and then I had this idea...

[todd secker]

I am out in Quantico, VA for about a month.  The last time I was out here there was a pretty good walk through archery range, so I thought I would bring my bow and do some shooting while I am out here.  Well, appearently the archery range had been torn out since I last saw it.

So I had this idea...
I'll just go out and find where it used to be and roam around stump shooting.  Sounds like fun, so out I head.  I found the old range and the stumps are out thick.  I spotted a nice 18 pointer and started in for the kill.  Bingo, dead stump.  Things are going pretty good.  Next stump, bingo.  Then I see this one little opening with an onery stump laying low.  The shot is good.  I had to kind of contort myself into retrieve my arrow, but I made it.  I retrieve my arrow and start the reverse contortion and all of my arrows dump on the ground.  A little smile and I start to retrieve the first of about a dozen arrows spread amongst the blowdown and I get hit by a bee that instantly makes my hand swell like a foot.  That one didn't feel any better than the next, and I realized I am covered in little angry bees.  I don't know what ya'll call these little bees out here, and I can't tell you what I called them.  I took off to running in no particular direction and I'll be darned if those little killers didn't follow me.  So now I am doing the hoochie coochie dance.  Well, they finally decided to leave me alone and I realize they still have my arrows.  I got close enough to the arrows to see that the bees had reconviened right on top of them.  Now what?

And then I had THIS idea...
I ran back to the truck to see what I could find.  I had a stocking hat, some shooting glasses, and some flyfishing waders.  Sounded like a plan.  I put on the stocking hat and glasses, but am trying to figure out what to do with waders.  I figured if they protected my legs from the water, then surely they would protect my arms from bees, and since my hand was swolen up like a foot, they should fit just fine.  So off I go.  I get there and yep, the bees are still flying.  I get to a closing in kind of distance and make a dash.  I get my foot-hand on almost every arrow and here comes the bees.  I take off.  There were still two flu-flus in there.  These are not ordinary flu-flus.  I have shot them every year for the past 12 years and haven't lost them.  Old arrows you say, no says I.  I'm going in.  I get a different angle because I could not reach them from my first mad dash.  In I charge.  I grab the arrows and the bees didn't seem to like that at all, so here I go.  Now if you can picture this, I am running full blast down a trail towards my truck.  I have on a stocking hat in August, a pair of shooting glasses, and waders on my arms, holding a bunch of arrows with a bunch of bees chasing me.  
Luckily I got back all of arrows and I only got stung twice.  I don't know what these little things are, but my hand and arm are still killing me and it happened about three hours ago.  Always an adventure....

[ron w]

Oh, to have that on film.......priceless!!!!

[BCWV]

Sounds like yellow jackets. They're bad this time of year up my way. I got into a nest myself last week mowing. Seems like the older I get the more they hurt.

[James Wrenn]

Must not have been yellow jackets or you would have left those arrows.  

[GRINCH]

Oh yea,those little suckers are relentless,would have loved to been watching.

[Shore08]

Perseverance! I love it. I would have loved to see it even more though  :D

[celticknot]

Pictures

[cavscout]

WOW i think that tops my fox bite story, way to hang in there and get your arrows back. to bad that wasnt on tape ,would have won funniest videos for sure

[KY..Rob]

I'm glad your OK! But man that was hilarious    Like the rest, I wish that was on tape, instant $10.000 for sure, Can you say "Ninja Whompin action"

Rob..

[Hawkeye]

If I'm ever down behind enemy lines, I pray you'll be the one coming in after me, Buddy!!  I'm not too sure about the wisdom of your plan, but I really respect your persistence!!!!

Maybe you discovered the reason they took down the archery range!      

Train hard-  

Daryl

[Jason R. Wesbrock]

Todd,

Sorry to hear about the bee stings. Those things stink. But on the bright side, the visual image you just gave me was great. No offense, but I will have to tease you about this in the future.  

[Dave Bulla]

Gotta be ground hornets or yellow jackets.  Heck, they might be two names for the same thing but I know the only thing worse is what we called "white face" hornets.  They make paper nests in trees or bushes and we'd bomb them with rocks.  When they came after you, you could see them incoming as little white dots and buddy, they didn't give up easily!

Once when trimming Christmas trees on a nursery I had one come out of a tree and head right between my eyes.  Rascal stung me on the bridge of my nose.  Only time I've ever had a reaction to a bee sting.  My face swelled up like Rocky Marciano and the boss took me to the hospital for an adrenaline shot.  I feel your pain bro!

[Bill Kissner]

Reminds me of the time years ago when a guy  I was squirrel hunting with decided to shoot a hornets nest with his shotgun. He ended up with many more than 2 stings!    

These bee stings can be deadly to some people. Glad you got away without too much damage.

[boznarras]

As a kid growing up on a little farm in Tennessee, I used to find yellowjacket nests while plowing with a tractor. They would swarm all around me. You can't get off a moving tractor, with a plow following, so I had to swat and duck for a bit when this would happen.
Guess I should have had some waders.

