Well that didn’t go how I planned it!

[Ol' Red]

I shot my biggest bull ever in my underwear. Had hunted a big 6x7 all season with only a quick offhand shot I missed. Last day of the hunt I was up early but just too tired to hike up the mountain behind the house in the dark one View attachment 348758more time. Went and looked out across the horse pasture at dawn and nothing. Went and made coffee and walked across the living room for another look and the field was full of elk! Quickly grabbed my rifle and stepped out in a jacket and my underwear and leaned over the railing to shoot this nice 6x6. As I flicked off the safety the 6x7 stepped into the scope! As soon as he cleared the 6 I squeezed the trigger. He ran maybe 30 yards and went down at the edge of the quakies. I have this photo of myself holding up this great bull in the forest, but what you can't see is my buddy sitting on the bucket of the backhoe with the house and horses in the background

That may not have turned out like you planned, it turned out better.

 

[Mark37082]

This is a great thread. It allows me to revisit some of my failures while hunting and have a little chuckle. Bow hunting has been the most frequent type of hunting mishap for me. Cold weather, too much constricting clothing, and tight quarters in a tree stand have caused multiple issues. Best buck of my life was 25 yards from me and I was struggling to draw the bow when the arrow dropped off the string and landed with a loud clang on the metal stand. Still sick about that one.

 

[WYO300RUM]

I shot my biggest bull ever in my underwear. Had hunted a big 6x7 all season with only a quick offhand shot I missed. Last day of the hunt I was up early but just too tired to hike up the mountain behind the house in the dark one View attachment 348758more time. Went and looked out across the horse pasture at dawn and nothing. Went and made coffee and walked across the living room for another look and the field was full of elk! Quickly grabbed my rifle and stepped out in a jacket and my underwear and leaned over the railing to shoot this nice 6x6. As I flicked off the safety the 6x7 stepped into the scope! As soon as he cleared the 6 I squeezed the trigger. He ran maybe 30 yards and went down at the edge of the quakies. I have this photo of myself holding up this great bull in the forest, but what you can't see is my buddy sitting on the bucket of the backhoe with the house and horses in the background

Well at least you got your jeans on for the photo. Great story and great bull !

 

[WYO300RUM]

This is a great thread. It allows me to revisit some of my failures while hunting and have a little chuckle. Bow hunting has been the most frequent type of hunting mishap for me. Cold weather, too much constricting clothing, and tight quarters in a tree stand have caused multiple issues. Best buck of my life was 25 yards from me and I was struggling to draw the bow when the arrow dropped off the string and landed with a loud clang on the metal stand. Still sick about that one.

Like you chocolate Lab !
I have an 8 yr old Chesapeake and a yr old English Lab that's a monster. I was in a tree stand once I was so cold I couldn't pull bow back but it wasn't when a buck was there luckily . Have had sting hit jacket sleeve and bow limb hit tree limb. I still remember dropping my release out of my tree stand once on a 5NS archery elk hunt. My buddy was in a tree about 50 yds away. He was just shaking his head. I made a slip not on my rope I pull my bow and pack up with. It was fairly thin. I lowered it and actually got it around part of it and gave it a little tug. Walla ! I pulled it up and looked over a buddy and gave him the bird. I had an arrow come off my string and stick straight up in ground . I did the same thing. Got it around fletching and tugged. No audience then. I started carrying two releases after that. Figured one could break also.

 

[Muddyboots]

Really good friend of mine set up in a climber 75 yds from me, close but wind was right and we were trying to double team a shooter buck that has been eluding us all season. So we figured we had to pin him down. Now I should have known better cause my buddy makes Keystone Cops look like gifted athletes. I go up my tree and he just about to top when he realizes bow rope is not tied to stand , so he has to go back down, ties it off and I am just about falling out of mine. He gets to top, looks over to me and pulls on rope to show me the bow rope is tied off. I give him . He starts to pull up rope and no bow. He forgot to tie off bow on rope, I am freaking losing it and really don't care about hunting any more. I am trying to stifle laughing by biting my jacket! He looks over to me and . I am dying!. He goes back down ties off bow and climbs back up. He is down to T shirt in 25 degrees from sweating so much. I am literally crying in my stand! It gets better, we are hunting a farm and about 60 head cattle come into our area so after all the planning we decided enough. So he goes down tree, gets too bottom, misjudges distance and steps off his stand that is 4' off ground. The corner of his stand catches his back pocket at bottom, rips his pants wide open to his waist. I am watching this from 75 yards and just sit down on ground with cattle yards away from me looking at me WTHELLO since I was rolling on ground. His pants ripping was so loud you could hear it prob 1/4 mile! It took me 30 min to pack my stand up since I couldn't stop laughing. We still talk about this on phone calls and we both get laughing so hard even though this happened 30+ years ago! When you have friends that are like brothers and stuff happens like this, you smile when you think about him.

