Well that didn’t go how I planned it!

[WYO300RUM]

Let's face it fellas, we are more likely to have catastrophic failures than stellar successes so this thread touches every "honest" hunter on LRH! I could prob fill out 10 pages!! Not to mention some of the buds I have hunted with including myself just seem to trip over our own feet at times. Yeah, go ahead size 16 I get it These moments define who we are and etch memories that will never be forgotten!

Thank you Tidys56!

This is going to 14 pages at least. I hope. I look forward every day to read new posts. I don't do any social media at all but I look forward to reading posts on LRH everyday. I've made some good friends on this site and even hunted with a couple of them . God bless you all

 

[WYO300RUM]

Let's face it fellas, we are more likely to have catastrophic failures than stellar successes so this thread touches every "honest" hunter on LRH! I could prob fill out 10 pages!! Not to mention some of the buds I have hunted with including myself just seem to trip over our own feet at times. Yeah, go ahead size 16 I get it These moments define who we are and etch memories that will never be forgotten!

Thank you Tidys56!

 

[M77Fan]

This is a great start. I am sure everyone has plenty of stories. I hope more show up.

One I have from early days bowhunting that was definitely not as planned. I left work Halloween afternoon to go hunt a spot near Rapid City, SD. The area was in National Forest, but where I would be was not real far above the main paved highway. I had a perfect ponderosa pine tree that had a couple good sized branches I could stand on about 8 feet up overlooking a couple crossing deer trails.

On the way up the tree, I caught a thumb-sized branch with the back of my leg and snapped it. A chunk about 2 inches long popped out of the top, striking me in the lower eyelid, cutting and bruising it. I got into position anyway with my shooting eye watering and smarting pretty good. I settled in and waited as the forest quieted before sunset.

A deer drifted past out of range. A doe was coming in on a trail that would pass within yards of my tree, and as I stood at full draw, suddenly out of the swale below me thundered an amplified voice on a bullhorn! I never found out what that was all about, but the cops must have pulled over some miscreants right below me. What the heck?? Needless to say, the doe fled in a hurry.

I went home with no deer and and a black eye! Trick or treat!

 

[WYO300RUM]

This is a great start. I am sure everyone has plenty of stories. I hope more show up.

One I have from early days bowhunting was definitely not as planned. I left work Halloween afternoon to go hunt a spot near Rapid City, SD. The area was in National Forest, but where I would be was not real far above the main paved highway. I had a perfect ponderosa pine tree that had a couple good sized branches I could stand on about 8 feet up overlooking a couple crossing deer trails.

On the way up the tree, I caught a thumb-sized branch with the back of my leg and snapped it. A chunk about 2 inches long popped out of the top, striking me in the lower eyelid, cutting and bruising it. I got into position anyway with my shooting eye watering and smarting pretty good. I settled in and waited as the forest quieted before sunset.

A deer drifted past out of range. A doe was coming in on a trail that would pass within yards of my tree, and as I stood at full draw, suddenly out of the swale below me thundered an amplified voice on a bullhorn! I never found out what that was all about, but the cops must have pulled over some miscreants right below me. What the heck?? Needless to say, the doe fled in a hurry.

I went home with no deer and and a black eye! Trick or treat!

Dammit !

 

[COBrad]

I oughta stop too but… when we were in high school a buddy and I were hunting squirrels. He saw one run across the ground and up a tree. He got so excited he stopped watching where he was going and fell on his face in a patch of thin snow. I'm trying not to laugh as he jumped up and started walking backwards to get a good angle on the squirrel. He raises his .410 and takes a half step backwards, slips on a big stick and fires in the air as he lands on his butt. I'm laughing hysterically and thinking that shot sounded weird, he fired in the air but I heard shot ripping through the branches. He let out a squeaky groan and when I looked at his gun about 4" of barrel was peeled back with a few chunks missing. I still laugh when I remember his face looking at the end of the barrel.

 

[WYO300RUM]

I oughta stop too but… when we were in high school a buddy and I were hunting squirrels. He saw one run across the ground and up a tree. He got so excited he stopped watching where he was going and fell on his face in a patch of thin snow. I'm trying not to laugh as he jumped up and started walking backwards to get a good angle on the squirrel. He raises his .410 and takes a half step backwards, slips on a big stick and fires in the air as he lands on his butt. I'm laughing hysterically and thinking that shot sounded weird, he fired in the air but I heard shot ripping through the branches. He let out a squeaky groan and when I looked at his gun about 4" of barrel was peeled back with a few chunks missing. I still laugh when I remember his face looking at the end of the barrel.

