Found rifle

tntrker

WKR
Joined
Aug 7, 2018
Messages
744
Location
Upstate SC
I found an old rifle, a 22, while hunting as a kid. Took it home and cleaned it up pretty good. Took it to the land owner's house and he had been hunting, sat it down, and couldn't find it a few years earlier. He let me keep it..
 
Joined
Jun 3, 2018
Messages
874
Location
North Carolina
I would like to say "that will never happen to me" but to be honest, I have to add "AGAIN" to it.
I had taken my bow and Henry .22 mag to my tree that evening. Killed the hog with the bow, and laid the gun down while loading the hog on the 4wheeler. It was a long 2 hour drive back, but still there when I got back. Pretty late getting home, THE SECOND TIME.

lO5EQUe.jpg
 

Swamp Fox

WKR
Joined
Oct 20, 2022
Messages
855
You been to MT lately? :)
Nah, I've been sticking close to home lately because I love the vegan restaurants in the area ... LOL....

I've had 2 Garmin GPS units returned to me, one lost at Dupont that I put on the roof of the vehicle packing up (found on a crusher run road), and one that I lost out the back window within a mile of starting from home when the small cooler it was packed in slid out the partially open back window of the Bronco. I got the call six hours away in NW Virginia just as I was about to get to my turkey spot.

I had a bad habit of not checking whether that back window was all the way up when I cranked the beast alive and took off. Mostly have cured myself of that ... Mostly..

But my bad habit struck again a few years later. Had my local sheriff call me when they found my toiletries bag on the highway, when it flew out the back window going in the opposite direction. I got to Camp Swampy South and unpacked and said to myself, "I know I packed that little black bag," but nada... LOL

I hunted for four or five days and rode home, and got the call about a week after that.

The sheriff tracked me down by an old prescription bottle I had in the bag from when my knee went haywire. I kept a couple of the old pills in the bag "just in case."

Also have driven away from shotguns and bows in the dark (recovered) and one rifle propped against a tailgate (immediately discovered).

Nothing recent, though,, thank gawd .... ;)

A big set of keys rode from Raleigh back home to Sling Shit China (about a one-hour drive with no traffic, at the time) on the top of my big blue Delta 88 back in the early 80's, after I closed the restaurant I managed at 2 in the morning. They slid from the roof to the crack at the trunk and stayed there until I discovered them in the daylight the next morning. LOL


So far, that is my crowning achievement in life ... :)
 

Rich M

WKR
Joined
Jun 14, 2017
Messages
5,582
Location
Orlando
I found a pump 12 ga leaning on a tree once while during a land survey. It had been there long enough to rust solid pretty much. Coworker wanted to restore it so we let him have it - he got everything blued and working again except for the firing pin.
 

robtattoo

WKR
Joined
Mar 22, 2014
Messages
3,521
Location
Tullahoma, TN
I've only had one real bad case of the dumbs.

I left my bow at home one afternoon & didn't realize until I was an hour away & 20' up a tree.
Climbed down & drove home REAL quick (it was a perfect day) grabbed the bow, drove back & climbed back up.

An hour later I shot a beautiful, huge bodied doe. Climbed down to find her. I got her all gutted & loaded in the truck. Made a couple of calls on my way out & drove home.

I woke up at about 3 am, realizing I'd left my bow up the damn tree!

It was still there, thankfully.
 

KHNC

WKR
Joined
Jul 11, 2013
Messages
3,631
Location
NC
Nah, I've been sticking close to home lately because I love the vegan restaurants in the area ... LOL....

I've had 2 Garmin GPS units returned to me, one lost at Dupont that I put on the roof of the vehicle packing up (found on a crusher run road), and one that I lost out the back window within a mile of starting from home when the small cooler it was packed in slid out the partially open back window of the Bronco. I got the call six hours away in NW Virginia just as I was about to get to my turkey spot.

I had a bad habit of not checking whether that back window was all the way up when I cranked the beast alive and took off. Mostly have cured myself of that ... Mostly..

But my bad habit struck again a few years later. Had my local sheriff call me when they found my toiletries bag on the highway, when it flew out the back window going in the opposite direction. I got to Camp Swampy South and unpacked and said to myself, "I know I packed that little black bag," but nada... LOL

I hunted for four or five days and rode home, and got the call about a week after that.

The sheriff tracked me down by an old prescription bottle I had in the bag from when my knee went haywire. I kept a couple of the old pills in the bag "just in case."

Also have driven away from shotguns and bows in the dark (recovered) and one rifle propped against a tailgate (immediately discovered).

