Hunting mistakes you have to laugh at.

EastMT

WKR
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
2,872
Location
Eastern Montana
Ok the side of a really steep slope, ranged the goats, put the range finder into my puffy jacket pocket that has no zipper. A few minutes later while moving heard it bouncing down the hill, probably went half a mile. She gone!
 

Themic86

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 16, 2021
Messages
163
Location
DFW, Texas
Friend of ours went pheasant hunting with my dad. Shows up in the field after a 3 day trip up there, reached into his gun case... and pulls out a 243! Just grabbed the wrong case and never thought to look.


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Joined
Oct 22, 2016
Messages
68
About two or three years ago I was out scouting an area where I had previously seen pigs coming through late in the day. Got there a few hours earlier than I needed to and put the gun in the grass about a foot away from me, unloaded. Glassed for a while, then took out the kindle to read “All Creatures Great and Small” to pass the time. I guess I got bored because I ended up falling asleep. I woke up to the sound of grunting and there were about 6 pigs in the 150-180 pound class standing still and sniffing the air less than 10 yards away and behind me. They can clearly smell me but didn’t have a good visual on me for a while. Then, they started smacking/chomping their teeth and I got it into gear and ran right to the nearest tree, jumped up and hung out there until they got bored and left.

My wife got me set up for a .44 revolver with a drop leg holster for my birthday later that year and has never let me live it down. I never did get those pigs.
 
Joined
Jul 20, 2020
Messages
323
Location
MT
Ok the side of a really steep slope, ranged the goats, put the range finder into my puffy jacket pocket that has no zipper. A few minutes later while moving heard it bouncing down the hill, probably went half a mile. She gone!
Lost park parka from kifaru
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
Messages
886
Location
Wa
I have another.... Duck hunting in South Puget Sound with my brother in law on a very cold December day... running out to a spot we hunted a few times. launched the 12' jon boat and ran out to some small islands with channels running around them about a mile from the launch. We hit it at low tide and tied the boat up to a log and layed out a few deeks... the little island was LITTLE, nothing more that grass, maybe 50x50 and barely out of the bay at high tide. When the tide got high enough you had to get out or sometimes get your feet wet. By this time we were pretty cold and it was getting dark.... well the boat floated up under the log, then the tide came in and we spent the next 4 hours trying to bail out and re-float the boat.... with a small coffee can that used to hold my shells. Didn't see the boat launch until 11pm that night.... that one sucked.
 

Vandy321

WKR
Joined
Feb 5, 2019
Messages
2,424
Opening day 3rd rifle last year, left the truck in the dark with camp on our backs for the week. Packed in 2 miles in the cold, got set up at my morning glassing spot, unstrapped my rifle....you coulda heard me swear clear over in the next GMU when I realized I'd left my bolt back in my gun case. had it removed for travel, like a good boy.
 
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,204
My son and my nephew were chasing a muley buck we had jumped high on a ridge. He had winded us and trotted towards a pile of rocks further up the ridge then disappeared (as they do). My nephew had the tag and my son was gonna be his spotter. I came up behind them at the pile of rocks to find them glassing the next pile of rocks where a set of antlers was skylined looking away from us. It seemed odd that he hadn’t gone farther... but there he was bigger than shit. They began stalking him while I waited behind continuing to glass and trying to figure out what was going on. Something was odd about those antlers. As the light changed a bit I could see they were weathered... not those of a living deer. I walked up behind the two nimrods without any stealth at all. They turned and kind of glared at me and said “shh... get down... you’ll scare him!!” I chuckled and said “ I don’t think so... He’s been dead for at least a year already”. Someone had found a skull with a decent rack and left it skylined on that rock as a prank. Pretty good one too.
 

ndforbes

FNG
Joined
Feb 4, 2015
Messages
63
Location
Oregon
Called in a bull to 40 yards a couple years ago. He was behind some trees and I decided to take one more step to get a better angle. I tripped on a log, fell flat on my face, and watched in dismay as the bull trotted away. I'm just lucky I didn't harpoon myself with my knocked arrow in the process. Ha!
 

Danomite

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
Messages
193
Location
New Mexico
In high school my buddies and I would call coyotes almost every weekend in the winter. One day we got out early and set up the caller (a boom box with a cassette recording of rabbit distress) at first light. I decided to take a leak right as my buddy hit play, thinking I’d better get it done before anything came in. I crawled a little ways from my yucca stand and rifle, got up on my knees and started my business. Just then a coyote ran in 50 yards away. I simultaneously tried to cut it off, zip up and get to my rifle 10 feet away. I got a shot but missed high.
 
Joined
Nov 14, 2020
Messages
1,204
I forgot this one.... my son and I were nestled into a pile of rocks on a ridge ( funny how piles of rocks and high ridges are a recurrent theme in my muley stories) we were over looking a great spot, a sage park about 500 yards long and 150 yards wide bordered by aspens on both sides where we had seen quite a bit of sign. After awhile I had to pee. I didn’t want to piddle right in the middle of our hide, so I stepped down a few feet and was making water right below. Just as I was finishing up I heard “psst!!” “On your right!!” I froze and saw a doe watching me hard from about 25 yards. I figured if I spooked her she’d blow down the ridge and take whatever was in that grove with her. I had to stand stock still for 15 minutes with my d**k in my hand while she sauntered across the park keeping an eye on me. Fortunately no Girl Scout troops wandered in during the interim.
 

the_bowhunter

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 10, 2015
Messages
164
Was invited on a guided archery elk hunt. My guide had never guided another guide before. I had a few years of experience on him but we matched together well and I told him I would follow his lead and step in when he asked.

