Have you ever had a “well, there goes the hunt” moment?

I once spent three hours stalking into iron-sighted revolver range and then inhaled some bit of something and went into a violent coughing fit. At least I learned that I had done a good job with the stalk, as the woods exploded into what seemed like a million critters headed every which way.

Climbed up into my tree stand, got comfy. Checking my lines of sight getting acclimated to this new-to-me stand...

Last night's chili his my stomach like a shot from a cannon.

"I can hold it" turns into "I can make it back to the cabin" turns into "better just avoid this stand the rest of the week" in about 10 minutes.

gotboostvr said:

Climbed up into my tree stand, got comfy. Checking my lines of sight getting acclimated to this new-to-me stand...

Last night's chili his my stomach like a shot from a cannon.

"I can hold it" turns into "I can make it back to the cabin" turns into "better just avoid this stand the rest of the week" in about 10 minutes.

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A long time ago I knew an old fellow who got his buck every year, usually on opening day. After a long dry streak he finally admitted that his gut just didn't work well anymore and he hadn't yet figured out how to fart quietly in the woods.

He was a grand old jokester, so none of us ever knew if he was just having us on or not, but I always liked the story anyway.

For my family, the elk ambush is usually revealed by a squirrel alerting the whole forest to our presence.

I made it out to the field with everything except my shotgun once.

It was drizzling rain in southern Missouri as I did my best to be sneaky snake. I would take a slow step, stop, look, and listen. Probably took me 15 minutes to cover 100 yards. This was a ridge that ran parallel to large creek and I had reached the edge where I could see into the creek bottom. It was beautiful with large trees and scattered patches of river cane. I was really patting myself on the back for such a great job of sneaking when it happened. My feet went out from under me on the slick hillside and I slid down the bank like a bobsled run. 30 feet down the hill I finally hit a tree and stopped. So much for the sneaky snake. Every deer within 200 yards could have heard me. I laughed then and I laugh now.

Another time one of my closest friends got us permission to turkey hunt in Missouri so we went up one evening to see if we could roost a bird. We threw our gear in my truck and drove the 60 miles to the farm. We never heard a bird that was close but decided to try it in the morning.

The next day my friend said that we could take his rig so away we went. "Skiver, did I put my gun in your truck?" I asked almost an hour later. You guessed it. My gun was still in my truck. No biggie, I'll just call one for Skive. Well, we hunted about 5 hours without hearing one single bird and to make it up to me Skive said that he would buy me breakfast. Pulling into the diner he found that he had left his wallet at home. He had driven 120 miles with no drivers license, hunted out-of-state with no hunting license, we had left my gun at home and I had to buy breakfast.

Was sitting on a ridge overlooking a valley that had a small creek dammed by beavers to my right several hundred yards away.
The creek had little water flowing at that time during Minnesota's firearm season. and it was cold!
Looking down into the valley allowed a good view as it was open like a field, kinda marshy with grasses.
See movement to my right.
1, 2. 3, and 4....Timberdawgs* going downstream on the ice and banks. Two black, two "normal".
Well, they were not pushing any deer and I figured there may be none in the area.
I left after a while....

*Gray Timber Wolves.

I was on an elk hunt in the Frank Church Wilderness in Idaho. We had six days to hunt. One guy shot a raghorn the first day. His 16 yo daughter shot a nice 5x5 two days later. My buddy shot a 5x6 the next day. Finally, on the afternoon of the last day, I had a beautiful 6x6 broadside in my scope about 130 yards away - chest was as big as a barn door - couldn't miss. I touched off the shot.

We were hunting in "dark timber" but not the kind normally referred to. This area had been burned a couple of years before so all the trees were quite black. And due the overcast conditions there wasn't a lot of light, but plenty, or so I thought.

As I was recovering from the recoil, I saw the elk jump and at the same time, my buddy said, "<insert naughty word>, you shot a branch!" Yep, he said about 40 yards out a branch just exploded. A combination of low light, black branch against dark hide and I didn't see it in the scope. So yup, there went the hunt...

Best one ever I think. I was bow hunting a stand of oaks at the corner of a bunch of woods that jutted out into a field on 2 sides, a logging road on the 3rd side and heavy thick woods behind me. It’s my favorite spot in the whole world and I plan to be buried there. Anyways, I have a good buck on camera, scrapes all around me, and it’s about 30 minutes before the big boy normally shows up on the cameras. Does in the oaks, it’s shaping up to be THAT day that you relive time and time again. And then the low rumble. And it gets louder. It’s deafening. And the Chinook lands in the field 100 yards away with problems. That day was done.

or... same stand when I was 19, fell asleep and fell out of the stand. Knocked the wind out of me and was sore for a week. Or when I was 20 in the same stand when I fell asleep again and fell out of the stand again but this time with a harness on. Sudden stop #1 was vertical and hurt. Sudden stop #2 was my fave against the tree trunk. It also hurt, and I couldn’t get down. Had no cell service. Cut the harness and fell. Sudden stop #3 added insult to injury.