 

[ofbandg]

John, a good friend of mine, came over to my place one season to hunt sheep with me. It was early season and hot but he wanted to get a Rocky Mountain Bighorn to fill out what is locally called a BC slam, which is one of each species that we have in this province. He had both thin horns and a California Bighorn so this was all that was left. A couple days before he arrived I had filled my tag with a respectable ram that wasn't heavy but went 39 inches around the curl. Having taken a ram doesn't reduce my desire to keep hunting so I looked forward to helping John. We hunted hard for days but couldn't find anything worthwhile, and time was running out because we both had to get back to work. On one of the last days it was raining hard when we got up so we decided we would just go out and glass a couple good areas from the truck. When we arrived at our location and set up the rain began to fade and the sun started to break through. Almost immediately John spotted what looked like a huge ram at the head of a steep draw. We grabbed our packs and rifles and took off up the draw but it was tough going so it took a few hours to get in position. The ram had moved into some sparse timber along with a few others so we had trouble picking him out. Finally we could get a clear shot at the biggest one but we weren't sure if it was the one we spotted from down below. It was still a good one so John decided to take the shot. The ram pitched and rolled part way down the slope and hung up in some immature firs. We were both relieved that it had gone so well. While hiking over to him we heard a noise on the slope above us and there was the huge ram pulling leaves off a Saskatoon bush about 30 yards away, totally unconcerned with what was going on. He was massive, would have scored well into the 190's and we both stood there dumbfounded. All we could do was watch and imagine.

 

[BigDon]

This is going to 14 pages at least. I hope. I look forward every day to read new posts. I don't do any social media at all but I look forward to reading posts on LRH everyday. I've made some good friends on this site and even hunted with a couple of them . God bless you all

This IS my "Social Media". What a Great Group of Fine People!!

 

[M77Fan]

Backpack bighorn sheep hunt in Colorado. We were over 2 weeks in, and my partner had filled a few days before. He was spotting for me as I continued to hunt. At dawn we saw a small group of rams that were, for a change, bedded in the tundra above the krummholtz line so they were visible. One of the biggest rams we had in the area was in that little group. I took off up the mountain from camp, and hotfooted it up the back side of the ridge they were near the top of. The whole ridge was paved with white limestone plates that ranged from the size of playing cards to dinner plates. Not only did my woodland type camo not blend in, but it was very noisy clinking and clanking up the slope. Fortunately I was far enough away that the wind was covering my noise, and I could stay hidden below the crest of the ridge. The wind was straight upslope.

As I neared a little saddle that was at about the elevation of the bedded rams, I heard something large steaming up the slope to my right. It was moving fast and flinging those limestone plates noisily behind it. I had stopped, waiting to see what this large beast was when suddenly appeared a 6 point bull elk. He paused, tongue lolling, sides heaving, just before the crest of the ridge, and two strides later, he hit my very close (15 yards) sweaty human scent stream. Bolting forward, he lit the afterburners, and ran in a straight line directly through the bedded rams I was nearly in range of. By the time I could see where the rams had been, not a living thing was in sight.

I didn't see what happened but my partner described it to me. The bull rocketed right through the bedded rams at warp speed and kept running until he was out of sight down the mountain several miles away. The rams, reacting instantly to the bull running through them, clearly said "Don't know what is after him, but we ain't staying to find out!!" They followed suit and cleared out.

I was pretty snakebit that trip, but a few days later (last day I had) connected with a really pretty chocolate brown ram.

 

[KurtB]

Had a lease for antelope for a few years. The rancher would usually see a few big ones and keep tabs on them. Though sometimes his big ones were not as big as were described. We were told about a giant antelope buck that was using a small 320 acre patch a lot. I kept an eye on it for a couple of days and never saw the big antelope. Finally decided to shoot a decent 14" buck that had 3 does with him. The does went running through the middle of the 320 acres and dang if that big buck didn't take off with them. No idea where he was but he was certainly a low to mid 80s buck and would have been our largest ever taken.

My first ever mule deer hunt was with a muzzleloader. My rancher buddy put me in a blind by some round hay bales and had 3 bucks walk by at daybreak. I watched them and they sparred and carried on for a bit. Finally bedded down just outside of muzzleloader range. I snuck out and walked up on another draw. Sure enough a nice buck popped up and stared at me. He was narrow but very tall. I decided to pass and he booked. As he ran off I noticed huge back forks with inline cheaters of 5" or so. Snuck back to the three bucks from the morning. By now the wind was howling. There were tumbleweeds and corn stalks blowing past and I crawled up to 70 yards of them.

