Mossy Oak Pro Clint Lindemann on Being Mistaken for a Red Fox While Hunting Deer
Editor’s Note: “If you don’t think that every day is the best day of your life, try missing one!” Mossy Oak pro, 37-year-old Clint Lindemann of Enderlin, North Dakota, says. “I was on the wresting team, football team and baseball team in high school, and always had been an avid hunter.” Every chance 15-year-old Lindemann had to go to the woods, he and his buddies would deer hunt, until the day he was nearly killed, and his life changed forever. He never lost his love of hunting. Lindemann is classified as a quadriplegic, C 4-5. Lindemann’s favorite Mossy Oak camouflage patterns are Treestand, the original Bottomland and Break-Up Country. He uses a Primos Ground Max pop-up blind with Shadow Branch camo. When he can’t use a pop-up blind, he wraps burlap in Break-Up Country or one of the other Mossy Oak patterns around himself to hunt.
I was bowhunting when I was 15 years old, had a red hat on and was leaning against a tree on the ground when my lights went out. I didn’t wake up until 2 weeks later. A friend of mine and I were set-up on the edge of a river bottom with our bows while a third friend, a 14-year-old, was walking through that river bottom, trying to push deer to us. He was carrying his .22 caliber rifle loaded with .22 long bullets. As he reached the edge of the bottom, he saw a red fox, took his time, aimed carefully and shot the red fox, or at least what he assumed was a red fox. The bullet went in at the base of my neck, and later I was told what had happened.
My two friends took charge of me after I was shot. One of the friends realized how badly I was hurt and packed my neck with snow to stop the bleeding where the bullet had entered. Then he took the keys to our car out of my pocket, ran to the car, drove to the nearest farm house and called 911. I woke up in the hospital 2 weeks later.
About every couple of days, my memory would return, and I vaguely could remember what had happened. When I finally stayed awake long enough for the doctors to tell me I never would walk again, they also told me that the .22 caliber bullet was lodged in my spinal cord. There was absolutely no way my spinal cord would heal itself, so I could move around as I had before. The doctors also said, “We’re going to leave the bullet in your spine, because we’re concerned if we try to move it, we’ll only create more damage to your spine.” Today I’m classified as a C 4-5 quadriplegic, which means I have no finger movement, however, I can move my elbows with my biceps, but have only a little movement with my triceps.
To learn more about Clint Lindemann, you can go to his blog at: http://plegicoutdoorsman.blogspot.com and you can also go to YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/c/ClintLindemann.
Tomorrow: Clint Lindemann Starts Hunting Again