1st stalk. We have a big bull bedded. We move up and around to come down on him. I go to step and lose my footing. I roll 10 feet or so down the scree field all while keeping my bow in the air. Banged up my arm and sounded like a bomb went off. He looked at me dying laughing and I was the same. Definitely a little pride check there but that was his 1st impression of guiding a guide. We laughed it off and continued on. Surprisingly enough, we never found the bull lol.


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Joined
Apr 5, 2021
Messages
483
Location
Washington
I was hunting a section of the snake river breaks with some friends and we could hear this group of guys come in below us. Same guys we talked to earlier to make sure we wouldn’t cross paths. We were looking at a buck that was bedded down and it spooked and ran uphill toward us. We couldn’t get a shot because the idiots were in the line of fire. That didn’t concern them, so they start shooting. We hunker down and one of them gets lucky and kills the buck. Rather than get into it with a bunch of assholes, all of us armed, we backed out. On the way out, I’m messing with the walkie talkie and find their frequency.

The next day, we are glassing a buck on another ridge and we see the same goobers come over a saddle and I can tell they spotted the buck. I turned on the walkie talkie and they have a spotter vectoring them in on this deer.

Someone pulled out their phone, keyed the mic on the walkie talkie, and kept clogging up the airway with this:

 
Joined
Apr 16, 2021
Messages
4
Was running wide open across the lake headed to the duck spot one morning. Ran into a float of coots in the dark and my lab decided to jump straight off the front of the boat to grab one. Hit him with the boat and the poor guy tumbled down the entire length of the hull. Hauled him back in the boat and he shook off and acted like nothing had happened; still jacked up to be out hunting. Could have been a bad deal, but was a real eye opener as to just how tough and motivated hunting dogs can be.
 

CJohnson

WKR
Joined
Mar 28, 2019
Messages
337
Location
SC
My uncle was the first person to take me on a western hunt. He’s a horse person, I’m not. After listening to him fuss at me all week for not cinching my saddle tight enough, I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to loosen his up a little bit on the last morning of our hunt and watch him try to saddle up.
 

NB7

WKR
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
386
Turkey hunting one morning years ago, wasn't having any action and then heard a gobble from the other side of the farm in corner where they are frequently known to strut. Eased my way up to said corner on an old mossy logging road, the perfect way to quietly close the distance. 50 yards out through the brush I could see him, strutting and facing directly away from me. The dark underside of his tail highlighted by the light brown tips. Gave a few yelps, but he had gone silent.
Creeped 20 yards closer and peaked up. Still there, still strutting and facing away. Still silent. Still some brush in the way.
Closed 10 more yards. Couldn't believe he was still there and STILL strutting facing the other way. Gave a purr, but no reaction. Close enough to shoot, but I wanted to see his head, and something just felt a little off.
Pulled out my binos, wondering why this bird wasn't reacting to my calls, or just pivoting and moving.

Well... the "tail" (dark underside and light colored tips) was actually the bottom end of felled tree trunk.

The upper round half of the trunk, which was all I could see, was just about the exact size as a gobbler fan. The light tips, were the lightly colored pieces of bark in a perfect semi-circle. Imagine looking at a cross cut section of the trunk. I was never close to even aiming at it, so I didn't have any worries that I would have made a dangerous shot, but man did I feel stupid for having stalked a tree trunk. Don't know where the real gobbler ended up that time.
 
Joined
Jun 3, 2021
Messages
17
Friend of ours went pheasant hunting with my dad. Shows up in the field after a 3 day trip up there, reached into his gun case... and pulls out a 243! Just grabbed the wrong case and never thought to look.


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LOL!
 

Gobbler36

WKR
Joined
Dec 6, 2015
Messages
2,437
Location
Idaho
The annual turkey hunt where I usually have at least one episode where I get impatient and get up from where I’ve been calling only to spook a Tom coming at me makes me chuckle and serves as a reminder of my old mans saying that patience kills more birds then calling ever will
 

SPC

FNG
Joined
Jul 3, 2019
Messages
31
Location
Idaho
One year I went to do a Non-Res Whitetail hunt with my uncle. After working all night I got in the car and drove for 6 hours to get to my in-laws house. Unpacked all my gear, got my rifle drove over to my uncles house and went out to go hunting. I remember it was raining pretty hard that morning, we saw slot of fresh whitetail tracks. I picked a spot under a tree to grab a seat. My uncle walked a little further down the trail. I sat quietly, hoping for a chance at a nice buck when all of a sudden I feel something poking me on the shoulder. It was my uncle. He said he had jumped a nice buck down the trail and saw it head my way but he was certain the grizzly bear he heard in the bushes ( me) scared it away. That's rite, I sat down and fell asleep. Slept all day and only got up to eat a little dinner that night.
 
Joined
Jun 23, 2013
Messages
372
Location
Whatcom County, WA
Few years back my cousin went and hung trail cameras in an area. It was mid June and there was still snow in the meadow.
We went back before the August bear season opener and couldn't find it. I gave up and figured someone had stolen it. By chance I look up and there it is. About 12 feet in the air. Turns out when he hung it there was about 6 or 7 feet if snow still on the ground.
I had to channel my inner squirrel and climb up and get it.
 

Marble

WKR
Joined
May 29, 2019
Messages
3,602
Called in a bull to 40 yards a couple years ago. He was behind some trees and I decided to take one more step to get a better angle. I tripped on a log, fell flat on my face, and watched in dismay as the bull trotted away. I'm just lucky I didn't harpoon myself with my knocked arrow in the process. Ha!
Watching some of the YouTube videos, I've seen guys either moving fast or running with their bow, through timber with an arrow nocked.

I'm guilty of song it too, when I was younger.

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