 

[Mark37082]

A great friend of mine had a lease on 1800 acres in South Texas and he invited me for a whitetail hunt. This was my first hunting trip to this part of Texas. The first morning started out really tough. We couldn't find the keys to truck. Finally found them but now it was getting near day light. After ten minutes of driving through the ranch we heard the unmistakable sound of a tire getting ripped open by piece of mesquite. Luckily we were close enough to the place we were going to hunt to just park and walk. We were hurrying to get everything out of the truck and hunting when another buddy of mine closed the tailgate on the thumb of the other friend. It was a ugly mess and any deer within a mile would have heard the yelling. Needless to say it was not a good start. A heated paper clip through the thumb nail relieved the pressure and pain, but we headed back after changing the tire. The trip got better with all three of us shooting good bucks. I learned a lot about south Texas on this trip. Everything in this part of the country will stick you, sting you or bite you, but the bucks grow big antlers. Always look around real closely before you climb into a box blind. There are some of the biggest yellow jackets I have ever seen there. They like to hang out in box blinds and they don't like intruders.

 

[WYO300RUM]

Really good friend of mine set up in a climber 75 yds from me, close but wind was right and we were trying to double team a shooter buck that has been eluding us all season. So we figured we had to pin him down. Now I should have known better cause my buddy makes Keystone Cops look like gifted athletes. I go up my tree and he just about to top when he realizes bow rope is not tied to stand , so he has to go back down, ties it off and I am just about falling out of mine. He gets to top, looks over to me and pulls on rope to show me the bow rope is tied off. I give him . He starts to pull up rope and no bow. He forgot to tie off bow on rope, I am freaking losing it and really don't care about hunting any more. I am trying to stifle laughing by biting my jacket! He looks over to me and . I am dying!. He goes back down ties off bow and climbs back up. He is down to T shirt in 25 degrees from sweating so much. I am literally crying in my stand! It gets better, we are hunting a farm and about 60 head cattle come into our area so after all the planning we decided enough. So he goes down tree, gets too bottom, misjudges distance and steps off his stand that is 4' off ground. The corner of his stand catches his back pocket at bottom, rips his pants wide open to his waist. I am watching this from 75 yards and just sit down on ground with cattle yards away from me looking at me WTHELLO since I was rolling on ground. His pants ripping was so loud you could hear it prob 1/4 mile! It took me 30 min to pack my stand up since I couldn't stop laughing. We still talk about this on phone calls and we both get laughing so hard even though this happened 30+ years ago! When you have friends that are like brothers and stuff happens like this, you smile when you think about him.

Really good friend of mine set up in a climber 75 yds from me, close but wind was right and we were trying to double team a shooter buck that has been eluding us all season. So we figured we had to pin him down. Now I should have known better cause my buddy makes Keystone Cops look like gifted athletes. I go up my tree and he just about to top when he realizes bow rope is not tied to stand , so he has to go back down, ties it off and I am just about falling out of mine. He gets to top, looks over to me and pulls on rope to show me the bow rope is tied off. I give him . He starts to pull up rope and no bow. He forgot to tie off bow on rope, I am freaking losing it and really don't care about hunting any more. I am trying to stifle laughing by biting my jacket! He looks over to me and . I am dying!. He goes back down ties off bow and climbs back up. He is down to T shirt in 25 degrees from sweating so much. I am literally crying in my stand! It gets better, we are hunting a farm and about 60 head cattle come into our area so after all the planning we decided enough. So he goes down tree, gets too bottom, misjudges distance and steps off his stand that is 4' off ground. The corner of his stand catches his back pocket at bottom, rips his pants wide open to his waist. I am watching this from 75 yards and just sit down on ground with cattle yards away from me looking at me WTHELLO since I was rolling on ground. His pants ripping was so loud you could hear it prob 1/4 mile! It took me 30 min to pack my stand up since I couldn't stop laughing. We still talk about this on phone calls and we both get laughing so hard even though this happened 30+ years ago! When you have friends that are like brothers and stuff happens like this, you smile when you think about him.

I'm Lmao just reading this ! What a great thread. I'm surprised more haven't posted. I could post for a week on here but trying to not burn you all out !

