Guest Mistake Stories...

[PSD Ryan]

Few years ago on my ex FILs ranch, I had a beautiful 9 I'd been going after with the bow for a few years. He was smart, never hit feeders, and I had him patterned that year. Set up a lock on at the intersection of two of his trails and was ready to take him that night.

Each year we had the biologist do a survey and give us numbers for what to shoot. That year we were to take 8 does and 4 mature shooter bucks. 3 bucks and 1 doe had been taken, and the rules were nobody but me was to take a buck, since I was the only bow hunter and finally had a good shot at my nemesis.

I went out for the hunt, and my exes aunt went out for "just pigs", and her uncle and cousin went out for does. Sat for a while and I knew my 9 would be passing through in the next 15 minutes or so and heard a shot. Never did see him and headed back to camp.

As I rolled up to the barn, I see 3 bucks on the skinning rack. The cousin took an 11, the uncle a 10, and her aunt who went out for pigs had shot my 9. I asked where she saw him and sure enough, he was on his way to my setup.

I was heartbroken, ex FIL was furious that after being told no bucks, they had taken 3. They were mad at him for being mad cause it was "just deer" and there were "plenty more out there"

[DaveC]

Some of these stories (like PSDRyans) make me shake my head in disbelief of what people will knowingly do when being told straight up not to.

[Speedgoat]

I bet most of us do not have a list of folks that we would share a lease with, but instead we have a list of those who would not be on it

[jerp]

PSD Ryan - that comment from the group - not understanding why anybody was mad because they are "just deer and there are plenty more out there" sums up the attitude that causes alot of these problems. It is often hard to make a non deer hunter "get it" when it comes to management practices. They figure it's like when they are dove hunting - "hey, there's a dove, and I'm dove hunting" so, BOOM! Now they are deer hunting, so it's "hey, there's a deer and I'm deer hunting" so, BOOM! I think alot of times when they deliberately break the rules they have decided to go by the old saying "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" What they find out though, is there is no forgiveness when it comes to breaking the deer rules on purpose. They just can't understand how seriously we take it...

[Bowhuntamistad]

In 1989 I was guiding/hunting on a ranch north of Burnet(14,000 acres).I was ask to help guide a big corporate group from Houston and do some skinning. I could also do a little hunting. This particular ranch had a good population of aoudad sheep and some good ones too. This is what I would be after. We'll the corporate big wig great white hunters showed up that night from Houston. We where setting around the lodge talking about different animals and watching a Mike Tyson fight when aoudad sheep came up. Well one of the big wigs just had to shoot a big one. That's all he talked about for the next day and a half. Finally the ranch owner ask me to put him on some sheep as he was a very good customer in the corporate world. So I did. This guy shot a 35" sheep(Biggest I've personally seen to this day). A monster. We load him up and head in. I'm dumbfounded at his size. We'll we get there(skinning area)it's dark and the celebration begins at the skinning rack. Back slaps,high fives you name it. The ranch owner is extatic. He is more excited than the hunter. He keeps going on and on about how big he is and that he has to be a record.
The rancher looks at him and asks "how are you going to have him mounted? Life size or shoulder mount?" And the hunter replies "I'm not going to have that nasty stinking thing mounted. We can throw him away for all I care" :0 !!!
Wrong thing to say!!!!
It got ugly quick after that and he was ordered to pack his stuff and leave the ranch now,as in like yesterday now..and to NEVER come back.And he did.
All these years later it still blows my mind at how clueless this guy was!!!

So....whatever happened to it?

[PSD Ryan]

PSD Ryan - that comment from the group - not understanding why anybody was mad because they are "just deer and there are plenty more out there" sums up the attitude that causes alot of these problems. It is often hard to make a non deer hunter "get it" when it comes to management practices. They figure it's like when they are dove hunting - "hey, there's a dove, and I'm dove hunting" so, BOOM! Now they are deer hunting, so it's "hey, there's a deer and I'm deer hunting" so, BOOM! I think alot of times when they deliberately break the rules they have decided to go by the old saying "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" What they find out though, is there is no forgiveness when it comes to breaking the deer rules on purpose. They just can't understand how seriously we take it...

It was definitely an issue of permission vs forgiveness. I think they knew they would be able to come back next year because they were family. The cousin said he had never shot a nice buck before and couldn't pass up the opportunity even though he knew he wasn't allowed to.

[GarGuy]

Being a guide, I have a dozen of these stories but out of respect for...well its juyst better not to tell some of them. Heres another.

