Have you ever had one of those days...............years?

[Curmudgeon]

Whitetail season 2021 I had a new rifle that I had spent several range sessions getting dialed in. After the final session I wiped the gun down and laid it in a Tipton gun vice so it would be handy to grab for opening morning. The day before season opener was crazy at work and I got home late and had to rush to get my gear ready for the next morning. I'm fortunate to own a farm that's a 30 minute drive from my house so no need to leave super early. I get to my farm with daylight not far away, grab my pack and rifle and head to the blind. I get all settled in and put the magazine in the rifle and reach for the bolt to cycle a round and no bolt. WT? Then it dawns on me that I had taken the bolt out when I wiped the gun down to give it once over too and it's at home laying on the bench. So it's starting to get light and I'm totally dead in the water. Not wanting to sit there with a dysfunctional rifle I pack it up and head home. I have a commitment later that morning so I miss opening day but no big deal. That set the tone for the rest of the season and never shot a buck.

Whitetail season this past fall (2022) gets here and the night before opening day I check and double check that the bolt is in the gun and the magazine is in the pocket of the pants I'm going to wear. Opening morning off to the farm I go with a good feeling that I'm better prepared than last year. I'm in the blind and 30 minutes after legal shooting hour a really nice ten pointer appears and one shot and he's down. I start to get out of the blind and reach for my pack and no pack. That's right I tell myself I left it in the truck. No problem I need to get the truck down to the deer anyway. I get back to the truck and no pack. WT? I later find it by the door at the house. So now no pack and no knives since they are in the pack. I rummage through the truck for a knife and nothing. I do have a tool belt and in it there is one of those orange plastic box cutters with the snap off blades. Perfect! This surely will work. Have you ever tried to field dress a deer with a box cutter? In my wildest dreams I never imagined it could be that hard. Then the rain came. Not just casual showers but off and on downpours. I was finally able to get into a routine of working on the deer and trying not to cut a finger off and jumping in the truck to keep from drowning. Over an hour later was able to get the deer loaded and head home. I'm positive I won't forget anything this year How about you, ever had one of those days??

 

[Michael54]

No cant say that I have. However my wifes cousin has one of those days every year . Its so bad that the night before we play "guess what he is gonna forget tomorrow morning"

 

[FLATHEAD]

* I have gotten to the woods before I realized I did not have a gun.
* Once killed a deer and got it back to camp and was in my sleeping bag
that night before I realized I had left my gun in the woods.
* Recently made the 45 min. drive down to the surf to fish and realized I
had left ALL my pyramid sinkers at the house.

Just Roll With it!!

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

* I have gotten to the woods before I realized I did not have a gun.
* Once killed a deer and got it back to camp and was in my sleeping bag
that night before I realized I had left my gun in the woods.
* Recently made the 45 min. drive down to the surf to fish and realized I
had left ALL my pyramid sinkers at the house.

Just Roll With it!!

- I've left my primary bow release at home, and fortunatley I always carry a spare in my pack
- I've left my belt knife at home, and luckily alwasy pack a spare in my pack
- I've forgotten my head lamp at home, and carry a spare in my pack.
- I regularly forget ear plugs at home, and always carry spares in my pack.

- I left my bow in a corn field after tracking and finally killing my biggest buck. Went out and got it the next day
- My daughter and I left the muzzleloader in the timber in the dark after she killed a big doe a few years ago. We remembered before leaving and went and retrieved it.
- On the same trip, I left my nice bushnell flashlight on the ground by the blind. Searched for it all winter, only to find it the next season after being buried in a snow drift and then covered by annual grasses. Replaced the batteries and removed some rust off the leads and she fired right up good as new. Nothing better than an o-ring sealed flashlight with aluminum or metal body.

I've gotten to the point in my life that my memory is not reliable, so I plan redundancy into most critical field items, having as many things on my person as possible with a secondary in my pack.

 

[jayhawk]

I packed out my first elk and got halfway out of the woods before I said, "Wait...where's my rifle?" It was leaning against a log next to the carcass where I left it.
My dad always said, "Gun, license, knife. Everything else is secondary"

 

[Fitzwho]

2018:
1- Had the rear peep sight fall off of my muzzleloader on a stalk hunting pronghorn in Colorado. Didn't notice it was gone until I had got within about 200 yards (400 yard crawl through a Cholla cactus flat). Nothing to replace it, so that one ended my hunt, packed camp and drove 8 hours home. Cleaning out the truck after I got home and found the peep on passenger floorboard. I swear it was on the gun when I started that stalk.
2- Later that same season, back in Colorado for 3rd rifle deer, I get back to my truck in the dark after hiking out of a spot. Set my rifle down (leaned against the truck in the crook of the open driver's door). When I set it down I had just unloaded it and apparently not got the magazine fully engaged, so it drops out... I hear it do so, but no matter, I'll grab that in a minute. Then go to take off my pack, throw the gun in the truck and then proceed to run over my HS Precision magazine with the truck. Drive about a half mile down the road before I remember I had dropped it. Found it, but it was crushed. Single shot the rest of the hunt.

Couldn't tell you how many times I thought I had or have actually lost/dropped my phone. Left it at my shooting location on a New Mexico pronghorn, back tracked and was able to find it. Other times thought it was at my last glassing location or something before driving back down the road and realize that it's still playing over the Bluetooth on the truck (dropped it between the seat and console) or I just put it in the wrong pocket and have now spent 30 minutes walking down a road looking for it.

