Dumbest, Most Bonehead Things You've Done While Hunting

Good 45 years ago, bow hunting late season, the last day. Cold as crap out with a nasty wind. I was trying to hide behind the tree trunk maybe 10' up, a doe walks out and was having issues looking into the wind, it was blowing that hard. I was a farm kid so was shooting 60-80lb draw. Waiting for a broadside shoot but it walked dead on. It went to eat a leaf and being young and dumb I aimed at the top of the neck behind the head. As I let it fly she raised her head, hit her right dead center in the head between the eyes and she dropped. Broodhead was buried so I though she's done for. I lowered my bow out of the tree using bailing twine, cut her ear and tagged her.  Went to dress her and she lets me have it...... dead center.  Most of know what that feels like.  As she's having a hard time getting up I was able to get to my bow with the bailing twine still hooked to it and got another arrow into her.  Never ever did I take another shot like that. It was my 2nd year box hunting.  Amazing how you can remember something like that but can forget your ice fishing bait in the truck. 

Years ago when you could only shoot a buck or a doe during bow season, I went out opening day and I had a tree climber and it was warm opening weekend. I climbed the tree setting it up and I dropped the wing nut. Sob. Looked for it on the ground and couldn’t find it. Well, I buried the stand in the leaves below the tree and had a smoke. Now by this time I am sweating and hot but I decided to climb up on a branch. I thought, I am never gonna see anything. Not 15 minutes later and still bright out, came an 8 point buck. Wtf…….. it’s going to walk right by me. At 10 or so yards it stood behind an oak tree and I pulled back my Fear Bear 4 pulley bow back nd it moved forward. Quartering towards me. Took the shot. Got down and grab the stand and went home to get the guys together. Sure enough, 80 yards nd dead. A bonehead move about the stand but luck was with me that night. This was like 1983 ish or so. My bow hunting was over for the season but I was happy. 

This really wasn't dumb but very confusing for a 16 year old. I was hunting out of a bale blind over looking a hayfield  with my back to a edge of the woods. All of a sudden a buck is coming out of the woods with his head down. The buck was maybe 50 yards from me. I took a neck shot. After I shot this buck starts spinning around in circles real fast for like 10 seconds. When it stopped spinning I was able to put it down. When I went over to gut it, my first shot pierced its ear. Guess he didnt like that.

Many falls ago, I hiked into some public woods to do a little bowhynting.   I had a backpack with a folding stool tied to it.  I got to my spot and could not get the stool untied.  I had a practice of carrying three knives in the woods.  I reached for the Swiss Army knife on my belt.  I opened the little pouch and found not my knife but my pepper spray for work (similar pouch)!.  Oh, no problem,  I reached for the sheath knife on my belt, only to find I had forgotten it completely.   So I opened my fanny pack and got my Old Timer folding hunter.   It was there but when I opened it I was shocked to discover I had never cleaned it after field dressing a deer the year before!  Well it was at least rope cutting sharp!

Ok, This was 57 years ago and I was 14 years old so I could hunt by myself. I was deer hunting during the gun season with my Winchester model 94 30-30 in the Northern highland state forest. Back then there were not any conveniences except those old orange plastic heat seats filled with styrofoam beads. I am sitting on a log on a ridge overlooking an old logging road. We had wet snow that would crunch when you would walk on it. My dad said he would come and check on me at 9:00. It was just 9:00 and I could hear footsteps crunching in the snow. As I watched for my dad to appear on the logging road below me the crunching kept getting louder and louder. I finally figured out that the sound was coming from behind me and when I looked there was a spike buck walking 10 yards behind me. I slowly stood up and the buck stopped behind the upturned roots of the log that I was sitting on. My 14 year old inexperienced mind told me that if I sat back down the buck would continue walking again. I sat down and he took off. I fired a couple of shots at his backside as he ran away but never cut a hair. One of my dad's hunting partners said he never had a deer that close to him in his life to add insult to injury.

Nothing too dumb done this past weekend.  Yesterday I did forget my cell phone and my deer drag and of course i shot a deer.  My buddy was calling me cause he heard me cough (I tend to cough when I start moving a lot and he wanted to make sure I was ok cause he could hear me).  Eventually he got down from his stand and then I could see him to let him know I had shot a deer.  Then he went and got the mule while I finished gutting the deer.  It died only 20 yards into the woods from a trail, so I used my rope I have for bringing the gun up into the tree stand and wrapped it around her neck.  Worked fine for that deer.

This year I went up to my hunting spot, thinking I'll do a little hunting (more scouting than hunting), and setup cameras. So I didn't bring all the usual equipment I bring with me, in case I do shoot a deer.  Well, evening sit of only an hour and a half and an 8 pointer walks out just to the right of the stand I sat in, 18 yards away.  Got him! I didn't have my field dressing knife with me but luckily had a pocket knife. I didn't bring my carrier on the back of my car.  I brought only one light and one headlamp, so of course both ran out of battery before I finished field dressing the deer.  Ugh, always go hunting fully prepared! Could've been worse, I guess!

Always leave the gun in your vehicle before hunting so it is the same temp as outside. Scope fog, etc, will happen if you take it out from the house when you leave. Lesson learned there.

