The dumb/stupid things we do chasing game...

[Daubs]

Brother and I were talking in the duck blind this weekend...reminiscing the stupid things we have done while hunting through the years.

One of mine: I was probably 20-21 years old, December, temp in the mid-20's, I was walking public Platte River land near Kearney, NE looking for a new spot to duck hunt. Of course, I was alone on this scouting trip.

The Platte is known for being an inch-deep-and-a-mile-wide, but it can have some holes and deep channels. I grew up hunting the Platte and was pretty confident wading the river.

Neoprene chest waders with no PFD, or even a belt, no wading stick. I had already crossed a few small knee-deep channels...but this one was getting deeper and deeper...

Found myself in swift, chest deep water about an inch from the top of my waders. Rem 1100 held above my head. Current pushing on me, I was inching forward...then thought to myself, "self, this is not smart...get back to the bank!" Not smart.


So share some of your non-so-bright moments while hunting : )

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I was deer hunting in the High Sierras of California on our families annual wilderness deer hunt. It had been raining pretty hard all morning and no one was hunting, just sitting around the fire drinking coffee. I got the itch and told everyone I was going hunting. Got ready and left camp heading for a spot I knew would hold some bedded deer. I got a mile or so from camp and the thunder and lightning started. It got pretty bad as I started climbing a ridge to the pockets that I wanted to hunt. I was standing in a protected niche in a rocky face when a tremendous clap of thunder blasted me and then lightning hit a large Ponderosa about 100 feet away. I could smell it and all the hair on my body stood up and it took my breath away. Limbs, pine needles and cones were raining down. Needless to say I almost ran back to camp. My Dad asked me what the hell happened, I looked white as a sheet.

All I said is.."You don't want to know!"

Scared the hell out of me. I don't hunt anymore when there is lightning and thunder.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Lightning is scary stuff. Once while sitting at the edge of an alfalfa field we had very scattered clouds over us while waiting for some antelope. From the one cloud over the field a bolt of lightning hit the ground about 50 yards away from us. The crack of the lightning was deafening, there was a puff of smoke and you could smell and feel the electricity in the air.

 

[Winchester]

Brother and I were talking in the duck blind this weekend...reminiscing the stupid things we have done while hunting through the years.

One of mine: I was probably 20-21 years old, December, temp in the mid-20's, I was walking public Platte River land near Kearney, NE looking for a new spot to duck hunt. Of course, I was alone on this scouting trip.

The Platte is known for being an inch-deep-and-a-mile-wide, but it can have some holes and deep channels. I grew up hunting the Platte and was pretty confident wading the river.

Neoprene chest waders with no PFD, or even a belt, no wading stick. I had already crossed a few small knee-deep channels...but this one was getting deeper and deeper...

Found myself in swift, chest deep water about an inch from the top of my waders. Rem 1100 held above my head. Current pushing on me, I was inching forward...then thought to myself, "self, this is not smart...get back to the bank!" Not smart.


So share some of your non-so-bright moments while hunting : )

Dangerous situation indeed ... did you live ?

 

[ScottR]

This one is going to be fun, and jam packed with lots of wisdom...

 

[kidoggy]

I hate to admit it BUT I once went elk hunting with with a pocketful of 25-06 shells instead of .270 . saw a BIG bull at 400 yards and fired not once but a grand total of 10 times before he nonchalantly walked off into the brush never to be seen by me again.

didn't even realize what I had done till it was all over.

that has got to be my biggest brain fart to date.

sighted it in when I went home and it was still dead on

 

[kidoggy]

come on guys . I told mine. we all know you've all done something stupid at one time or another

 

[Ikeepitcold]

I've defiantly forgot bullets in the passed. Forgot my tag before and took a 6 hr drive for nothing.

 

[ScottR]

I have a few. Just have to have time to sit and write them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mallardsx2]

Back when I was in college I partied all night long then drove an hour to the boat ramp to go duck hunting in the morning and when I got to the ramp I realized that I had forgotten my waders. Instead of returning home I opted to go ahead and hunt in my fluffy alpaca socks and crocs I was wearing.

Killed my limit that morning both ducks and geese.

Forgot to mention with the windchill it was -5F.

