So I'm sitting in the stand...

Z

zwhit

New member
And I see a couple does coming my way. I pick out which one to to shoot and wait for the shot. CLICK! Light strike. I try to reload but they're gone by this time. Luckily it wasn't a trophy buck.


Anyone else have similar things happen?
 
That's why it's always good to hunt with an SKS.. can use the bayonet if you get a light strike. What caliber/ammo.rifle was this?
 
One time with a .50 cal. muzzleloader. One morning I was in the stand watching the area near a persimmon tree when a doe walked right in under my stand. I thought to myself, alright some fresh meat. I eased the safety off on the Omega, took aim and pulled the trigger. The gun did not fire and the trigger felt like the safety was still on. I thought I was a dummy and still had the safety on. I looked again and the safety was off, showing the red dot to indicate that it was ready to fire. I worked the safety back and forth and tried again. By this time the doe noticed all of my movement and started running off. Being mad I aimed at her rump and said fire you bastard muzzleloader. Nothing happened and the doe ran away. I was mad enough to throw the muzzleloader at her. Being disgusted I climbed down out of the stand and walked to deer camp. I got the tools out and thought I would take the muzzleloader apart to see what the problem was. I worked with the firing parts and thought I saw some type of material fall out from the trigger area. I then worked the firing system and it started working just fine. At that point I realized that the day before I helped drag a deer out. I remembered having the gun strapped on my shoulder and the gun (without primer on breech plug) got hung up in a small bush. I think a small limb end got caught in behind the trigger and broke off. When I was on the stand and tried to shoot the deer that small piece would not let the trigger go all the way back. I did learn a lesson on that day. I am just glad that I was not trying to take ol big boy.

Other than that malfunction (knock on wood) I have never had any other miss fires while trying to take a deer. However my brother in-law had his muzzleloader to misfire one day he was trying to shoot a big 10 point. He discovered that his pyrodex pellets were bad and he was mad that day.
 
I'm pretty sure it was an ammo problem.

I meant has anyone had any similar experiences while hunting. I wasn't asking why it didn't fire, I'll figure that out later today.

I sure am glad I wasn't shooting at a nice buck like your brother.
 
I meant has anyone had a similar experience..
Click to expand...
Yes, over the years have had a couple. All with B/P rifles. Usually when veering from my tried and true method, switching to a new style of powder or primer.
 
My dad had a dud .243 round once with two coyotes ~10 yards in front of him. I'd just called them in, and I ended up killing both of them. He worked the bolt, checked for bore obstruction, and shot the next one that came in on the same stand. We both missed the fourth one (third one's mate) several times, but he was smokin' out of there and we were shooting in excess of 400 yards. It was an uncommonly good morning for calling, no doubt.

Afterward, he tried to shoot that same cartridge a couple more times without success, and then I tried it in my rifle with the same results. That Rem Core-Loct wasn't going downrange fer nuthin'.

It happens, but it's pretty rare.

BTW-depending on how cold it was, you might want to check the action on your rifle for excessive lube. Some lubes will "gel" up in really cold weather, and can slow the firing pin enough to not fire the primer.

Daryl
 
I was hunting with a Rem 760 (mag fed pump gun) in .270 Win. Had a big ole doe sneaking across a skidder road in the woods about 75 yards out.

I had taken my father-in-law and brother-in-law with me and neither of them had brought a flashlight to get to their stands, so I gave them mine and went to my stand in the dark. Still in the dark, I inserted the loaded mag, pumped the gun to chamber one and sat down.

Unfortunately, I had not locked the mag in place well and the gun did not feed a round into the chamber.

Carefully putting the crosshairs JUST where I wanted them on the deer, I applied trigger pressure. The smallest little 'click' you ever heard was the only result, except that the big ole doe absolutely turned wrong side out, kicked in the afterburners and is probably STILL running!
 
Once, I watched a good 6-point run away after expecting a click an getting a bang...

I had eased the bolt forward on my BAR, apparently not letting it fully close...
 
I had eased the bolt forward on my BAR
Click to expand...
I did this to a buddy accidentally... I returned to the camp house on foot before the others arrived on four wheeler to pick me up from my stand.
It was drizzling and I was using his Marlin .30-30 as it was an unplanned after work trip and he was my employer. I wiped down the rifle I used and as they got in a bit colder than me, I went to wiping down the other 4 rifles used that evening...

