Nightmare hunting trips?

[okie archer]

Wasn't sure where the best place to post this would be. What are some of your stories of how a hunt went bad. Bad like getting in a dangerous situation, getting sick, getting hurt, falling, weather, bears, seizure, lost, hypothermia, stranded, medical problems, etc. There is a cliche that says ",a bad day hunting is better than a good day at work", I get the meaning but that isn't always true. Just interested in reading your stories, maybe they can serve as reminders.

 

[LopeHunter]

Planning to drive my 10 year old SUV, which I had bought new though now had 110,000 miles, to a hunt. Had my mechanic change any belt, etc, that looked like could be an issue. Changed out fluids, filters, etc. Was going to drive from Portland, OR, to a bit east of Vail, CO, for a hunt then would be driving on to AZ to park the SUV at a vacation home there. Got 28 miles into the trip and the alternator gave up the ghost. SUV full of gear and food crapped out on the side of the interstate. I was meeting 3 guys in CO and I had the food. But I was stuck in a crapped out vehicle. Got towed to the dealership. Rented bigger SUV, moved the gear into the rented vehicle and started down the road 4 hours behind schedule. Rest of trip to CO went smooth but my SUV was back in OR and not in AZ. Three months later drove the repaired SUV to AZ. No issues with the SUV since though will be driving the same SUV starting this weekend from AZ to OR to ID to WY the back to AZ in order to hunt 4 tags. No time pressure this trip.

 

[1_pointer]

Not really a nightmare, but I did get pretty spooked once that I was gonna be in trouble. Helped a friend on a mtn goat hunt in November. I got to watch through the spotter as he shot a pretty darn good billy. Made it over to him, pictures, processing, etc went off with out a hitch. We loaded up the packs and started heading back to camp, but chose a different route as it looked shorter. We cliffed out in the dark and were going down an avalanche chute to get back to where we started when I tripped. The crampons caught and something and we both heard a pop from my knee!!! And it hurt. We were on the other side of the mountain from camp which was about 5mi and a river crossing from the truck. Long story short, I was able to walk without too much pain and was able to walk out. But, while waiting before I tested my knee we were discussing other options, none of which sounded like a good time...

 

[Gellar]

Not hunting, but fishing. I had the cover off of my ice auger drilling holes and fell. The blade cut my leg through bibs, jeans, and long underwear about 3 inches long and fairly deep directly above the artery. I dropped all my layers of clothes to examine the cut and luckily it was not squirting blood. I was able to bandage with the a small first aid kit until I got home and could get stitches. This was on the Mississippi a mile or so from the vehicle.

Another time we were in the BWCA and my buddy hit his thumb with a hatchet while splitting kindling. We were able to bandage with the first aid kit and used super glue to keep the cut shut. We finished the trip, but my buddy could not really grip a paddle or his fishing pole and probably did not really enjoy the rest of the trip as he was in quite a bit of pain. In hindsight we probably should have paddled out, but we were teenagers and wanted to continue our trip.

 

[michigan.hunter2001]

Drove 5 hours up north with our dog to hunt upland game birds in Michigan. We got all the way up there and when we called the dog out of the car, he threw up. Turns out he had a nasty bug and was in no condition to hunt. So we left him in the trailer and hunted, but didn't have much luck without the dog.

 

[okie archer]

I guess since I started this thread I will contribute. I have had a few scary moments. Some were not my fault but most were. The following was STUPID on my part. I was about 18 and was deer hunting with my younger brother. I got bored sitting and waiting on deer. So I decided to "slip" through the woods hoping to get a shot at an Arkansas whitetail. I took the safety off of my .30-06 so I would be "ready". I was wearing a pair of wool type gloves and I switched from carrying it in my left hand to right. As I did the wood stock just slid right through my gloves. I grip hard as not to drop my gun and I grabbed it right on the trigger. The gun was pointing straight down and fired literally inches from dirt. The recoil threw the gun out of my hands. Scared to look I wiggled my right foot around to see if it was still there. I looked down finally and saw a huge hole in ground where dirt exploded about 6 inches from my foot. Needless to say that kinda got me out of the hunting mood. Lesson learned, never take gun off safety until ready to shoot. Duh!

