Guest Mistake Stories...

[swampstander]

Several years ago we had a family lease south of Sonora. It had some nice deer and it butted up to the old Dolan Creek Ranch so we had a few exotics around. The occasional Corsican Ram Sika deer and Aoudad could be seen. The place was covered with Angora goats.

My brother in law came down to hunt opening weekend. We sat around the campfire the evening before talking about the game we had seen on scouting trips. The next morning I drop him off at a stand on the side of a hill overlooking a canyon and head to my spot. When my hunt was over I drove back and he was sitting on the side of the road. He met me at my window and says he shot something.

I asked him how big it was. He says "well...whats a corsican ram look like?". I described one to him.

He says "whats am aoudad like like?" I described one of those too.

He then squints a little bit and says " whats an angora goat look like?" So I described an angora goat to him.

He then says "well...I think I shot an angora goat."

We went and looked and sure enough he had shot the biggest Boone and Crockett world record angora goat I had ever seen.

When he shot the big one the rest of the goats came over the hill and just kind of kept milling around so he figured something was amiss.

We let it lay and went to find the ranch manager. He was laughing so hard when I told him the story he told us not to worry about it.

[texag93]

That's the hardest part about hunting IMO, getting people to follow the rules/management plan.

You got that right. I deal with it all the time. I've heard all the excuses.

[DUKFVR]

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 always been told to see the true character in a person take them hunting or fishing.

[stickfigure]

Years ago I took a friend hunting on my lease in S texas. The only senderos were the roads which ran along the fences, so I sat him in a box blind on the fence that looked into our lease to a feeder. I heard him shoot several shots, so I went to pick him up. When I get there he is not in the blind and is across the fence. He has shot a buck across the fence. I am frustrated, but help him get the buck over the fence and ask why he shot so many times. He tells how he shot it once with his rifle, but then ran out of shells and emptied his pistol at it. I replied that I couldn't believe he only took one bullet for his gun, to which he said, no that was the second deer. The big one I shot is across the other fence. I looked for it, and sure enough he managed to hit it at about 300 yards, but apparently not good, as I only found about 10 drops of blood.
I couldn't believe he shot at 2 bucks both of which were across fences.
I spent an hour chewing him out about it and being frustrated that he would even consider shooting across a fence line.
That evening he sat in the same stand, and shot at a six point also across the fence.
I haven't invited him to hunt with me since then. Made me realize that some people can't make good or ethical decisions when it comes to deer.

[DUKFVR]

My dad told me a story about the time he took his brother hunting. I imagine it was in the 50's. My Uncle even told me it when we were in Col hunting after my Dad died. They were day hunting somewhere around Boerne . My uncle was pretty new to big game hunting. They grew up around ricefields. Anyways they got to the place & got checked in & went out to hunt the 1st evening. My dad said he heard 2 shots & it sounded like pistol shots. A little later he walked over to find his brother beaming a big smile over 2 dead goats or sheep of some kind. My dad looked at him and asked him if he knew what he shot. His brother thought they were some kind of wild animals & popped 2 of them with a pistol. Of course they were the ranchers domestic animals. My Dad said they were so scared they were about to just pack & leave ,but knew that was the wrong thing to do. His brother went to the rancher dragging his tail between his legs & told him what happened. The rancher told him thanks for not just running off & my uncle paid him for them. They went back a couple more times after that & the rancher always razzed him when he got there to watch out for the wild sheep! LOL!

[pure lefty]

Got a high school friend Who's son is a game manager on a ranch in south Texas, Dad got invited to shoot a cull buck with a bow. This cull came to a feeder with a 160 12 pt. cull left and came back and at 12 yards the Dad put an arrow in boiler room, found him on 20 yards away, cull had 12 pts. Explanation was it was 6 pm and he could not tell it was the 12 pt. my friend actually got mad when I messed with him about it. If u mess up face the music.

[TXBlkCld]

I have always been told to see the true character in a person take them hunting or fishing.

You can tell more about a person's character in 10 mins of play than in an hour of conversation.

[TXBlkCld]

Guest Mistake Stories...

