Guest Mistake Stories...

[Black Ice]

Guest Mistake Stories...

Last year a buddy of mine shot a yearling spike with a .375 h&h as a guest on out place. I told him to shoot a doe and that dang bullet he used probably weighed more than the little buck I still give him heck over that.


The other time wasn't a mistake but it was a bad time. I was living in Charlotte NC and talking with a buddy about my folks place in South Texas and how many deer are down there. Well we decided to make a 21 hr drive in my truck down to the ranch. At the time my Dad had it leased out to some hunters and I was allowed to kill one buck, one doe, 2 javilina and hogs. Well I told my buddy he could shoot one doe, a hog and a javi. That was the deal and he was soooo happy to be going to South Texas even though he couldn't shoot a buck. I hunted with him the first coue of sits and I let him pick which animals he wanted to shoot. We both shot a javi and he got first choice. We then see a large group of hogs and he runs up ahead of me and shoots a hog under the feeder. This was after he missed a monster hog from 75 yards. He's upset that the hog he shot only went about 100 pounds. I tell him it's all good and he can shoot my hog because I get to shoot a buck. My dad had also said to shoot a management buck and not to shoot a trophy due to the people who leased it. Well I let him hunt alone one evening and he calls me telling me he has the biggest buck in his life standing in front of him and could he shoot it. I tell him no and that he new the rules from the start. He continues to throw a fit and have a horrible attitude. He was pouting like a. 6 year old, enough to make me feel uncomfortable. I had shot a management buck that evening shortly after he called me and that made it even worse. The next morning he won't get up to go hunt so I go out and have a short sit. I go back to talk to him and he says you need to bring me to the airport in Houston so I can fly back to NC to hunt in South Carolina this weekend for a BUCK. So he whines Like a baby and is making my hunt miserable so I tell him to pack his chit and get in the dam truck. I cut my hunt 2 days short,drive 4 hrs to the airport drop him off. The guy asked my to bring back all his stuff on my 17 hr drive back to Charlotte by myself, and to keep ice on his kills for 3 days until he got back He also said he would spilt all fuel cost and ice on the way back. Well he came and got his stuff from my house and never paid me a dime.

[westguy76]

doe hunt

I got invited up to a guy's family land up in Brown County a few years back for a doe hunt. About 5 of us all in the same Sunday School class real nice gesture, good group of guys. Don't you know the one guy that talks himself up as a hunter and has the latest gear, etc. you know the type. Well he is the one to shoot a yearling (really barely knee high) button buck. and I am just embarrassed for him, no big deal to the invitee we rib him pretty good.. the next morning another guy who I know is a hunter is sitting couple hundred yards from me and we all hear him shoot twice in about 20/30 seconds. landowner texts me, WTH? I am confused too. when we go check it out he has two doe down, one under a feeder the other about 30 yards behind up on a hill. He claims he shot once and claims the (magic bullet theory) shot ricocheted off feeder leg and killed deer on hill. once again I am embarrassed and wondering .. why lie? next sitting I sit down with another guy and I have a doe come in and I keep looking at her trying to judge whether she is a mature doe for the area. I think they tend to be smaller hill country deer there unless you find a big old nag. well i finally let the .270 bark and I flat miss completely as she moves as I shoot.. **** now I feel like the fool she skips and circles and I let her have it in the neck this time and she drops straight down... he texts me asking WTH? yeah I shot twice tell him.. just flat missed feeling embarrassed.. He didnt seem impressed with the size of my doe either but maybe it was in my head at that point... anyways, point is you just never know about some guys. he did talk to me about an invite again the next year but I moved churches and lost touch.

[Tex]

Years ago when I first started dating my wife we would go and hunt on her granddads property on the weekends when I was in from college. One weekend we were at her house and her dad asked if we were going hunting? I told him I hadn't brought my gun with me so no. He said I will let you borrow a gun on one condition. Bring home some meat. You see we typically saw a lot of deer but I would never shoot anything because no one had ever told me what I could and couldn't shoot. He says I'm tired of heating about all these bucks and we still don't have any meat. So if you use my gun you better kill a buck. He said I could kill whatever I wanted but just leave the does alone.
Well off we go and before long a good buck steps out of the woods. I get set up and squeeze the trigger and click. I had forgotten to load the gun. The buck starts to get nervous and is heading back in the woods. I load, take aim and fire. He runs in the woods out of site and immediately runs back out across the pasture. I quickly reload and catch him in another opening as be runs between two groups of trees. I never see him come out of the trees so I think he is down. We wait about 30 minutes and decided to go and look where he was first standing to see if there was any blood from the first shot. I'm looking on the ground when my wife says "There he is". I look in the woods and there he lays. I immediately panic and wonder what the heck did I shoot at the second time and praying that I missed whatever it was. We walk over to the group of trees and laying there dead is a big fat doe. I'm sick.
So we load up the buck and head to her house. I tell him the story and apologize about 100 times. He said, a Well seems like an honest mistake so we might as well eat her.
That was over 20 years ago and I'm setting in a tree about 300 yards from that same place right now.

