What's your worst mid-hunt equipment failure?

[idahohikker]

Opening morning of Deer season (late 80's) here in Alabama. I had a Tasco 3x9 Scope on top of a Remington 742 Woodsmaster. Spike shows up, get him in the scope and the crosshairs looked like X instead of a vertical and horizontal. Still killed the deer. But the crosshairs had come loose in the scope. Sent it in for repair, everything seemed ok till the next hunt. Same deal with the X. Yanked the scope off, bought a Leupold and never looked back. I wont buy anything with the Tasco name on it.

Something similar happened to me with a Redfield. Done with that company.

 

[rodney482]

Blew my knee up packing out my first archery bull.

 

[RichP]

Duck Hunting. I have a 17' TDB and the motor seems a little lose. I tightened (or thought I did) not wanting to crush the fiberglass. I hunt on the Delaware River in Pa often. There is always some kind of debris on and just below the surface. I always run with the tilt lock off in case of hitting something.
Well running about 3/4 throttle I hit a submerged log or something. The motor rose up like I would expect it to, but this time is rose right off the transom and right into the river. Luckily the electric start cables and gas line kept it from sinking to the bottom. Well my hunt was over and had to be towed back to the ramp.
I found out the 2 clamps were frozen and were loose. I have since bolted the motor to the boat.

 

[jjtt13]

Derailed bow at 10000 feet and 1200 miles from home

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[Skyhigh]

Not necessarily an equipment failure, but we couldn't hunt after it happened. Crawling in on a good muley and my girlfriend stopped paying attention to where the barrel was pointing, and barely bumped the ground with the muzzle. Last 1/2in of the barrel was plugged full of dirt. Had to drive into town and buy a cleaning kit quick and take care of it. Usually we have tape on the end of the gun, but we forgot to bring extra and already had shot one deer.

 

[Backyard]

Blew my knee out 8 hours into the first day of a 10 day hunt. Solo.

 

[mlgc20]

Federal Premium Trophy Ammunition. Had a buck in my crosshairs at 100 yards. Pulled the trigger on my 300 Win Mag and it sounded like a 22. The bullet had enough force to leave the barrel. But, I know the 180 grain bullet didn't make it more than maybe 75 yards.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Recoil pad fell off my 12 gauge on the first day of a two day pheasant hunt. Two shots In I realized I wasn’t going to be able to shoot it without a pad. I was trying to devise a way to macguyver a pad out of newspaper and duck tape when I found the pad on the floor of the truck. A bit of gorilla tape and all is good.

I bring two guns now just in case.

 

[Lifelong Learner]

Definitely lights.....both flashlights and headlamps. I always test them out before season and put in new batteries, but had a couple mini-Mag bulb failures in the dark. Like a poster above, my headlamp failed and I field dressed a deer with a mini-Mag clentched between my teeth. Woke up the next morning with "lock jaw" and swore that would never happen again. My son bought me a nice Fenix flashlight that uses the rechargable 18650 for Father's Day 2018......worked fine during fall archery season. Tried it out a couple weeks ago and.....nothing. Swapped batteries.....nothing. So I am trying to get Fenix warranty to deal with it.....so far....nothing. Right now I have a Skilhunt H03 headlamp that has been very solid and a new Thrunight flashlight.....hoping they perform as others have recommended.

 

[Nick Muche]

Cut my bowstring on a rock the first day of being an AK resident while stalking a mountain goat. Killed one the next day at 7 yards with the bear gun we brought.

 

[MDHLeatheworks]

My water filter stopped working on an deep backcountry hunt. Was able to get through with boiling water but it took a lot longer to get water to drink.


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[Boarmaster]

I looked down at my sluggun once and it was missing the bolt knob.
It was a Remington 1187 semiauto 12 gauge. I used the flathead screwdriver on my swiss army knife to work the action the rest of that 3 day hunt.

 

[Akwoodchuck]

Me and my buddy were out moose hunting on my old mid-90s Honda Foreman, about 10 miles from the road, when the swingarm locknut wiggled off ...front wheels went one direction, back wheels another. Hoofed it over to another buddy's camp, an old shade-tree mechanic guy...he rooted around in the brush til he found the nut, we flipped the machine over and held the frame together by hand while he slowly turned the nut back on with a ball peen hammer and punch...good as new, been riding it just like that for years now....

 

[Fitzwho]

Had the peep sight on my muzzleloader fall off while on a stalk in Colorado for Pronghorn last fall.

Later that year and back in Colorado, I dropped, forgot, then ran over my HS Precision box mag with three 300 win mag shells in it.

 

[Marble]

Rifle. Froze the bolt, broke the handle off trying to open.

#2 would be my horse. Went down a cliff, got injured, wasted an entire day. He was a huge retard. $1800 vet bill.

 

[kopecsean]

@Marble what type of rifle?

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[Marble]

Drove to the end of the road in my 86 Ford F-250. Screwed around with a couple bulls, we got both of them. Packing back to the truck could see a plume of smoke, figured one of our group had built a camp fire at the trail head. 1/2 hour later reached the trail head found the smoldering remains of my truck.

Okay... you win!!

 

[Marble]

@Marble what type of rifle?

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It was a Remington 700 300 ultra. We stalked up to a herd, injured a bull and was closing the distance to kill him. On the way there we commando crawled through several hundred yards of snow. Debris got in the beech and we had one live shot left in the barrel. My dad, 65 at the time was the shooter. I told him, "the bull is injured and cannot go uphill. Do not shoot unless he is broadside and standing still. And remember, your gun is almost 4" high at 100 yards. " Well my dad shot at the bull in the willows while it was running and whiffed. The bull was so sick it couldn't move for awhile after that. Dad went back to get another rifle,I sat with the bull.

The handles on those factory 700s are just soldiered/welded and are not stout. Just fyi. After the whiff he was banging his gun on a tree trying to open the bolt. That's when he broke the handle off.
I love my dad. He's 69 now. But I have to keep a closer eye on him.

 

[westonadkins]

I looked down at my sluggun once and it was missing the bolt knob.
It was a Remington 1187 semiauto 12 gauge. I used the flathead screwdriver on my swiss army knife to work the action the rest of that 3 day hunt.

I have that same gun and that same thing happened to me last year pheasant hunting


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[ElkElkGoose]

Man so funny you started this thread..I'm absolutely done with Black Diamond headlamps. Most overpriced POS on the market. I have one of their Storm headlamps and had it stop working on me last week when I woke up at 4 am to bushwhack to my elk spot. Annoying but I remembered my wife's black diamond headlamp was in my console. Tried that one and it didn't turn on, figured it was batteries, swapped them and nope it was broken too. One was 1 yrs old, other two years. Luckily there was a full moon so I just stumbled through it. I have one of those "Everlast" headlamps from walmart that has lasted 3x as long as those black diamond ones.

If you are going to charge me a ridiculous price for a product it better be bombproof. Especially something that I had babied.