 

[el unit]

In 2009, I packed in 5 elk hunters from the Mid-West to our 10,000 ft drop camp in Colorado's West Elk Wilderness. The horseback ride is 8 miles in and I got them into camp the day before the 2nd rifle season started. Just as we unloaded the last mule, the skies opened up. It remained a whiteout bli Three days later, i headed in for the mid-week check. The last mile of the trail in, I led the pack string on foot as the snow was too deep n steep to ride in. Fortunately, everyone was alive and okay. Unfortunately, nobody elk hunted. We collectively decided to pack up camp and head back to the ranch. Thankfully, everyone made the 8 mile hike out. The next day, they headed back East to go home never even having their rifles out of the case. I offered for them to stay and hunt from the ranch, but they were too worn out and ready to go home. The next summer, I rode in and packed out the 2 canvas tents we left up there on that cold, snowy day in October.

 

[Straight Arrow]

The following link is to a story recently featured about a horrific bear encounter during a Montana wilderness elk hunting trip: http://www.greatfallstribune.com/st...ounters-kenneth-scott-pound-grizzly/88884588/

 

[maxx]

It was the last weekend of ducks. My buddy and I always head to southern Iowa on this weekend because the lakes are typically open. We got down there and the lake was locked up tight. We couldn't get the boat launched. As we were driving around the lake we could see a decent part of water open that was loaded with birds keeping it open. We slipped down with some decoys. As we were going down there we jumped some honkers off of it and killed two. The one was on the ice edge. We sent my dog who was 9 or 10 at the time. She got the honker and the ice broke. It was deep enough she couldn't get back on the ice.

The water was open to the other side of the bay so I walked over there and got as close as I could to her, She is a very well trained dog but in the confusion she kept trying to go back to the shore with the ice and she wouldn't break the skim ice towards me to swim out. It seemed like it last a long time when it was probably less than 10 to 15 minutes. I tried to get as close as I could to her and in doing this I flooded my waders, not good. I could tell I was getting in trouble and I was getting worried so I got out. I knew enough that I wasn't going to die over a dog as cold as that seems. I got out and my buddy got as close as he could. Finally I went down shore a way that she need to swim and started tossing big rocks to break the ice. She finally figured it out and swam the right direction.

She never dropped the honker in her mouth. The hunt was obviously over. By the time I made it back to the truck I could barely use my fingers to open the key code on my F150. The heated seats on the drive home saved us both. I learned that day that I will never hunt ice without a boat. It isn't worth it. That dog is now 13 and retired.

 

[HighDesertSage]

Lighting storms at 11,500' in Colorado

 

[bobbydean]

Not a disaster, but my wife and niece freaked out.

Hunting Barbary in Lincoln county New Mexico. Late in the day, heading home. Saw a good looking canyon. My nephew in law wanted to walk it. Good idea! Turned into a great idea. Jumped a monster Barbary ram that went over the edge and headed for freedom. My nephew is a monster hunter and nailed the ram in the bottom of the canyon. CW, the nephew, headed down the cliff and I stayed on top to watch the ram. Apparently, CW had hit him in the horns and knocked him out. When CW got there, there was no ram. I did not see any movement from my vantage point. Not showing enough attention.

We searched the area for hours until cannot see! We were probably 5 miles from the pickup. We discussed options and started hiking a ranch road in the right direction. Could not go straight to pickup as we were in a cavern area and did not want to fall into a hole in the ground. Finally, we could not see each other walking down the road. Curled up under a pinon tree and slept as well as we could.

My wife and niece called everyone. Even called the adjacent ranch and ranch owner says his pickup in still parked on BLM. Only time in my life that I missed work without calling. Walked out the next morning.

My wife insists we were lost. I told her I knew where I was, but could not get to where I wanted to go.

 

[NoWiser]

Deer hunting in MN we use a canoe to travel a few miles up a river to a designated roadless / nonmotorized area to hunt. In the 5 or 6 years my dad and I hunted there we never saw another person and shot some nice bucks. The last year we went there we canoed up to find out they clear-cut an absolutely huge area that included the entire area we hunted. It was a barren wasteland. We decided to stick around and try to hunt some edges, but the local hunters blatantly disregarded the law and used the new logging roads to invade the area with their ATV's. After two days we were disgusted and decided to head home the next morning and save our vacation time for ice fishing. That last night got down to -10 and the river froze solid, turning the 2 hour return trip into about an 8 hour hellish ordeal that left us completely exhausted, soaked, and coated from head to toe in ice. Got in the truck to drive home and found out a major blizzard was hitting south of us, tripling the drive time.

Physically the trip was a nightmare, but worse yet was finding out that our little slice of deer hunting heaven was gone, invaded by the people and ATV's that we so desperately worked to get away from when we found this spot. I haven't been able to get myself to return since.

 

[SFC B]

I have two....

