Tell us about your "closest call"......

[HOKIEHUNTER]

a few close calls:

In VA we have some honor fee shootin ranges. the ranges usually attract a lot of people. the one near me has 20 rifle / pistol benches, but only one skeet range. it's not uncommon for people to spread out on the skeet range and have up to 3 or 4 people shotting. Well a couple winters ago i was at the range (near virginia Tech) and there was a bout 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground. this is great for skeet shootin b/c my friends missed skeet (i don't miss haha) don't break when they fall. well from all the foot traffic, it was pretty slick ice in the shooting area. i moved into some deeper snow and was fine. about 10 mins into shooting, a group of about 20 other students roll up to the SINGLE position SHOTGUN range with a shotgun, an FAL, a garand, and an AR.well they set a TV out in the middle of the range and proceed to shoot the hell out of it (which was pretty entertaining mind you). well i get back to shootin skeet when i hear to my left, "here, try shootin this. be careful though it's cocked and the safety's off." i look over and one guy was handing the rifle to his buddy whose eyes were about as wide open as can be. the guy grabs the AR by the pistol grip with his finger inside the gaurd and.... you guessed it, slipped on the ice. the guy fell straight backwards and his armed AR with a nervous finger on the trigger was pointed right at my head. I hit the deck and swung my shotgun around telling them to get the expletive away b/c i was puttin up with that explitive anymore. might not have been the best reaction but damn if they didn't clear the hell out.

also twice while bowhunting by myself on public land i was "informed i was hunting in someone else's spot" and told to leave less something bad happend. I was under 21 at the time so no sidearm was available, but i wouldn't have used it anyways. it will be with me this fall though.

[Evader1]

Was doing some deer scouting last fall in the woods before opening season, a few houses were about 50-60 yards to my left when I hear gun shots on my left. Now anyone who's been shot at knows that sound I'm talking about when you hear those bullets zinging by your head. Military training kicked in and I hit the deck and crawled behind a big oak tree. One bullet whacked the tree next me. Pulled my .45 Auto and was able to radio into my buddy that I was under fire. Long story short. Peered around the tree with my .45 pointing in the direction I thought the fire was coming from and all went silent. Sat there for a bit. Luckily it stayed quiet and we walked away unharmed, never found out who was shooting at me though........

[GUNSMOKE45441]

Wife,and I went to a casino in Vegas, I put my cocked & locked Colt Commander in the trunk of the car.
Upon leaving i noticed 4 or 5 young punks come out of the shadows, and start following us, spreading out as they came, and Gaining.
I told my wife get in the car and lock the doors NOW!!! I opened the trunk and made sure they saw what I had in my hand, when I closed it.
They suddenly remembered a previous commitment on the other end of the parking lot.

[MEDDAC19]

I was in NJ visiting with my brother-in-law. Coming back from a soccer game we parked out in front of his house near a grocery store. I got out of his van and I heard what I thought was a firecracker. I hit the deck, then I turned to him and said that he wasn't very funny because when I hit the ground I had got wet in a puddle. He told me that he thought that I had been the one that threw the firecracker. We went into his house and later on, a patrol car pulled up, so we went outside to see what was up. The grocery's storefront window had been shot. My brother-in-law and I looked at each other and told the cops what had recently happened when we were parking. We went to the van and lined up the bullet hole with any place that a shot could of come from. The police went to the homes that looked the most likely to have been the one involved. Twenty minutes or so later the police came back and told us that they had found out where the shot had come from, it was a young teen, but they had no proof so...no arrest. I asked where had the shot come from? When I was shown I could not believe it, the shot that hit the window missed my head by only inches!

[axslingerW]

Used to deliver newspapers. Wife would help now and then. stopped to deliver to a 7-11 one night and wife took the papers in while I sat in the van getting set up for the next drop. She comes out the door, get in the van and says "Is that a gun?" I look up and watched the store get robbed. Next day I went and bought my first handgun. I never felt so weak in my life. I will never feel that way again. Since then I have accuired my ccw, and now carry all the time. I also changed jobs.

[armedandsafe]

I have shed blood and drawn blood. Funniest one was when I walked into the pit-stop just in time to see a perp in the process of reaching for his gun. I pulled mine and spoke to him sharply, He turned his head to look at me and the clerk hit him with a coffee urn. He had to be treated for heavy burns before being locked up for awhile.