I got to the bosses BAR and emptied it and wiped it down, I reloaded it as he wished and instead of dropping the bolt on a hot round inside the camphouse, I eased it down... The next day he put the scope on the biggest 10 pointer he ever seen in FLA both body and rack and it didn't even click... Man he was miffed at me... But I apologized and assured him it was just my safety habit and I was not familiar with the lock up method of the BAR...
Brent
 
Had some slugs fail to fire in my shotgun at the range. Lucky I was sighting in & not hunting, so I switched brands.

Never while hunting tho.
 
I had 5 rounds misfire out of my 12 ga. this year - remington sure shots. All came from the same box. Factory must have gotten some bad primers or something. Never had that happen before, other than on some .22 lr's. I've never had a hand load misfire. I don't shoot factory ammo out of my rifles. I'm spoiled to my reloads. :cool:
 
Many times. Never was an ammo problem for me, just a nut loose behind the stock.

Once I forgot to chamber a round after climbing into my stand. A little fork-horn just stared at me after the 'click'. When his head was behind a tree I was able to chamber a round and drop him.

It's also happened several times with a Benelli. If you don't let the bolt fly forward with authority, it won't go into battery and will fail to fire. I've done this on two turkeys. One let me chamber a round and kill him. The other didn't. I've developed the habit of using the bolt handle as a forward assist. Funny that the Benelli is supposedly superior but my 11-87 has never had the same problem. It slams shut like it has some nutz. /rant
 
I'm sitting in my climbing stand this past Saturday afternoon, and while I am doing my very best to be perfectly still, I keep hearing flying insects by my head. I finally start looking around and notice a small honey bee buzzing around my head. I take a swat at him, knock him down below me and think problem solved. Well, a few seconds later I realize I hear LOT'S of wings flapping and they sound really close. I had climbed right up to a knot-hole in the tree that was the entrance to the bees hive. Not much I could do at that point. They had already sounded the alarm when I swatted their guard. I was climbing down as fast as I could with my escorts all over me. I did not get stung but for the grace of God, and layered clothing.

That is my luck in a nutshell. Before the bee attack I also succeeded in dropping my backpack which was tied to the climber with parachute chord. My knot had come untied. While trying to hook my now fallen back-pack with the chord & my grunt call, I dropped my bow. Did I also mention that I had to take the stand up in the tree TWICE trying to get the settings right (angle) for the foot platform? Do these things happen to you guys or is it just me?

For the record, a grunt call works wonders for hooking fallen items with. I recommend the Buck Commander call. Oh it also doubles for a deer call too! Now if I could climb trees with it, all my problems would be solved.

Gun season starts in Texas this weekend-Happy Hunting Everyone!!!!
 
Never, but once I had been sitting so long I could not remember if I had chambered a round. Luckily I had.
 
I've had this happen twice to me. Once with my 243. I was shooting that old yellow box Winchester WW ammo. I think I was trying to shoot at a hog or javelina. This was probably 15 yrs ago. The last time it happened was a couple of years ago when I was hunting in Africa. I had trying to shoot an impala and had a dud. I was shooting Winchester accubonds ammo. Both times I believe there was a problem with the primers. I could hear the powder in the shell and the primer looked like it had a good strike. Looked like it always did. Fortunately with the impala, I got another shot a couple minutes later and he wasn't as lucky that time
 
This has happened a couple of times to members of my deer hunting crew.
The weather was cold and they had been too enthusiatic in oiling the firing pin.
Cleaning the gooey oil out of the bolt corrected the problem.

Be safe and have fun !
-steve
 
I had been sitting in my stand all morning. I was set up at the fork of two trails, swamp behind me, meadow in front. I had been listening to a hog in the swamp behind me for about an hour, sounded like a bull dozer comin thru. I had seen monster hoof prints in the area all week. I knew where he was headed too. I lined up my scope on the spot where I thought he would exit the brush, about 75 yds to my 10 o'clock across the far trail where a clearing opened up. Sure enough, the bushes started movin and I knew it was the biggun. I flipped the safety off and waited for a head. Just as I saw snout poke thru the brush I hear "Hey look! A tree stand!" I look down to see a man and his two small sons pointing up at me from my right. Of course by the time I look back up the hog is in the next county. That would have been my ONLY shot last season. I hadn't seen anything else worth shooting and didn't the rest of the season. They're lucky I'm so damn civilized.
 
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