Tell Me A Good Hunting Story

Gr8bawana · Jan 30, 2017

A few years ago I shot a nice buck about 4 miles fron the truck just before sundown. It took me about an hour to get to it because of the terrain so I finished gutting it right at dusk.
I dragged it downhill until it got too dark to see then stashed it with a shirt over it to keep any predators away. I had already seen some mtn lion tracks so I already had that in the back of my mind.
My flashlight batteries were getting pretty dim so I was walking very slowly in the dark when something flushed at my feet in the quakies. I just knew the mtn lion was having me for dinner. I just about crapped my drawers at that moment. It was probably a grouse or maybe an owl, I never saw it but it was loud.
Walked down the rest of the way to the truck with my knife in my hand. I finally made it back to the truck just before 10pm and I'm sure my brother was worried sick because I was so late getting back because he was snoring in the front seat. Yea right.

Never in Doubt · Jan 30, 2017

A few years ago I shot a buck in the evening. I was hunting alone and backpacked in about 5miles. By the time he was boned out it was dark and getting cold fast. I had to climb back up the mountain to where my camp was. Gosh the pack was so heavy, and I was trying to navigate towards camp using the waypoint I had saved on my GPS. I an attempt to save time and distance I began fighting through a thick stand of willows. At one point the head of the buck came untied on my pack on one side and swung around really fast. One of the tines hit me in the lip and the other just missed my eye! Scared the crap out of me. I was sure that if it had been 2-3 inches higher I probably would have lost my eye. 5 miles by steep ridgelines and cliffs from the nearest road and dark. I felt like such and idiot, yet lucky too. When I got to camp I just sat down and thanked God for keeping me safe from my own mistakes.

Needless to say, now I really make sure the antlers are secure before I put my pack on!

Colorado Cowboy · Jan 30, 2017

I have a bunch and I tell a few , but one for now.

A group of friends and I were Chukar hunting in California south of Death Valley. Those of you that hunt these critters, know how frustrating it can be at times. Chase them up one mountain, they fly to the next. Walk forever, see nothing and all of a sudden they explode out of the rocks all around you. It is addicting and really fun...sometimes!

We had hunted most of the morning, walking many miles and had yet to find the birds. Had lunch and decided to move to a new location. We were driving parallel to a high ridge when a covey of maybe 100 birds flew off the ridge right in front of us, followed by 2 redtailed hawks hot on their tails. The Chuker lit in a big patch of brush right in front of us. Needles to say, we stopped and got out our guns, let the dogs out and started after them. I hadn't gone 100 yards when my Lab jumped the first bird. I shot it and as it hit the ground, one of the hawks had it and was flying off. Another flushed at the shot and I dumped it. Yep you guessed it, the other hawk had it too and was gone in a heartbeat. It was almost like those redtails knew what we were going to do and were just waiting for their dinner. We did manage to get some birds too. My buddies really ragged on me for feeding the wildlife. Never seen anything like it before. I've had Bald eagles and sea gulls steal fish off your line, but never bird hunting.

Fink · Jan 30, 2017

When I was a kid, I wore eye glasses.. big, ugly eye glasses that fogged up when you wore a facemask, and glinted when the sun hit them. I hated eye glasses, but hated them the most when I was hunting.

One day, my cousin and I were out shooting squirrels with our bows, when suddenly a bunch of turkeys popped over the hill, and were all working their way right towards us. A golden opportunity to stick a bird! Only one problem: I didnt have an arrow. My cousin is about 5 feet away from me, and I whisper at him to hand me an arrow. He picks up an arrow, tipped with a Razorback 5 blade (some of you guys that have been around archery for a while might remember those old heads), and tosses it to me. Overhand. Like you would throw a dart at a dartboard.

It happened so fast, that I didnt even have time to react, and that broadhead hit me right in the eyeglasses! It was on a crash course, headed to poke my eye out, and those glasses intervened! the impact left a divot in the glass, right in my line of sight, and I ended up having to get a new pair of glasses a few days later, because the hole was making me dizzy, constantly seeing it in my vision..

HeartElk1 · Jan 30, 2017

About 30 years ago, I was hunting mule deer with my dad in the rolling hills of northcentral Montana. I was really sick with the flu, but was so desperate to hunt that I just wanted to tough it out. I went one way and my dad went another. An hour later I got really hot and laid down on the ground in a little coulee and started vomiting like crazy. It was pretty violent and I definitely got everything out. Then I just sat there on the ground trying to cool off. A minute later I heard some nearby laughing as my dad walked up over the slight rise. He "thought" he was sneaking right up a coyote that he heard making all these terrible sounds. My dad is very cautious and would never have shot without knowing his target for sure, but I was very glad I had blaze orange on that day. Anyway, it still gives me the chills a little and is one more reason to hate coyotes.