Last fall during opening weekend I was seeing bucks in every direction from my climber. In the early afternoon, I heard a shot, then a text from my youngest son (17) that he had shot a nice buck and watched it go down.
I congratulated him and suggested that he wait 15min to get down and tag him.
15min later.....I get a call, "dad, I can't find my buck. Can you come help me.?. Sure. [Crap, there goes my hunt]
By the time I get down, and walk to my Honda, and make the mile to the other timber, he realized he was looking near the wrong log.

His buck was dead, right where he saw him go down.

Okay, great. Let's get some pics, load him up, and I'll get back in my stand for the evening hours.
Moments later, while taking the pics, mitch said, "dad, get your gun, there's a buck coming right at us!" Mitch handed my slug gun to me, and I turned and popped a 8pt at about 20 yds.
Neither buck was a big hero, but my son and i shared a great experience. We loaded both bucks, and spent the evening processing them at home.


Sometimes it all works out in the end.

I didn't but my older son Cam did, thanks to his younger brother. Cam and I were in tree stands about 50 yards apart, him facing the swamp the deer haunt, and me the edge of the woods they sneak to the swamp from. Dylan, my younger son was about 7 or 8 then, but wanted to come with real bad! So I put him on the ground under Cam's stand, and told him to be quiet and don't fidget. He didn't fidget, to his credit. I heard some rustling grass behind me, and in the corner of my glasses, I could see a deer skirting the edge of the swamp. Looked over at Cam, and he is slowly bringing his shotgun up and just as he gets it to his shoulder, Dyl yells, "HEY LOOK, THERE'S A DEER!" Cam grabbed a slug from his vest, and nailed Dyl on the top of the head with it, and Dyl comes running over to me crying, and I told him, "Don't come to me, I'd have done the same thing!" Cam didn't want to hunt with his brother for about 10 years.

1976B.L.Johns. said:

1, 2. 3, and 4....Timberdawgs* going downstream on the ice and banks.

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I have only seen individuals on the two occasions I have seen them.

In the wide open west, and hunting elk, it can be a total crap shoot as to the days results! They may be out there at 300 yds...but they are looking at you. Stalk? Walk? or just go on down the road to the next sighting. Who can say, but the end of the day could be really close!!

My BIL, as we stood looking at a dead moose in a nasty place, "Nothing ruins a moose hunt quite as much as someone actually shooting one."

Aletheia said:

"Nothing ruins a moose hunt quite as much as someone actually shooting one."

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Yup! I remember my Uncle (RIP) telling me about his and my Aunt's hunt.
They got one, very remote. Luckily on their first trek out with meat, along came some other hunters. These others helped my Uncle and Aunt getting the rest of the game out of the woods.
He said my aunt served supper to everyone sometime after midnight...

I sure do miss him!............................

Aletheia said:

"Nothing ruins a moose hunt quite as much as someone actually shooting one."

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On the contrary, I was very lucky on getting our Minnesota moose.
Less than a quarter of a mile from a one track road. Out of the bush and into a commercial cooler in less than six hours!
Was truly blessed that day!

gotboostvr said:

Climbed up into my tree stand, got comfy. Checking my lines of sight getting acclimated to this new-to-me stand...

Last night's chili his my stomach like a shot from a cannon.

"I can hold it" turns into "I can make it back to the cabin" turns into "better just avoid this stand the rest of the week" in about 10 minutes.

Click to expand...

lol like 25 years ago I was in my tree stand bow hunting. The wind was howling in from the north. I had my hands jammed in my Wall coveralls and I'm facing the trunk, just trying to keep warm until predawn so I can start paying attention. Sun begins to come up, and man I have got to go. Gut is churning. This can't be suppressed. I wrestled with it a while and then said screw it the day is over I gotta do something about this. Down out of the tree, out of the woods into a patch of corn stubble. Squirm out of my coveralls and squat right there in the snowy stubble. Ripped my boxers into strips lol. We had had a Halloween snowstorm that year and it's as cold as can be in early November. Had a sense of something and looked over my shoulder. Hunter orange. A large and a much smaller figure walking in the stubble along the tree line, right toward me, ass hanging in the wind. A dad and his son out bird hunting. They figured it out about 60 yards away and did a u-turn and I finished my business and packed up my gear and hiked back to the truck.

Aletheia said:

My BIL, as we stood looking at a dead moose in a nasty place, "Nothing ruins a moose hunt quite as much as someone actually shooting one."

Click to expand...

I, too, have experienced this firsthand. My Dad shot a bull right as I was lining up on the cow he had ditched when Dad dropped me off where they both were. Then the work started.

mlankton said:

I finished my business and packed up my gear and hiked back to the truck.