Finally the largest of the 3 stood up giving me a broadside shot. I aimed at his shoulder and hit him too far back. He ran into an erosion gulch and didn't come out. I reloaded and snuck up there. He took off pretty fast and I led him and squeezed off. He just dropped like a rock. I reloaded again to be safe and walked up to where he disappeared. As I reached the spot I could see a depression in the ground. Apparently right when I squeezed, he took a step down. He was laying there with his eyes circling around in his head and his right main beam shot off right at the base. Sure enough, he got focused and took off again. This time I killed him. Looked for 30 minutes trying to find pieces of that right side and never found them all.

 

[WYO300RUM]

Backpack bighorn sheep hunt in Colorado. We were over 2 weeks in, and my partner had filled a few days before. He was spotting for me as I continued to hunt. At dawn we saw a small group of rams that were, for a change, bedded in the tundra above the krummholtz line so they were visible. One of the biggest rams we had in the area was in that little group. I took off up the mountain from camp, and hotfooted it up the back side of the ridge they were near the top of. The whole ridge was paved with white limestone plates that ranged from the size of playing cards to dinner plates. Not only did my woodland type camo not blend in, but it was very noisy clinking and clanking up the slope. Fortunately I was far enough away that the wind was covering my noise, and I could stay hidden below the crest of the ridge. The wind was straight upslope.

As I neared a little saddle that was at about the elevation of the bedded rams, I heard something large steaming up the slope to my right. It was moving fast and flinging those limestone plates noisily behind it. I had stopped, waiting to see what this large beast was when suddenly appeared a 6 point bull elk. He paused, tongue lolling, sides heaving, just before the crest of the ridge, and two strides later, he hit my very close (15 yards) sweaty human scent stream. Bolting forward, he lit the afterburners, and ran in a straight line directly through the bedded rams I was nearly in range of. By the time I could see where the rams had been, not a living thing was in sight.

I didn't see what happened but my partner described it to me. The bull rocketed right through the bedded rams at warp speed and kept running until he was out of sight down the mountain several miles away. The rams, reacting instantly to the bull running through them, clearly said "Don't know what is after him, but we ain't staying to find out!!" They followed suit and cleared out.

I was pretty snakebit that trip, but a few days later (last day I had) connected with a really pretty chocolate brown ram.

I thought you were going to tell us what was chasing the bull !
That's a great story ! Talking about walking on the limestone reminded me of a similar hunt....

 

[M77Fan]

I thought you were going to tell us what was chasing the bull !
That's a great story ! Talking about walking on the limestone reminded me of a similar hunt....

My best guess was that bowhunters well below me must have kicked that bull out. I never saw anyone in the area, and we were pretty far in. But, something unknown was up there with us that I had a weird and unsettling experience with one day. It could also have been that.

 

[WYO300RUM]

I was on a deer hunt in Nv.. I spotted this nice buck way up the mountain about 50 yds below the top . He was laying down behind 4 or 5 little aspens . I dropped down the hill I was on and got in the drainage on side mountain he was on but I was out of his vision the whole way up. It was steep with rocks but I stayed pretty quite. My buddy was watching from the road. He couldn't see me when I topped out though..I snuck over to where I thought he'd be. The edge was about 15 yds from me. Here is all this shale in front of me all the way to the edge . Great... I thought about turning bowhunter and taking my boots off. It looked to painful. I walked as slow and quiet as I could up to edge thinking its going to be a close and maybe quick shot. I peeked over and saw the little aspen patch about 50 yds straight down below me. No buck ? I look around then I spot him about 200 yds. straight out downhill . Dam ! I sat down and laid rifle on a rock. Got him in the scope. Cranked up the power. Had my finger on the trigger about to pull and he took off to my right side hilling like a thourobred . I watched him cover a half mile until he came to a stand of pines. He heard me crunching rocks for sure. I started down the mountain to see if I could find him. I got down to about elevation he was and took off. Along the way I stepped over a bush and stepped on a fist sized rock and it rolled I went down but held my rifle up and my whole body weight landed on my left arm onto a rock. I got up and looked at my arm. Whoa ! I thought I broke it. I had a huge hematoma on top of forearm. I looked over at that patch of trees and I think I saw that buck laughing at me. I said you won and walked back to the truck . Buddy never saw the buck or me fall. I showed him my arm and said I broke it. He freaked and I started laughing. Told the story . I have a couple other stories from that hunt on two different trips. One is short!
it happened the following evening.

 

[WYO300RUM]

My best guess was that bowhunters well below me must have kicked that bull out. I never saw anyone in the area, and we were pretty far in. But, something unknown was up there with us that I had a weird and unsettling experience with one day. It could also have been that.

Was archery elk or deer season going on ? Maybe somebody flung an arrow at him ?