Pops

[Texas Pete]

In Vegas about two years ago I was at on of the parties that my fraternity throws every week or so at the house near campus. At about 1 am we had some uninvited guests, from the ghetto of the neighborhood that both the school and the fraternity happen to be in, come into the party and immediately start trouble with several of the members as well as some of the random guys that we were trying to recruit. We tried to ask them nicely several times to leave and then shortly thereafter all hell broke loose. Needless to say the ghetto children were on the loosing end of that fight. But, about 15 minutes later we heard what we thought were firecrackers until they really started pulling the trigger fast right into the party. Thank god no one was hit, but there were quite a few holes in the house and one of the rounds came about a foot next to my roomates brother. The cops came in force, but never found the punks.

[jesus5150]

I was at my girlfriends parents house one night about 5 years ago. (I believe i was around 17) Her parents own their own business and had (still do) a very nice house in a garbage neighborhood (was once nice i'm told, but they refuse to move because they raised thier kids there and now 26 years later they can't leave all the memories, especially since the recent loss of their oldest son in 2006)

Anyway, one night my girlfriend and i are sharing a classy meal of Mac and Cheese which i slaved over for 7 minutes, and we heard shouting out front so being the nosy (sp?) kids that we were, we walked over the window to watch. There was a man wearing clothes that were 8 sizes too big, and while he hobbled down the street with one hand holding up his pants, the other hand was shaped in an obvious "bird" aimed at his screaming female friend who was revving up the engine on her neon green '64 Impala with gold wire rims. As she peeled out, she got sideways and plowed into his fence, so i instructed my girlfriend to call the police while i locked the doors... (Knowing things were about to come unraveled). To my surprise she backed out casually and left...

About 8 minutes later we are treated to the sound of gunshots hitting the side of her house... I tackled her as glass comes pouring down, and got out my cell phone and dialed 911 as the police still hadn't showed up. After telling the dispatcher that 9 shots were fired, no more than 2 minutes later i watched 6 Fully armed LEO's swarm the block. They came out of no-where! One of them came to my back door and made sure we were ok. After about 20 minutes of sitting in my living room (per his instructions) they came back and informed us that they had caught the suspect. It turned out that the girl had driven home and told her gang member boyfriend to shoot up her dealers house... but much to my dismay, they shooter didn't know his left from his right, and therefore shot up my GF's house and not the Dealer across the street.

I am now a proud owner of a H&K USP .40 and a Washington State CCW.

[besafe2]

My closest call approx 0215 burglary in progress gas station. Upon arrival bad guys yelled "cops" & fired shots at us. Thank God ,as usual. most bad guys are bad shots. We caught them they went to jail we went home

[Bulldozer]

Have been on the giving and receiving end of barrel-launch projectiles. I still have flashbacks and nightmares from time to time. I have not really talked about them to anyone, except my father once; and a 20-plus year friend who is active LEO/weapons trainer and my best man at each of my weddings.

My father was in the Pacific from 41 to 45 on McArthur's Cruise Tour. My best friend has been in half a dozen shoot-outs and was in the Marines during Gulf One.

Both times, the two of us sipped whiskeys and beers as we exchanged stories and learned much about each other. This eposide changed my relationship with my father. It fundamentally changed our relationship during his final years of life. When my father passed in '02, I stood bed vigil over him for his final 48 hours and did not leave his side. It felt oddly comforting for both of us to have shared that level of closeness. We spoke of it briefly as he lay dying. It was the second time in our lives that we shared tears together. He died with dignity and honor. I hope that I end up half the man he was.

To this day, my threat radar is very attuned. My lifestyle and career has drastically changed since my 20s. The circles I move in these days are worlds away from the violence I crawled out of.

To keep a sense of just how lucky I am -- I keep a bullet on my desk at work. It is a mushroomed JHP, and it tells me that no matter how crappy a day I have now in the corporate world, it is nothing compared to what I have lived through. People look at it and don't even know what it is. I just nod and smile and say it's a much needed sense of perspective.

[jesus5150]

Bulldozer;

I constantly find myself wondering if i should have taken different steps in my life. I'm not a druggie or anything, i've never been in trouble and have always had two loving parents. But i hear people like you talking about your experiences and i can't help but wonder if i'm missing out on invaluable knowledge that you can only get by going through tough situations that i quite frankly probably can't even fathom (having never been in any kind of military or police forces) And being 22 years old, i find myself at a crossroads... Do i join and learn those lessons? Or do i continue with my Education and learn my own lessons? I've talked to Vet's (including my father and grandfather and have been given mixed answers... Some say join, others say don't...) But i must say that i envy your clarity.