I believe it was early Dec of 2021, I went to goose hunt at a farm next to my subdivision. It was cold and blustery with snow just starting when i got to the field. I carried decoys and my gun out and carefully laid my gun down with the top of the gun facing into the wind/snow so snow wouldn’t be blown inside. I get the decoys set and see 30 geese headed towards me. I grab my gun only to find that the eddy from the wind packed snow tight inside of my gun. The geese are still coming, I disassemble the gun and clear as much snow as I can. Problem was that my gun was still warm from being in my house a short time before. Now the snow inside turned to ice. The geese had attempted to land in the decoys but were leaving. A pair was still well within range as I got my gun reassembled and loaded. Pull up and…. click. Cycle it and…. click. 

I disassembled it again and cleared as much snow/ice as I could. Reassemble and load just as another 25-30 geese are piling in. And once again…. click. They leave, I once again disassemble my gun and clean out more snow/ice. Reassemble and load just as a dozen mallards are dropping on top of me. And…. click. 

Now I run home to grab a different gun. Get back 10 minutes later to watch another 30 geese landing in the decoys as I was parking. I knew there was little chance but I tried to walk within range. That didn’t work. So I got myself actually set to hunt with an operable gun. Having seen so many birds in the past 30-45 minutes, I wasn’t worried and figured a new group would be along any minute.

Temps were dropping fast, wind was howling and snow was piling up. Sat for about 2 hours, maybe 3, never saw one single duck or goose. Laughing at the comedy of errors that morning, I decided to pack up. Just as I packed up the last decoy, 200 geese are headed for my spot. I decided to give the geese a win that day and just walked back to the truck. Meanwhile they had circled a bit, just as I put the truck into gear to leave, they piled in right where I had been. That was definitely a memorable one. 

Ok, prob 40 years ago. My cousin and I are hunting on edge of marsh in Green Bay WI.   We are sitting in a duck blind in about 3’ water.   Mid day Jim says hey let’s see if we can fish out the shells we dropped in the water over the last month or so.   We found three .  Of course we decided to see if they would still shoot.  I loaded one , pow!   He loaded one , pow!   He loaded last one and just primer went off and shot just rolled out barrel, big laugh .   Decided to pick up and quit.   Jim is driving back to Green Bay in rural area where pheasants are planted at that time .  So he sees a rooster in ditch, can’t  hold back and decides he wants to swat it.  Pulls over quick . Loads a shell and walks into brush where pheasant went.  Rooster jumps and he shoots .   All heck  breaks loose as his barrel on his 870 bursts open just ahead of chamber !   Shot cup must have plugged barrel!   Very fortunate it burst away from face and he was not injured .   Donated barrel to hunter safety class instructor for visual aid.   YIKES , boneheaded stuff !

Dumb but scary now that I re think it, I was turkey hunting many years ago and like most i was sitting on the ground with my trusty 870 propped up on my knee I see a few red heads off to my right side, I pop the safety and I know I have to do the quick draw mcgraw on it because its my off shoulder so I swing up quick and twist to get a shot, I think it was a jake or it busted me and ran off so I lay the gun back down across my lap and POW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the adrenaline and not paying attention still having my finger in the trigger and safety off it shot another idk 4",5" my right foot woulda been gone!!  that shook me bad I left and is the reason now Im so conscious of gun safety and my safety being on that its just second nature now i routinely check it making sure its on always during any hunting. 

Mine just happened weeks ago. I was dragging out the doe I shot, going thru thick and dark cedar swamp until I really needed a rest. Pulling over logs and thru brush I knew the road was close so I went ahead a little ways to make sure. There in the distance visible in my headlamp beam was my own gut pile! Had a compass but didn't think I needed it. Went in a circle ......then the bone head  got it out.

16 years old, second gun deer season.  Decent buck shows up about 100 yards so I put the iron sights on him and miss.  Well, I had shot an 870 until then and had a Remington 742 '06.  I'm pulling on the fore end to beat he!! and nothing happens!  Then it dawns on me, "YOU'RE SHOOTING A SEMI-AUTO YOU IDIOT." By this time the buck had already found the next county!

That was 1980 and I heard about that until well after 2000.....

Forgot my shells at the house 15 minutes away. Returned in daylight and was climbing up  in my climber scraping bark on the tree. Looked down and there was an 8 pointer looking for a fight. Turned around, got gun off the sling across my back, and was finished! Classic!

When I was 16 years old I remember my dad and I used to hunt a property up in Marinette County that had a lot of low, swampy forest.  A couple of spots off the trail would fill in with water when it rained heavily.  A week before deer season we went to our stands to clear brush and the trail was bone dry.  We got a lot of rain the next few days and on opening day in the dark I trotted out to my spot and noticed part of the road was under water.  I figured it couldn't be that deep, right?  So with my chair and gun in hand I took a step into the water and it was over my boots!  Then my boot got stuck and I fell forward into the muddy water! Somehow I kept my gun out of the water, but I was pretty wet.  Not wanting to disturb my dad's hunting at all, I went to my hunting spot anyway, soaked from my waist down.  I sat there until about 10:30 but at that time I had had enough, so I went back to the car, stopping at my dad's stand on the way back and explaining to him what had happened.  He laughed! But I got the keys from him and drove to my aunt's house about  15 minutes away and dried my clothes and went back hunting for the evening.  Even though it wasn't below freezing, I'm lucky I didn't get hypothermia!