[Austin]

Originally posted by boznarras:
As a kid growing up on a little farm in Tennessee, I used to find yellowjacket nests while plowing with a tractor. They would swarm all around me. You can't get off a moving tractor, with a plow following, so I had to swat and duck for a bit when this would happen.
Guess I should have had some waders.

Lol, I've hit the nests while mowing brush with a gravely brush mower. Usually had a few stings before I saw the buggers. Then it was time to drop the handles and run, let it keep going and meet up with it 20 or 30 yards down through the woods.

[JDeanP]

I feel your pain. I was once stung in the calf and had such a reaction as I couldn't walk on it for a day or so. Mild compared to some folk's reactions I know, but painful nonetheless. Relish those arrows, man.

[sparrow]

First tree I ever cut for a selfbow everything went well until I dragged the first split over a dead log. I riled them up I guess but didn't see them until my second trip over the log when they were good and mad. Half a dozen stings later I managed to get to the truck. I named the first bow "Stinger"

[Walt Francis]

Todd, that was great, it gave me a really good laugh.

Here is my encouter with some yellow jackets:

The summer of 1985, the year I quit coaching wrestling in Sacramento and move back to Idaho, my dad was building a bunch of jack fence with lodge pole.  My youngest brother Ed and I volunteered to become lumberjacks and do a selective cut on 40 acres that my dad had got the bid on in the local national forest.  One day I was felling the lodge pole while Ed was following behind trimming the limbs when a bunch of yellow jackets suddenly attacked me, before I could drop the chainsaw I had been stung several times.  I dropped the chainsaw and took off running waving my arms trying to out run the bees and keep from getting stung again: it didn't work.  After running to the west for seventy five yards I made a sharp left turn and headed for a little stream a hundred yards away.  As I approached the stream the bees were still stinging me so I dove into the deepest pool (about 18 inches deep) I saw and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.  Suddenly, there was a big splash and Ed was lying in the creek next to me.  When I came up for the first gasp of air I got stung on the nose but that was the last time they got me.

Now, according to brother ED, here was what happened.  He is trimming branches when he suddenly sees the chainsaw flying through the air.  He looks up and sees me running away, slapping my face and swinging my hands at the dark cloud that surrounded me; He says it reminded him of an old cartoon he saw one Saturday morning when he was a kid.  Anyway, he thought it was funny and started laughing and followed me whishing he had a camera to catch the show.  It was funny to him until I went into the stream and the yellow jackets started looking for another target.  He was it.  When he got stung the first time he was about 30 yards from the stream and took off running, making a dive into the stream next to me.

We ended up staying in the stream for a while Ed pulled the stingers off my head and hands, and then encased my head and hands in mud.  By this time my eyes were swollen shut so he had to lead me to the truck then drove me to my Dad's place an hour away.  We stopped three different times for me to soak my head and hands in streams for about five minutes and put a new mud masks on.  By the time we arrived at dad's I was extremely neuseous but almost able to see a little out of one eye.  I spent the remainder of the day soaking in my dad's creek and applying mud masks.  

Early the next day, while it was still cold enough the yellow jackets shouldn't be moving yet, we went back for another couple of loads and determined the Yellow jackets had a ground nest at the base of the tree I had cut down.

To this day, every time Ed and I are together and he sees a bee he starts laughing, asking me if I remember the time we cutting lodge pole for dad.

[Killdeer]

Great story, in the Pat McManus tradition!
Those arrows are gonna fly extra well after their "blessing" by the bees.

My story goes back to when I was about 18, and was moving an old woodpile for my dad. You see it coming, but I didn't! Something tickled my leg shortly after picking up a rotten log from the bottom of the pile. I swatted at it, and I felt it again...felt like chewing, or a thorn scraping back and forth in one spot. Then it burned!

I looked down, saw the dull red wasps, and screamed like a girl. This was accompanied by a leaping forward roll of about six feet, whereupon I launched myself back up and running. My Irish Setter gave a yelp behind me as I ran for the house. Dad saw me coming, a red cloud of anger trailing behind, and waved me toward the lake. No fool, he.

Straight down the path, onto the dock and straight off the end. I clung to a piling to keep myself under. Being primarily an underwater swimmer, I could stay down a long time. I still had one or two of the things on me when I came back up. Twenty-two stings. Oh, and one on poor Copper's nose.

They were nothing compared to the bathtub of ice-cube laden water that my mother made me sit in. Or the itching afterward! I still have a few scars from scratching them.

Everybody assumes yellowjackets, but there are more ground-dwelling wasp species.

The paper-nest-building bald hornets, on the other hand, and bumblebees have never bothered me. I leave the hornets to their work, as they seemed intent on hunting flies around the barns I worked in. Leading trail rides back, they would fly out to the horses and chase the flies, but leave us alone. I never molested their nests. I stumbled into an underground bumblebee nest once, they came flying out around me. They didn't land on me or chase me, though, and I have never received any sting from them.

Thanks for the story, it is good that you can laugh about it so soon after the fact. Glad you were limited to a couple of stings.
Killdeer

[leatherneck]

Todd, I want to thank you for the good laugh this early in the morning. I'm still smiling.