[luvsasmith]

My brother in law lives out west. I had actually never met him until just a few years ago (my wife and I were married for 5 years at that point-they did not grow up together as they share a birth father but not their moms). So he decided to come out to Ohio to visit and look around the area to see if we could find where their ancestors actually lived. So we find ourselves outside of Jackson, Ohio driving around looking for these places my brother in law had researched and found to be the land that his great grandfather had once farmed. We stumble upon a gentleman standing out in his yard at the end of a long dirt road. In talking with this extremely polite but also apparently equally intoxicated (at 11am!!!) he told us that he knew all about their families property and his house indeed sat on it. He then pointed us in the direction of the well that the ancestors drew their water from. It sat on his sisters property about 50 yards from her house at the bottom of the hill that he had built his house on. We walked down to the wood pile that the well was under and he looked at me, looked at the woodpile, looked my way again and said, "I'm gonna see that well". At this point I got to see a new side of my brother in law. He began chucking pieces of wood to the side in a frantic fashion. Being a good brother in law, I joined in. After all, the nice (drunk) guy had told us his sister would not mind and that she was a very nice older lady. During all the wood tossing a Jack Russell Terrier came outside to greet us and kept walking circles around us. Then we heard the older lady talking to a man in the house. One of them must have had bad hearing, I thought to myself, as they were almost yelling at one another.
So here we are in some stranger's side yard staring down into this well, admiring the stonework that once laid below the wood pile and skid we had just thrown off to the side. Suddenly the man pops from around the side of the house wielding a rifle , waiving it at my wife, my niece, my brother in law, and I. He's yelling at us and asking who gave us permission to be there. My brother in law starts talking with the older man, explaining that Mr. So and So over there on the hill said it would be OK if we came down here to have a look at the well, explaining that his ancestors had once lived on this land before moving out west. I was not at all used to someone pointing a rifle in my direction, much less the direction of my wife and niece (the daughter of my brother in law). I had my concealed carry for about a year at this point and had my .45 under my shirt. I grabbed the grip after telling my wife and niece to get behind our van (cover is preferred but concealment is better than nothing right?). At this point the lady who owned the house came walking out, smiling no less. She asked what was going on, still smiling. "Well sis, these folks have thrown your wood pile all over your front yard, that's what!" (more than a bit of an exaggeration there).
"Why?" she asks, still smiling. My brother in law explains the situation to her and she says, "well my brother has always acted like he owns my stuff too."
"No kiddin'" says the rifle wielding old guy.
"I should say both of my brothers have always acted like the owned my stuff too," she says looking at the rifle man with a smirk. Things immediately cooled down and her rifle wielding brother started walking toward his truck. I took my hand off of my .45.
"It's a good thing they didn't want to see your chickens!" says her brother as he opens the drivers side door of his truck. My brother in law and I just look at each other and smile, both wanting to smartly ask, "You got CHICKENS?", but neither of us wanting to push our luck further.

We stood and talked with the smiley old lady for about half an hour or so before taking some pictures of the well and restacking her woodpile heading on down the road. She was so sweet that we'd almost forgotten about her rifle wielding brother that seemed so eager to get into a skirmish with somebody. I might be that way if it involved my sweet sister too though.

[luvsasmith]

Just some advice from a stranger:

I am 30 years old now, married with 2 kids. I always wanted to be a Marine. Others said I should go to college. So I did. For a while. Then I got into a good career and moved around a bit with that career and met a really sweet girl. That girl is now my wife, so I am not complaining. I do, though, often wish I would have followed what I wanted and not what everyone else recommended for me. I'm sure that God would have found a way to let my wife and I meet, but I would not be sitting here typing to you about how I once thought about being a Marine, I'd be telling you what it was like when I was a Marine.

Just my .02

PS- Don't forget to pray on it.

[A/C Guy]

I Jumped out of bed to grab the muzzle of the rifle pointed at me and it went click...... I grabbed the muzzle and did not allow the bolt to be pulled back again. Every time he tried I yanked it. That was after three rounds were fired at the headboard to wake us up.

