Let's tell old hunting stories

[GreyGhost85]

My first deer hunt. My dad and grandpa found a herd of 3 bucks that was unbelievable for the unit/area. One was truly exceptional, pushing 200" typical. Opening morning came and we found them immediately and close. If I remember right we were only like 150 yards away. My older brother pulled up to shoot the big one but his rifle, a .264wm, was jammed. He grabbed my middle brother’s rifle (.270 m77) and it just clicked. He grabs my rifle next, which was a Remington mohawk .243 that had a sawed off stock and was really short. He shot the big buck and knocked him down. I was 2nd up and shot the next biggest buck in the neck and he was down. The great big buck was kinda flopping around and my middle brother was trying to line up on the smallest buck (still a great buck). He had trouble finding it in the scope. In the meantime my oldest brother told my dad he fixed the jam in his .264 and was going to shoot the giant again. I briefly remember my dad telling him to stop when all heck broke loose. He pulled the trigger and the rifle exploded, i remember the barrel wizzing by my head. When the dust settled, my oldest brother was bleeding from both ears and was extremely concussed and my dad was bleeding all over his face. Me and my middle brother were fine but confused. After an eternity everyone gathered their wits and walked down to the bucks. My deer was dead but the giant was nowhere to be found. There was a huge puddle of blood and a bunch of drag marks but we looked all day and never found him. My brother and dad spent the night in the hospital when we got back to town. They both had a bunch of metal removed from them. My dad had the shell extractor burried in his jaw muscle. Crazy, traumatic first deer hunt. Turns out, the weekend before the hunt my brother went out shooting with a buddy that somehow mixed a 7mm mag round in with his box of shells. The bullet traveled a few inches down the barrwl and absolutely exploded the whole rifle. Lucky nobody died but dang…..that was a giant buck that got away. We scoured the country for years and never found him. 

[bigorange]

My first deer hunt…12-13 yrs old on youth hunt in TN. So excited I probably hadn’t slept for a couple of days. Sitting in my uncle’s huge platform tree stand on a corn field…they called that one the hotel stand and it was big enough for both of us with me on the seat and him sitting on the platform. Probably could have fit another person in the stand with us.

A couple does came out at first light, then a buck. My uncle tells me to get ready and I proceed to lose my breakfast off the side of the stand. needless to say the deer were gone. Safety harnesses weren’t widespread then, but every year he threatened to get me one for Christmas. 

struck out the rest of the weekend, but made up for it shooting my first buck out of the same stand the next year on the same youth hunt. 

[SunDevil]

On 9/4/2022 at 9:37 AM, Ernesto C said:

One time here in AZ. in unit 27. I lost a big bull elk thanks to Forrest Service and their "Control burn". They almost burned our camp! They almost burned my brothers truck, we had to drive trough flames to get out of there! Once we got out of the fire my brother confronted the fire chief! Their eyes (F. S.) where wide open and their faces where in shock! Like if they couldn't believe we were coming out of the fire/flames!

They never inspected to see if someone was there. They never posted signs that a control burn was going to happend. When we told them were our camp was located they all hauled butt to our camp and they saved by a hair! Out camp was surrounded by fire! When I told them that I needed to go back in there and retrieve my elk they didn't let me.

I told the Az. Game and Fish what happened and ask them if I could get my  tag back or get my bonus points reinstated. Az. Game and Fish told me they couldn't do anything about it, so I lost my elk too on that "control or controled burn"!

Ernesto. You should have gone in there and got your elk anyway. Screw those idiots 

[Code3]

I enjoy the General Javelina hunts. It allows me to stalk with a bow and carry bullet as the backup. (4) Grey Ghosts out of (5) hunts, but all were taken with rifle or handgun; the one year I didn’t harvest was because I was so determined to take with a bow, I left the handgun at home. I pack lunch & snacks to hunt all day. Because those wiley piggies aren’t gonna be taken from camp, right!?! I glassed and walked and drove the Ranger all day—unsuccessful to find javelina. Driving back to camp at near dark, I found a herd of Jave 100yrds from camp! Quickly exited the Ranger, flanked the herd in the direction of their migration, and settled into my best Clint Eastwood handgun pose with the .223 Contender. Found the biggest one with my naked eye. It was walking with a stutter step. When I found it again in the long eye relief scope, I discovered it only had 3 legs. TRIPOD! Deem it unique or the weakest one in the herd, I decided it was the least likely to survive in the wild and double lunged it 75yrds from camp. The scar tissue on her chest where the front left leg should have been was healed and old. She must have had a ferocious defense to predators or the herd took care of her as their MaTRIarch. My wife thought it was too funny of a story to forget & insisted that Jave Sow be remembered… a rug with a story.