Love to hear these stories about whacky things and predicaments that can happen in the field. Keep 'em coming!

mallardsx2 · Jan 31, 2017

I like how the stories are short because I have ADD when reading stories...lol

Lots of hunting stories to tell but the day I killed my white crow always comes to mind.

My buddy was a crow hunting fanatic. He lived ate and slept crow hunting. He had been hunting crows for 40 years and I had about 10 years of crow hunting experience. He had always talked about killing a white crow. I had never seen one but he said that he had seen one 30 years prior.We were run and gun crow hunting in Northwestern PA. We had hunted near a roost in the morning and had killed about 35 crows and were jumping from spot to spot heading in a southerly fashion. We stopped at this one spot and I got the decoys set and turned on the call and I saw a couple crows flying my direction from way across a valley. As soon as the rear bird got past me I dumped it and my buddy shot the other crow (He was 30 yards to my left). I looked up and a white crow flew right in front of my face......I didn't even shoot. I don't know why but I didn't. I just watched it fly off....I was running the call for about 10 more minutes when I looked up and saw that white crow circling my buddies head at treetop height....It then flew right over the decoys and I dropped it. I turned off the call and told my buddy that I just killed a white crow. He then replied "You shot a hawk" I said no I just killed a white crow...He came out of his hiding spot like his a$$ was on fire came running right over and looked at the white crow lying on the ground then looked up at me and said "I have been hunting for one of these for 40 years!....it flew over my head 10 times and I though it was a damn hawk..." He turned around and walked to the truck with his head hanging. I almost felt bad. Almost...

To this day we have never seen another and we kill thousands of crows.

Colorado Cowboy · Jan 31, 2017

I got another one. Been hunting for around 65 years or so, there have been a few times........

I was about 18 or 19 and a couple of buddies and I had started reloading shotgun shells. Back then your choice of equipment, components and reloading instructions were pretty scarce. We experimented a lot and wasted lots of components.

We were planning on going duck hunting at a state waterfowl area and had loaded up some pretty hefty "magnum" loads. Some of the loads were stuffed so full, the crimps on the paper hulls wouldn't stay closed!. We hadn't shot one of the new loads, so we stopped in the desert on the way to the hunting area at the Salton Sea to pattern a couple of rounds. They were so damned hot, it blew the extractor out of my Model 12 duck gun!

We got to the overnight camping area at the refuge as we had a homemade camper shell and setup for the night. I told my buddy that I wasn't going to shoot those new "cannon loads". I put them on the rear bumper (2 boxes) so in the morning in the dark I wouldn't accidentally get them in my hunting jacket. We went to bed and in the morning while getting ready to go to the hunting area, I noticed the 2 boxes were gone. I asked my buddy if he took them by accident...no was his answer. Someone had took them in the night! Boy were they in for a surprise....

We laugh about it today when we are remained of it. Sure wish I could have been there when the sob who took them shot one for the first time!!!LOL

kidoggy · Jan 31, 2017

last year ,I filled my every tag and had a great time.

felt no need to get long winded aboot it. sides it's my story an I'LL tell it how I please.lol

tdcour · Jan 31, 2017

Three or Four years ago I was hunting with my buddy along the Missouri River in SD. It was his first mule deer hunt and my third or fourth. We were pretty green. Well, I really wanted to get him his first deer, but I spotted the first deer and he told me since I spotted it I got dibbs. We snuck into position and were hiding behind a couple sage bushes that couldn't have been more than a foot tall. We knew we were close, but they were in the bottom of a steep cut and we were about half way down. We had to lay on our sides to stay hidden. I finally picked out a small buck starting to work his way down the draw and knew the bigger buck would be behind him. My buddy couldn't get drawn, but had a chance to range and told me 30 yards to the trees, but I only heard the 30 yards part. It turns out he was quite a bit closer, but since I hadn't archery hunted much I didn't know the difference. The buck put his head down to eat, so I drew, shot for 30 and hit him high. His offside leg was back and the arrow implanted high in the shoulder instead of passing though and rolled him down the hill. No joke, it looked like a QB just got blindsided by a linebacker. He just disappeared! We high fived a couple times, then saw the buck hobbling out the bottom of the cut. We started flinging arrows like mad men trying to get another shot in him. I'd call the yardage and we would fling arrows, but the crosswind funneling through the cut was no joke and we couldn't land a shot. We tried putting another sneak on the deer, but he busted us, jumped in the river, and started swimming towards the other shore. The Missouri River at this point is over a mile wide, but I guess he didn't care. He swam out about 200 yards and died. It was in the single digits that morning so swimming to get him wasn't an option. We ended up getting in touch with the local Game Warden who had just enough time to get his boat out, grab the deer, and haul us and the deer back to the boat dock not far from where we had parked before he had to be somewhere else for a prior commitment. It worked out pretty well seeing as we didn't have to pack the deer out the 3 miles back to the truck. To this day I still remember the feeling of sitting up on the bluff and watching the deer float down river, knowing there was absolutely nothing I could do.