[Target-panic]

The first year we had red deer on the ranch the owner put them off limits. I had a corporate group here and one of those guys shot "2 really big whitetail does". Turned out to be 2 of those $2000 penalty, red deer they weren't supposed to shoot.
What I still haven't figured out is how you mistake a 300lb+ red deer cow for a whitetail doe?

I remember that. That same guy, screwed up an hour and half crawling stalk on a huge rutting fallow for me too.

[Tex]

Several years ago I was invited along with several of my coworkers to go on a hunt in south texas by a client. We decided to meet at one of the job sites and carpool. I showed up and when I got out my bow case the superintendent told me that he didn't think they allowed bow hunting on the ranch. Well sure enough when we get there they tell me that the land owner doesn't allow bows but they have plenty of guns I can use. The guys that invited us told us we could kill whatever we wanted as far as bucks went but they would prefer them to mature or culls. They also wanted us all to try and kill does as well because the season was almost over and they had a lot of mld tags to fill. Well I saw some really nice bucks but just couldn't make myself shoot them with a gun. I did take a couple of does as they had asked.
One of the guys who was with us had never killed a deer and was scared to death to shoot anything because he was afraid it wouldn't be mature. I had seen a big cull 5 pt that really needed to go so we decided to hunt together and I would film him killing this deer. Late that evening the sendero was full of bucks and does when the five finally stepped out. Tommy got on him but couldn't get a good rest. We had to play a game of twister to get him on the other side if the blind so he could be more stable. He got into position and I got the camera back on the buck. He finally got settled and took the shot. We watched the buck go behind a clump of brush never to emerge on the other side. Tommy was pumped and wanted to go get him right then but I assured him that we just needed to wait a while. As we sat there I saw a deer slipping through the brush at about 50 yards. I got the binos on him and it is the big 5. I told Tommy to try and get another shot at him all the while trying to figure out how this deer got up and made it over 200 yards without me seeing it. That's when I realized we had shot the wrong deer. We went back and reviewed the video and as we were trading places in the blind, another deer walked out in the sendero. He ended up being a 4.5 eight point that had broken off three tines so it was still a good kill but I can't tell you how nervous I was when we walked up on him.
Tommy and I filmed an apology for the guy that had invited us before we recovered the deer. We all got a big kick out of it later on.

[GRIFF]

Yep heres mine, unfortunatley it was my dad that did it. I was on a lease several years back and tell my dad he can shoot a doe or two and a mature buck if he sees one. I put him on my best stand. I go to pick him up after the evening hunt and he says he shot a doe, with his bow and she ran this way. Couldn't find blood so we decided to come back in the morning. He hunts there again and shoots another doe and she ran the same as the first.

Found both deer. One was 1.5 old 5 pointer and the other was 6pt same age. I was pretty upset with him. There went my two bucks for the year. But at least it was my dad. I can forgive him.

Get that old man some glasses!!!!! Lol

[TildenHunter]

I brought a buddy down to my family's ranch down in McMullen Co several years ago and put him out on a bowstand. He was from Louisiana and had never killed a deer with his bow. He was to be hunting does only and when I dropped him off at his stand I told him about a 3.5 yr old 4 pt. I told him that it had big forks and was a clean 2x2. About 45 minutes later I send him a text to see if he had see anything and he told me, he just shot "the buck". I go to pick him up and he tells me he had a blood trail. I asked to make double sure that it was the right deer and he said, "I think it is actually a 5 pt". I just kind of brushed off the comment and began tracking the deer. I follow blood for about 70 yards and jump a big deer that was strictly off limits to everyone. He was a 5.5 yr old 8 pt with a 3rd beam that would put him around 140". He has broken off one side so he was a big 4x1 (his 3rd beam). He gets up and walks away from me at 20 yards. I have a pistol on my hip at the time and the thought never crosses my mind that this is the deer that my buddy shot. I let him walk and then go back to the group to find last blood and described my encounter. My buddy gets kind of quiet when I describe the deer to him and I begin to get VERY aggravated. He then tells me that it sounds like the deer he shot. To make things worse, we lose blood and never found the buck and he was never seen again. I know without a doubt that he died from that bowshot and was wasted. We go back to the house and show him a video of that deer and he confirmed that it was the same deer. He has and will never set foot on the ranch again. It was my fault for telling him he could shoot the 4 pt. You would think that a 23 year old "hunter" would know what a 4 pt 2x2 looks like. I learned a lot that trip about people that claim to be deer hunters.

