I got my friend's permission to post this story. I should begin by saying that my friend is an extremely safe hunter and always follows best-practices in the field. However, anyone is capable of making a mistake and, in this situation, we can laugh about it because no one was hurt. My friend, Chris, starts every season by picking up a handful of small game tags here in PA. He is an excellent marksman and uses squirrels for target practice on slow days in the stand. A few years ago he was sitting through a painfully quiet afternoon-hunt when a squirrel started screaming at him from a neighboring tree. He was concerned that this scream would spook nearby deer, so he decided to load up a judo tip and take the little bugger out. Right as he came to full draw, he sneezed. He said that there was no warning that the sneeze was coming and he hadn’t been sneezing at all earlier. It was just a sudden and loud sneeze that came out of nowhere. With this sneeze, my Chris must have jerked his right hand backwards because he triggered his tension release and sent the arrow flying. Additionally, because the release was unexpected and he wasn’t wearing a sling around his wrist, he dropped his bow which made a loud noise against his ladder stand. Fortunately, the bow didn’t drop to the ground or else it assuredly would have been damaged. When the chaos settled, he was in a panic. He didn’t know if anyone was nearby or if he fired the arrow somewhere where a person or animal could stumble upon it and get hurt. He also was inspecting his bow to ensure his string didn’t come off the cam following the drop. His heart was still racing from this incident when he caught a glimpse of something moving to his right. He slowly turned his head and spotted a doe, curiously poking around his stand. Through all the noise he had just made (“achoo, thwack, thunk”), this doe apparently felt it best to go find the source. Chris quickly loaded up another arrow, lined up his shot, and plugged the doe at only 10 yards. To hear him tell it, “that doe had the instincts of lemming.” When Chris climbed down from his stand later that evening, he saw the unmistakable glow of two lumenoks nearby. To his surprise and joy, he realized that he not only plugged the doe at 10 yards, but also pulled off an incredible sneezing-no-look-no-aim-kill-shot on the squirrel as well. All’s well that ends well, but this is not a trick shot Chris is looking to attempt ever again. I know we all try our best to pass along crucial safety tips to our children, but we often forget this one: “Take a Claratin before you go out in the field.”
don't have a funny bow hunting story, I do have a funny/ depressing gun story that involves me driving over my own deer rifle with a truck...
I was just talking about all the sitka gear I bought on another post, well I've slowly built all my layers in what I thought is one of the best patterns around. I practice my bugle for 6 months, my buddy is up from Texas and he's done the same. I've got Elk Bombs, I've got dead down wind, I got my pack ready and 2 spike camp sites set up about 12 and 15 miles from my cabin. All of it is sitting in a pile in the cabin ready to rip in the AM. We get to my cabin and have a little light left, so we jump in the ranger in jeans, cowboy boots, tshirt and my lucky BoSox hat. No calls, no scent protection, no camo, and barely even brought my bow. We drive about mile and jump out so I can start showing the different mountains we'll get into, etc. We're gonna head back and my buddy joey says I've been working on my elk & cow calls, and let's out some of the silliest nonsense I've heard. a minute later we're walking back to the ranger and I bagged my first elk, a raghorn that looks like he lost every fight he ever had, but my first elk none the less. Called in with a whistle from a texan who never called an elk in his life. all the $ I spent on camo, gear, packs, etc. and I shot him 2 mins from the cabin with all my expensive gear in a pile. PS. don't tell my wife.
This is funny because I'm sure your heart broke a bit that you didn't get to use your new toys. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have a similar story. I was shooting my bow this summer and my tractor was parked 50 yards from my target that I was shooting at. It had rained overnight and since it was spring everything was muddy and I figured I would just lay my bow on the tractors tire to keep it out of the dirt/mud. We'll not to long after my dad came over to give me a hand by bringing out round hay bales to feed my horses. I was standing 40 yards away from him at the time when I realized I forgot to put my bow away. My dad slammed the gears in reverse and proceeded to back up. I yelled at the top of my lungs trying to get his attention. Well the tractor is old and noisy there was no chance he could have heard me. I watched as my bow slid off the tire and get run over by the tractor. I walked up thinking that the bow was toast. The weight of the tractor pushed my bow into the mud and I could see tire tread marks across my riser and stab. The stabilizer got bent, but the riser is good to go haha
OK so I did think of one , not really funny but learning experience for sure... Back when I was young a dumb I used to shoot my martin firecat set at 80#... I could pull it back no problem even though it was only 50% left off I could hold it a while too... one day on a very very very cold morning a nice 8pt walked nearly under me at 15yds and I could not get my bow back, talk about P.Oed.. got home dropped to 70# and never looked back...
[video=youtube_share;1EVbnWubVjI]http://youtu.be/1EVbnWubVjI[/video] I think thats one of the coons that was trying to get in my stand... :D
My friend John, and I, walked up on our friend Jim, who had stopped on his way in for an afternoon hunt, to pinch a loaf. For whatever reason John thought it would be funny to shoot Jim's backpack with a broadhead tipped arrow. Perfect shot, and pretty funny I guess, but we were surprised at Jim's reaction. He wasn't mad. He just smiled, pulled up his drawers, and walked over to his newly ventilated backpack. He opens the backpack, reaches in, and pulls out John's brand new $200+ parka, now all cut up by the broadhead. "John, I forgot to tell ya, I borrowed your coat, OK? I never laughed so hard, and a couple hours later I shot a beautiful 8pt. It was a memorable day!
I had just picked up some new arrows at the local archery dealer and was going to shoot indoor video with my friend. Whilst I was paying for the arrows and indoor shoot, my buddy pokes his head out of the video room and says "hurry up, it's your shot". I scurried in, nocked arrow, shot, and didn't hear the familiar "thump". I'd forgotten the blunt tip - went right through the screen.
Not a bow hunting story but funny none the less.We were duck hunting in ND several years ago. It had been a dry summer and the water had fell away from the cattails leaving a lot of bank showing from the waters edge. I was sitting in the cattails to hide and we were shooting a few ducks. I had my ducks in a pile beside me at the edge of the cattails. As the action slowed I looked down the bank and see a skunk slowly waddling along as skunks do heading in my direction. "Huh, I wonder how close he'll get". Well he walked all the way to my pile of ducks, found one he liked and drug it back the way he came about 10 feet and proceeded to have at it. "Well that's not gonna work" and I jump out of the cattails yelling and screaming convinced I was going to scare the bejeepers out of skunk. Wrong. He takes one look at me and here he comes to scare the bejeepers out of me, which he did and I take off running and squealing like a little girl down the bank. After I felt like I had out run him I glanced over my shoulder to see he had went back to MY duck. Again "that's not gonna work". So I walk up to about 10 feet and put a load of steel 2's through this gosh dang pole cat that wants to eat my duck. That was a bad idea!! A word of advice, don't shoot a skunk at 10 feet with a shotgun,trust me.