There is a large ranch here in Houston co owned by a little old lady who allows NO hunting. It is overrun with deer and a biologist came out with a nephew and told her she really needed to take a bunch of does. Now nephew invited me to help with the doe hunt. She really didn't want any deer shot but bucks were off limits.
We decided to still hunt along a narrow strip of timber on a big creek with nephew starting at one end and me at the other. I hadn't gone 60yd when I heard a deer coming. MASSIVE typical 9pt with a bunch of trash. He ran up to about 25yds before he saw me and stopped with a snort. I snorted back at him and we played that game for about 2 minutes before he turned and headed back toward nephew. BOOOM,BOOOM,BOOOM went the 7mag!

Nephew was all shook up as he described his dream buck that belonged on the cover of a magazine which he had just gut shot. The deer crossed into another neighbors property where we didn't have permission to be and that's where I excused myself and left. He continued into that property and a fiasco ensued with that land owner. That was the end of hunting on her property. Sucks because if we had done this right, we could have likely hunted it for years and eventually gained full permissions.

[WCB]

OK, here's my mistakes.
Hunting the BAO for the first time on a late season doe hunt I had a doe come in. I was sitting in a box blind shooting thru shoot thru mesh for the first time. Had a doe come in and glassed her for nubbins. None, nota, not a bump. Being leary of the mesh I tried to shoot through a hole in the mesh and the arrow deflected and I missed. She turned and ran immediately out of sight of the one open window. Instantly she came back feeding so I nocked another arrow and let it fly. Tracked her about 40yds and found out this one was a nubbin...
Immediately called Trailboss who was in town and told him what happened and the checkbook is out. He said tag it and he'll deal with me when he gets back. When he got there I was feeling like crap. Told him I was ready to pay the penelty and would donate the meat. He was real good about it and believed my story. Let me keep him and invited me back. I even joined his season lease the next year.

My second one...
First AoE hunt for axis does had me in a stand with a dry creek bed on one side well below me. They all had told me that axis nubbins had kind of tall pedicules instead of bumps and would be real noticeable. This one barely had any bumps at all and I let an arrow fly. When Brian picked me up I was ready to go home and pay the penelty... All the guys got a good laugh out of it and still razz me about it.. Brian still let's me come out and hunt but I think it's only because I bring cool friends.

Both honest mistakes and I was ready and willing to accept all consequences.

[M.E.B.]

J.B. your story is the perfect illustration of how some guys are just wired different. There have been several guys over the years who were friends but a weekend in the woods with them showed a side of them that changed my opinion. I've had the same change of opinon after one round of golf. Maybe hunting and golf reveal character...

I have seen more people become complete jerks over deer hunting. I love deer hunting but I have seen friends totally screw each other over a deer. I don't get it.

[Tex]

I'm on a doe hunt at my neighbors right now. Think he would believe I thought this was a doe?

[150class]

I'm on a doe hunt at my neighbors right now. Think he would believe I thought this was a doe?

Do it!
No balls!

[Encinal]

OK, here's my mistakes.
Hunting the BAO for the first time on a late season doe hunt I had a doe come in. I was sitting in a box blind shooting thru shoot thru mesh for the first time. Had a doe come in and glassed her for nubbins. None, nota, not a bump. Being leary of the mesh I tried to shoot through a hole in the mesh and the arrow deflected and I missed. She turned and ran immediately out of sight of the one open window. Instantly she came back feeding so I nocked another arrow and let it fly. Tracked her about 40yds and found out this one was a nubbin...
Immediately called Trailboss who was in town and told him what happened and the checkbook is out. He said tag it and he'll deal with me when he gets back. When he got there I was feeling like crap. Told him I was ready to pay the penelty and would donate the meat. He was real good about it and believed my story. Let me keep him and invited me back. I even joined his season lease the next year.

My second one...
First AoE hunt for axis does had me in a stand with a dry creek bed on one side well below me. They all had told me that axis nubbins had kind of tall pedicules instead of bumps and would be real noticeable. This one barely had any bumps at all and I let an arrow fly. When Brian picked me up I was ready to go home and pay the penelty... All the guys got a good laugh out of it and still razz me about it.. Brian still let's me come out and hunt but I think it's only because I bring cool friends.

Both honest mistakes and I was ready and willing to accept all consequences.

We shoot doe fawns as a management tool... we don't get mad at people for making a mistake... we just try to be as careful as possible...

Shooting a nubbin or two is an acceptable consequence of the strategy.

[PondPopper]

So....whatever happened to it?

It was mounted 1/2 LS.

[Tex]

Do it!
No balls!

Haha. No money.

[HandiKap Bowhunter]

Had a small one at a buddies place today. Guy was supposed to shoot a 140 in cull that was a friend deal. Ended up shooting a 168. Cost him a check for 6 k