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

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Yesterday. Went in for an angiogram to prepare for aortic valve replacement. Found out I have one artery to the heart 100% blocked, another 80%. Won't be a trans catheter job now. Open heart recovery will about wipe out deer season this year. As the cubs fans say, "Wait til next year". (At 76, the number of "next years" is dwindling)
At least they found it, hopefully in time. I've got another grandson on the way to see.

Prayers for your recovery.
Spooked a buck while squirrel hunting one year. Thing had a aluminum pie plate stuck to its antlers. Got it from neighbors garden. Everything with in a mile heard it.
 
Had one just last night. Drove 45 minutes down to the cabin to bow hunt after leaving it sit for a coupla weeks. Was hoping the change in weather would get the deer moving. Pulled in to see numerous folks and dogs running around in the food plot below my main stand. Apparently the neighbors thought the change in weather was a good excuse to walk to the top of the bluff to see how far they could see now with the leaves gone. Yep......they were on their way out. Figured I would try a set-up on another food plot on the other side of the property only to find fresh boot and dog tracks in a scrape under the apple tree. Knew it was a lost cause but sat anyway. Didn't hardly see a squirrel or even a Blu-Jay. Wanted to say somethin' to them but I didn't, it was just wives and kids, and I think they knew I was upset. The one wife said...."I guess we shoulda called first......".
 
Got into a box blind after dark one night. It was about 28 degrees outside. I got the heater going and sat back to await potential hogs.

The box blind is 4x4 feet with a pyramid roof, painted green inside and out. I had one window cracked open about 4" to watch for hogs and to have fresh air.

About 1 hour after I got the heater going, things started dropping down on me. At first, I figured it was just a couple of moths. Then I made the mistake of turning on my headlamp and saw that I had several live wasps crawling on me and when I looked up at the ceiling, there were hundreds of wasps.

They had huddled up in the ceiling to stay warm and then I turned on the heat and really warmed them up. And then I got stung, and stung again.

I could not leave fast enough. It was raining wasps inside the blind.
 
I could not leave fast enough. It was raining wasps inside the blind.

That is BAD!!!

Nothing scares me more than getting stung. Some of us are allergic....I for one am, but does not keep me cooped up!

Only twice (so far) have I had to get myself to an emergency room for treatment, even after using an epi-pen and eating Benadryl....
 
Got into a box blind after dark one night. It was about 28 degrees outside. I got the heater going and sat back to await potential hogs.

The box blind is 4x4 feet with a pyramid roof, painted green inside and out. I had one window cracked open about 4" to watch for hogs and to have fresh air.

About 1 hour after I got the heater going, things started dropping down on me. At first, I figured it was just a couple of moths. Then I made the mistake of turning on my headlamp and saw that I had several live wasps crawling on me and when I looked up at the ceiling, there were hundreds of wasps.

They had huddled up in the ceiling to stay warm and then I turned on the heat and really warmed them up. And then I got stung, and stung again.

I could not leave fast enough. It was raining wasps inside the blind.

Sure you weren't hunting with FL-NC? ;)
 
That is BAD!!!

Nothing scares me more than getting stung. Some of us are allergic....I for one am, but does not keep me cooped up!

Only twice (so far) have I had to get myself to an emergency room for treatment, even after using an epi-pen and eating Benadryl....

I am no more allergic than most people (nearly everybody is somewhat allergic, just not dangerously so, like you), but wasp stings seem particularly painful to me. I hate getting stung and now am actually a beekeeper, which means I get stung occasionally. It is just part of the job and not unexpected to happen occasionally. However, the notion of being in a 'box' in the dark with hundred of wasps is somewhat terrifying. In fact, I just bug bombed my own box stand on my property that had become a wasp refuge. I hope that when I show up next, I just need to brush out a few dozen carcasses and be ready to hunt.
 
Walked into my back field 2 years ago (during alternate methods season) and spotted 2 bucks. Cocked the hammer on my Lyman Great Plains BP rifle and watched both bucks get spooked and run in different directions.

Much easier to hunt with an AR15 pistol.
 
Several years ago, while sitting on a deer stand, I developed a bad case of the "runs". About 50 yards from my stand was a sandy wash. When it rained the wash would run with water and, when it was dry, there was(is) several inches of sand in it. The sandy area is about 10 X 20 ft.

Over the course of the morning I made 6 trips to the wash to relieve myself. Dug cat-holes and covered everything up properly.

About 11 AM along came a nice 6 point buck and crossed just a few feet above the wash. I made a nice shot but still had to stop twice on the way out to take care of business.

It ain't over until it's over.
 
Several times, and yet the hunt still worked out.

During blackpowder season I once shot at a buck who was working a scrape. He was maybe 110 yards away, I got the gun up, eased on that trigger and waited for the boom. What I got was a "pow!" as the primer went off but failed to ignite the main charge. Hearing a misfire in the quiet woods is far louder in my mind that an actual shot. That buck whipped his head up so fast I thought he'd break his neck. My heart sank, but I kept the crosshairs on him just in case the load caught...it never did. After a minute of him scanning the woods and me having a heart attack while trying to keep the scope on him, he lowered his head back to the scrape. What?! I opened the "bolt" on my inline rifle, tipped the primer disc out to ready it for a fresh primer, and the old one dropped from the breach and hit my metal tree stand on the way down. TINK! He snapped his head up again. He KNEW something was in those Mississippi woods with him, but he just didn't want to leave that scrape. He lowered his head again and I though "Wow, I might actually pull this off." I got the fresh primer in, closed the bolt, and BOOOOOOM! He dropped face first into that scrape. Twice I thought the hunt was done and twice that bucks behavior cost him his life.

Another time I was hunting in a ladder stand with my then 5 or 6 year old son. It was getting to be sundown and while there were no deer on our field, I could see through the treeline to the next field over, and there were several doe there. I told my son to stay put while I climbed down, stalked over there, and shot one. I told him to be real quiet so we didn't spook any deer. I climbed down and began creeping. I'd made it perhaps 20 yards when I heard a loud commotion behind me that sounded like a series of blows on metal. He had dropped his hearing protection and it sounded like it hit every step on the way down. He froze, I froze, they froze. Everyone was now perfectly still, trying to either pretend like nothing happened, or figure out what just happened depending on which side you were on. After a tense few minutes I was able to resume my stalk and we put one in the freezer.

So many times it seems like a hunt is busted, but great stuff still happens. Heck, one time on public land I shimmied up a tree to hunt a power line and two guys showed up trying to do a deer drive. Ruined the whole thing. They told me to just get ready because they might push one to me. They made a bunch of racket when they showed up, and again when they left. Heck, they parked right on the field that the powerline crossed. After they left I started walking back up the powerline to the field and I heard something. It sounded like branches hitting. I stopped to look around but saw nothing. As I came up the hill and could see the field, a GIANT buck was standing there absolutely thrashing a set of small saplings. He was ripping it up not 35 yards from where those guys had parked.

The hunt is not over until you get back to the truck. Anything can happen, even when you think it can't.
 
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