Guest Mistake Stories...

[denowt]

Same group of friends in Terry county. We set up 1 of my box blind's and a few of my pig traps out to do some pig removal. I have a blast out there and kill plenty of pigs. I have been baiting the traps but not setting them because I cant get back out the next day because of school and work. Well one weekend I have Friday and Saturday so I set the traps on friday night. I go back saturday afternoon and saw I caught a momma and 3 lil piglets... Its cold and a storm is coming in. So I kill momma and open the door for the 3 piglets to try a lil skeet shooting with the piglets and my extrema 2... I get them all and its a bloody snowy mess around the trap. I load them all up and head back to the house. After I get through cleaning I check my phone and its been blowing up.

Landowner evidently saw the trap before I had and offered the pigs to a friend of his who drove in 90 miles to pick them up only to find a massacre. I immediately call and take responsibility for my actions. I offer the landowners friend all the meat already packaged and ready to cook... but he wanted them live. I ended up losing that place to hunt that night. I still know I was in the right, I set the trap (my trap), I caught the pigs on my bait, and I killed my pigs... all on his land. But it left a bad taste in the landowners mouth, and its his land so I just moved on. Too bad to because that place is just 15 minutes from my house.

I'm both a landowner and a leasee, so I can see both sides of the hunting equation.
But there ain't nothing right on the landowner's side unless y'all had some sort of agreement about trapping hogs beforehand.
You set out the traps, you baited them, and you caught the hogs, but the landowner was gonna give them to someone else?
He should've called you immediately if he wanted the hogs instead of calling his buddy to come steal them out of your trap.

[Coach W]

I'm both a landowner and a leasee, so I can see both sides of the hunting equation.
But there ain't nothing right on the landowner's side unless y'all had some sort of agreement about trapping hogs beforehand.
You set out the traps, you baited them, and you caught the hogs, but the landowner was gonna give them to someone else?
He should've called you immediately if he wanted the hogs instead of calling his buddy to come steal them out of your trap.

While I agree with you, and we had no agreement about hogs other than he let me on his property to kill and trap them... tie goes to the landowner ... I was hunting there for free. So you just gotta roll with it. If I had to do it all over again I'd do the exact same thing. I even left my blind out there for his grandson to use when I left. Like I said no hard feelings... Just wish I could find another free place to hunt pigs close to home.

[chrisgunguy]

Bump for any new stories from this year if you have them.

[perfectstorm]

We had a guest come out & miss 2x. He then admitted he didn't sight in his gun because it wasn't convienant for him. Before the hunt he asked if bucks were off limit when I knew he had already used his trophy buck tag this year. Thank God he didn't wound a deer & his shots were clean misses. I don't know how you get more disrespectful to a land owner.

He won't be allowed back.

[rtp]

Had a guy in this year who shot a mgmt buck. I told him let's sit tight and hopefully we can get a doe also. Deer start filtering back in and I told him to take one of two does that were standing together to the back and right of the other deer there. Im watching both doe in the binos and Bam. The two doe just shuffle over a bit. I tell him he missed and as Im turning to tell him to rack another round and shoot again I see a deer laying on the ground. I told him, he just shot a button buck because that is what I remembered standing there when I was telling him which doe to shoot. He said not that is a doe. Well I was right and he was wrong. Button Buck Down! He felt terrible and told him it was my fault for not paying closer attention to which deer he was lining up on. I hated it happened but stuff happens. If that is the worst thing that ever happens, it is all good.

[Matt B.]

I was on a friends lease and had just shot over a doe at 20 yards and was alittle PO'd when I thought I saw her slip around behind me. Hit "her" in the spine at 30 yards and when it hit the ground I knew I screwed up. I shot a button buck. Owner was just happy I got to kill one but till this day I still apologize and refuse to shoot his deer anymore. Luckily a week later another guest got drunk and shot like 6 cows so they forgot my mistake pretty quick!

[sniper steve]

Watched from a short distance away as a guy I knew shot 20(twenty) rounds at a buck in a field with his M1A, using the land owner's tailgate as a rest. I saw nearly every round hit the dirt 100 or so yards in front of the deer. Drove over to him after he ran out of ammo, he's scratching his head, couldn't figure out why the buck hadn't been hit, or at least run away(buck was at 550 yards). I laid down in the prone and dropped the buck where it stood. Then I got up and showed him the 20 bullet holes through the bed rail of the guy's brand new pickup. Mark hasn't hunted with us since.