Sounds like you were with another man's wife.
In Texas, he could legally shoot you.

[BoulderTroll]

I've only had a couple "close calls" fortunately. This was my closest:

I was working overtime doing "civil" stuff, and was way out in the sticks on a dirt road barely wider than one car width. I was looking for a guy who lived in the area to serve him with a restraining order from his ex. I saw a black VW Jetta come up the road behind me and recognized it as his car so I got out and he stopped about 25 yards behind my car. I should point out that the road had a cliff sloping up on one side and had a sharp drop-off on the other.

I walked down to his vehicle and told him I had some paperwork to serve him with. He started cussing at me and told me I was on his private property. He said, "How do I even know you're a real cop?" (I was wearing plain clothes). I knew he was just saying it to be a ****. I'd arrested him two weeks before for drunk in public and he was now parked behind my marked police car. I turned to walk back to the cruiser to get the restraining order and when I was 1/2 way there he revved the engine and floored it, coming right for me. Because of the steep slopes on both side of the road I had nowhere to go. Without even making a conscious descision to draw I was pointing my SIG P225 at him. In my mind I'd decided to put all eight 9mm rounds into a dinner plate size circle where I thought his head would be (I couldn't see him through the windshield glare).

I was actually moving my finger off the frame and onto the trigger when he burried the brake pedal and the car slid to a stop. I yelled at him. In hindsight it was sort of funny, we're taught to yell, "Sheriff's Office, don't move!"...That wasn't what came to mind so I yelled, "Throw the keys out the window or I'll fill you full of holes!" He was shaking like a leaf but did as I suggested. I threw the restraining order through his driver's window. He was still sitting in his car with the keys on the road as I drove off.

In hindsight I probably should have arrested him.

PS- Sorry for the necropost but I just found this site and was reading through old posts.

[chris in va]

Sounds like you were with another man's wife.
In Texas, he could legally shoot you.

Who on earth told you THAT?

PS- Sorry for the necropost but I just found this site and was reading through old posts

Don't be sorry, these type of posts need to be resurrected every now and then.

[armsmaster270]

2AM remote area no backup I stop a Station Wagon and as I am walking up to it I hear the distinct sound of a round being chambered in a pump shotgun. I immediatly drew dowh on vehicle as I was backing to my car, yelling for everyone to freeze where they were and trying not to slip on my own ****. after obtaining concealment I radioed for cover and when the unit got there we all three of them out one by one, checked the car for lurkers, cuffed them and found a 16ga shotgun in the back seat with one in the chamber.

Another time early am Friday night/Saturday morning radio call; sound of glass breaking, woman screaming. Go to apt complex everyone is out no cover available. Residents direct me to back of complex where a window is broken to an elderly lady's apt. short story knock on door hear running only way out door or window, I check window see male adult in window, he sees me runs to door. I go dack and forth at end of bldg to watch both window & door while calling for backup as we now have a possible hostage situation. Before backup arrives guy comes to door and charges me with a knife. I deflect the knife as I am backing away he tries again and I fire one shot into his chest as he was extended to me with the knife it entered just to the right of the center of his chest just above the nipple line went through his heart exploding it into the lower lobe of his lung stopping just prior to breaking skin on his back. he started to stumble so I did not fire a second shot as I deemed a double tap was not needed. he hit the floor and I kicked the knife out of his hand and cuffed him. With all the people from the complex as my witnesses. If your interested the shooting is covered on my web page under Negrete or my photobook under Police Dept.

[hoytinak]

Military: My closest was my second deployment in Iraq. Returning fire when my M68 caught a 7.62x39 to the side (that's when I ordered a new EOTech from Wild ), blowing pieces of the battery cap and glass into my face and neck.

Civilian: Got a call about 2am from some drunk buddies at the bar needing a ride home so I went to pick them up. Of course they were hungry and wanted to go to Waffle House but didn't have any cash one them I pull up to an ATM machine and when I get the money out of the machine a guys comes outta no where (from drunksitting I guess I just didn't see him walk up) with a knife and tells me to hand the cash over to him. I had my Springfield Champian between my seat and the center console, well I pulled it out, set it on my lap and said "I don't think so"...the guy dropped the knife, said he was sorry and ran away.