I really wanted to kill the Mallards and Geese back then.....and I kept the SuperX2 Barrel hot all season long. lol

 

[Fink]

I got lots of stupid stories...

I think the worst was when a local reservoir flooded, and the lake was probably 6 feet high. In this particular area, 6 feet high floods thousands of acres. Back then, I had a couple of layout boats, and pushed them with an old 9.5 hp Johnson. I'd tow extra people and gear in my second boat.. On our way in, we were going with the current, so no real big deal. we popped out of the channel, and were coasting along in maybe 2 feet of water, right next to the edge of the channel, in a big bend. I had stood up, and was push poling back into the flooded stuff, when a gigantic old log porpoised out of the water, right next to my boat, looking like the loch ness monster. 2 inches closer, and it probably would have either punched a hole in the boat, or knocked me in.. And, as cold as it was, and as fast as the water was moving, I would have been dead.

It had finally gotten light, and I realized we were woefully undergunned to hunt in these conditions, and with the water rising quickly, we decided to go ahead and cut our losses and get out of there..

We were maybe a mile from the ramp, but it was all upstream. the current was pushing so hard, we were barely moving, I mean barely.. Looking back, it's kind of comical, in a "you're really lucky you're alive" kind of way.

All the sudden, my boat lurches forward, and we're zooming up river. I look at my cousin, sitting in the front, with his eyes as big as saucers.. Look over my shoulder, and my other boat, with my buddy Greg in it, is careening downstream. He makes it to a bend in the river, and is piled up against a bunch of driftwood, with water threatening to overtake him. I throw him the tow rope, and whip around downstream to pull him free.We spin around out of the bend, and creep back upstream, making it to the ramp without further incident. Pack up our stuff and get the hell out of there.
I'm pretty sure neither of them ever duck hunted again.

 

[Horsenhike]

Walked away from the truck in the Arizona mountains without my pack. Beautiful morning. How bad can it get?

By the time I made it to where I could look out over the desert, several miles of very rough hiking, all I could see was a massive black storm just about to create the ridge. Horrible sinking feeling. That was long before I was adamant about no cotton, and didn't even have a coat, just a long sleeve shirt.

By the time I made it back to my truck my lips were blue, and I was shaking so bad I couldn't get the key into the lock. Was seriously considering throwing a rock through the window when I finally got it in. So cold.

I never, and I mean never, leave to go scout around without taking a pack with at least a means to make fire, a decent knife, and some form of waterproof shelter. A dang garbage bag that day would have saved me a lot of pain, but then I wouldn't have learned that really important lesson. Wool. Wool always works. Might be heavy. Might be bulky. But you can find it pretty inexpensive and it will keep you warm when wet.

Ya, that was stupid. I got more though.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

Wow, your very lucky!

 

[Slugz]

Just yesterday I was telling my son to be careful while walking around the goose pits, especially the ones that are covered and not being used.

I then provided and example of how to fall in one with one leg, catch yourself and not break anything. I was lucky.

 

[Alaskabound2016]

Pretty crazy stories so far! Keep em comin!

 

[JimP]

After hunting one thing or another for around 55 years I could write a book on the stupid things that I have done over the years.

One was when I was elk hunting on a muddy slippery hill. I slipped and started to slide downhill and while still on my feet I decided that it would be better if I just tried to get straightened out so that I wouldn't end up on my but. I took a couple of steps going down hill and quickly realized that it wasn't going to work. There was a small ledge just below where I was headed but also a large stump just above it. I decided to run into the stump full force with my body. Once I got the air back into my lungs and figured out where I was I just had to laugh. My hunting partner was wondering just what I was doing hugging that stump. But I came out of it OK.

Then there was the time that a hunting partner had dropped a 4x4 buck deer on the muzzle loader. As I walked up to it I realized that he was still alive and I told him to shoot him again, which he did. When he got up to me we both realized that the deer was still alive so I told him to cut the deer's throat since he had left his muzzle loader down the hill. Well, when he went to stab that deer the deer decided that he didn't want anything to do with it and stood up. I had a death grip on the antlers as he got up, my partner was already down the hill with me standing there with the deer on all 4's with is antlers in my hands. I hip rolled him down the hill and then went down to him and did it again. By the second time the deer was down to my partner who had now reloaded his muzzle loader. I told him to now shoot the d*@$$ deer and kill it. I had survived another one.

