Matthew Alexander, 31, guesses he has gone duck shooting off Wharton Point in Brunswick 100 times now, but an unlucky step turned a recent hunting trip into a terrifying ordeal.

Wednesday afternoon, the Topsham resident shot a few ducks while standing on an embankment and went to retrieve them in the coastal mudflat of Maquoit Bay.

“I crossed that area 101 times at this point, but I must have misstepped. You know, it felt solid, and it felt solid, and then I hit one spot and it sucked me under,” Alexander said.

Alexander suddenly realized he was being pulled under the mud. He couldn’t move to make his way back to shore — and the more he struggled, the deeper he sank.

He remembered being told how to escape quicksand — stay calm, distribute your weight, lay on your back — all things easier said than done as Alexander watched the water slowly rise.

“Once I started watching the water rise, I realized, this could be it,” he said.

As the mud reached his waist, Alexander was able to find his phone in his waders and dial 911. Brunswick Police Department officers responded in an airboat — which uses an aircraft-like propeller to navigate the shallow water of marshes and swamps.

“It took two officers to pull and break the suction in order to free Alexander and get him on the airboat,” a news release from the department read. “The ducks were later retrieved.”

In all, Alexander said he was stuck for about an hour and a half. He was taken to Mid Coast Hospital as a precaution and was lucky to get out with only the bad memory and “a lot of muscle strain.”

“I was exhausted,” Alexander said.

In a news release Thursday, police reminded people to be wary of unstable mudflats, which can have “honey pots” — spots that can suck you under quickly.

“Honey pots are areas in the mud that act like quicksand,” police said. “The more a person moves, the deeper they become.”

In the future, Alexander said he’ll make sure to stick to the tall grass and steer clear of deceptive mudflats while hunting. He hopes others are careful so they don’t go through what he did.

“It’s not something to risk your life for,” he said.