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Dang: that was stupid

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Dang: that was stupid

Postby Lefty » 02 27, 2020 •  [Post 1]

Swede and I need to get together and write a book.l sure we have both had enough stupid when we were younger hunters.
Share a stupid story, could even be something a “ friend “ did.

My first Elk Hunt: I was the first in camp to get my bull, so I was looking for a buck.
It had just started snowing when I cut a smaller bear track, the track was headed towards camp , I soon realized I likely was pushing the little guy. The track lead to a blowdown . I walked over stuck my head in the hole ( at that time I would have said I had my gun ready :lol: .)
I could see the beady little eyes a few feet away.
I didn’t think much of it . I didn’t have tag for a bear,
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby Swede » 02 27, 2020 •  [Post 2]

If we write that book Lefty, do I have to tell ALL the stories on stupidity I have been involved with?
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby 7mmfan » 02 28, 2020 •  [Post 3]

Where do I start?

First season bow hunting, I was still hunting down a ridge in timber during the late archery season. I had an arrow nocked, just creeping along. As I stood next to a pile of brush, a nice 4 pt mule deer walked across the ridge spine 25 yards downhill from me and proceeded to shred a big sage brush. Broadside. 25 yards. Raking a bush, completely absorbed in what he was doing, no clue I was there. Arrow nocked. I ducked behind the brush pile I was standing next to, sure he would see me. Stood up to draw only to see him walking away down the hill and out of my life. WTF RORY!?

Fast forward to this year. Cutting firewood for elk camp, the tree we cut down got hung up on it's neighbor. I climbed up (first stupid move) and tied a rope around it so we could pull it down. Got back about 40' and 2 of us starting yanking on the rope. It pulled free, but spun off the stump and changed direction, falling straight at me. My smooth bottom romeos spun like bald tires on ice and I fell on my ass with a 60 fir falling right at me. I managed to shuffle on my butt off to the side about 4 feet as the tree landed with a firm thud right where I had been sitting 1 second earlier. That one would have left a mark.

Once shot at a whitetail buck bedded in tall canary grass at about 10 feet with my bow. I could only see his head and part of his neck, but didn't want to take that shot. So instead of waiting for him to stand, I sighted down his neck, picked where I thought his back was and then down to where his vitals should be. Fired. He was bedded the opposite direction. Airball. :oops: :roll: I could hit a tennis ball at 30 yards, so I sure could have hit him square in the back of the head at 10'. Arrow probably would have exited.

Driving my new Chevy Silverado steelhead fishing, I decided since I had seen a lifted Tundra on a particular gravel bar that I could get there. Pulled into the woods on a jeep trail and looked at the 150' long lake in front of me and against my better judgement, gassed it and promptly buried the truck halfway up the doors in mud and goo. Somehow managed to muddle my way to other side only to jump a stump and high center myself on a log. A little creative shovel work got me out of the predicament and to a spot where I could turn around, but now I had to get back out. Spent an hour dragging logs into that hole and shoveling a ramp over the log I had high centered on. Said a quick prayer and hit the gas. Screamed out the other side at 5500 RPM's throwing mud as far as the eye could see. New truck had a buckled lower passenger door, blown wheel bearing, blown exhaust flange, and ripped the shopping cart protection panel off the passenger door. Didn't catch any fish that day either.
I hunt therefore I am. I fish therefore I lie.
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby Lefty » 03 02, 2020 •  [Post 4]

Swede wrote:If we write that book Lefty, do I have to tell ALL the stories on stupidity I have been involved with?

If nobody saw them,... they didnt happen,...

" Cutting firewood for elk camp, the tree we cut down got hung up on it's neighbor." That story sent goosebumps up and down my body. I watched a tree nearly ( literally a foot away) finish off my brother.

Joe you've been in this long enough,... share a few
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby Swede » 03 02, 2020 •  [Post 5]

7mm reminded me of the morning I forded a creek with my jeep. There was a steady rainfall all day while my dad, a friend and I were out hunting. The snow was melting above us. That late afternoon, when it was time to leave, dad asked if I had given any thought to the fact the rain and melting snow probably had brought the stream up? No, and we were going to need to re-cross it to get out of there. He said it had been heavy on his mind. When we got back to the ford, I could see why he was concerned. Like 7mm, I decided the only option available was to pray and hope all would go well. I gunned the jeep, and the water started to go up over the fenders. Just as I heard the engine stutter, as the back of the jeep started floating down stream, the front wheels raised up on some rocks and the engine came back to life. We were out of there very quickly, no worse for the experience, but thankful stupidity had not ruined the day.
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 03 02, 2020 •  [Post 6]

I drove past a game check station a got a ticket :D.

Man, I was hoping my stupid move memories had been suppressed.... forever.
+ A big one was when I was younger; my buddy and I would take off after school or work on a Friday for a weekend of hunting "up there". We never seemed to take enough food to offset the calories we would burn (two bags of Doritos, two jugs of mountain dew, a few drops of water, a box of doughnuts, and maybe a couple of PB&J sandwiches just didn't tow the line). I remember getting the worst headache of my life after getting dehydrated on a hunt/hike (we had to blast down to the nearest town and get aspirin, and some water :? ).
+ I picked up a buddy from his place and we headed up XXXX creek between Libby and Kalispell one afternoon to head up "there" to camp overnight and hunt early the next morning. Problem was is that right around dark, on the way up XXX creek, my 77 Chev 1/2 ton died. Upon review, it seems that all the oil was gone.... and, the oil plug was not tightened after some dumb a$$ (me) changed the oil the day before. In stead of hiking the dirt road back to Hwy 2 to find a phone, "I" decided damn the torpedos, we'll just head straight down the mountain and knock about 5 miles off our trip (only sissies walked the windy road going down). Well, after the batteries died in my flashlight, it was "real" fun.... stumbling down that mountainside to Hwy 2. We walked another 2 miles on the hardball to a farmhouse, used their phone, and got my girlfriend at the time to wake her dad up and get enough oil to drive out to me (all the stores in town were closed).
+ More than a few times... even into my later years when I was sposed to be wiser, I decided not to go back to camp or where my truck was parked but instead, just do a monster hunt and drop down to the road 64 1/2 miles from said camp or truck and just "get a ride back up" from a passing rig. I remember one time walking 9ish miles on a road to get back to camp.... Sure a few rigs passed but did not stop.
+ Dropped down a steep alder/huckleberry ridge from our spike camp with a buddy in snowstorm one fine late September afternoon. Why? Well, because there were multiple bulls bugling down there. Got into the bulls but no arrows were released. Could not hardly get back up the steep sidehill will all the wet snow that had laid the brush down. Grabbing chunks of huckleberry brush, we pulled ourselves up... really, foot by foot, till we got to the top where our tent was. Soaked to the bone, borderline hypothermia, no chance to start a fire, we jumped into our bags, clothes on, and shivered till early the next morning till our cheapo tent collapsed on our heads. We stuffed all of our soaking wet gear in our packs and slipped and slided down the mountain to my buddy's truck (probably 3 miles). Of course, my buddy's truck had a super crappy heat in it (old dodge power wagon).
These are just the tip of the iceberg for me; I "think" I've learned from my mishaps :lol:.
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Re: Dang: that was stupid

Postby Lefty » 03 03, 2020 •  [Post 7]

Its been tried.

Now we want to here the rest of the story!!!!!
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