To top the trip off, my buddy had his release misfire on a really nice buck who we tricked into thinking we were a hot doe. He missed the buck at 12 yards and came home empty handed.

Apparition · Jan 31, 2017

Rewind to 2002, first time we're in Idaho elk hunting, Day 6 of what was huge eye opener to just how brutal elk hunting out west can be. Dad and I are working our way down what only can be described as a mountain side of trees thrown about like match sticks. Im out ahead of Dad trying to find a way through the mess, calling him on the radio to give him some direction (FYI in years past he had a triple bypass and a recent heart attack) really concerned about him over doing it. I hit the bottom of the mountain and we have to go back up, so after several times calling him on the radio to make sure he was ok, this gem comes back to me, "Id be a lot f-ing further if some ahole would quit calling me on the radio" I about rolled off the mountain laughing.

Sorry about the language, please edit if the abbreviations are to much

bigmoose · Jan 31, 2017

I was deer hunting in Nevada back in the 80's with another guy. I had left camp before light and was several miles away when I found a good buck. After the shot the buck went about 50 yards and ended up in a meadow. I field dressed him right there and then drug him 50 yards over to the edge of the trees. I got him back in under a big tree and propped him open to cool. After covering him with several limbs I headed back to camp to get by buddy and our pack frames. When we got near the buck we could see two big Golden Eagles at the buck. I took off running and the eagles started running and flapping their wings. It took them 30 or 40 yards of flapping and running to finally get airborne with me still chasing them. When we checked the buck out we found that they had eaten several pounds of meat from the inside of the hams. They were so full they could barely get off the ground. My buddy still chuckles when he thinks of me chasing those eagles. Yeah, maybe it is funny now. LOL !

mallardsx2 · Jan 31, 2017

I shot a moose in Canada several years ago. I made a few poor hits on the bull (With arrows)....Long story short after 1.5 miles of chasing the bull through the wilderness we caught up to him lying in about 2 feet of water...we didn't have any arrows left to finish him off.... I ended up stripping down swimming to get two arrows floating in the lake that had missed the bull....by the time I got the arrows and got out of the water I was about frozen and the bull had drown to death in the lake....

Oh and by the way the bull died within 30 yards of where I had initially shot him....

ya....I know...but that's how it went down...

Oh and BTW that was the worse tasting animal I have ever eaten next to that raccoon I tried at a game dinner when I was a kid.

mallardsx2 · Jan 31, 2017

I was dove hunting 15 years ago and I shot a dove. It was the only dove I had seen that day. I met up with my buddy at another spot that was supposed to be real good. I got out of the truck walked out into the field and heard him shoot. Scared the crap out of me because he was three feet away from me....He said "Thanks" I said what did you just shoot at and he walked over and picked up a dove lying in the field. I said "Oh I never seen it" He said "I'm not surprised, it just flew out of your vest" I reached back there and sure enough it had flown out of my vest. Best part of the whole story was the fact that he put it in his vest and wouldn't give it to me! We still laugh like hyenas about that.

badgerbob · Jan 31, 2017

One of my older cousins had just got married this particular year, and her new husband and his father kind of invited themselves to go hunting with us. It was my second or third year of hunting and along with my father and non-hunting younger brother, we all made a camp at a favorite spot. We had a truck with a camper and new cousin in law and his dad were sleeping in the back of a Ford station wagon which was backed in on the opposite side of the camp, so the rear door was facing us. Before going to bed cousin in laws dad put a pound of bacon on the roof of the station wagon and made the statement that he hoped a bear didn't come in and get it. It should be known that cousin in laws dad also had just purchased a genuine Bowie Knife (and that was exactly how he referred to it) and evidently had worn said knife to bed with him. During the knight we were waken by a terrible racket and my father grabbed a light and his revolver. Shinning the light out from the camper reveled cousin in law yelling loudly and his dad had him around the neck with that genuine Bowie Knife out and was rambling on about a bear getting his bacon. After Dad yelled his name a few times he came out of it and seemed very confused. Come to find out the guy was an extremely heavy sleeper and was prone to sleep walking. We laugh about this still today, although it could have had a much more sobering outcome.....BB

bigmoose · Feb 1, 2017

Like CC, I've got a bunch of them. Here's another one.