 

[Fink]

Just yesterday I was telling my son to be careful while walking around the goose pits, especially the ones that are covered and not being used.

I then provided and example of how to fall in one with one leg, catch yourself and not break anything. I was lucky.

Oh man... That reminds me..

Back when I was in college, I was hunting a public marsh, where you had to draw into the area, and then selected a blind, depending on the number you drew. It was late in the season, cold enough to make everything ice up, except wind blown or deeper water. I had killed 3 mallards earlier in the morning, and decided I'd wait around, to try and kill my last bird. Around 11 or so, a single greenhead drops in, I kill him, and walk out to get him. get back to the blind, and climb down into it to get all my stuff and head home.. Take a step in, slip, fall all the way into the blind, smashing my ribs against the edge. Broke a few.. It hurt. I sat there for about an hour or so before I decided I could even move. Packed up my stuff, and headed out.

Fortunately, I had left my motor trimmed up (same 9.5 as the previous story), which froze it and then burned it up, when I didnt realize no water was cooling the motor. Good thing I had a push pole. I was probably a mile and a half back in, and the only open water was the boat canal, which was about 8 feet deep. My push pole is about 10 feet long. It was a long, cold, wet, painful push back to the ramp. thankfully, the wind was in my face. Made it home well after dark that night.

 

[Daubs]

This is a story my Dad told of duck hunting on the Platte river years ago:

Late 1970's, they wore the rubber Northerner chest waders, cotton everything, before gore-tex, PFD's, even wader belts.

Pre-dawn Dad, Uncle, and two buddies were putting out the 200+ floater duck decoys in the river. Platte shallow enough to wade, so they used the two john boats to store/haul decoys. Temps were cold, in the 20's, but the river wasn't icing up yet.

A few decoys had floated down river and one of the guys was walking to get it. Dad said he was probably 50 yards down river.

When Dad looked again, his buddy was no where to be seen!

They immediately got a john boat and headed to where they last saw him.

As they approached he popped up, then went back under.

When they finally reached him he had gained footing and was standing in chest deep water. They tried to pull him in the boat but he said no. He was standing on his shotgun(!).

He dipped down, grabbed his shotgun, and scrambled in to the boat.

Dad said when they got him back to the cabin he didn't even take off his waders...jumped right in to his truck and drove home.

Scary situation that Dad and Uncle still remember to this day.

 

[mustang8]

After hunting one thing or another for around 55 years I could write a book on the stupid things that I have done over the years.

One was when I was elk hunting on a muddy slippery hill. I slipped and started to slide downhill and while still on my feet I decided that it would be better if I just tried to get straightened out so that I wouldn't end up on my but. I took a couple of steps going down hill and quickly realized that it wasn't going to work. There was a small ledge just below where I was headed but also a large stump just above it. I decided to run into the stump full force with my body. Once I got the air back into my lungs and figured out where I was I just had to laugh. My hunting partner was wondering just what I was doing hugging that stump. But I came out of it OK.

Then there was the time that a hunting partner had dropped a 4x4 buck deer on the muzzle loader. As I walked up to it I realized that he was still alive and I told him to shoot him again, which he did. When he got up to me we both realized that the deer was still alive so I told him to cut the deer's throat since he had left his muzzle loader down the hill. Well, when he went to stab that deer the deer decided that he didn't want anything to do with it and stood up. I had a death grip on the antlers as he got up, my partner was already down the hill with me standing there with the deer on all 4's with is antlers in my hands. I hip rolled him down the hill and then went down to him and did it again. By the second time the deer was down to my partner who had now reloaded his muzzle loader. I told him to now shoot the d*@$$ deer and kill it. I had survived another one.

Just about covered my keyboard with coffee on this one!

 

[mustang8]

This isn't an out west story but when I was hunting turkeys back home here in Wisconsin quite a number of years ago I had a tom turkey sneak in on my decoys when I wasn't paying attention, I figured I couldn't move too much to take a good shot and thot hell this Mossberg 500 12 gauge cant really kick that bad with one hand. Thought I dislocated my dam jaw when that gun came back and hit me. Young and stupid. Did get the bird tho