I'm talking about just something that embarrassed you at the time and you didn't want to tell anybody but now you look at it and it's funny. For example One of my stands in halfway in a pine tree. This past fall I had a small pine cone fall out of the tree and land in my lap. I almost jumped outta the stand. Stuff like that.
When I was younger I used to hunt sitting on the ground. I fell asleep once and woke up to a doe and her fawn running past me.
This season. I was sitting on my phone looking at a bowhunting forum when I decided to look up for a second a check my surroundings. A big doe was browsing 5 yards underneath my stand. I have no idea how she got there, didn't hear a thing. I quietly attempted to tuck my phone in my pocket and my release made a noise as I pulled my hand out of my pocket and she spooked. If I hadn't have been on my phone...
I wasn't in a treestand I was actually in a ground blind turkey hunting few years ago and me and my uncle saw a tom fly down and close line itself on a branch and fall the last 7-8 feet to the ground and land on its back. There was no holding the laughing back and the birds were gone but we still laugh about that. As what happened to myself, I fell asleep and my dad climbed up the tree without waking me and he grabbed my foot.....ya I was startled to say the least.
Back when I was younger and stupider in high school, we had senior skip day during turkey season. We all got good and drunk, and I passed out at about 3 in the morning. Me and my buddy thought it would be a good idea to go turkey hunting in the morning even though it was going to be sprinkling and cold. We woke up at about 5 and walked out to the blind, which we immediately passed out in. Woke up about 4 hours later in the pouring rain, both of us puking our guts out through the windows of the blind Needless to say, we didn't kill anything...
I was about 12 or 13 and my brother was taking me out rifle hunting. when we got to our stand and I asked him if he had my gun? he looked at me like are you serious? I thought he grabbed it for me. well I thought it was a good idea to go rifle hunting without a rifle? well that kind of screwed up that hunt. kids I tell ya!!! another one was I was sitting on stand when a hawk thought I was going to be his dinner. he swooped in at me three or four times. all I could do was fend him of with an arrow in my hand. and finally, I was sitting on stand in a pine tree that meshed with an apple tree. well here comes a bear that had a path that went from the pine tree to the apple tree. you guessed it I was in his way and up my tree he came. it took quite a bit to scare him down from less than a yard from the bottom of my platform. when he went down I was right behind him needless to say. found out later he was a relocated problem bear and wasn't afraid of people.
Back when I first started using my LW climber it didn't have the security straps to hold the seat section to the platform. Well, one day I'm going up the tree and the platform section slips from the grasp of my feet! lol You know what happens next, the platform slides down the tree about 5 feet and I'm left up there just sitting on the seat rail with nothing really under me. I'm stranded!! So, I sit for a second and try to figure my options, which aren't many. I'd NEVER been in this situation before. So, my most creative thinking takes over. I grab my back up pull rope and tie 2 extra screw-in hooks crosswise to it. Now, I have something that resembles a grappling hook. I lower it down and somehow manage to hook the platform in such a fashion that I'm able to incrementally pull it back up without it snagging the tree too much. I eventually get it settled properly. Lesson learned. I ordered those security/connecting straps the next day!!
I owe the first archery deer I ever got to a chipmunk, I walked out early on the morning once on State land where I have never hunted before, so while it was dark out I sat behind a log once I felt i was far enough in. Once it started getting light out i noticed the leaves by my feet started moving, Not a second later a damn chipmunk jumped out and ran across my boot, scared the crap out of me so I stood up and started walking away, as soon as i did a spike that was running stopped within 15 yards and I dropped him. I would rather face a Bear with a spatula then be in the same room as a mouse or chipmunk, Hate those things!
I was in my stand 20 feet up right at daylight when a sh!t pain hit. No chance I'm making it back down in time, I've got seconds and I'm giving birth to something evil so what do I do....you guessed it drop my pants and hang it over the stand. Oh it gets worse. Having never done this before I'm wasn't real good with my "aim" and it doesn't all clear the stand. Not a good way to start out the morning so I just called it a day and came back home. Its funny now but wasn't funny then.