 

[eddielasvegas]

On a solo elk hunt two years (or maybe 3) ago in N. AZ, I made it to middle of nowhere AZ (via 4x4) and got camp all set up. All was fine until I was ready to go to bed and realized I forgot my sleeping bas. No biggie the first couple nights as the weather was mild, but a winter storm was rolling in within a couple days so I knew I had to make the 5+ hour RT to the nearest store that sold sleeping bags.

The paved road part of the trip was not bad, but the off road part (about 1.25 hours) can be a little sketchy and driving it because I am forgetful burned my azz worse than a 3 foot flame. Anyway, I made it and I was much warmer when the storm rolled in so all ended well and just another lesson learned, even at my old age.


Eddie

 

[Jbogg]

On opening day of archery a buddy of mine spent an hour climbing the mountain up to his bear hunting spot before realizing he had forgotten to unscrew his field points, and put on his broad heads.

 

[87TT]

It's called getting old. Just have to deal with it.

 

[MNGrouser]

I arranged to meet up with a guy I met online...a forum similar to this but for pointing dogs. We each drove a couple hours from our homes to a likely looking grouse cover equidistant from our home woods. I was going to meet his English Pointer and I had packed up my Vizsla-Gus. Met up, shook hands, let the dogs hit the ground. I took my trusty 20 gauge out of the case, put on my vest and reached in to the pocket full of 12 gauge shells. My new buddy was hunting with a 16 gauge. I put the gun back in the truck and went for a nice walk in the woods. At least the dogs hunted well together.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Oh, I forgot a doozy from last October in WY. Last day of the hunt, and out in the middle of nowhere, and nature called. Found a comfy log, took care of business and hiked back in another mile or so through some dark timber. Hunt ended, and I asked my daughter if she wanted to have a hot meal at a local restaurant to celebrate the hunt. She said sure and asked if I had my wallet. I said of course, and reached to my left back pocket. No wallet. My stomach fell through the floor and immediate panic hit me like a sledgehammer.

THANK THE GOOD LORD FOR onX. Light was fading fast as we humped back through the black timber following our onX track and made it to the clearing where I had taken number 2. I was able to locate the log in the near dark, and there, right on the ground, was my wallet.

 

[Jethro]

I drove with a group of guys to KS and when we got there one of them realized he left his crossbow in PA.

 

[rclouse79]

I have been forced to endure self-inflicted agony more than once and it is the worst. It seems the same mistake is rarely made twice, but there is always something new as you described. My results never line up with my wild preseason expectations, but thankfully the complete dud years are rare. Thanks for the post, nice to know I am not the only airhead out there.

 

[Btaylor]

Payin the dumbass tax stings every time.

 

[TurkeyReaper69]

A few years ago I was heading out to western Kansas from Mississippi for a turkey hunting trip. About 6 hours into the drive I stopped for gas in Muskogee Oklahoma and was getting a slab of ribs out the cooler to snack on for lunch.

I noticed my gun was missing, I had been too busy fiddling around making sure I packed snacks and whiskey that I'd forgotten my damn gun!

That was one of the worst mistakes I've made. But I've made plenty, gun has clicked on me when pulling trigger cuz I forgot to load gun.

 

[Macintosh]

Oh lord, if I could ever qualify for an olympic team it would be in the 10,000m “forgetting important things and locking yourself out of the truck” event. I’ll spare you the details, but lets just say that I can break into a 1986 chevy suburban in the dark, blindfolded, with one hand tied behind my back, and I have hunted in crocs more than once.

 

[long hunter]

Not me, but I hunted with a guy in Wyoming, THE LAST NIGHT ON THE ROAD BEFORE HUNTING WE WERE DRIVING ALONG HE IS IN A TRUCK BEHIND US AND IS FLASHING HIS LIGHTS LIKE CRAZY, SO WE PULL OVER AND HE IS IN A FIT, ASK HIM WHATS GOING ON (NOW THIS GUY IS FRONT LINE SUPERVISOR FOR A FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY) He is screaming I have to go back to the hotel we stayed at last night we were a good 200 miles from there, I left my work lap top in the room. Drew him a map of where we would be and told him see ya in camp

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

One pheasant opener Dad got so busy making sure me and my 2 brothers had all our stuff he forgot his shotgun. Of course he promptly blamed *all* of us and "borrowed" my Ithaca since I was the youngest. Fortunatley we all shot model 37's, so it wasn't a hardship. For him! LOL!

 

[Pony Soldier]

What you are describing is called farming. A number of times I have broken a piece of machinery, switched to another task and broke that one. I have gotten good at recognizing a roll and got off the train by going to town for lunch. Come back with parts, fix what broke and start over.

 

[Neckbone]

Public land florida turkey hunt a few years back...

Night before the hunt i stay up a little later than I should have...and had a few more beers than I should have. I woke up late, still dark but late. Grabbed a monster energy from the fridge and bolted out of the door. Got to the trailhead and started marching to my zone. I get about half way there and nature calls...LOUDLY....and I have no paper on me. So I now have no socks and an itchy bunghole. Finally get to my oak tree and have a sit...Look down and I am covered in ticks. I picked several dozen off of me and got bit about 18-20 times, no fun. I fumbled around the woods dehydrated with no water, covered in tick bites, raw arse, and no socks. 2pm hits, hunt over. Get back to the truck to find that I locked the keys and the cell phone inside of the truck! FML. Thankfully there was one other truck at the trailhead and didnt take him long to show up (fellow turkey hunter) Nice guy called a locksmith and drove me out of the WMA to the gas station to meet up with locksmith. (Step dads truck, no spare). Miserable experience.