Describe your most miserable hunt.....
 

The one that got worse and worse....for whatever reason.

never had A miserable hunt but have had a few miserable trips getting there.
me an a buddy once picked up a third member of our party when he got off work at ten p.m. we headed out got about 50 miles and he realized he forgot his tags. so back we went. got his tags.
we paid him back for it though.he decided to get in back and sleep in his sleeping bag. it was cold and he wanted back up front after a few miles but we let him suffer for twenty or so miles.
we finally got to motel about 3 a.m. should have just slept in truck for a couple hours. so we get up couple hours later and our driver had locked keys in the truck. he wouldn't let us break a window so we had to wait till 10 or so for a locksmith to show up. finally got to hunting and same driver was walking through brush and somehow jammed a twig from a tree in his ear while walking and bled like a stuck pig. saw no deer at all that day. next day we got two does down but while packing them up the hill to truck, same guy that drove started acting like his ticker was going.he lay down on ground for awhile to catch his breath and we helped him to truck . he seemed o.k. so we went and got our deer then brought him to get checked out . turned out he was o.k. just a big kitty.
all in all hunt was o.k. and if it wasn't for all the b.s I probably wouldn't even remember that hunt

I'd hunted with this guide before, in previous years, he was an OK guy. He was having some heart issues and sent us out with his son and another guide I didn't know.

We left around midnight and drove mostly up the mountain for a few hours. Got to our destination around 3 A.M., it was super dark and around 40 degrees out. First off these guys kind of wave toward the east and say your shooting tower is that way. I ask how far, thinking I might walk past it. They said just go that direction you'll see it. It turned out to be south of east and well over a mile away, just blind luck I eventually found it, after walking maybe half the distance through dew wet waist high Rape fields. I was pretty much soaking wet from the waist down

Temperature plummeted to around freezing or below, wind picked up to around 30 MPH and sideways sleet was blowing in through the windows into the tower, it was an open tower from the waist up.

I knew I was getting a bit hyporthermic, pulled out my blanket, then my poncho, then put my feet inside my rucksack and curled up into a ball. Looked around for some better cover and there wasn't any. I was planing on waiting for first light and then making my way back to the truck.

I eventually decided I had to get out of that place and headed mostly west. I really have no idea how far I walked, but eventually saw a light in the distance and headed that direction. I eventually found a farm house, the guy and his wife were nice. I don't speak Czech or Russian, they didn't speak English, German or Spanish, but I guess just by looking at me they figured out what was going on. Everything after that is a blur, just a few lucid moments for the next thirty hours or so.

I'd been colder for longer, much longer, I figure it was just me not sleeping enough for days, eating right, the altitude and maybe the drastic temperature change that sent me into serious hypothermia.

I'm guessing another hour or so outside and I would have been Buzzard food.

Woke up in a warm bed, under a down blanket, my clothes cleaned, my rifle cleaned and my wallet laying on the bed stand. Seriously these people didn't have much, between my rifle and my wallet there was a years wages for them. They could have dumped me in a ditch and then pleaded ignorance.

Back in about '95, I hunted w/a group of 2-7 friends. Me and my best hunting pal , Donnie,had purchased rights to hunt Chesapeake Corps. paper mill property in West Point, VA. 2 other friends purchased rights after we told them about it.

Donnie had to work on the upcoming Sat., so it would be me and a friend named Keith on this trip. Snow fell overnight and I was looking forward to hunting in it. The hunt area was 1.5 hrs. away. On the way there, the snow changed to sleet and rain. We decided to continue.

Upon arrival, we both pointed out our locations . About an hour into the hunt the skies began to clear. Neither of us had high tech clothing at this time. Bottom line: During the whole, roughly 3 hr. escapade, the wind was constantly rustling, and the light rain had melted the snow on tree limbs, constantly sending it down on us. Rustling wind and the sound of falling snow was the only thing to be heard. What the rain hadn't melted, the sun did. We were both like cold, wet, frozen mops. When he came walking over to me, there were no questions it was past time to go. Even the animals were smart enough to not move in those conditions.
We couldn't leave fast enough!

Even my miserable hunts where still better than being at work if I say so myself.

