What's your worst mid-hunt equipment failure?

[Deplorable77]

Saddle cinch broke while sidehilling, Horse decided that me falling off in the saddle wasnt enough and stomped the shit out of me for good measure. Good times.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

My body.

 

[slick]

Kifaru waist belt tearing at the point of contact from the strap that goes up & cinches through the shoulder straps with half an elk in the pack.

We rigged some nylon webbing through, ran the original strap through, and back down to the pals.

^happened to a buddy I was with

I popped an Exped pad one time in Utah on a week long trip on night 1. Was working and wasn’t able to get to a gear store due to remoteness and survey schedule. I slept on rocks for 3 weeks. I refuse to ever buy exped again.

 

[Scoony]

Was deer hunting on Fort Knox with a single shot H&R Shotgun. Up in a tree stand,. Nice 9 point buck strolls in front of me at 50 yards. Take up a sight picture, pull the hammer back, squeeze the trigger, and nothing!. Deer looks around at the sound. Pull the hammer back and re-squeeze, and again, nothing! Deer is really looking around now. I was able to open the action and change out the shell (yes, it was loaded) and finally shoot the deer. Had I been using the 870, I would not have been able to pump in another shell.

 

[tizonstreets]

I've never had any gear fail worse enough to mention, but I've heard of rifle safeties freezing up and missing out on some prime opportunities.

 

[ChrisAU]

1st Rifle Elk CO this year my hunting partners Amazon special sleeping pad failed during the middle of the day while we were gone, tons of seams popped. As luck would have it, the day before we had found a foam style thermarest sleeping pad a few hundred yards from camp with just a few holes in it. We had used it the previous night to try to level a part of the tent. A couple days later my partner spotted the bull that I killed in my avatar. Wonder if he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep if he would have been so sharp? Haha

 

[wyosam]

Wouldn't call it an abrupt failure, but do my knees count?

 

[xOttox]

In September went to Western NE for an antelope hunt and had my boot lases bust on the 3rd morning of the hunt. Going to start carrying extras from here out.

 

[lyle_destroys]

In September went to Western NE for an antelope hunt and had my boot lases bust on the 3rd morning of the hunt. Going to start carrying extras from here out.

550 cord works great for boot laces and lots of other stuff too

 

[GG9]

Garmin InReach decides to not send messages. Updated and tested a week or two before Hunt. Unit would say messages had sent but was getting no responses. Packed 6 miles into flattops (south side access, not an easy pack in) carrying camp for 5-6 days, had told my wife I would check in every day, also the day after pack in my sister in law was scheduled to deliver a baby, a relatively high risk pregnancy, so it was a whole shit storm of bad timing. End up having to pack out so wife wouldn’t call search and rescue and to make sure everyone was ok. Contacted Garmin and was told that I had cancelled my service (impossible, wasn’t around a computer) but they would graciously reactivate without a fee. Not the first, second or third time my inReach has failed.

Would you mind sharing what other failures you have had with your inReach?

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

Would you mind sharing what other failures you have had with your inReach?

Had a unit crap out after having only used it once for 5 days on a hunt. No rain and kept in a dry/safe place. The warranty claim was less than fun, and then they send you a refurbished unit with a short warranty (forgot how long but think 60-90 days or something?). I was irritated that I paid $450 for a unit, it breaks after one hunt, and then they send you a used unit. Other than that just the spotty nature of the service, messages saying they send and don’t, not receiving messages, etc. I understand how the satellite messaging works and it takes time, but I’m referring to days later. Still carry it in the pack though because there really aren’t any other options and when it works, it’s great.

 

[Mike Islander]

its probably happened half a dozen times. bad part is i can hear em coming. now i carry a gallon bucket with me.

My policy is if I can't drag it out completely, just mour it with a couple lines. Swamp-proof solution.

 

[FishStalkerGuy]

Peep rotation at full draw on a bull elk at 20 yards..........wasn’t comfortable taking the shot. Drew down and never saw him again.

 

[Ellacky]

Bow release misfired as I was pulling back on a small buck, the arrow sailed 2 feet in front of it's face. Part my fault, which made it even more frustrating.

 

[huntingfishingarchery]

Cam bearing on my first and only (so far) archery elk hunt. Found every 5th or so shot falling 5 ysrds short a 60 yards when shooting at camp. Luckily I brought my brother in laws bow that was exactly the same as mine. Sometimes the extras are worth their weight in gold!

 

[Burninpowder]

When I was a kid I dropped my gun climbing a tree(limb to limb). Thought all was well and good until I looked through glass and had a crack in it.

 

[Squamch]

We call it the trip of adversity.
We drove to the end of the road, and hiked in to hunt for 4 days, then we were gonna come out, meet our less adventurous buddies and hunt the road system for another 5 days.
Day 1-heavy rain.
Day 2-Really heavy rain turns to sleet, wind picks up. Buddies boots become totally un-waterproof. He shrinks a toe box trying to dry them.
Day 3 we wake up to over 100km/hr winds and a blizzard. Make the call to get the hell outta dodge. Find that my scope is now holding water. Cheapo bushnell 3-9, it took 10 years of abuse.
Get back to the truck and find that the chains don't fit my new tires. Scary drive down. Once we're down, roads have downed trees everywhere, flooding, roads being washed away, one area was headlight deep on my 4runner.
Drive back home 2 hours, get my other rifle, head back into the bush the next morning.
Day 4 afternoon, Truck overheats.
Truck is out of coolant. Diagnose blown headgasket. Turns out it was actually a pinhole in a coolant line, but we didn't find that out until later. Couldn't tell due to the massive amount of water pouring from everywhere. How bad was it raining? We literally saw a beaver trying to dam a road. Arrive back at camp with a radiator full of ditch water, smell oil...oil drain plug has fallen out of the pan somehow, I now have zero oil in the motor. My 4runner is now a tent.
Day 5 and 6 biblical rain continues. Nothing is waterproof anymore, even rubber raingear has enough water getting blown around it's edges. We pull the plug.
Get a ride home, where I borrow a trailer and head back up in my f350 to tow the 4runner home.
Both lights break off the trailer, and the license plate rattles off.
Load 4runner, head out.
Stop before turning onto the highway to check tie downs. Feels like the Ford is shaking like a drag car with a mean cam, but that's probably my imagination.
2km later, BANG! Dash lights up like a Christmas tree, no power steering. Ok, probably lost the belt, I have a spare under the seat. Pull into a liquor store parking lot, pop the hood....nope. Waterpump shaft and impeller have gotten a divorce.
Run to the parts store, buy all the parts and fluids, back to the truck, spent the next 4 hours doing the waterpump in a parking lot while drunks in beat up pontiacs drive by and made ford jokes.

Oh, and to remove the fan from the old water pump, you need like a 2 1/8" wrench. I don't have one of those in the truck tool box. I used a tie rod end puller, clamped onto the nut, and a highlift jack handle to turn it.
That's about the worst stack of equipment failures I've ever had.

 

[88man]

1. Broken upper control arm first day of season 40 miles from blacktop road. 2. Was a car accident where a tractortrailer lost a tire and it hit my truck on rt 80 and set the airbags off and locked the seatbelts.

 

[WhatToHunt]

Archery hunting whitetails I released an arrow on a buck but my limb hit the three-arm bow hanger with quite a bit of force. Nothing broke and the deer got away unharmed, but my pride did not. Have since learned to place the bow hanger a touch higher...

 

[beginner]

Had a tent collapse during snow storm. When they say 4 season, listen.