Gear that failed to the point that the hunt was over?

Crotalus

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Nov 19, 2016
Messages
284
Location
PA
Brother in law had a Ruger he used for one day of whitetail hunting in the early 90s. He nicknamed it Clicker and sold it not long afterwards. It worked flawlessly throughout the fall getting ready but when he pulled up on a buck the first morning it clicked on 3 of the first 4 shot attempts. Turned out that it was a firing pin grease/temperature issue but he never trusted it again.

And no he didn't get the buck. the first two attempts failed, the third one fired and shocked him and the 4th clicked
 

FlyGuy

WKR
Joined
Aug 13, 2016
Messages
2,088
Tent seals for me. Thought I could get by with my old Cabelas 2 man last year. It was my 1st mtn hunting trip so there was plenty of other gear to buy. It had been in my attic for a while. Everything was fine until it rained on day 5. Tent didn't even put up a fight. Soaked all my gear. Packed up and drove home. Bought a tut/stove combo 3 months later.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2016
Messages
681
Location
Maryland
I had a pair of hip waders try and drown me once when I was 16 and broke through the ice in a beaver lead that was about 8 feet deep, that was a long boat ride home ! :cool:
 

NDGuy

WKR
Joined
Feb 13, 2017
Messages
4,143
Location
ND
Timberhawk pack for bowhunting.

Walked to my stand about a mile and had brought some warmer clothes, binos, rangefinder, water. Pack sling completely ripped from the pack and was useless after. Not a fun walk back!
 
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Messages
1,253
Location
Missoula, MT
Had a spent case get stuck in a gun because the ejector pin broke after shooting an animal. On the same trip we had a power steering pump go out in one of our vehicles in the middle of nowhere. Was fun trying to get it out with hard steering and squishy breaks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

colersu22

WKR
Joined
Apr 10, 2016
Messages
1,017
Location
Wa
Lucky for me it was just a day hunt but I had the rubber tube on my peep sight break at full draw. Luckily it broke on the sting side so it didn't whip me in the face. I started to check for cracking until I replaced it for a tubeless peep.
 
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
46
Location
Seattle, WA
I had the part break on a TT Smackdown rest that stops the launcher from rotating beyond 90 degrees when the bow is drawn. Basically when I would draw the bow the launcher would rotate a full 180 degrees instead of stopping at vertical. The issue must have occurred on the hike in as the rest was fine the day before. Luckily I was able to hike out get a new rest installed, sighted in, and shot a bear the following day.
 

oake

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
258
Location
Maryland
Had some army surplus rain gear fail on about day 3 of a 12 day hunt. Left the hunt on day 9, just couldn't manage soaking wet.

First thing I did when I returned home was invest in some updated rain gear. Since then, I've tested it out several times to be assured when needed it is up to the task !!
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2015
Messages
651
Lining up a shot on a nice 8pt. Whitetail, taking my time. Deep breaths....glasses fog up. By the time I clear fog, buck was gone :(

Got lasik eye surgery a few years back. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

VernAK

WKR
Joined
Dec 24, 2012
Messages
2,119
Location
Delta Jct, Alaska
35 years ago my Sako 375 trigger/sear failed on a brown bear hunt. No rifle for the next week of hunt....packed a hide for my partner.
 

Montana

FNG
Joined
Mar 30, 2017
Messages
6
Location
Montana
On an antelope hunt I had two bad experiences missing, the second attempt at 80 yards. Couldn't figure out what was going on and threw the gun up to my face to have the horizontal cross-wire fall off. Evidently, it was mostly broken during the two stalks and had dropped down significantly. Was able to borrow my partners gun and ended up shooting a doe instead of the great buck I had missed earlier.
 

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
9,031
Location
Corripe cervisiam
We had an electric fuel pump go out on the little Subaru my buddy had barged over to an unamed Alaskan island that we used to run the roads and bear hunt in the spring.
bear rack.jpg
He called it, "The Rogue Boar" as it was a beater he bought for $300 as the floorboards were just about gone. We could Flintstone that thing around if we had to....but you did get wet in the back seat when hitting a puddle.

We were about 26 miles in on the island...hadn't seen anyone in the 3 days we were there...and the fuel pump goes out.

Well where there is a will....there is a way so we drained some fuel into a water bottle and took turns sitting on the motor trickling fuel into the carb....which worked for about 4 miles, then we would have to stop and drain some more fuel into the bottle. Not the smartest thing I've ever done as it was like riding a very hot bucking bronco that you didn't want to fall in front of. Telling my buddy Maury to slow down didn't work too well....but easy enough to cut off the fuel!