Many years ago before I had ever even heard of aging deer, a good buddy of mine from Laredo invited me down to go on a hunt on his family's 1,000 acre ranch. The only stipulation out on me was that if it were a buck that I shot, it had to be big enough that I'd mount it.
Well the first afternoon I was there, we were talking to the neighbors who hunted 3,000 acres. They told us that the week before, they had shot at the "biggest buck" they'd ever seen in the 10 years they'd been hunting there. That being said, my two buddies and I spent three hours or so looking for the dead deer since he was never recovered. All we ever found were the remains of a poached doe in a plastic trash bag. So that evening, we sat in a high rack and never saw a shooter.
All of his is taking place around New Year's Eve and that night my buddy's family had a party. My buddy got too sloshed to hunt the next morning so I got up and went by myself. I was sitting in the stand and was getting ready to get down because I had to leave that morning to head back home to north Texas. As I look up, I see a doe coming to the feeder. Then I see a buck behind her. He was limping and digging the doe but he was the deer for me. I settled the crosshairs and the .264 barked. He ran off and piled up. After I got down to go find him, I was wondering around where I knew was the general area where he had disappeared. I started smelling something rotten, like rotten flesh. I find my buck and at the same time I find the source of the smell. Apparently the "biggest deer" these guys had ever seen was a 3 yo 8 pt and they had shot him in the leg. Well I gutted him and loaded him up for the trek north back home. On my way I stopped by and saw my buddy and the med him for the opportunity to hunt and kill a nice deer. He walked up and said, "nice deer for a 3 year old". I had no clue what that meant since I'd never heard someone refer to the "age" of a deer. He proceeded to explain it to me and was hoping I would've killed an older deer but wasn't upset with me. Once I showed him the rotten knee on the deer from the other hunters' "biggest deer" they'd ever seen in Laredo, we had a good laugh at those guys expense. We still chuckle about it to this day.....and that buck is still hanging on my wall and was the first I'd ever had mounted.
Did I mess up? Technically yes. But my buddy was glad that I had a deer I was very happy with and he was happy that I helped take out a wounded deer. Win/win.

[Daniel75]

Epic thread

[Speedgoat]

The only mistake i have been a part of resulted from me letting a hunter sit by himself.
I had sat with him in the morning when the target 135" 9 point showed and stayed around for a pretty good while but didn't present a shot.
Knowing that the hunter could identify the buck, that evening I sat another stand. The 9point came back in that evening presenting multiple shot opportunities.
Paul Godsey with Double G was the hunter and never took the shot because he wasn't 100% sure it was the same buck.
So, my not sitting that stand cost Paul a good management buck. I certainly would not have any problem taking Paul again though.

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

[03GruntUSMC]

Tagged for after work...

[JeffJ]

These stories are why landowners are very reluctant to let people come out and shoot does and hogs. How many times have you read on here, "I'm more than willing to come help you thin out your does or hogs".

[Fishndude]

I took a good buddy down to my super secret hog spot. His only instruction was "don't shoot any black and white spotted pig!" Didn't take long and he texts me and says he shot a pig. So, I get down to go help him find it.

When I got to him, he says, "I shot a spotted pig!" I laughed, knowing he was kidding. He repeats, "pretty sure it was a spotted one!" I said, "haha" knowing this guy can be a real prankster.

Well, here's his LDP.





In the long run, the joke was on him. But that's for a whole other thread never to be written. Lol

[Jaybo31]

I took a good buddy down to my super secret hog spot. His only instruction was "don't shoot any black and white spotted pig!" Didn't take long and he texts me and says he shot a pig. So, I get down to go help him find it.

When I got to him, he says, "I shot a spotted pig!" I laughed, knowing he was kidding. He repeats, "pretty sure it was a spotted one!" I said, "haha" knowing this guy can be a real prankster.

Well, here's his LDP.

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In the long run, the joke was on him. But that's for a whole other thread never to be written. Lol

haha! I was wondering if this one would show up

[Lokmdwn]

This one is more along the lines of doing the right thing. This happened to me a few years ago. I was allowed to take a buck and a doe off a small piece of property that belonged to my FIL's coworker. My FIL set this up so I would come to their house for the whole Thanksgiving weekend, just outside of Abilene. I could shoot any buck EXCEPT the big 8 that showed up every morning and evening. To date that is the biggest buck I have ever seen alive. I swear his G2’s were at least 14 inches and the G3’s weren’t much shorter. The first morning I hit the grunt call and he came charging in and walked by me at 4 yards (I was on the ground) and he looked mad. I was rifle hunting. I saw him every time I hunted over the Thanksgiving weekend (usually inside of 20 yards). There was another big buck running around there that was missing a hoof and he was on the hit list. The only time the big boy was in the scope was the first day he popped out and I was on 9 power looking at his feet praying that one was missing, LOL. After that I only watched him with binos and my naked eyes, ended up taking a doe and a scrub 6 point. My FIL told me the next year that I was invited back and I said I didn't think I wanted to have to watch the big ones walk again and was just going to stay home and hunt. He told me the landowner said I could shoot whatever I wanted to and he only put that restriction on me the first year to see if I would abide by his rules. When I talked to Gary, (landowner), I told him that was the meanest thing that anyone had ever done to me and we both laughed about it. I have hunted there several times over the years, put a nice 8 on the wall from there and my daughter even took her first buck there a couple years ago. I have yet to see another buck like that one the first year though. Sometimes the rules are there just to see how you are going to act. I think I am the only person that ever gets to hunt on his property.