Africa's most dangerous This wasn't hunting in a tree stand, but I ended up in one! A two part dilemma-T.I.A. (for those who haven't traveled to the black continent, this is a common abbreviation meaning; This is Africa). Born and raised in South Africa, I grew up hunting Plains game mostly in my teens and once I hit the 18 year mark, upgraded to bigger game. It was my second Cape Buffalo hunt and we set out into the bush on horseback. Some of the guys wanted to up the pace a little as we had lots of ground to cover before catching up with the herd we saw the morning before. We picked up the pace and for a rider that doesn't do horseback very often, I found it hard for my eyes to keep up with the pace of the horse. The brush was knee high to the horse and we were making up ground. I was hanging on for "deer-life" at this point as my arms and legs grew tired. As we all do, we become complacent because it like the horse was almost on autopilot. Next thing I know, my horse slams on anchors and makes a 180 degree turn, throwing me into the dirt. All I remember is seeing clouds of sand and dust in front of me and hearing one of the trackers scream....BUFFALO!!! Once the dust cleared and my vision returned (within seconds) I looked in front of me and there he was. Lying down chewing his cud like nothing happened. Naturally my rifle and bow were both now gone along with my horse and I was left staring down Africa's Black Death. I didn't hesitate for a minute, turned myself around and started running for the nearest and largest tree I could find. As soon as I turned my heels, this Dugga Boy bull stood up and was right behind me. The adrenalin took over my body and I found myself somehow up in a tree staring down at this bull as he was in the process of debarking the tree out of frustration. I don't recall how I got up this tree, I just remember shaking like a leaf and feeling my heart throbbing in my neck! Looking down I couldn't see any lower limbs on this tree either...the nearest branch was the one I was sitting on and it was 9 feet up in the air. By this time my tracker and PH had arrived back into sight, but kept their distance from this situation. Once this bull blew off some steam, he decided to take a nap under the shade of the tree I was in. GREAT! I'm stuck in a umbrella thorn tree (not very comfortable) with a buffalo below me. My PH tried to fire some shots and the tracker cracked his whip a few times in an attempt to get this bull back on his feet and buy me enough time to run back to my horse...but it was to no avail. This guy loved this tree and knew I was going to have to get down some time. An hour had gone by and I don't know whether it was my pre-hydration strategy or the adrenalin wearing off that triggered my bladder's response, but I had to go...BAD. I figured, there's no way of me getting down and I have no empty bottle with me...the bull. In an attempt to desperately empty my bladder and remove this sleeping bull from below my tree and continue my day, I did it. I peed on a Cape Buffalo. I aimed for his nose and managed to awake this monstrous body below me. He stood up and snorted a few times. Look up at me, horned the ground and scraped at the base of my tree, before turning around and slowly making his way off into the distance. I don't know how embarrassing this story is for me, but I'm sure that buffalo might have a thing or two to say about that day. When me and my PH & tracker reunited he told me I was a very lucky man. He radioed the camp to tell them to get the medics and local hospital on the phone, because they were bringing in a body. Stafan (the PH) told me as I was making that approach to the tree that buffalo was a foot behind me and he couldn't bear to watch. They were still attempting to get their horses to settle down and they both decided to focus on that, rather than watching me getting pummeled up against a tree by a buffalo. There was nothing they could have done in this situation, that I know, because in the years that followed I had many more encounters with Africa's most notorious animal and they are smarter, faster and more aggressive than you could ever imagine possible. When you find yourself in a situation on foot with Africa's big game, never ever run. This is the nr.1 rule! The exception being buffalo and hippo. If you are staring either of these animals in the face, you run! You run for dear life and pray to whom ever it is you pray to and beg for your life. The end.
This year while I was filming 3 young bucks snort wheezing at eachother and rough housing, my stomach growled and made a disgusting noise that is clearly audible on the footage. I started laughing and the camera shook a little but luckily I kept my composure and the bucks were preoccupied so I didn't spook them. Oh, and I missed a 150" at 5 yards about 8 years ago (but we don't have to talk about it).
I was hunting one evening and had does on the food plot that would not leave so I sat and waited, usually not a problem but I had to pee really, really bad. I came seconds away from peeing myself.
Taking a piss from the tree stand and as you are at full stream you see a deer you would like to shoot staring at you with your junk in your hand.
years ago, i "tresspased" onto ground i knew i was not supposed to. did'nt bring a stand, just crawled into a big oak. the landowner (uknown too me) had let some guy in there to hunt. i was in a tree RIGHT ON the river bank. this is a small river, maybe 15 yards across. anyway, i seen movement and here comes this guy on the other side of the river carrying a bow.did'nt look much like a bowhunter though as he was wearing blue jeans and a green jacket. he gets right across the river from me and just stands next to a big oak. i'm doing my best to hide from him. anyways, after a bit, he pulls out a magazine from inside his jacket and starts reading. i'm thinking, what an idiot!!. soon after, he puts the magazine down and starts peeking around the tree kind of nervous like. thinking there was a deer heading his way, i start looking and see nothing untill..............................i look back at him and he's "pounding the pud"". after he got "done" he packed up and left. to this day, i wish i would have got hid real good and yelled at him. just enough for him to not figger out where the voice came from. probably would still haunt him today