Ak. rogue0007.jpg
Ak no fuel re.jpg

Didn't wreck the hunt...just made it an adventure.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2016
Messages
681
Location
Maryland
Reminds me of a 35 mile canoe trip I did with a buddy, straight out of high school, about 3 miles in the canoe started to leak, we rolled it, lost all our food and most of our fishing gear. Spent the next day and a half bailing water and portaging , we had rented the canoe and been dropped up river. When we got back to the livery I would have been ready to fight but I was too dehydrated, sunburned and worn out ! lol.. good times !!!
 

JWP58

WKR
Joined
Nov 21, 2013
Messages
2,089
Location
Boulder, CO
I think he was blaming Obama for people buying more ammo than normal not for the original purchase.

To stay on point, my boot/sock combo. It was more of a not prepared not failure. The temps dropped to highs around -10 and I couldn't keep my feet warm. I ended being able to borrow a pair from another guy, they were a size too big but kept my feet warm.

No its ok, liberals just can't take a joke (about the supreme leader )
 

530Chukar

WKR
Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
418
Location
Out West
Worst thing for me was the right front CV joint on my quad blew up the day before the season in that nasty Colorado adobe mud. Ran it to town that afternoon and got the shaft removed. Still able to run in 3 wheel drive until opening morning when the front drive shaft decided to blow up too. I was limited to 2 wheel drive for the rest of the season and the places that I could get in to hunt.
 
Joined
Sep 9, 2012
Messages
2,070
Location
BC
Cut a bowstring on the rocks when Stone Sheep hunting. Spare bow was a day's walk away. Cut the hunt short.

An Idaho rock on the steep 4x4!trail pulled up out of the ground when my front diff hit it and bent the rear driveshaft as I drove over it. Pretty well screwed up the chukar hunt as it was 4 days before a corral pole "logger" brought us in a new used driveshaft.

Had a shoulder strap fail on a pack once when packing my mt goat off a 13,800' peak in CO. Miserable rainy night getting to the truck at 10:00 pm but made it.

Two years ago my buddy's La Sportiva hiking boot sole came off early into a 12 day backpack Stone sheep hunt we were on. Made for a long hunt for him! We used a shoe lace and duct tape to keep him going.

I had a virtually new Big Agnes inflatable pad develope a thousand tiny leaks over a few square feet of it on another Stone sheep hunt. It sucked
sleeping on the rocks.
 
Joined
Sep 22, 2013
Messages
6,389
Different strokes....

Some of my best days in the elk woods [archery seasons] have been before, during and after those lightning storms in Az out of Williams/Tuscyon and in the Weiminuche wilderness in Co. Those storms get those elk riled up.

At 4:30am we saw lightning flashes from the storm that was at least 50 miles away but it lit up our woods like a flashcube. (Young people will hafta look up flashcubes, LOL). We heard it moving closer and closer all morning. I'll never forget it. Suddenly is almost on top of us. It was massive. Started counting with each flash. That got us running.

It took us about 20 minutes to get to the truck and by that time the electricity in the air was freakin' me out. Got rolling and BOOM! The hardest rain I ever saw. Williams was flooding in just minutes. Got lunch and returned to the spot where we had been. Literally burning...it looked like someone had called in an air strike. We were back on the elk 30 minutes later but the sound of that thunder coming closer and closer was haunting. Call me a wuss for hightailing it outta there, I don't mind. I'm pretty sure if I had stayed put when the sky went dark that day I'd be dead already.

[video]https://petapixel.com/2015/10/19/a-time-lapse-of-monsoon-storms-over-arizona/[/video]
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
659
Location
Truckee
I've spent good bit of time the Northern AZ wilderness and witnessed mind blowing electrical storms on multiple occasions. Some intense stuff for sure. The only gear Ive had fail that ruins a trip was climbing skin glue not sticking to my skis. No bueno when your on top of 3 feet of corn snow. I wasnt technically hunting but scouting for sure . I have never had an optical failure but have always set up my rifles with mounted optics with backup iron sights zeroed at 100 meters which would not make an optical failure a deal breaker for me but I have never been a long range shooter anyway.
 

EastMT

WKR
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
2,872
Location
Eastern Montana
A leupold VX3 3.5-14 failed. Been in the shop twice. Finally replaced with a vx3i. The parallax adjuster was glued in place on the brand new one. Not sure what's happened to leupold lately, I have had tons of vx1-vx2 3-9, 2-7. Zero issues ever
 
Top