 

[Tidus56]

When I was in high school I had this great blind set up in the ground level branches of a big spruce tree along side a well used trail. I checked my watch and at 11:30 got up to go pee. I walked out maybe 30 yards in front of the blind and after I finished my business turned around to see a nice 4 point buck standing right in front of my blind looking at me. We stood looking at each other for a moment before he just slowly walked off. My bow was lying in the blind.

I killed an okay buck one year, I shot him because I had a buddy who wants to get into hunting with me. I start gutting and he decides that he didn't care for that lol. He walked up the hill to pee, he yells this one is way better. Knowing him I figured it was a euphemism but when he said come check this buck out I decided I would walk up the hill. Yeah sure enough big ole buck just chilling not a care in the world. I started laughing and telling my buddy I thought it was a joke, that's when the buck finally decided to leave. Sometimes that's just the way it goes.

 

[Tidus56]

I'm Lmao just reading this ! What a great thread. I'm surprised more haven't posted. I could post for a week on here but trying to not burn you all out !

Same! I actually have a lot of failures and most are funny. I have one I am saving for later but like you trying not to burn ppl out of my non sense.

 

[WYO300RUM]

Same! I actually have a lot of failures and most are funny. I have one I am saving for later but like you trying not to burn ppl out of my non sense.

Awe come on. You go first. I keep thinking of others. Hoping they will chime in. I have never been afraid of admitting my failures. I know others that try to pretend they are perfect . Most times they kill nothing .

 

[WYO300RUM]

A great friend of mine had a lease on 1800 acres in South Texas and he invited me for a whitetail hunt. This was my first hunting trip to this part of Texas. The first morning started out really tough. We couldn't find the keys to truck. Finally found them but now it was getting near day light. After ten minutes of driving through the ranch we heard the unmistakable sound of a tire getting ripped open by piece of mesquite. Luckily we were close enough to the place we were going to hunt to just park and walk. We were hurrying to get everything out of the truck and hunting when another buddy of mine closed the tailgate on the thumb of the other friend. It was a ugly mess and any deer within a mile would have heard the yelling. Needless to say it was not a good start. A heated paper clip through the thumb nail relieved the pressure and pain, but we headed back after changing the tire. The trip got better with all three of us shooting good bucks. I learned a lot about south Texas on this trip. Everything in this part of the country will stick you, sting you or bite you, but the bucks grow big antlers. Always look around real closely before you climb into a box blind. There are some of the biggest yellow jackets I have ever seen there. They like to hang out in box blinds and they don't like intruders.

My thumb hurts now !

 

[Ol' Red]

Tidus56, this is a good thread. I've always heard you learn from mistakes and I am a firm believer in that. I can see we have all gained knowledge here. Just a short one from me for now. I was hunting blacktail in Washington years ago with a buddy. He was just over the top of a ridge when I heard a gunshot and then seconds later another. I started his direction when I saw a 4X4 trotting from his direction. I brought my rifle up and followed him with a slight lead, touched off the trigger and hit Douglas fir tree as he trotted behind it. When my buddy came over the ridge he asked if I shot a deer. I said no, I missed the same one you did. He said I didn't miss anything, I just accidently shot while walking along. I just asked "twice?"

 

[WYO300RUM]

Tidus56, this is a good thread. I've always heard you learn from mistakes and I am a firm believer in that. I can see we have all gained knowledge here. Just a short one from me for now. I was hunting blacktail in Washington years ago with a buddy. He was just over the top of a ridge when I heard a gunshot and then seconds later another. I started his direction when I saw a 4X4 trotting from his direction. I brought my rifle up and followed him with a slight lead, touched off the trigger and hit Douglas fir tree as he trotted behind it. When my buddy came over the ridge he asked if I shot a deer. I said no, I missed the same one you did. He said I didn't miss anything, I just accidently shot while walking along. I just asked "twice?"

Lol ! I shot a real nice 5x5 Muley here in 1998. Buddy from Arkansas was hunting with me. I told him you go that way I'll go this way. Nobody any where near us. I get to spot I wanted to be and I hear a shot close by. I thought wth ?
A minute later here comes this nice big bodied 5x5 done hill right at me. It fell done and got back up and I whacked him. Few min. later her comes Arkie bud. Asked him what the heck are you doing way over here ? He said it got too rough and steep over there... I said thanks man. He asked well who's buck is it ? I said you wounded it. I killed it. He's like. Aw man come on. I messed with him for about 10 min. I finally said you can have him... From then on he continued to shoot EVERY deer or elk in *** or gut.. He would vomit at smell of guts. Wy., Ut., Az.,Ca. It got old. He moved back to Arkansas ....

 

[Muddyboots]

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!