Stupidest thing(s) you've ever done while hunting?

F

FirstFreedom

Moderator
Anyone....

-Found themselves hanging from their stand harness after falling asleep or otherwise falling off?
-Made a noise or movement, or shot at a squirrel, etc., only to realize that you just scared off the big one?
-Forgotten to take a key piece of gear to the field with you, such as mag/ammo, or whathaveyou?

Others?
 
Back when I was a young buck, I went out to the stand with my dad. South Texas, tower blind. sat there, sun came up... big old buck down the sendero. he wants me to shoot it. So he tells me to grab the gun, and get it ready to shoot. i ask, "what gun?" we check the stand, no gun. He says "I swear I brought that thing". He cracks the door open, looks down, and propped up on the legs of the stand was our gun, with our big buck standing only about 75 yards away. We didnt want to scare him off, so we just sat there, laughing. Came back the next day, same stand, got 'em!

Ive got a bunch, that one's my favorite though. Good topic!
 
License Fiasco

One season I went to another state to hunt. I went to Walmart to purchase a license. I listened to the nice old man who said I could use a 3 day non-resident license. The next morning, at 4 am, over some cereal, I read the state manual which clearly stated that I had to purchase the annual license. So, there I was without a valid license. I told my hunting partner I was on the way to Walmart to correct my mistake and suffered through some anxious moments as the clerks and managers opened the department register, booted the computer, etc. Got the license, dashed back to the hunt, and managed to get in place before sunrise. A successful hunt ensued.

Moral -- read the @#$@$# instruction book first.
 
at a buddy's invite, I found myself on a strange piece of property, 45 feet up a strange tree, on a climber I had never used before. It was raining hard, and it was cold as it can only get in a North Florida Swamp in January. About 6am one of the straps broke, and I enjoyed a l-o-n-g 'slide for life' down that slender pine tree. Greatful for no broken bones, and even more greatfull that none of my hunting pals saw it, I finished the morning's hunt by stalking and taking a nice 4 point. I have not been on a climbing stand since.
 
While sighting my Sons muzzle loader I used a sleeping bag as a rest on the shooting bench. A portion of the bag was forward of the muzzle and when the gun went off it scorched a large hole in the bag. For this I was awarded the Homer Simpson award of the week.
 
You want that list alphabetically or chronologically?

Let's see.....

Took a "shortcut" to a stand in the real-f*ckin'-dark, no light, on land I was just starting to learn, and found a marsh I was previously unaware of.

25 foot freefall as I was climbing out of a hanging stand a friend had put up. Landed flat-out prone, and walked out with only a scratch on my forehead.

Jumped down from the bottom screw-in step on a stand, and caught my wedding ring on the step I had hold of. Damn near lost the finger.

First whitetail buck I ever shot at, I had a 12 gauge 870. I'd heard the grown-ups talking about the looping trajectory of those big slugs, and I guess it stuck with me, so when that buck stepped out, in my excitement I held just over the top of his shoulder to allow for the drop. Missed him clean.....at about 20 yards.

Bowhunting, had a good buck moving in, watching him with my bow in hand and an arrow nocked. When he stepped into an opening in easy range, I realized my release was in my pack.

In the days before scent eliminators, I tried covering my scent on a warm September day by spraying myself down with G-96 apple scent, face and hands included. Attracted every mosquito for 5 miles around, and actually had to run a half-mile to a pond to try to wash it off.

And the list goes on. I'm...

OutAtTheEdge
 
Sleeping

Probably the stoopidest thing I have ever done was take a nap.

Friend of mine and I got into position well before sunrise. I was seated against the base of a tree, my buddy in a treestand approx. 75 yards from me to my right. We were covering a large field.

Waited till after sunup. No deer. We decided to wait a bit longer, as we knew the field we were covering had sign all over it, we figured one or (hopefully) more would show up. I dozed off.

Woke up to the combination of hearing my buddy laughing his ass off and a buck licking my face. He couldn't shoot for fear of hitting me, and my rifle was leaning against the tree next to me. The buck had come up behind us while I was sleeping and my buddy didn't see him till after he was right next to me. Startled the hell out of me. By the time I got clear, he was gone.

Had to put up with all kinds of remarks. Including some from my then-girlfriend to the effect of: If I was going to cheat on her, I should at least have the courtesy of picking a human.

