First day of crow season in Virginia. I parked my truck at the bottom of the hill, loaded up my gear and headed to the top just as it was light enough to see. When I got to my small grove of trees I started unloading gear. Put my stool down with head net, gloves and shotgun on it. Put my gear bag a foot away from the stool and took out my call, ammo and ear plugs. I then walked to the far end of the grove to water some weeds. I came back to my gear and felt a sting on the back of my leg. I swatted it, looked at my gun and 4 or 5 yellow jackets were crawling on it so I grabbed it by the sling along with the bag of ammo and ran. 40 yards away and I got popped on my right thumb, then on my left thumb. I quickly laid down my shotgun and ammo bag and ran another 30 yards. Then I started killing the yellow jackets that were hanging on my pants. I went down the hill, got my truck and took it back to retrieve all my goodies I had abandoned. Yellow jackets still controlled the area. It took an hour and the pair of leather gloves from the truck to reclaim my gear. I had set my stool on one side of the yellow jacket hole in the ground and my gear bag on the other side of the hole. It's not a good day when you get more stings than crows. The crows never showed, probably because of all the action and the truck.
Very annoying... I carry various insecticides in Toyota 1, my little gold Tacoma, including Black Flag wasp/hornet killer, Terro for spiders and Cutter's Outdoor Fogger to have a fighting chance.
One should also carry some Benedryl in the advent of a strong reaction to stings. An epi injector might be indicated for hunters with strong allergies.
I had a similar incident several years ago, was following my Dad accross a dry creek bed. As we ascended the embankment, he stirred up a nest, and I walked right into the swarming cloud. I dropped my shotgun and began evasive manuevers, but the cloud followed. Dad was right on my heels, slapping at me as we went. Once the attack was over, we counted stings, I had 36 welps, all over my upper body, dad had a dozen or so, mainly on his arms and hands. We waited several hours to retrieve the shotgun.
Ha! Tis with glee that I heralded the story of another Southerner to be beset by the hated yellow jacket but my Catholic upbringing evoked a mitigating compassion for your painful encounter. (I had the same whipsawing feeling for Gadget Bob and Texas Matt, by the way!)
It was well nigh four or five years ago that I bumped into a railroad tie forming a flower bed border in my backyard, manly pushing my Craftsman 22-inch through the yard chores. Before Lone Star knew what was about, I had a small squad of the tiny vexers trying to sting their way up to the Boys from my cargo short hems.
I flailed mightely at my equipment until all intruders were killed or displaced, incurring more damage, I might admit, than I would have sustained had I let them have their way!
I give wide berth to all manners of stinging insects.
My situational awareness was close to zero that dark day!
Thanks for sharing your stories and sympathy guys. Sounds like it could have ended worse for any or all of us. But hey, we're Crow Busters and we live to fight another day. Hope all of you have a wonderful and safe crow season.