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2019 Hunting Season Bonehead Moves

I connected my bow pull up F2E9F505-8B42-4F71-B63A-BC9493ABE40C.jpegrope to the wrong end so when I went to pull it up it got caught on my first stick's aider and I had to fight with it for about ten minutes. My jacket was attached to the bow as well and it fell off during the commotion. It was my first saddle sit ever though so I was excited.
 
Not saddle related and it ended well but definitely bone headed and could have been a disaster.

September 2019, New Meh-hee-co public land.

My wife and I spotted the muley in my profile pic and 4 of his buddies from 440 yards away across a basin.

I stalked to 45 yards of the group, the sun was directly behind me and wind was in my face, they had no idea I was there.

I saw the group feeding towards a small juniper tree and ranged the tree, 30 yards on the dot.

The biggest one held back as the next biggest fed towards me, I had already decided the first legal deer to present a shot was going to eat carbon.

The deer fed to right in front of the tree I had ranged and gave me a perfect 30 yard broadside shot.

I distinctly remember going through my entire shot sequence, releasing, seeing the arrow fly to the deer, no hollow thud sound of the arrow hitting meat or smacking on bone but hearing SMACK as the arrow hit a rock and watching the deer I shot at casually walking off seemingly uninjured.

The rest of his buddies scattered but didn't blow out.

Here is where I screwed up.

Instead of immediately going to check my arrow I told myself that I had missed and shot right over the deer's back and started eyeing the bigger buck doing the muley lookback 50 yards away at the top of the hill.

You can probably see where this is going...

I immediately knocked another arrow and started stalking towards the bigger buck, he still didn't know I was there but knew something was up.

I closed 10 yards to the bigger buck, trying to maneuver to get a shot when he decided that enough was enough and strolled off.

I felt dejected and went back to find my arrow, which I promptly found, covered in blood...

Oh crap, I almost REALLY screwed up!!!!!

My wife had been glassing the whole thing from across the basin, saw where my deer had gone down, and was just about to yell at me to stop when the deer blew out and saved me from myself.

I'm incredibly glad I didn't end up taking two deer with only one tag and having to make the call of shame to the game warden and beg forgiveness for being an idiot.

I dodged my own bullet and learned to ALWAYS check my arrow before doing anything else no matter what I think of the shot I made!!!!
 
Took a Thursday morning off from work and got up extra early to give myself plenty of time to get through some thick areas to get to my spot. Once I crossed some cattails to get to the back side of a point I struggled to locate the right tree. Finally thought I found it so put my spurs on grabbed pull rope tied my bow. I went to hook lineman belt on tree and realized I did not have my coat tied around my waist. I knew immediately I forgot to tie it around my waist before I left truck. It's 20 degrees out and I only have a base layer top on. I thought I maybe able to stick it out for little while as there was no wind. Upon further thought I realized with my release in my coat pocket I likely would have a difficult time shooting a deer.
I was so mad and sweating so bad when i got back to the truck that I managed to make it in to work on time that morning.
 
I have a twofer and they both happened on Saturday.

#1 I shot a doe around 9:30am, heard her crash but figured I'd give it another hour or so since it's the rut and who knows what could come by at any time. I don't see anything so I get down around 10:30 walk back to my car and get my kill kit. I think "I should bring my bow just in case", decide not to and proceed to gut the doe. After I've finished I hear a doe snorting, turn around (I'm in some thick mountain laurel) and here comes a doe at top speed with a little spike and a nice 8 on her heels. They proceed to run right at me then veer off at about 4 yards. They circled around a few times, of course right in front of the tree I was just sitting in. The spike walked up to about 10 yards and began staring at me, while the 8 continued the chase. Not a great picture but sum it up would have had a chip shot to the 8 if I'd have stayed in the tree. Needless to say I'll be carrying my bow with me any time I'm in the field during legal shooting hours.

#2 This is more of a bad luck situation, but head back out to hunt with my father-in-law in the afternoon around 2:30. After hunting he pulls the card from his camera and you guessed it, a really nice (for NE PA) 10 point goes strolling 20 yards in front of his ground blind about an hour before he got up there.