When I was ten years old my Dad started taking my brother and me out of state elk hunting. This happened in 1961, the second year we went to Montana. We were hunting the Gravelly Range with my Mom and three of my Dad's friends. We were camped down along a little creek near a old abandon ranch house. Up stream about a 1/4 mile was a old mine shaft that went straight into the mountain. We had found lots of hair and bones out in front of the entrance and we were pretty sure there was a bear living there.

So one of my Dad's friends, who was a CHP and real gung ho, decided he would go into the cave and get the bear. He had taken the plug out of his shotgun and loaded it with #00 buckshot. One of the other guys volunteered to hold a big flashlight and off they went, into the bear den. About 50 feet in they found where the bear had made his bed but there was no bear to be found. When they came out the CHP officer was grinning from ear to ear and we were all relieved to see them come out okay. Just before we left the mine the CHP officer aimed his shotgun at a stump and pulled the trigger. There was very loud... CLICK ! You should have seen his face ! His jaw dropped and he turned white. He fired every round out of that box of shells into that stump and that first one was the only one that did not go off. As Mike Eastman would say, things were known to get a little Western back then.

Colorado Cowboy · Feb 1, 2017

bigmoose said:
Like CC, I've got a bunch of them. Here's another one.

When I was ten years old my Dad started taking my brother and me out of state elk hunting. This happened in 1961, the second year we went to Montana. We were hunting the Gravelly Range with my Mom and three of my Dad's friends. We were camped down along a little creek near a old abandon ranch house. Up stream about a 1/4 mile was a old mine shaft that went straight into the mountain. We had found lots of hair and bones out in front of the entrance and we were pretty sure there was a bear living there.

So one of my Dad's friends, who was a CHP and real gung ho, decided he would go into the cave and get the bear. He had taken the plug out of his shotgun and loaded it with #00 buckshot. One of the other guys volunteered to hold a big flashlight and off they went, into the bear den. About 50 feet in they found where the bear had made his bed but there was no bear to be found. When they came out the CHP officer was grinning from ear to ear and we were all relieved to see them come out okay. Just before we left the mine the CHP officer aimed his shotgun at a stump and pulled the trigger. There was very loud... CLICK ! You should have seen his face ! His jaw dropped and he turned white. He fired every round out of that box of shells into that stump and that first one was the only one that did not go off. As Mike Eastman would say, things were known to get a little Western back then.

Now that was an eye opener!!

Colorado Cowboy · Feb 1, 2017

I'll do one more...

My family started doing horseback packin deer hunts in California's High Sierras in the 40's right after WWII, still doing them today. Lots of pictures on my personal profile.The outfitter would do what is called a drop camp hunt. We supplied all our stuff, he got to our camp & came back on a predetermined date and packed us out. We always keep a horse in camp to pack deer to camp after we shot them. Over the years we have had lots of rodeos with those horses, especially when one doesn't want a deer on their saddle!

Several of us always hunt the high country above camp. Opening morning we always take the horse with us and picket it in a meadow just below where we hunt. This particular year, we shot 3 nice bucks opening morning. We got the horse and loaded 2 gutted bucks on it and I started dragging my buck off the mountain. As we were moving thru some sage brush, the horse stepped in a yellowjacket nest in the ground. They started boiling out mad as hell. The horse started bucking and we all started running away from the nest. Needless to say it was a real rodeo for a few minutes! I got stung 4 or 5 times, my Dad about the same, but my brother-in-law who had a full beard and long hair was really a mess. There must have been 20 in all his hair and beard. Took us a couple of hours to get the horse settled down, resaddled and load up with the deer again. It still amazes me that we got out of that with only a few stings, could have been a disaster if anyone got hurt so far in the backcountry. Back then, no cell phones or anything else. Just have to walk out to the pack station for help. It is around 10 miles and over a 9,000' pass...would take awhile for sure. This area was made a wilderness area about 20 years ago, so it stays pretty remote. I was last there in 2013 to scatter some of my Dad's ashes at his favorite hunting spot.

Tell Me A Good Hunting Story

Active Member

Veteran member

Active Member

Super Moderator

Veteran member

Active Member

Veteran member

Super Moderator

Veteran member

Active Member

Veteran member

Active Member

Active Member

Veteran member

Veteran member

Active Member

Active Member

Active Member

Super Moderator

Super Moderator