The first on the way up to our regular 2nd season elk camp on the edge of the Flat Tops. The last leg of the trip, about 2-3 miles is off the county dirt road and up a pretty nasty Jeep trail. This trip was the reason I got Big Blue the next year We headed up the trail in my buddy's dad's '12 F150 4x4 (NOT off road package) and pulling a little 8ft trailer. The first couple hundred meters aren't too bad. Just open rocky 1.5 track that you can creep over at a decent pace. When we got to the first bit of soft trail we stopped to chain up. This was expecially necessary as "dad" had decided when he got new tires that fall he "didn't really need anymore of those noisy off road jobs" All chained up we head through the woods. There are three bogs along the trail that in the best of years require a decent amount of momentum to carry. This was a little wetter than usual year but the going was coming along ok until we got to the last bog. My buddy had been ground guiding his dad all the way and knows what he is doing off road. We stopped on the "run up" to the bog and my buddy walked the route through to ensure his dad understood. This was especially important as the exit to the bog was an uphill section with a small ditch on the left side of it. Of course his dad totally ignored the discussion and tried to get his truck through a "short cut" which included going through the ditch instead of staying to the right of it. SMH!!! That little move cost us 3.5 hours chainsaw work (cutting up logs to shore up the path of the truck), shovel work and come along work (which literally broke on the final pull which freed it). We ended up having to put up the tent and unpack after dark. About the only time I was glad for a full moon during hunting season. We only filled one tag (my buddy got a deer) that week and nobody ever got in a really good"camp" mood. To top it off "dad" almost ran the truck head on into a tree because he was in a hurry. Therefore, the next year Big Blue arrived on the scene and "dad" ain't drivin up the trail NO MORE!!

#2
This was on a RFW hunt with the same buddy, his 10 yo and dad. On this hunt we rented a pop-up and camped at Yampa River SP as we were hunting a ranch outside of Craig. When we arrived there was a little snow on the ground and we were excited to get set up and head to the ranch for the "pre-brief". We were the only ones in the campground and set up was easy. We had a good feeling at the brief (my buddy had hunted the same ranch the year prior) and headed back to the camper. After dinner my buddy and I ran to WalMart to get his son a hat (he had apparently lost it in WY on the way over from Ft Collins) and he asked me a favor. He wanted to used my Taco in the morning to take he and his son out as he had a deer tag and would be about ten miles away from where his dad and I would be hunting cows. That meant I would be going out with his dad in the same F150. As there would be no off road driving allowed and I wanted my buddy to have a good time with his son I said sure. The next morning dad and I headed out to the drainage we had picked to hunt. I told him where I was going on one ridge line and he told me he would be across the way. I get up to the point I wanted a little while prior to shooting light and found a good set up point. About an hour into hunting I hear something coming across the ridge through the scrub. I got a little excited until I peeked around some brush to see that dad had just walked up the ridge and parked his but less than a hundred meters from me A little pissed by then I stand up and clomp over to him. He was half asleep when I told him I was moving across the drainage. I don't even think he got it. Across the drainage I climbed up the hillside (steeper than it looked) through a tangle of oak scrub to get to the mountain/hilltop that separated it from the next drainage so that I could peek both sides. There was a little cover up there but it was mostly exposed so now I am freezing my butt on top of being pissed as it was about 20F and 15-25 winds with about 8in of snow on the ground. I am up there for about an hour and a half before I see anything. A couple of deer about a mile away across a dirt road on another ranch. I watch them for about a half an hour and then hear a shot from what sounded like the next drainage over. I thought there might be hunters over there but saw nothing. About 5 min later my phone vibrates. I answer it and it is dad. "Hey, are you gonna come help me with this elk?"....WTH?!?!? I look in the direction he was sitting only to see him in the bottom of the drainage waving his arms at me. I'll be a son of a ...I tromp down there to find him standing over the biggest cow I have ever seen. She was a lonely ol girl with hardly any teeth left. I had just gotten an ice fishing sled for Christmas and told dad I was headed to the truck to get it as we were uphill from the truck and it would allow us to make on trip. He said he would start the field dressing. Off I went It was a couple of mile round trip and I returned to find he hadn't done a damn thing. We started in on the cow and it was a damn goat-rope. We were going to do the gutless method until he nearly cut my fingers off with crappy knife work and opened up the belly. It took over an hour to get through it and get her loaded in the sled. We start down the hill and instead of pulling his side of the rope dad is playing grab-ass and talking about what a great shot he made. I half pushed him out of the way and took off pulling hard down hill. He couldn't keep up walking behind me as I was in PO'd overdrive. That sled was a real lifesaver. Got to the bottom to find a Game Warden by the truck. Turns out the shot I heard was actually from a guy who had shot a deer from the road on a range he didn't have permission to hunt. I hadn't seen anything unfortunately. We shot the breeze for a bit, he checked the tag and we were ready to leave. As we loaded into the truck my phone buzzed again. This time it was my buddy. He had shot a deer a long way off the single track where he was hunting and wanted me to come over with the sled. Okie doke...off we went. We get there to find the deer about a mile from the truck in the bottom of a creek bed. Down we went with the sled and hauled bambi back up. By this time it is about 1530-1600 and I am worn out from hauling meat. We get in the trucks headed back to the campground and aren't 5 miles when dad's phone rings. His 95 yo mother had just passed and he was executor etc....sooooo we could only hunt one more day before we had to leave. No pressure or anything but to add to it we got almost a foot of snow over night. The next day was spent in and out of the truck, up and down ridges to try and get a handle on where the snow had pushed the elk. Saw one calf but it was on the road until it crossed into the neighboring ranch. The day was winding down and we were headed back to the ranch to checkout while checking little pockets of ranch land on the way. Coming over the hill before the last bit of ranch land we see something that almost made me wreck the truck. About 1000 elk on a hillside/wheat field. I stop and check my GPS ( I have the Onyx(sp) chip) for boundary lines to find that they were about 200m on the wrong side of a creek bed. They were feeding down but there was only about 20 minutes of shooting light left. I sat on a rock with a great rest waiting until the last minute. Finally my buddy walks over and tells me "its over man".....I stand, take about 2 steps and scream THE swear word at the top of my lungs. Then we burst into laughter as we headed up to the truck.....To end it all we headed back over Rabbit Ears Pass the next day in a freaking blizzard that I swear was gonna swallow my truck. I did get half of the elk out of the deal but man it was a rough couple of days mentally.