Pz
 
My brother actually did this, but it still makes for a good story. We were riding in his brand new F-150 when he stopped to shoot at a skunk. He got out of the truck while his friend and I waited inside. As he leaned across the hood to use as a rest for his Mini-14 he had forgot about the rather large muzzle blast caused by the rifle. The blast itself blew a good portion of the wind shield into the cab of the truck scattering glass all over us. We tried to keep straight faces as long as possible, but busted out in laughter soon after.

Always think before you pull a trigger...Be Safe...
 
Just this past weekend.

New to deer hunting, new to Broken Bow area of Oklahoma, and new to tromping around unfamiliar woods at 6-freakin'-oclock in the morning. Went to set up my blind somewhere close to the same spot my friend and I were hunting the day before. Got all located, situated, and comfy. 10 minutes later I hear a truck coming down the nearest logging road. No big deal until I realize I set up my blind about 20 yards off the road, FACING the road. Had to relocate my blind quickly and quietly before daybreak. Quick and quiet don't fit me too well. Might explain my lack of deer meat in the freezer now.
 
I had an attack of the "GOT TO GO NOW" stomach cramps while on a tree stand one autumn morning. I unloaded my rifle and lowered it to the ground. Then I started to climb down to answer nature's call. About 2/3's of the way down the tree I noticed a doe standing looking at me. I hung on the screw in steps trying to hold my cheeks together and not spook the doe all at the same time. Finally she hot stepped it away from the weird guy on the tree. I climbed down, retrieved my rifle, and tried to get a s far away from my stand and the deer trail as possible, down wind to finish my business.
At the bottom of the hill, near a stream I dug a small hole and lowered my pants, grateful for the relief. Just as I was in the middle of it all a HUGE buck came running down the other side of the creek toward me. I grabbed up my rifle and quietly chambered a round. The buck paused and snorted as he caught wind of my business. Just as he did I fired, fell back, and landed in the hole I just dug, pants down, and pissed off. When I finally got back up and cleaned up I crossed the creek and found a huge blood trial leading to the second largest deer I ever killed.
Good thing to I was much too soiled and aromatic to hunt any more that day. I had to put my insulated overalls in the back of the truck for the ride home.
:D
 
Well...

Was hunting on my ex-father-in-laws property in Wisconsin....He had 150 acres, some fields (which he rented), alot of pines (which he had planted for pulpwood) and a good portion of hardwoods. Now, in one are of the hardwoods he had seen a 10 point buck, prior to hunting season. This was nasty stuff, hilly and overgrown with several small streams (drainage ditches really) running through it. I was using (and being laughed at behind my back) a .270 bolt gun with 3-9x scope. They laughed because most shots here were real short range and fast (although there WERE areas where deer moved along edges of fields and 200 yd shots were common).
So anyway, after we'd been through alot of the pines, etc. together in the morning, both my brother-in-laws hadda go to work. So, I decided I'd go through this heavily wooded (and snow covered, about a foot) area looking for the "big one" (which, amazingly my one brother-in-law hadn't managed to shoot--he'd gotten 3 by 2 pm. opening day). So I circled around to the far side was moving in the general direction of the house. S-L-O-W-L-Y and quietly I moved through the woods, stopping every couple steps to listen...I was on high ground when I thought I heard something, down in the gully. Straining to see through all the brush and junk, I flicked the safety off and waited...and waited...still hearing something, but just out of sight around a curve in the gully. I'm really concentrating now... started moving forward ever so slowly...And stepped right in a snow covered pile of leaves on the very edge of a 45 degree slope...Feet fly out from under me, and I start the slide down the slope....of course pulling the trigger in the process, fortunately with the gun pointed straight up...I didn't QUITE make it to the bottom before my slide was arrested by a small tree sliding between my legs and hitting me in the crotch (not as bad as it sounds, I was heavily dressed). What DID hurt was watching that 10 point buck running up the other side of the gully while I was flailing around on the ground. When I got back to the house, my then father-in-law said he'd heard the shot, and did I see the big buck? I just told him I'd missed... (well, that WAS true).....
 
OK, OK...it is a small-game hunting story...