[alienbogey]

My buddies and I, teenagers, were spending Halloween night at a friend's house (Dave's) and we decided that it would be a great idea to raid the neighbors. We grabbed the usual accoutrements - tp, soap, firecrackers, etc - and headed off down the road. We hit a few places one one side in a couple miles (this was out in the country), then started working our way back the other side.

We got back near my friend's house, hopped the neighbor's fence on the other side, and worked our way down the 40 acre field to a slope just above the house. We were huddled in the darkness, working out our plan of attack, when below and to our left came the slow rumble of the barn door being slid open. We froze, looking that way, trying to figure who the h*** would be in the barn around midnight when there came the sound of a shotgun being racked followed immediately by 3 huge booms of a 12 gauge.

I saw the muzzle flash of the first shot but not the second as by that time I was running up the hill at what felt like 100 mph - and I wasn't leading the pack, either. We got back to the fence line by the road in record time and tried to figure out what had just happened. Pretty soon, despite the dark, we realized that Dave was missing. Holy crap, Dave got shot back there.

We decided the best thing to do would be to call the sheriff, then go back to look for him. We hopped the fence, started across the road, and as we did a parked truck 50' away popped it's headlights on and raced its engine. It was a second adrenaline-dump fueled mob panic sprint away from the new threat all the way to Dave's house. We piled into the house, gasping, trying to figure out if we should call the cops or start barricading the doors first, when Dave's dad comes inside and we're trying to decide how to tell him that we left his wounded or dead son behind in the homicidal neighbor's field. He takes one look at us and starts laughing his ass off - laughing until he can't even stand up. Before he recovers from his lunatic fit Dave himself shows up, heavily winded but unharmed.

Turns out that after we left on our raid Dave's dad called the neighbor across the road to warn him and the guy was waiting for us in the barn with his shotgun (which he fired up in the air). Dave was a very fat kid and fell WAY behind us in the panicked run up the 40 acre field - nothing was wrong with him but 60 extra pounds and a near coronary.

The guy in the truck on the road was Dave's dad - waiting for us to get back from the neighbors.

Okay, so I wasn't shot AT and it wasn't a close call, but for about 5 minutes it sure felt like it.

(Been shot at for real other times)

[Brit]

Back in the early 70s, me a non hunter, got convinced to obtain a hunting License, by a friend (who knew all about hunting, and canoing!) Deer hunting in basically a heavily wooded area.

First, wrong entry in to river (He could not find the spot he normally went to)
Going backward in this Canoe, the first one I had ever been in! in shallow, but fast rapids, one broken paddle, and a mile walk back to his station wagon! Is starting to tell me my buddy Bob is no big white hunter.

Now on lake, camp for the night, next morning great bacon and egg breakfast, pack up, as b/4 I got in Canoe first, Bob jumped in to the back end of the bloody canoe! up ended me into the freezing water!

He is helping me up! He was actually hanging on to my Lee Enfield Jungle Carbine I had slung across my back! Good thinking on his part.

Big fire, dried cloths, I had dry under clothes, 2 hours later, him in front me in back! Once bitten twice shy, in the middle of the lake, his rifle was cased, mine again slung on back, 300 yards across lake on shore, two people, one of them fired a shot at us! I could not believe it, till a second shot skipped across the water.

I sent two .303 rounds their way! They ran! We went home.

Some one up there was telling me I was not a hunter, last time in a Canoe, last hunting trip, been shooting all my life, not at game, and after that day, in my estimation, the deer won!

[Maromero]

This is a dream I had about ten years ago. Although only a dream it was one of those vivid dreams you don't know you are having until you wake up sweating and agitated.

It went like this: I go visit my parents and upon arriving immediately notice the front door and side gate wide open, which is a big no no. I draw my gun (at the time a S&W 1076) and walk towards the gate. From a distance of about 15 feet the intruder walks out and I order him to show me his hands. The fellow grabs his shirt with his left hand and pulls it up while motioning with his right a draw. I pull the trigger once and the guy drops. I move towards the intruder to disarm him while checking for other intruders. I pull his shirt up to find no gun on him, and I said to myself OH S**T. Then I wake up with my heart racing to the point of having a heart attack, sweating and out of breath.

To me it was as real as it gets., without going through the ordeal itself.

[Redneckrepairs]

entertaining thread . Not one i will add to though other than to complement the artistic endeavors of some of the budding authors. I am sure some few are actual and true , the rest are fine fiction and ill leave each to sort out which is which just as i do lol .