 

[Southern Elk]

While I wouldn't say either were nightmare experiences, I've had two bear encounters that were too close for comfort. The first was in Sept. 2008 in SW MT. A friend and I had a couple of bulls bugling down in a creek bottom below us. They wouldn't come to us so the plan was that he would stay back and call and I would sneak in and try to get a shot with my bow. All was going according to plan and I was so close that I thought I could hear the elk rubbing a tree with his antlers. So I sneak closer. I start to see movement in a tree about 30 yards away and I realize that its a bear cub in a tree that I have been hearing. About that time I see a grizzly sow charging full speed up the hill towards me. Luckily she stops at the tree with the cub instead of coming for me. I draw my .44 mag and keep it pointed at her as I ease back up the hill in reverse. I still had my gun in my hand when I met up with my buddy back on top of the hill. That could have turned out much worse than it did. I don't feel confident that I could have stopped her with the .44 as fast as she was moving.

The 2nd encounter was in CO in 2012. We were walking down the mountain to our truck after dark. The guy in the lead was literally 10 yards away from a bear before she started growling at him. We all pulled our pistols and luckily she ran the other way. We shined our headlamps that way and saw that she had her cubs in a tree about 40 yards off the trail. We headed out with her growling at us as we left. I still don't know if she actually charged in on us or if we just happened to walk that close to her. Either way it's easy to see why I have trouble sleeping in a tent in the backcountry now.

 

[Bambistew]

My nightmare still to this day, is shooting at a 350+ 7pt bull, and no noticing the finger sized twig just in front of his vitals, the arrow defelcted and cut hair off the top of his back. That was over 20 years ago and I can still vividly see it in my mind. Watching for, what seemed like hours rake a tree and offer no shot...

All kidding aside. I've had some fun encounters with bears over the years, fell through the ice duck hunting when it was -10f, lightning storms in the high country, stranded on the wrong side of a raging stream (more than once), partners getting hurt by horses, a horse dying on the trail, meat stolen by critters (coyotes, and wolverines), bears tearing up camps, dislocating a shoulder, flipping ATVs... Surprisingly have never had a rifle or scope fail on me.

Luckily no one has been seriously injured, we are as cautious as we can be, and are generally prepared for the worst.

 

[hank4elk]

Well,an Oct snow storm @ 12k in Sierras that dumped 5' overnight 15 miles in .....
..an Oct wind/rain/lightning storm near the Pecos Wilderness and stuck in a rock pit hiding from lightning for 3 hrs within sight of the cabin & my truck.2 dead elk under trees & a fried cow in the meadow I had to cross the next morning.....
....last years elk hunt and almost getting hit by lightning several times a day during 7 days of odd NM Oct. monsoon hell....
Wondering what this year will bring.