Bunch of us (teen-agers) squirrel hunting. Been a poor day, and now is starting to rain, so we head in. Have to cross a creek with a 5-strand barb-wire fence down the middle. I am the last to cross, so I hand over my shotty, and step up on the rocks to cross fence. Well the rocks are wet and slippery, so as I get one leg over the fence, foot slips off the rock. Fence stops my fall, but both feet are dangling in the water. Top strand of fence, now bearing my copious physical presence, sags and touches strand 4. BZZZZZT OWWWW! ! ! Electric fence ! ! ! BZZZZZZT OWWWW! BZZZZZT OWWW!

One of my hunting buddies grabs a large stick, and gives me a shove. But instead of shoving me to the side, he shoves me forward. SMACK! forehead strikes the "T-Post". I am resting on the t-post, still gettting my battery charged by the fence, and now freely bleeding from a t-shaped forehead wound. Mr. Wise-@zz finally shoves me to the side, so I soaking wet, bleeding like the proverbial 'stuck pig', and have nothing in the game bag.
 
Some years ago I was sitting on a platform tree stand with my trusty bow and arrow. (This was in the day before compound bows, telling you how long ago it was.) Well, this tree happened to be an oak tree, the kind with acorns. Squirrels like acorns. I was clothed head to toe and to protect from mosquitos was wearing a head net.

In the course of a long boring morning a squirrel chose to sit on my head to eat an acorn.



Well, the really dumb thing was I turned my head, just a little bit.



Squirrel ran down my arm, then I moved my bow.


I don't think he ever slowed down. Probably is out in Texas, still running. :D
 
Hangin from the harness - what fun....

Hey I've got a story for my own post from this weekend.

Bowhunting. Climbing up a tree in my climbing stand. On my way up, my right boot's shoelace gets caught up in the bottom of the bolt or pin that holds the cable into the frame (if you have a climbing stand, you know what I'm talking about). Actually, at that moment, I wasn't sure exactly what I was caught on, because I couldn't see it, and it was quite awkward, and I could only get untangled by stooping down and trying to free it with my right hand, but when I stooped down, I couldn't see what was going on - finally it popped free. From what happened later, it was easy to understand that what happened at that moment was the "ring" on the end of the metal retaining clip that pops over the end of the bolt itself, to keep the bolt from wriggling out, had popped loose, apparently, back over the end of the bolt. But not realizing this at the time, I kept climbing. I'm almost all the way up to where I want to be, about 12 feet I'd guess, and - you guessed it - all of a sudden, the "bottom drops out" - the bolt had worked its way loose, the cable of course pops out, and the lower part of the climbing stand falls. Now I am holding my whole body weight up with just my arms on the top part. I tried climbing up in the seat to rest and analyze the situation, but I'm unable to - it's too awkward to make that flimsy soft seat stay put long enough for me to get my butt into it, without a free hand, and of course both arms are straining to try to lift me high enough to plant said butt into said seat. So that's a no-go. My mind instantly laments the fact that I don't have my cell phone on me. Anyway, I need a rest after awhile, so I lower myself to where I'm just hanging freely from the harness. Fortunately, my harness was connected and working well. I *had* climbed that same tree with that same stand twice before without a harness - lucky for me, I finally wised up and used it. Now, the lower part of the stand had not dropped to the ground. Due to a cord tied between the top and bottom parts (supplied by the manufacturer and installed by me, thankfully), the bottom part was just free hanging as well, and I in fact lowered my crotch directly onto it when I let myself hang free - not particularly comfy. So finally I manage to kick the thing around so that the bottom part is out from under me and off to the side. Then I manage to re-enable the lower to working order, by retreiving a little screw-in hook from my fanny pack - the kind you screw into a tree to hang stuff on once you get up to your height - I had one left in the fann pack. I stuck the screw portion through the holes in the frame, through the steel cable's loop, re-instating the lower's use, albeit precariously. I then cautiously climbed up, hunted, then climbed down later, without incident. I found the bolt with integral retaining pin on the ground. Had I not had that little screw hook thing in my fanny pack, I would have had to either (a) wait for my brother to come rescue me after being missing for "X" hours or days - he knew where I was hunting, or (b) more likely, I would have latched onto the tree and "shimmied" down it after cutting my harness with my pocket knife (there's no way I'd have enough hands or strength to hold myself up long enough to unlatch the harness unless I were able to climb into the seat on the upper, which would have been difficult - cutting the harness is more likely). So, lessons to learn:

1. USE YOUR HARNESS - I use mine (now) when I get about 6 feet or so up, from then on; and
2. Have an extra retaining bolt on you, or some facsimile to be used for this purpose, in case something like this happens in a climbing stand; and
3. Have a cellphone on you, or 2-way radio; and
4. Have a pocket knife on you, in case you have to cut your harness; and
5. Tie that cord between the top and bottom parts of climbing stands; and
6. When climbing, ALWAYS keep both hands wrapped around the top frame, so you can hang on if you fall, like I did - if the bottom fails.

