rookelkhunter

I am wondering what the biggest mistake any of you have made while hunting a big game animal. It can virtually anything; during the hunt, in camp, on the way to your hunting destination, etc.. The one thing in all of your years of hunting that you still tell the story about, maybe with some remaining anger, maybe embarrassment, maybe because you are thankful you are still alive,etc..

crazydd4

My first hunt was a buffalo in Montana, I shot a .338 and didnt realize how much the kick would be. I shot and killed the buffalo but in the process scoped myself and made a total fool out of myself- good learning experience!!!

Jorgy

This is a story that I love to tell, since it wasn' t me. 12 years ago when I first moved to Colorado I went elk hunting with a friend of mine and a friend of his. His friend had horses, so this would be our very first elk on horse hunting trip. We were in the Gunnison area and we had to ride up about 6-7 miles every morning to get up high enough to were the elk were. Ken (my friend) and I aren' t any type of horse experts so whenever we would get to the really narrow switchbacks we would always get off of the horses and lead them up the trail. After a few days of this Bill (kens friend) was getting sick of having to wait for us and started to bitch about us wasting time, so we decided to ride up the swtichbacks on the horses. After going around one of them Ken got a little freaked out and tried to stop his horse by pulling back on his reins. I guess he pulled back a little too long so the horse started to back up, Making Ken pull back on the reins even harder to make the horse stop. About 4 steps later I could see that the horse was about to step off of the trail, and hence take on nasty step off of the side of the mountain. Bill and I both yelled at the same time for Ken to jump off, and he did just as the horse stepped off of the side of the mountain. The horse slid for about 100 feet or so, then started to slid on it' s side, then went end over end (yes, end over end)! It did 3 complete summer saults until about 100 yards down the mountain it' s ass came to the base of a tree and the horse went completely up on the air against the tree and smacked it' s head against the tree, then fell back to the ground and slid maybe another 100 yards back to the trail below us. Ken scrambled down the slope and caught the horse and walked him back up to us. He had a quite a few scrapes on his legs and was bleeding a bit from where his head hit the tree, but was in one piece.

That was the most amazing thing that I ever saw. The next morning of course the horse wasn' t in riding shape and was pretty sore, but he was alright.

bigbulls

My father and I were hunting elk and came back to camp about 10:30 for some food for us and the horses. We decided to take a cat nap for about an hour then go back to hunting. When we left to go back out we checked on the horses and saw where a large elk had walked directly through our makeshift pen, with the horses in it, not 30 feet behind the tent and then down the exact trail that we had just walked back to camp on. Just goes to show you that you need to be on your toes all of the time while in elk country.

trapper T

I had a 6x4 bull @ 41 paces @ opening light facing me.But when I went to pull down I brought the scope to right between his eyesand thought,of ruining the rack(splitting the skull) and I could' nt actually see where the duplex crossed against the brown hide.So I kept moving down until I saw the complete duplex.By this time(matter of a couple seconds) he started to pivot when I touched off so I ended up Hitting him in the crease between the front shoulder and chest.At the same time my dad' s gun misfired,actually later found that the firing pin was dirty and when he pulled the trigger when he saw the front shoulder,but the gun finally went off when he saw the back foot.Needless to say with a marginal lung hit it went for three miles and ran right into a group of road hunters and they tipped it over.I had made a fatal hit,but most know how far an elk can go on a lung shot.Well after a 1/2 hour of arguing and being out numbered 6to2 we gave in.Worst day of my hunting life.We did find that I hit one lung and my Dad' s shot hit the rear hoof.moralON" T EVEN THINK OF THE RACK UNTIL YOU PUT THE TAG ON IT!!!
And make sure your weapon is going to function properly,don' t take for granted that it' s clean,even hidden parts.That senario,if I ever have a chance of that nature again will play out in a long and prosperous pack job.

rather_be_huntin

I' ve got a couple but one of favorites involved a couple of other people. One year I decided to take my girlfriend and another good friend elk hunting. We saw a spike on opening morning and told my girlfriend to shoot it. She was a good shot, sometimes out shot me but that day was her first time shooting at an animal. She shot my 7mm mag and that scope came right back and clocked her so hard that she broke her glasses and cut her pretty good on the bridge of her nose. She missed that elk by a mile and after a few seconds we realized her biggest injury was to her pride. My friend and I laughed so hard he fell off a log he was standing on and broke his foot. She was so mad at us that she walked the two miles back to camp alone while I carted my injured friend back on the 4-wheeler. The trip was ruined. My friend needed to see a doctor so I took him back to town and when I got back to camp my girlfriend had everything packed up and informed me we were going home. On the way home one of the suspension springs broke on the tent trailer so the rest of the way was real slow going. By the time we got home it was 2:00am and my girlfriends roommate had locked her out of her place but she was so pissed at me she didn' t want to stay at my place. I had to give her a tent and sleeping bag and she camped in her own back yard. We broke up the next day, she said I was not sensitive enough for her. To this day my friend and I laugh about the whole situation.

hntngirl

About five years ago I hauled my trailer way up into the mountains and parked it in a wide spot with a half-grown line of reprod around it. Opening morning I got up while it was still dark and had to go pee. I was in a hurry, so I just slipped on my jeans and didn' t bother to tie my boots. But the biggest mistake (the one you get told a million times not to make) was I didn' t take my gun. I walked into the trees, which were only about 15-20 feet behind the trailer, and knew immediately what a big mistake it was. A whole herd had bedded down right on the other side of the treeline. They jumped up and took off like they were shot out of a cannon! By the time I ran back and grabbed my gun, they had completely disappeared down this draw. I followed tracks most of that day and never did find them. That will never happen to me again!

rookelkhunter

All great stories (rather b..you had me rollin' ! )...keep them comin' !

Cyrus

One year I decided to use skunk scent as a cover scent for bowhunting deer. Big mistake!
I bought a bottle of it and made up a couple canisters with cotton balls that I could hang in the tree near me.
So first thing in the morning my buddy and I are on the deck of the cabin getting ready to head out and I remember that I have to fill these canisters with my secret weapon. It' s pitch black and all the cabin lights are off when I pull it out and try to twist off the lid but it won' t come off. I give it to my buddy who tries and still nothing. After using our teeth and everything we finally pull out a flashlight and see that it has been sealed with heat shrink tape. So I pull that off and open the bottle. Holy cow, did that stuff stink. I immediately started to gag and my eyes started watering. All the while my buddy is killing himself laughing. So I give the stuff to him and while holding a mini mag light in my mouth I get him to pour the stuff into the canister that I' m holding. He tips the bottle and nothing comes out. He gives it a little shake and still nothing. So now he gives it a pretty good shot and this grey sludge that can only be described as minced skunk comes flying out all over my hand and arm. Well, I started gagging, coughing and retching again while he laughed his a$$ off. Well, he laughed until the stench hit him too and then he started caoughing and gagging.
At that point I grabbed the bottle and scent canisters and basically pitched them as far as I could into the bush.

The good part is that while I was on stand I was so worried that the whole cabin was going to stink because of all that crap that spilled on the deck that I got down early and headed back to wash it off. On my way back a 120" 9 point buck popped up at 25 yards and I got my first bow kill.
He sure couldn' t have smelled me!

trailer

Boy you guys sure have some good stories. I wish I had one to share. Like rookelkhunter said. Keep them coming.