What's the most expensive thing you've lost while outdoors?

[jpolson]

Lost the right lens (my dominant eye) off of my glasses while backcountry elk hunting this year...Thank goodness the bull I shot was only 100 yards away.

Almost lost a pack full of gear while stalking a herd of cows this year also.

 

[jrice]

Yes Becca had hers with and if mine was on it could have narrowed our search window quite a bit by the other GPS knowing where it was within about 30' or so, but it wasn't on such is life ;(

I lost a Leica Rangefinder near Seeley Lake MT this fall while checking out the area for deer. Man that hurts.

 

[justin davis]

Lost a rangefinder on a mule deer hunt a few years back.

 

[jpolson]

oh...wife just reminded me that I lost my "Spot Messenger" a couple years ago. I don't think she will ever forget that.

 

[60x]

Both good ideas. While we rarely drop packs these days, when it does happen we have taken to marking them on the gps, and then the gps goes in a zippered pants pocket. We also mark the tent on the gps when we leave for any length of time. Plans can change quickly, and coming back in the dark or the fog, it's great to have another method to find your way back.

Exactly^^.. At least in Alaska never ever never never,did I say never drop your pack on a stalk.. A hundred yard stalk often turns into a 2 mile stalk.. seen it happen all to often and on one of my very first sheep hunts I almost learned this lesson the hard way..

 

[60x]

Thats one sad first post.

lol thanks Buster, I still get sick in my stomache when I think about it..

 

[luke moffat]

Both good ideas. While we rarely drop packs these days, when it does happen we have taken to marking them on the gps, and then the gps goes in a zippered pants pocket. We also mark the tent on the gps when we leave for any length of time. Plans can change quickly, and coming back in the dark or the fog, it's great to have another method to find your way back.

And all that marking goes out the window if yours truly loses the GPS

I lost my rangefinder for about 20 minutes this fall in the excitment of trying to get my mom on her first caribou....took about 20 minutes and my father in law found it....thought it was gone forever.

 

[5MilesBack]

In 2012 after shooting my bull, I laid my bow down for some pics and to wrestle him out of the quagmire he landed in. After unhooking him, he slid about 50 yards down the loose rocky face, and then ended up another 50 yards down to where I could work on him. It was when I was done that I realized I was missing something for the hike out....my bow. Even with the bright strings it still took me awhile to find it again.

There is no doubt that I ALWAYS mark camp on the GPS. But I usually don't leave my GPS on so for dropping the pack I don't want to wait for it to load up and then mark it. If I'm dropping the pack, I'm ready to roll right then and not real tolerant for delays.

 

[afteamroper]

Knock on wood I have only lost a Bino adapter for my tripod and a few arrows shooting at grouse

 

[6mm Remington]

6mm that garmin was found and then lost on a hillside near Dillon. A couple years before that three of us were hiking a trail with three or four inches of fresh snow on it. All of a sudden my buddy behind me says whoaaa check this out! I turn around and he's holding a smith & Wesson stainless 44 that I just stepped over. We asked some guys camped at the trailhead if it was therirs with no takers. He reported it at the sheriffs office but no one has ever claimed it. I pass through pburg a few times every spring to go float rock creek.

goodgrouper you might call over to the S.O. over there and see if that is still in evidence. Obviously enough time has gone by that the owner could not be located. If it is not a stolen firearm or something, I do not see any reason that you could not claim it. It might be worth a call. If they have it still (very well could) and you get to recover it and have it for yourself, you owe me dinner at the Sunshine Station (in Phillipsburg) and I want the steak please!!

David

 

[j-bow]

When I was a young teenager I convinced my mom I needed a high dollar duck call to really kill ducks. The first time out in a cut corn field didn't work out so well. I managed to lose half of the call(the reed side of course). The complete call was only mine for less than 48 hours. I never told mom, and always have both sides of my calls attached from that day forward.

 

[unm1136]

I have a hunter orange pullout in my pack. If I drop the pack, I pull it out over the pack before I leave it. You can be 10 feet from a good camo pack sometimes and your brain just won't pick it out. That's also why I have sunset orange and fire red strings on my bow.

I have misplaced my camp a couple of times, but no big deal. I don't have a lot of time/money for hunting, and to improve draw odds I put in for both bow and rifle seasons. My entire hunting ensemble is multicam, mostly purchased cheaply on Fleabay. Now before everyone jumps it to tell me how stupid I am to hunt rifle season without every square centimeter of my body draped in blaze orange...My state doesn't require it, and never has. This was how I learned how to hunt, and I don't have the time or money for a separate ensemble. I also don't use GPS, but good old Map and Compass.

My butchering kit has a traffic safety vest. Weighs like three ounces, is bright yellow mesh, with reflective strips on it. Depending on where I hunt I may wear it all day, or I may not (last deer season there were 300 tags for the entire Gila, 872 square miles, didn't see another hunter in the field for five days). But if I have animal parts in my pack, the vest is wrapped around the pack. If I have need of an "emergency evacuation" where I want to go over a hill from a hunting spot for odor reasons,the vest gets wrapped around my pack. Last thing I want in that situation is to tighten down a Kifaru Waist belt...I also carry bright orange/reflective surveyor's ribbon to mark land marks, like where my pack is.

Post nature calls I make sure I look around that I haven't dropped anything from pockets in my haste to drop trou, and post waking up, or post meals, too.

So far the biggest dollar item has been a damaged camera that belongs to She Who Must Be Obeyed, and after banging around in my thigh pocket for a week I cracked the LCD screen on the back. It was one of those wonderful cameras that had all the menus on the touch screen, rather than separate controls. $239.

pat

 

[CrzyTrekker]

Lost a pair of Oakleys while fishing a little lake in the Gore Range this summer. Found them on a repeat trip four weeks later. I dummy cord a few high-use items like my compass to my pack.

 

[Broken Compass]

Wedding ring, that happened to also be my father's ring. I'll be heading back to where I think I lost it once the snow melts...

I found a wedding ring next to an elk gut pile this year. in utah.

 

[elkmtngear]

In 1992, I lost my bow while hunting, laid it on the tonneau cover and drove off.

In 2012, I lost my bow while hunting, laid it on the tonneau cover and drove off.

 

[Colo4x4XJ]

I lost my mind on a hunting trip once. Kept trying to force myself to believe the elk were over the next ridge or in the next basin. Ended up wandering around at 12k in knee deep snow, thinking I kept seeing elk tracks. No tracks, no elk. The only thing dumb enough to hang out at that altitude that late in the year was me. Other than that just a Casio mountaineering watch that rolled out of my truck and an arrow release that I lost while shooting in the gully below my house

 

[jljmonky]

Read this entire thread from start to finish and have really been racking my brain trying to think of anything significant that I have lost. I haven't lost any great hunting but I have lost 3 different white tail bucks over the years. Playing Army I have lost several knives, none of them cheapos either! I have probably found just as many as I have lost though. Lost a Gerber river knife, a really nice Spyderco, a buck 110 or two, a few different multi tools. I have found off the top of my head an Ontario battle axe thingie, a CRKT M16, a super tool and many other things. Its an endless cycle of lost and found stuff.

 

[mtbshark]

Garmin Rino 530 HCX GPS......2 hours in alder hell looking for it to no avail...

Like Luke I have also lost a garmin rhino 530 hcx while out duck/upland hunting.

 

[Aron Snyder]

My X wife, but I lost her from being in the woods toooo much.

 

[Floorguy]

I lost my knife heard hunting. Realized it about 5 minutes after the bear was down.