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Caught with pants down, funny!

gotboostvr said:

Climbed up into my tree stand, got comfy. Checking my lines of sight getting acclimated to this new-to-me stand...

Last night's chili his my stomach like a shot from a cannon.

"I can hold it" turns into "I can make it back to the cabin" turns into "better just avoid this stand the rest of the week" in about 10 minutes.

Click to expand...

Had that happen. 20 plus feet up in a stand. Scrambled to get safety belt off, climb down and peel out of coveralls.....just in the nick of time.
Covered it up and went home (not feeling well enough to continue hunting).
Next day, same stand.........blast a 115" 9 pointer. Nothing great, but hey it counts.

Curiosity got the best of me and I went looking for the day's previously hidden treasure. Gone.
Figured a 'possum got it.

Hunted a place where 2 small farms over the guy had a machine gun shoot. Middle of early bow season.
Lots of stuff going off, for hours.
Never saw deer on any of his party days.

Same place, but high above, the jets used to do dogfights once in a while........roaring for a couple hrs.
Nothing moving those days.

And when the wind was right, a campground had an early bow season bluegrass festival. That kinda sucked too (not a fan of that genre).

After a couple times ya just know what it's gonna be like and pack up.

Woke up on morning in camp sick as dog. Flu. That pretty much killed that hunt.

So there I was in a section of woods that borders public land. The great thing about it...., the hunting on the public land pushes deer onto the private land where I am.

I'm creeping around and have gotten into a pretty good position between the standing field corn and the little creek. I checked the prime on my flintlock, and refresh it, and start to wait. In the distance I can hear several dogs barking, and perhaps the faint noise of some sort of horn....,

The sound of the dogs is nearer, BUT hey that will definitely push any stubborn deer my way. THEN..., a red fox comes running through the woods past the fallen logs where I am sitting, he's almost close enough that I could've tapped him on the head with the muzzle of my rifle, as I sat there awaiting a deer to wander past. He's doesn't notice me and isn't flat out sprinting, but has a good pace, and is moving in a pretty straight line.

OH NO! IT CAN'T BE

So about a minute later, the sound of the approaching hounds getting louder and louder, then the whole pack comes trundling by...



Followed in short order by about ten riders in "pinks" and one fellow blowing on a tiny little horn. Tooroo tooroo tooroo....tooroo, roo, rooooo......

Now this IS private property, and I know from the land owner that he hasn't given the fox hunters permission to cross his boundary and hunt on his property, but the fox and the dogs don't read warning signs (Well OK so IF they do read English..., they never obey warning sighs, eh ?), so even if the riders had respected the property boundary, the hounds had made the day's hunt completely FUBAR.

OH Well....

So it's like this. I can't hunt certain locations on two different farms where I have permission because if I did, I might shoot in a direction where the bullet, even from my muzzle loader, would cross the boundary line, and I don't know how close the other properties have tree stands, because of some pretty thick evergreens, if there is a hunter or just a person on their property over in that direction.

So, YES it's legal to fox hunt on the strip of public land that is the state park, and on any private land that borders the park and permission is given..., but since you have to be on horseback, it means a pretty good distance is involved, and the area is just NOT good for that type of hunting, with dozens of tiny "hobby farms". So why engage in it in the first place if one knows (or should know) that it's likely the quarry and the dogs will trespass ???



LD

Me and a hunting buddy were setting up in a hard blind (they call them shooting houses here- I call them hard blinds because a shooting house to me is something else) for a night hog hunt, at his deer lease about 20 miles from here. As usual, we checked the inside of the blind before we went in for various critters. Its summer in Fl, so potentially anything could be in there. We checked real good. Then we settle in very quietly with all of our gear (suppressed rifles, night vision, etc.) Suddenly we are being attacked in a coordinated assault by wasps. Panic ensued- 2 guys and all their stuff trying to simultaneously exit a wood building slightly bigger than your average outhouse in the dark, with fully unsuppressed profanities. Things clattering to the floor, chairs flying out the door- total pandemonium. If there had been country music playing, it would have sounded like a bar fight. A surefire white light revealed the area we had overlooked- the wasps had chosen the bottom of the chair I plopped my butt down in to make their nest, and when I plopped there, it woke them up. Since the can of wasp spray kept in the blind was among the items that got kicked out of the blind during the chaos (along with the chair), we were able to kill the nest. We decided to stay a while since we were already there, but set up outside of the blind since there was still wasps inside. Immediately, an unforcasted NW Fl thunderstorm exploded above us. The kind that is so severe that you can't hardly see anything in front of you in the daylight, let alone at night under night vision. It was then that we decided it was time to regroup and call it. That's what we did- soaking wet at waffle house, laughing our butts off at the whole ordeal. BTW- putting copenhagen on a wasp sting doesn't achieve anything except making you have less copenhagen. Total waste of time and copenhagen.

I declare FL-NC the winner on this one. I'll be chuckling about it all day......