Hope that helps. Also wouldn't hurt to have a more positive type of engagement method of a retaining clip to your bolt in your hardware set from the get-go, but I was using of course what the chinese-made tree stand had come with. [Probably will buy american next time, but those damned climbing stands are so expensive.] Also doesn't hurt to be in shape. Had I not been in decent shape, I probably would not have held myself up with my arms when the initial failure occurred. Yes, the harness would have grabbed me, but the short fall to engagement can still hurt a bit, if you hit some metal or the tree hard on the way until your harness engages. Did I mentioned that I think you ought to USE YOUR HARNESS!?

Murphy's Law will be enforced!
 
Wow I thought I was the only one that had these kinds of stories!

One of my friends and families favorites to tease me about is the time I dropped a bolt that goes to the V-bar on my climber. That morning in the dark I misjudged the size of the tree I was climbing and put too much of an angle on my climber. The result of this was when I reached the height at which I wanted to hunt my stand was tilted forward and I felt like i was sitting on a very steep hill. I decided to wait till daylight to adjust the stand. When I thought I had enough light I lowered my rifle to the ground and adjusted the bottom of my stand and was in the process of adjusting the top of my climber when I dropped the bolt that holds the V-bar in place. So here I am 15 feet up a tree holding the top half of my tree stand wandering what i was gonna do. I had a radio in my pocket and decided that even though I really did not want anyone else to know about this I had no choice but to call my dad. He came and tossed the bolt back up to me. We hunted the rest of the morning in the rain and would have hunted the evening but one of our hunting companions broke the 4 wheeel drive in his truck and we spent the rest of the day trying to get his truck out of the woods.

Maybe we should have stayed at home that day. :cool:
 
I was 7 year old, and Dad asked me if I wanted to go duck hunting with him the next morning. Completely forgetting that every time I went duck hunting with my dad on a Saturday morning I froze myself to near frostbite and cursed myself for not being home watching cartoons in my warm pajamas in the living room, I said "Sure, Dad!"

Dark and early the next morning at about 4:30, we got up. Dad was kind of slow getting started, and sent his young son out to the car. Dad always has held to the Scout Motto: "Be Prepared." To Dad, this means "take everything." Lots of stuff got carried out to the back of his 1976 Mercedes 240D, where he had told me to set everything by the trunk for him to pack. While Dad filled his Unbreakable thermos with scalding hot coffee (not cocoa, which I really wanted), I carried out his Remington M1100 in its soft leather zippered case. I placed it on the back bumper of the Mercedes and went in to tell Dad I was ready (we were in the country, where leaving a gun out for a few minutes was of no concern).

Dad came out and loaded the trunk and we got going in the pre-dawn darkness. It was about an hour and a half drive to the lease, and racing dawn, we drove fast. Just before we got there, dad snapped his fingers and said that he'd never loaded the shotgun in the car. I told him that he must have: I put it on the bumper. He winced, and muttered that he would have to use the riot gun in the trunk, and whittle a plug. We kept driving. I asked him if he was going to stop. He said that if it hadn't fallen off yet, it wouldn't later. We got there and drove over a bumpy dirt ranch road and parked and got out. Sitting on top of that back bumper under the license plate was that Remington Shotgun, no worse for wear!
----

While on a walking tour of a third party's property one New Year's Day with a hunting buddy, we kept our eyes peeled for deer or turkey for the following season. Scouting, if you will. We had an enormous old pair of Bausch and Laumb 10X50's with us.

