Stupid hunting stories.....

[Bear44]

Forgot my boots on a cold wet morning. Hunted in my slippers. Not fun.

Forgot my socks in 20 degree weather and was on stand all day. Didn't matter after about an hour because I couldn't feel my feet anymore.

After three hours of prep and travel one morning I realized I forgot my hunting rifle when preparing to leave my vehicle, but that's not the worst. After getting back in my vehicle and driving almost all the way home I remembered I had an AR 10 loaded with Nosler Ballistic Tips in a case behind my seat.

I locked my keys in the car out in the middle of nowhere. I was trying to break out a side window (not easy!) when I decided to try the key to my wife's vehicle. I still had that one on me and both vehicles were Fords. Amazingly, it worked! Not a perfect fit, but good enough with a little pressure.

There are more, but those are the ones that jump to mind.

 

[Justin87]

Back when I was in college a buddy and I went rabbit hunting. Typical of rabbit hunting, we busted a lot of brush and got scratched up pretty good by briars. Well I killed a rabbit and field dressed it without gloves and ignored the scratches on my arms and hands. 48 hours later I had a blood infection that damn near killed me. It probably would have if my girlfriend (wife now) hadn't convinced me to go to the hospital. The doctor told me it was a good thing I came in when I did.

That'd be a helluva way to go. Glad you didn't

 

[palmettomoon]

Some of these stories are making me even more nervous about going into the woods during deer season (as if that was even possibile, who knew?).

 

[Justin87]

Some of these stories are making me even more nervous about going into the woods during deer season (as if that was even possibile, who knew?).

I hear ya. WMA hunts and indoor ranges make me a little anxious

 

[DinkyDau]

Back in the late 70s I went on a hunt on Ogeechee WMA it was a Primitive weapon only. I got out of my truck started putting gear together. A guy pulls up in his truck and gets out, I have never seen anybody where I hunted..I asked him what direction he was going and he told me, over on the other side of the road..Which was fine with me, he was going in the opposite direction. As I finished my gear he fired his black powder behind me and shook the hell out of my nerves. I ask him rather loudly, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? To which his answer was making sure his barrel was clear and ready..I damn near shot him...I hate WMA's

 

[Bear44]

Another really stupid one.

My first year hunting deer was when I was 15. Though my father had hunted a little, no one in my family was a "hunter", so I knew almost nothing.

It was the last day of the season and one of the rare doe days at that time. I was walking along the edge of a field and three does ran out of the woods right in front of me. Maybe 25 yards. I unloaded three rounds of OO Buck at one of them and they ran along the edge of the field and then back into the woods. I had missed.

Being very discouraged, I reloaded and walked along the edge of the woods to see if I could spot them again. When I got even with where they ran back into the woods one jumped at about 30 yards and I saw it for just a moment, then it just vanished. I was pretty upset that I had lost my chance and went home.

I decide I needed to get an education and from then until opening day of the following season I read and studied everything I could get my hands on. After I had learned a little, I went back to that spot and found the skeleton. Yep, I had killed that deer and what I saw was it's last effort to get away before going down permanently.

That was 45 years ago and it still bothers me.

 

[palmettomoon]

Back in the late 70s I went on a hunt on Ogeechee WMA it was a Primitive weapon only. I got out of my truck started putting gear together. A guy pulls up in his truck and gets out, I have never seen anybody where I hunted..I asked him what direction he was going and he told me, over on the other side of the road..Which was fine with me, he was going in the opposite direction. As I finished my gear he fired his black powder behind me and shook the hell out of my nerves. I ask him rather loudly, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? To which his answer was making sure his barrel was clear and ready..I damn near shot him...I hate WMA's

Popped a cap or fired a full charge? I'd have **** if it was a charge.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I don't have a really bad "stupid hunting" story.
The worst thing for me, while hunting, was estimating a deer to be 300+ yards away, holding over his back by several inches, and missing. He ran, stopped, and then I forgot all about hold-over and just aimed quickly at the middle of the body and shot. Hit right through both lungs. I paced-off the shot at 220 yards. (My rifle was zeroed for 50 and 150 yards, so when I thought it was a 300 yard shot, aiming up 12" would have been right. But a 220 yard shot with a 150 yard zero on a .308 rifle would only have me about 4" low, not a big deal. )


HUNTING STORIES FROM MY DAD:

FUNNY STORY 1-- Squirrel knocking snow off tree limbs, dropping snow on my dad's head and neck. He followed my dad to 3 different trees over a few hours' worth of hunting. At the end of the day, not having seen any deer, Dad blasted that squirrel with a load of 00 buckshot.

SCARY STORY 2-- Dad's hunting a red fox. Trying to get within 200 yards of it in a farmer's field. Dad has an M1 Garand with standard peep sights. The fox goes over a little ridge and disappears from dad's view. Dad's on his belly at this point, crawling, maybe 225 yards away.

Dad crawls on his hands and knees another 50 yards or so, slowly, taking several minutes. He figures that if the fox again comes into view, he'll be within range (probably, depending how much the critter moved. But the fox didn't seem too alert or concerned about Dad).

Dad sees a splotch of red just peeking out over the top of a ridge, a small hill in the middle of the pasture. He's sure that's the fox. He gets into the prone position, aims at the tiny spot of red, but waits for it to show more of its body. Right now, all he sees is a spot of dull red the size of a pack of cigarettes. He doesn't want to shoot the fox in the rump, so he waits to see more of the animal's body. He's got his finger lightly resting on the trigger, though.

Then the woman wearing the red handkerchief around her head stands up! She'd been crawling around that field herself, tending to some of the plants. THAT was the "red" Dad saw the second time, minutes after the fox left the field in that same direction.

 

[DinkyDau]

Popped a cap or fired a full charge? I'd have **** if it was a charge.

Sounded like a full charge!

 

[palmettomoon]

Another really stupid one.

My first year hunting deer was when I was 15. Though my father had hunted a little, no one in my family was a "hunter", so I knew almost nothing.

It was the last day of the season and one of the rare doe days at that time. I was walking along the edge of a field and three does ran out of the woods right in front of me. .....

That was 45 years ago and it still bothers me.

I nearly got into a fist fight with a co-worker that refused to locate a downed dove he didn't hit squarely. I found and killed it (he didn't have the stomach to break its neck). I never hunted with him again.

It's good that you're bothered but let it go. 45 years is a long time. I'm sure you are an ethical hunter.