Few years ago was planning to meet my father in an area along the ICW (Inner Coastal Waterway) to hunt the marsh. Packed the truck the night prior and was sure I packed everything. Got out to sight before light and getting my gear ready could not find my hunter orange hat. So had to drive all the way back home and searched for about an hour without any luck finding it. Said screw it I grabbed an orange rag from my garage figured use it as a bandana on my head (now that I think of it not sure it legal or not) and headed back. Father waited for me on the edge of a food plot, sun was up now for a half hour. Went to put my jacket on and found my hat down in the sleeve of all places. Was pissed at my own lack of thorough inspection.

Heading out went through a marshy area only to find the soles of one of my boots had a crack in it letting in water so now had a soaked foot. Got to an area with alot of sign so we split and each took an area and sat to wait for anything moving. Happened the marsh ground was just like a sponge so now my backside was soaking in water. Few hours later called it a day and my father lead the way out. Ended up hiking us into a swamp that stunk like crap with mud sucking out feet in and thorn vines all over the place. So after getting even more soaked/muddy and tore up from the thorns and making it back to the truck we called it a day. I stripped to my skivvies and jumped into the truck with the heater blasting, wife had plenty of questions when i returned looking like I was beating/ bleeding and pretty much naked.

In 1984 my brother and I plus 4 other guys headed to our elk camp in CO. Back then we hunted an area around Hightower Mountain which is south of Silt, CO. This is one of those areas with only 1 way in through public land. It has a couple of private ranches around it and the next nearest public road in was about 15 miles away. This was a great area for elk since few people hunted it and the elk would leave the pressured areas and head there. By the 2nd or 3rd day of the rifle season it would be full of elk.

The main problem with hunting it was the road in was spooky rough and you couldn't get a full size pickup in. We used Jeeps and the original Ford Bronco to get in. This was before the days of ATVs. Normally we would take 2 pickups and 2 smaller rigs and make a couple of trips in with the smaller rigs to transfer gear from the pickups. Back then CO had a separate deer and elk season and we would set up 2 or 3 wall tents and have a camp set up for both seasons. Deer season was first and elk season was later.

We got settled in for elk season and on opening morning a friend of my brother shot a good bull and while we were packing it back to camp it began to snow. Not a big deal since snow is pretty common in CO during elk season. However, this storm was different because it didn't quit. It snowed harder and harder. We hunkered down in the wall tents and waited it out. 3 days later it stopped and the snow was even with the bottom of the headlights on my 1976 Jeep Renegade. Since we were more than 10 miles from the main road, we were in serious trouble.

We packed up as soon as the snow stopped and began to try and get out. This was one of those cases of shovel, drive, shovel, drive, shovel, drive etc... It ended up taking us 9 days to get out and we abandoned about $20K worth of gear since we had to make it out in one trip. That was the last time I hunted the Hightower Mountain Area. Found out later the state of CO had to airlift out over 400 hunters that season.

I am not sure what the final snowfall was but it was measured in feet. The high parts of the Rio Grande N.F. was one of the areas that had the helicopter airlifts. I heard some guys had to leave their livestock, and a couple of hunters died on the mountain. I can not remember exactly what year that was but it was big national news.

The next time we hunted that area it started to snow and one of our guys got so spooked that he was trying to get us to break camp and run for it when the snow was only about 4" - 6". We stayed but you can bet that we kept a close eye on the snow accumulation every hour or so.

15 years ago on an Indiana hunting trip in December was one I rate as misearable. It was unusually warm that morning so I packed light and left the camp for an all day hunt. By mid-day a thunderstorm came in and it rained hard till dark. The temperatures dropped 20 degrees. Lightning hit the ground about 100 yards away so I went back to camp but I didn't have a key to the camper.

The thunder and lightning went away but the rain got worse. Stuck outside I attempted to go back out and hunt. My cheap clothing with the water proof finish failed me and ended up soaking wet in December. I started to get the shakes, the beginning of hypothermia, so I started a fire in a area of pine trees. It took a lot of effort to keep the fire going and ended up spending my evening in my long underwear gathering any dry wood to keep warm and dry my clothes. At dark my father showed up and laughed at me for not having a real quality set of rain gear. Needless to say I have learned from that mistake and invested in quality rain gear.