Advertisement

firehouse pizza banner

Cheryl Hughes: Death Grip

Try this test: Pick up your bathroom scale.  Hold it, facing you, with both hands.  Squeeze as hard as you can.  The number on the scale is your squeeze score.  My squeeze score is a puny 10.4 (my husband’s is over 50).  Next, figure the square inches in your palm.  My palm is 2.5 X 3 inches.  That equals 7.5 square inches.  Now, divide the squeeze score by the palm score.  In my case, I divide 10.4 by 7.5, giving me 1.39 pounds per square inch of pressure.  The hawks, native to our part of the country, have a foot grip of 200 pounds per square inch of pressure.  (Startribune.com)  Raleigh Blancett, of Butler County, has experienced this statistic first hand.

About thirty-five years ago, Raleigh was trapping muskrats on the Barren River.  He sold the pelts as extra income.  On a day like many days before, he climbed into his wooden Jon boat and headed to where his traps were located.  As he approached the area where his spring-loaded traps were set, he saw that a large hawk had become caught in one.  Because the bird had only one leg caught in the trap, Raleigh approached cautiously.  He would have to be careful in his effort to release the bird unharmed.

Raleigh stepped out of his boat—the trap was in shallow water—put his left hand around the bird’s neck and head then lifted bird, trap and all, into his boat.  He maneuvered around until he could get his foot on the spring in order to release the bird’s leg. As soon as the trap opened, the bird rolled over on its back and grabbed Raleigh’s face with one foot then grabbed Raleigh’s right hand and arm with the other.  The sharp talons punctured his hand right above his thumb joint and pierced his face, cutting into his mouth just short of his tongue.

Raleigh Blancett was in a predicament.  He had the presence of mind to keep his grip on the bird’s neck while he made a plan to rescue himself from the bird’s grip.  He had a twenty-two pump-action rifle in his boat.  If he could somehow pump it, aim it then fire it, while 200 pounds per square inch of hawk talons were digging their way into his face and hand, he could free himself.

Raleigh managed to get hold of the rifle.  He wallowed it around until he lodged it between his feet and legs then, using the hand pierced through with the hawk’s talons, he pumped a shell into the chamber.  He raised the rifle and rested it on the thumb of his left hand, the hand holding the bird’s neck.  He pulled the trigger with his right hand.  “Click” was all he heard. The gun had dry-fired.

Raleigh had to repeat the process once again.  Gun between feet and legs, shell pumped into chamber, rifle barrel placed on left thumb, trigger pulled with right thumb.  The shot rang true, the bird lost its grip and the relief was immediate.  The entire incident lasted just under ten minutes, but felt like hours.

Raleigh would tell this story several times to the medical staff at the hospital emergency room.  They found it hard to believe.  They gave him a tetanus shot and sent him home with antibiotics.  The injuries were deep puncture wounds, not much blood, but a lot of pain.  

The wing span of the hawk that grabbed Raleigh Blancett was 50.5 inches (over four feet).  I remember a couple of my friends telling me about a hawk, not nearly that big, that was shot while perched in a tree near a road they traveled.  When the hawk was hit, he kept his grip on the limb where he had been resting.  His lifeless body continued to hang upside down in that tree for over three weeks.  Thankfully, the hawk that grabbed Raleigh Blancett didn’t have that kind of resolve.          

 

 
Tags: 


Bookmark and Share

Advertisements