We got to a high ridge overlooking a creek valley spillway. Knowing this would be a good chance to spot some game, we eased up over the ridge slowly, and saw some forms milling around in the field down below us. I brought up the binoculars, and carefully focused them and wiped them to defog them. "What do you see?" asked my friend as I squinted at the numerous dark shapes hundreds of yards below us. "Turkey. . ." He cheered. "Buzzards." He stopped cheering. :)

A whole flock of 'em were spread out on the ground, exactly like a flock of turkey will do. Have never before nor since seen 'em do that. Usually they gather together over a carcass or sit in a tree if they're not gliding. But from a few hundred yards away, I defy anyone to distinguish between a flock of turkey and a flock of turkey buzzards that are spread out on the ground. ;)

---

I sighted on a nice doe with my Dad's Savage Scout. My wife was sitting next to me. Dad's Scout had yet to be blooded, and my wife had never seen me shoot a deer. The doe was about 90 yards away. I waited til she was broadside to me, and held the crosshairs just under the diagonally-leaning T-post in front of her, and sqeezed off a round of Winchester Supreme 165g. The doe looked up in alarm, and skittered off into the woods before I could rack in another round. Hunh. Well, I've seen deer seem unconcerned about a mortal wound before. I waited about 15 minutes and walked over to where I had shot at her. No blood. I looked for the fan of blood. None. The ground rose up with rocks and sand behind where she'd been standing, but I found no evidence of a bullet strike, and had seen no evidence of such at the shot.

Finally I found it. The T-post had caught the bullet! I had forgotten to account for the 2" high at one hundred yards that the rifle was sighted in for, and when I held just under the leaning T-post, the bullet rose right into it. The angled steel of the post exactly formed an open V pointing at me, and perfectly caught the bullet, without even splashing over the edge. The backside of the steel post was pushed out heavily, but blown out. That doe had run off unscathed, saved by a post not 10 yards in front of her! :rolleyes: Boy did I feel stoopid.

---

I've stupider stories of my misdeeds, but I've either told 'em already or just can't bring myself to tell on myself any more today!
 
This happened a while ago, and is BY NO MEANS the only stupid thing anyone in my family has ever done while in pursuit of a game animal.
My cousin and I farm and have a orchard. He has never been a real avid bird hunter, but even he can be taught. So we are discussing a project to be completed at the orchard, to the barn there, when what do we hear? A flock of approaching geese headed right our way. So he with his brandy new migratory bird stamp says, "Aha!" and runs to his truck to unlimber his scattergun with his new box of #2 mags. He loads as he trots back to the cover of an apple tree and prepares to fire> He aims carefully> he squints, and just as I am about to ask him if he is ever going to fire, he does.
Blammo.
Of the flock of 10, #3 crumples and drops down.....down....down and crashes thru the roof of the barn.
Completely.
(It did miss the hood of the John Deere..)
If that was not enough, every barncat in the building came flying out of every hole in the structure as fast as they could run, and all stopped at the same moment, and looked back at the barn as if to say, "What the heck was that?!!"
I was laughing so hard, and so long I'm pretty sure he was convinced he was gonna have to shoot me to make me stop.

Just cause he's family I offered to go up and "patch the hole..." cause he's not real big on heights, and when I did I took a coupl'a cans of paint and painted a big ol' red and white bullseye on the 4'x4' piece of plywood I used for the patch.
I also got his youngest daughter to ask him about getting Shingles from eating the bird for dinner.
It took about a couple of years, but he's talking to me again.....
And if I can ever find the picture of the patch I will post it.
 
i had decided to climb one morning and used my buddys stand we ha had left on the tree from the previous day. now he doesnt climb nearly as high as me, so when i got to my desired height the rail was at about a 20 degree downward slant. i pulled up my rifle in the dark and hung the sling around the front of the stand w/ the rail while i untied the pull up cord. after i dropped the cord i heard a "swooooosh" and then a "shunk!" sound. i sat ther for a min. thinking " what was that". i then realized the rifle had slid off the rail. i climbed down to fin it stuck muzzle down in the dirt all the was up to the front sight (AR15). i cut a switch, punched the BBL and snaked it clean.
 
Here's just the latest after 35 years of hunting - first day in the woods, beuatiful crisp day - 8:00 AM. i had just set out a scent stick and was sitting still. For some reason, looking out of the blind, i didn't like how the blind was sitting, so I reached out and moved it about a 1/4 inch, then watched as I saw the white tail and horns of one bigg a$$ buck go running off. Never saw him until i decided to make that little change!!!! Never did see him again the entire week!!!!! Serves me right!!!!
 
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