Nothing recent, though,, thank gawd .... ;)

A big set of keys rode from Raleigh back home to Sling Shit China (about a one-hour drive with no traffic, at the time) on the top of my big blue Delta 88 back in the early 80's, after I closed the restaurant I managed at 2 in the morning. They slid from the roof to the crack at the trunk and stayed there until I discovered them in the daylight the next morning. LOL


So far, that is my crowning achievement in life ... :)
HAHA! I relived all of these in person. Especially the back window on the Bronco!! You a lucky SOB , or something. lol. Glad you still got camp Swampy functioning. I was talking to a guy about that last night. I bought a farm (68 acres) in Blacksburg. We need to hunt again sometime in the future.
 

Caseknife

WKR
Joined
Feb 22, 2020
Messages
321
So far no stories of anyone leaving their kids behind. So that's a win.
So.........we were berry picking when I was about 3 or 4 years old, I don't remember the incident, left one patch and drove down the road to another patch. Mom or Dad asked my sisters, 4 of them, "where's your brother?", they left me napping under a bush, oops. Must have been there when they returned, since I am here:)
 

mjh

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 4, 2022
Messages
110
Location
MN
I left my unstrung recurve in it's case in the grass by the side of the building were were living in. Apartment building 3 floors up. We were packing the car after dark, on a Friday evening, after work for a trip to grandma's cabin. Being 3 floors up we would park the car by the door, haul stuff down, do the jigzaw puzzle of loading all the gear. It was dark, we were tired. I remembered some miles down the road--I didn't put my bow in the vehicle. Went back and the bow was still lying in the grass. Likely no one even noticed in the dark. Was a very late night arrival at the cabin. Likely after midnight--an there's no electricity at the place.

Good on you for trying to get the rifle back to the owner. I'd be pretty bummed out loosing such equipment from my own forgetfulness or other personal reason.
 

KsRancher

WKR
Joined
Jun 6, 2018
Messages
710
So far no stories of anyone leaving their kids behind. So that's a win.
🤣🤣Oh man. My wife did. Was getting all the kids loaded up and heading into town. She got them out to the car. Realized she forgot something inside so went back in to get it. Came out and, hoped in and headed to town. About 5 miles down the road she asked Ely a question and he didn't answer. So she asked again, no answer. She finally turned around and said "Ely, I am talking to you" Ely wasn't there.

My wife asked our 2yr old daughter "WHERE IS ELY?". Her reply "home". My wife turned around and hauled butt back home. About 1/4 from the house she found 5yr old Ely running down the bar to town crying.

When my wife got out to get something she forgot at the house. She went in the front door. When she did that Ely wanted a toy out of the house. So he got out and went in the back door to get it.
 

S-3 ranch

WKR
Joined
Jan 18, 2022
Messages
1,146
Location
Texas / Hillcounrty
It’s amazing the number of times I’ve found “ lost firearms “
1. found a rifle in a old abandoned deer stand ( owner of the land kept it of course)
2. Found 10+ shotguns & rifle in a gun safe after the original hunters where kicked off the ranch for none payment of the lease
3. Found 2 O/U shotgun laying in the woods when a stepped off a trail to go potty
4. found my buddies browning after he sold it to a guy who never paid for it
it was hidden under a bed after he left the hunting ground and never returned
 
Joined
May 1, 2021
Messages
481
Left my house key inside this morning. And my phone. And the dog. Wife to the rescue.

Several years ago, I took off for church early, wife to follow later.
When she arrives, she looks at me and asks where's (the 9 month old kid)?
Half hour drive each way. 5th Joyfull Mystery.
 
Joined
Jan 3, 2015
Messages
55
I was hunting in NC two weeks ago. I shot a nice buck in the middle of a soybean field. The beans were about 18"-24" high and the buck just disappeared at the shot. It was still good light and I was able to walk almost directly to the downed animal. Past experience has taught me that a fallen animal can be very hard to locate after dark in the middle of a large bean field.

As The light was falling, I grabbed a few quick pictures and then dragged the buck to the edge of the field, which was about 150yds away. When I got to edge, I realized that I had left the rifle lying in the bean field. Fortunately, I was able to follow the drag marls back to the rfile in the failing light.
 

JRay

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 19, 2022
Messages
157
Location
Northern Colorado
So far no stories of anyone leaving their kids behind. So that's a win.
Funny you say this.

Some family members and I were mushroom hunting one summer a few years back. After the hunt, my uncle took off in his truck and as I was loading my gear, I noticed my cousin (12yo) walking over to me. My uncle had taken off and left her at the trailhead.

He was nearly home before he realized he took off without her. To be fair, she was usually the back seat rider and he assumed she had laid over and fell asleep and he couldn’t see her in the mirror. There was a lot of desperation in his voice when he called me to ask if she was with me.

I got to harass him for quite a long time after that incident.
 
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