Screen Shot 2019-11-20 at 4.47.13 PM.pngScreen Shot 2019-11-20 at 4.43.52 PM.png
 
DaWiz9578 said:
I might take the cake, I was the public land idiot for a day. Almost all hunts so far I go in blind around 12-1 scout around to about 3 and setup for a few hours. I have driven past this location before and have never seen any cars or trucks in it when I go during the week. Went in, ended up walking more than I wanted cuz I wasnt finding good sign and ended up getting into thicker stuff than I expected. Also started to walk out on the marsh towards an island but water was still semi frozen and bailed on that. Anyways by 330 or so I went back to the little sign I found, picked a nearby tree quick and got up. Once up I realized I wasnt happy with the sign and didnt have great shooting lanes so went against my better judgement, got down and decided to push in deeper and consider it a botched hunt scouting trip. Ended up going in deeper finding an oak flat between marshes, couldnt find a great tree here either and just decided to sit and observe. Figured I would go check out a spot i had pegged which was only 50 yds from me. Make my way down there and its flooded grass. Like over my knees and all I had was ankle high shoes on. This was going to be my perfect exit route right into an open field where i would bump anymore deer(leave a different way than you come in). So I turned around had about an hour or so walk the long way back out with only 45 mins or so of hunting light left. Hard to explain but when I went deeper I made a Y with original entry from top right to the left second trip from top left to bottom. Once I got to the Y I turned right to head out and theres someone in the only tree stand I pegged in that area. Apologized to the guy and kept moving on. so I'm that guy. Stuff was so thick there was no way I wouldve been able to see him from a distance but honestly I had put 4 or 5 miles in and wasnt really looking. And like I said I thought it was a near abandoned piece of public, at least during the week.

So I ask the public land gods for their forgiveness. Was going to leave the guy some cash in the parking lot and say go grab some beer on me but of course didnt have any on me. So if you get walked in on by someone on public, consider he may have just had his ass kicked for 5 hours and isnt thinking straight. Doesnt excuse it but still.


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Karma got me. Setup yesterday in a batch of pines, had a couple deer moving to my left, heard a swamp donkey coming in from my right. Switched to shoot that direction. Swamp donkey came out and was wearing an orange vest carrying a climber, 2 hours before closing....public :p.

Edit: Latin: (Swampus-Donkus) Swamp Donkey: A very fat, obese women searching from bar to bar for anyone drunk enough to touch here. She is characterized by a very overgrown, winter busch, 4 bottles of perfume to cover up the cooter-stank, gunts and cankles are also very common in this beast

.....I was looking for the other swamp donkey :tearsofjoy:
 
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gcr0003 said:
I connected my bow pull up View attachment 20854rope to the wrong end so when I went to pull it up it got caught on my first stick's aider and I had to fight with it for about ten minutes. My jacket was attached to the bow as well and it fell off during the commotion. It was my first saddle sit ever though so I was excited.
Click to expand...

You can thank me later for recommending this awesome product...

doublesteps.com

The Gear Grappler

Multi-Function Hunting & Tree Stand Accessory by Simpson Outdoors, LLC.
doublesteps.com doublesteps.com

Now, dont ask how I know how much effort it takes to retrieve your grappling hook when you can hear you’ve dropped something, only to find out 5 minutes later this is what you dropped because it wasnt clipped onto your saddle...
 
Tonight I one sticked up and set platform pulled my bow up only to look down and see my pack I forgot to put on laying in the dirt (inside is my release, atc, and rappel rope).

Used bowhanger on the end of pullup rope to "fish" it and snagged a strap to pull it up.

Then my wife texted me that she backed into garage door as it was closing.

Got sideswiped in a merge area on the way home.

What a day
 
Hogwild2004 said:
You can thank me later for recommending this awesome product...

doublesteps.com

The Gear Grappler

Multi-Function Hunting & Tree Stand Accessory by Simpson Outdoors, LLC.
doublesteps.com doublesteps.com

Now, dont ask how I know how much effort it takes to retrieve your grappling hook when you can hear you’ve dropped something, only to find out 5 minutes later this is what you dropped because it wasnt clipped onto your saddle...
Click to expand...
Ok so purchase 3 of these.

