, but with the hunter removing the broadhead from the wound, caused it to be more life threatening. Everything turned out ok.
As the hunter told me the story he showed me the healed wound ... it was in the shape of the Thunderhead.

Personally, I once had the bad combination of first switching to a release and had the arrow slip off rest on the first draw with said new release. I splayed my hand as far away as possible from the trigger and began to let down when THWACK carbon arrow shattered directly against the floor of the range. Luckily noone took the shrapnel. I swore I didn't touch the trigger, I was looking at it at the time. Next draw, with bow pointed downrange at half draw another arrow goes. I then adjusted the trigger and it has never happened again. While adjusting the trigger on the release I was speaking to the owner of the shop and he told me that the previous day a pair of guys were in with one teaching the other to shoot. The 'instructor' for whatever reason had his hand on the string when the other gentleman fired a shot. His fingers were pulled right into the cam where they jammed. When the owner rushed over with a knife everyone who could scattered yelling 'Use the press! Use the press!" out of fear of the bow coming apart. He admitted it was a valid concern, but he thought the guy's fingers would have come off if he tried to twist the bow to the angle the press would have required. The owner's assistant then had a heart attack and needed to be driven to the hospital. My sis worked in the local emergency room and saw both guys come in. Everyone talks about gun safety, but I know a lot more people who have "and then the bow came apart" stories, often with stitches to match.

I've never had anything happen -- BUT -- I've made the decision to not bother bowhunting if it's below 0 F. It just seems to me (from my experience as a forester, working below 0) that pretty much everything gets awful brittle that cold, and I don't really care to find out if my carbon arrows are going to shatter on release, nor do I want to find out if there's a weak spot on my bow. Considering that my cable slide broke on my new Eliminator back in september when it was 85 degrees out, I don't have a whole lotta confidence in it when it gets cold. Anybody have any frigid horror stories?

can you tell us what state he is from because i have some pretty gross pictures of the same incident...

I've been lucky in 30+ yrs of bowhunting. Once at the practice range right after I paid my fees and registered for the shoot, my 82 lb recurve came explosively apart sending others ducking for cover.I was left at full draw with only the string, nock and arrow in my fingers and tears in my eyes from loosing my best friend!I used my buddies compound (he taught me to shoot) through the shoot and ended up beating him by 10 points! My brother once got in the truck to go hunting and when he slammed the door shut it caught an arrow out of his quiver, breaking it in the door. The buisiness end whipped up and stopped just touching his neck in the area of the corotid artery!

this would all be solved if he were using a whisker biscut!!!!