Stupid mistakes I have done this season

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Originally Posted by cantgetright

At least you pulled the trigger. I know a guy who cycled his bolt 4 times without pulling the trigger. When he was done all his fully loaded shells were lying at his feet. He has no problem shooting deer but the moose hunt seems to bring out the heebie jeebies in him.

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I know a guy that emptied his Browning BAR with a huge bull moose standing less than 50 yards away listening to him work his rifle.

When he loaded it, He was being quiet and didn't close the bolt with any force.

When the moose appeared, He shouldered his rifle and pulled the trigger..nothing, So he opens the bolt(ejects the live round)

Watches the bolt pick up another round and he again, tries closing it slowly and quietly. Aims again and pulls trigger....Nothing


DOES THIS 5 TIMES until the gun is empty and bull has him figured out and runs over the ridge to the next guy that flattens it with 1 shot.

We get back to camp and the guy with that BAR is so mad, Ready to burn his rifle.

My dad asks if he can see it, Loads one shell into the magazine, Inserts the mag, Reefs the bolt back and let's it fly closed. Points it at the wood pile and fires BOOM

Nothing wrong with the gun, Just the operator my dad says....LOL

I thought buddy was going to cry.

Don't baby your rifle! Let it work!

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I am not sure if this qualifies as a stupid mistake.
Moose hunting with my buddy.He has a scoped rifle,i have an open sight.

Beautiful moose comes thru the ridge-i would guess in 50 "range. Chocolate brown, wide palmation.
My buddy has no clue...........the bull stands broadside to me, and listening to me trying to call him.
My buddy has no clue.

(I never shot a moose-he never shot a moose.Lots at stake.)
I figured, the bull is too far for me to take an ethical shot at the distance with open sight(yes ,that ethical shot idea exists)so i wave him down, and show him the moose.He is lot closer,and the scope works for him too.Lots at stake-but Lets him have it.

The bull is standing broadside,pine plantation to its armpits, watching me-oblivious to my buddy.
My buddy picks up the rifle,aims.Nothing.Drops the rifle down.Picks up the rifle,aims.Nothing.
Drops the rifle picks up the rifle,aims-nothing.

I am sitting there, amazed-and waiting for the BOOOM.

After a while the moose gets bored,and walks back the way he came from(obviously figured something was not to his liking).
My buddy stands up-goes to the camp,all shaking,and gulps a pile of Whiskey down.

I could not shoot- I could not pull the trigger-he was repeating over and over.

Here comes the stupidity of the story:

I put a scope promptly onto my rifle,AND bought a range finder(not cheap in 2001)
I had to know the distances .
The distance to the bull was 20 yards less for him,then to me.We were in a triangle.I was not even 200 yards away.

Yep, sat in deer stand for 31/2 hrs. this fall until dark and went to unload and case the rifle for the walk out and found that I hadn't loaded it! sat there and talked to myself for a minute or two. lol

GBK’s moose story reminded me of my first moose hunt in 1982 when I lived in Ignace. Back in those days, you needed 2 hunters to tag a moose so a life-long friend came up from Ottawa to look for Bullwinkle with me. On opening morning, we jumped into my Datsun hatchback and drove to a spot where I saw a bull in the summer. After a couple of hours of nothing, we got antsy so off we went to another spot about 75 kms away. Gas was cheap in those days lol. We ended up driving by a wild rice lake and oogled at the flocks of ducks swimming by and within range. We both loved to shoot “at” ducks so the scene in front of us was incredible. Since we didn’t have shotguns, we left the ducks alone and got back in the car. We didn’t get very far before we drove through a recent cutover. As we drove down a hill, we spied a bull feeding out in the cut about 400 yards away. I immediately slammed on the brakes and we got out the binoculars. It was about 10:30 in the morning and there was a light rain falling. We quickly came up with a plan to try stalking up to the bull. We got out of the car and put on our rain suits. My buddy happened to lean his rifle on the fender of the car and it wasn’t very long before it slid off and hit the ground. The rifle had iron sites so at least he didn’t ruin a scope. Everything appeared to be in order so off we went after the moose. Surprisingly, we stalked within 75 yards of the moose. Being the nimrods that we were, we continued to get closer and we split up. I got into a dip and lost site of the moose and looked over at my buddy who was leaning over a log and getting ready to shoot. A second later I hear him shoot which prompted me to stand up and shoot too. I go to aim but my rear iron site was folded down, so I had to correct that problem. I shouldered the rifle again, aimed, and tried to shoot but my safety was engaged. I lowered the rifle again and released the safety and fired a Hail-Mary shot at the bull as it ran into a block of woods. Things unraveled quickly and in an act of desperation, I ran into the woods after the moose. This stunt caused the bull to circle back out into the cut and stop broadside once more and gave by buddy another shot. After the shot, the bull ran uphill into another block of timber and out of our lives for good. As it turns out, when my buddy’s rifle slid off the fender of the car and hit the ground, the top half of his front site broke off which resulted in him shooting high on the moose.

It was a good thing that we missed the moose as we weren’t really equipped to deal with after the shot. We definitely would have needed help. We were amateurs in every sense of the word!

A lot of the mistakes we make end up causing us embarrassment and /or inconvenience but some could cost you a lot more - like you life - over the years I have made some stupid mistakes and I guess that's how we learn from those experiences - the one I can't forget is the time I moved my ladder stand to a new location - I set up the stand and then tie the strap around the tree - then put another strap around the tree so I have something to tie the safety strap to - put the safety strap around my waist and push myself away from the tree to see how it will hold me if I fall - the strap around my waist slips open and I start falling backwards off the stand - reached out to grab something and luckily grabbed the rail on the stand - was able to get my feet on the ladder and stop me from falling - boy I stopped doing anything for awhile and thought what just happened and how I nearly got really injured or even killed - there is danger in a lot of things we do so we need to be very careful -

I cut a lot of trees down for firewood and over the years I ended up with situations where I had to be extra careful because of the way the tree was leaning again another tree or because of the dead branches on top of the tree - the advice I can give is take your time and think things out before you do something stupid

I was bear hunting one year on a property I used to own about 30 minutes from my house. I go over one afternoon to rebait and hunt. I put some more bait out and climb into my stand to find out I left my magazine at home. I walk back to the truck, drive home, get my magazine and drive back to my spot. I am not in the stand for 5 minutes and a bear walks out. As I was loaded and ready this time I let him have it. That was one of the fastest hunts I have had.