One for when you drop stuff
One for when you drop grapple
And One for when you forget the grapple and have a spare.
 
Climbed down, bow on my left side, take off pack set on right side. Undo tether put in dump pouch. Unhook platform from saddle bend over to set it down at my feet. Smack the top of my head straight down onto the stick still attached to the tree. Why are all these tweety birds out this late??? Now I have to wash my own blood out of my scent lock face mask.
 
I was three WE stepps into a climb on public land. Pack on my back, Doyle’s hoist fastened to my bow in the snow, and reaching around the tree to attach the next stepp. I’ve been trying my hardest to scan slowly while climbing, so as to see deer sneaking around. Well not three seconds later, here comes the biggest buck I’ve ever had an encounter with, public or private land. He walked to within sixteen feet on my tree, directly on my weak side. I was tied to tree with my lineman’s rope and couldn’t figure out how I was going to arrow him while in this position. Contemplated climbing down quick to be in position as he walked by. I contemplated pulling my bow up and trying to get a shot at him while he walked by. Just a few years ago, I would have done something dumb and spooked him well before he was in range. I settled on not attempting any drastic/desperate attempts at arrowing him, but observing him in his calm state. And I was hoping he wouldn’t go far and would come back through later on, since he didn’t seem to detect me. I watched him over my shoulder until my neck couldn't take it. He walked thirty yards directly behind me and out of my life. It really was a great encounter for my fledgling hunting career. Typically If deer come in while I’m climbing, I get busted well before they’re at sixteen feet. They usually see me moving, but have been winded before as well. I have made a concerted effort to increase my woodsmanship and situational awareness while in the woods. I was fifteen minutes late that morning, due to talking to the other hunter, dressing at the truck too slowly, and not wanting to screw up his hunt by blasting into the woods an hour before sunrise. The buck was a wide and tall eight point cruising for does at first light. Tough lesson
 
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Got to hunting height yesterday morning, went to grab my bridge to hook in and realized its behind me, never stepped through it. Tried some quick yoga but fixed it too short. Needless to say ised my lineman for my bridge for the day. Talk about hip pinch rough sit even for 4 hrs

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How about this. Take a shot with the rifle at 190. Miss. Pull bolt back eject cartridge into my hand because now I want to save brass to reload someday. Not that I do it today. But sounds like a good idea......An hour later have another doe at 40 yards and squeeze trigger. Click. No boom. ***???? Pull bolt back - no round in chamber. Short stroked the bolt and didn’t look to make sure a round loaded. The doe (and her 3 friends) hear the bolt opening and closing and bail outta there. Followed this up with another encounter with the three does I missed earlier except now they are coming in and at 100 yards they pick me moving into position.


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kelly.jayp said:
How about this. Take a shot with the rifle at 190. Miss. Pull bolt back eject cartridge into my hand because now I want to save brass to reload someday. Not that I do it today. But sounds like a good idea......An hour later have another doe at 40 yards and squeeze trigger. Click. No boom. ***???? Pull bolt back - no round in chamber. Short stroked the bolt and didn’t look to make sure a round loaded. The doe (and her 3 friends) hear the bolt opening and closing and bail outta there. Followed this up with another encounter with the three does I missed earlier except now they are coming in and at 100 yards they pick me moving into position.


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Click to expand...
This reminded me of an experience I had years ago. I was doe hunting in cold weather from the ground. A doe walked by, I pulled the trigger and click. There was a small dent in the primer. This was a fairly newer rifle and had been shot in warmer weather. I figured grease must be in the bolt and needed to be warmed up or dissolved with solvent. Since I had no solvent in the woods, I removed the bolt but left a cartridge in the chamber. I stuck the bolt up the sleeve of my hunting coat. About an hour later, a doe comes sneaking by. I quietly inserted the bolt back into the rifle and boom. One doe down. Worked like a charm to salvage a hunt. Could only do that with a removable bolt rifle.
 
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