[Clint]

Clint, take me. I promise to loose an arrow I enjoy hearing Paul tell that story. He gets a funny look on his face.

That's right. Now I remember him telling me he had a 9 point all morning but it couldn't be the target deer because it was too big. Video showed it to be the buck he was supposed to shoot.

[TB80]

http://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=419601

[Larryf250]

A few years ago a friend and myself volunteered for the operation orphan hunt. The ranch we ended up on with about 10 kids and 8 other "guides" was a high fence place between mason and Fredericksburg. The landowner had brought in a bunch of high dollar bucks to breed and only had 2 rules: make sure it's a doe not a nubbin and shoot and sika you see. After the morning hunt grand total: 4 actual does, 4 nubbin bucks, and a whitetail spike. The guides responsible for the nubbins blamed the kids for shooting the wrong deer (ironically one guide had 2 nubbins that morning) and the guide with the kid and the spike swore to everyone that it was a hybrid between a sika and whitetail; therefore it was a cull. Needless to say, the entire group was asked to leave. I felt sorry for the kids because some of those "guides" we're not that bright.

[Shake N' Bake]

Good stories!!

[Killer]

Buck fever and inexperience can make people do crazy things. They don't respect the animal or realize how long it takes or how expensive it is to grow big deer.

[Aggiehunter08]

A few years ago a friend and myself volunteered for the operation orphan hunt. The ranch we ended up on with about 10 kids and 8 other "guides" was a high fence place between mason and Fredericksburg. The landowner had brought in a bunch of high dollar bucks to breed and only had 2 rules: make sure it's a doe not a nubbin and shoot and sika you see. After the morning hunt grand total: 4 actual does, 4 nubbin bucks, and a whitetail spike. The guides responsible for the nubbins blamed the kids for shooting the wrong deer (ironically one guide had 2 nubbins that morning) and the guide with the kid and the spike swore to everyone that it was a hybrid between a sika and whitetail; therefore it was a cull. Needless to say, the entire group was asked to leave. I felt sorry for the kids because some of those "guides" we're not that bright.

Look at my avatar

[black dallas]

Back about 1984 we took a deacon in the church on his first deer hunt in Comanche County. He had got his rifle sighted in and bought a bunch of gear for the trip. When we got ready to go out the first morning I told him I was coming in about 10:00am for breakfast. He insisted he want to stay out till noon. I said no problem. I told him I would pick him up at noon. I took him to a tower blind overlooking a wheat field. I made sure he got up the ladder into the stand and wished him good luck. I went on about my business, hunted the morning hunt, and went back to camp at 10:00am. I never heard any shots from his direction so I waited till straight up noon to go pick the deacon up. When I got to the stand he was trying to come down the ladder but he appeared to be in a lot of pain. When he got completely down he sat on the ground rubbing his knees. He said "Man...this deer hunting is a lot tougher than I ever thought it would be."

You see....we forgot that we had taken the chair out of that tower blind. He had been on his knees for the last 6 hours peering over the window sill. He thought that was the way we all hunted.

Thanks! that made me laugh!!!

[GarGuy]

I have a friend with a big high fence ranch. One pasture has a nice herd of elk and he started selling a few cow hunts to control his numbers and let folks get a meat elk. Anyway, a guy I know booked a cow hunt for his 11year old daughter. My friend hauled them out in his highrack truck and found a big cow. He told her to shoot her when she turned.. Immediately the kid shot bt the cow was still standing there looking. My friend told her she missed and to bolt another in and wait for the cow to turn broadside. The kid says," I killed him!" Sure enough, there was another elk he couldn't see from the drivers seat and she had killed a 440 class bull elk!

He was a good sport about it and let her keep the elk as he figured it was his fault and throwing a fit wouldn't bring the elk back to life.