 

[grandejuan]

I wouldn't exactly call what happened a nightmare but it had its moments. My hunting partners Bob and Allen and I were mulie hunting on the Navajo reservation near Tsaile. It was about 9AM and we were slow hunting a valley about a hundred feet deep. The top was ponderosa pine thinning out to gambels oak thickets in the bottom then back to ponderosa on the other side. Allen was working the pines on top.
I was on the top edge of the oaks and Bob was in the bottom. The oaks still had lots of brown leaves so visibility was limited in them. Well as I was moving along I saw two black spots coming fast towards me. They soon became black bear cubs just goofing around followed by ma bruin. All coming straight at me!!! I'm not wanting any problem with them so I stop and watch them coming closer until they were only 30 yards or less from me. I'm about to make a lot of noise to get them to turn when ma bruin scents me and woofs twice and they run down into the oak brush in the bottom and then after a few minutes up to the pines on top. O.K. good.Then after watching them go over the ridge out comes Bob. He is white as sheet, seems he had a gastrointestinal disturbance and had dropped his pants to take care of it when the cubs and mama come blasting thru the brush and nearly run over him. We all started laughing so loudly that any deer were long gone. It was a ridiculous situation that turned out O.K. and makes a great story now, but was pretty exciting for my friend Bob at the time. Needless to say his rifle was up against a tree. GJ

 

[Okbow87]

I finally drew a NM archery elk tag second season. One of my best friends missed out on elk but drew an archery mule deer tag. Another one of his buddies that I know drew a first season archery elk tag for the same area. We decided we would go for two weeks. Giving the guy with the first season tag the last seven days of his hunt, and the full seven days of my hunt. The deer hunt lasted through both elk hunts, so my buddy would have opportunity to hunt the entire time. We get to where we are camping after dark and get everything set up, its raining just a little bit. We finally crash and wake up in the morning to the sound of bulls bugling in every direction. The guy with the first season tag is not in very good shape and this is pretty steep country. We hunt a couple days and get into a few bulls, but its tough to get him where we need to go. Everyday the bulls are getting more and more fired up and calling in more bulls. The morning of the 3rd day, my friends wife calls while we are up on a glassing spot trying to figure out where the bulls bugling below us are going. Turns out she decided to cheat on him while out of town on a work conference and she needed to tell him. Then she proceeds to catch flight to NM, get a rental suv and drive up to the National Forest where we are. Obviously my friend is devastated as his whole life is being turned upside down. Once she gets there the guy with the first season tag lasts about a day and decides he is ready to go home and leaves. We still have several days before my hunt starts. We move camp to another area on the other side of the unit to a better deer area so my friend can get in some good hunting before we move back for my elk hunt. His now ex wife stays with us for another day and then has to leave to go home. She was gone for about and hour and my friend completely fell apart on me. One of the most mentally tough guys I know and I literally had to pick him up off the ground and put him back in the truck. I couldn't keep him out there under those circumstances. So we packed up our small camp, drove 2 hours back to the other side of the unit and packed up our main camp and headed home. On the way down the mountain my tie rod decided to back itself out of the adjustment sleeve between it and the tie rod end. I had just had the tie rod end replaced on a recall while getting a oil change before heading on this trip. We had to drive about 45 minutes once we got off the the forest service road to the closest dealership and stayed the night in their parking lot. Took until 3pm the next day for them to get my truck fixed, and then hauled ass all the way home on two front tires that where in really bad shape from having to drive on them so bad out of alignment. We made it home about 3 am the next morning. Pretty much a disaster and I haven't drawn another NM tag again since then. I really didn't wan to give up that opportunity, but I'd do the same thing again any day for my friend and I know he would do the same for me. There will always be other hunts. Some things are more important. The only good part, was my dealership back home ponied up and paid for all my parts, labor, and bought me two new front tires without me even having to ask.

 

[kenton]

On a scouting trip, I slipped crossing a small stream above a waterfall. Got stopped about 3 feet from a 150 foot fall.

 

[Reeder]

Number of years ago when i was 15 years old. My dad and I went bow hunting in Utah's Central Mountains. We made the 3 mile hike into some back country with no cell phone service. We were having a hay day seeing tons of bucks in the area. We jumped a nice bedded 4x4 buck and it startled my dad causing him to trip and landing ribs first on a log, causing a few cracked ribs. I have never seen my dad in so much pain. He was gasping for air and i was a helpless 15 year old kid. I remember praying to God begging and pleading for strength and help. After about 30 minutes of seeing my dad in pain. He amazingly got on his feet and we started the 3 mile hike back to the truck. Our hunt ended early, but his health and safety was a lot more important.