[perfectstorm]

Watched from a short distance away as a guy I knew shot 20(twenty) rounds at a buck in a field with his M1A, using the land owner's tailgate as a rest. I saw nearly every round hit the dirt 100 or so yards in front of the deer. Drove over to him after he ran out of ammo, he's scratching his head, couldn't figure out why the buck hadn't been hit, or at least run away(buck was at 550 yards). I laid down in the prone and dropped the buck where it stood. Then I got up and showed him the 20 bullet holes through the bed rail of the guy's brand new pickup. Mark hasn't hunted with us since.

I don't understand. So he was shooting the truck bed but the scope was above the bed line? And he couldn't hear/see/feel ricochet?
Buck fever!

[FullDrawFanatic]

Great video...felt bad for tht guy...but on the other side he knew he messed up!

this video cracks me up.

http://youtu.be/CmnFLk7Jlp8

[Mac...]

I was invited to Del Rio on a meat hunt 9 years ago.
I shot a spike and 2 doe. The guy that took me told me that he had a treat for me an told me to get in the truck.
We took off to the next ranch and he told me that he got permission for me to take a cull buck off this ranch.
I was pumped up to say the least!
This was going to be my 1st ever decent buck.

We got to the camp early that morning and I wanted to do the responsible thing and ask the ranch manager what deer he was looking for me to take.
He said, "you can shoot and 8 pt you see, and if you see the big bodied (what use to be a 10 pt) with only a 1/2 rack,,, shoot him! He's very aggressive towards the other deer and broke off one side down to the base."
I said, "I'll give it my best shot!" And took off to my stand.

It was suppose to be my last set of the season and the rut was on so I decided to dump my tinks 69 all over the place in front of my blind.
There was a stuff breeze from my left to right so I shut my right window in efforts of keeping my scent from blowing out that window. (Mistake #1)

If you've ever hunted in Del Rio, then you've seen some of the most beautiful sunrises that God has blessed us with. As I'm setting there enjoying the sunrise (out of my right "closed" window) I start seeing horns pass by the window.
My mouth drops open, and I'm pumped!
I see the big 10 (5pt) and he is packing some serious mass!
I'm begging the sun to hurry up and jump over the hill to give me some light.
It finally does and this buck will not leave my right side window at 10 yards.
So what do I do.... Try and slide the window open....
He was gone in a flash! (Mistake #2)

I sat there watching a few doe and what seemed like 10-15 1.5 year old fork horn bucks tearing up the corn under this feeder that was 200 yards away. All at once they all stood at attention and looked a towards the right. In came a bigger buck with his nose on the ground and he started running all the other deer off.
I put my scope on him and counted 3 on one side and 3 on the other. Thinking brow tines made 7 & 8... 8 pointer... Green light.

At the first chance at a shot, I let the lead fly! Good hit and and was shaking so bad. The deer ran straight at the blind and crashed about 130 yards in front of me. I didn't wait one second more after he hit the ground.
I walked up on the deer and thought, "Oh My God! What have I done???!!!???"
His body was a very light grey, his tail was even lighter and had a black tip... I thought I had shot a muley.... To make it worse, he was only about 13" wide. I was scared to death. About 20 minutes later the ranch manager pulled up and I looked at him and said, "I think I messed up man... I'm sorry... And hung my head"
He just shook his head and parked the truck. We thru my kill in the back of the truck and drove back to camp. I sat in the back with another hunter who shot an 8 that wasn't much better than mine. I asked him, "dude! Is mine a muley?" With the look of terror on my face because they weren't in season. He said, "No, but I can see why you'd think so."
A little sigh of relief came over me. But that didn't make up for the dink that I shot.

We got back to camp and I tried to explain that the deer just fooled me. He came in dogging the other deer and I counted (what looked like) 8 pts and shot him.

The manager seemed disappointed in both of our deer, and I could read it all over his face.
I apologized again, thanked him for the opportunity and we left back to the original camp.
As soon as we were out of hearing distance, the guide I was with told me I took a great cull and that manager should've thanked you and shouldn't have acted that way. It lifted my spirits a lot.

The deer I shot ended up being a 2.5 yr old 13.5" 5 pt. he had 1/4" nubs for brows and a nub for a G2 on his right side. Knowing now what I wish I would've known then, I wouldn't have felt as bad. It being a managed ranch, I think I took a great cull. Either way, I haven't been invited back.

Don't know if this really counted as a "guest mistake" or not... But it sure felt like it at the time.

I hope there weren't to many typos and you enjoyed reading.

[justincorbell]

I don't understand. So he was shooting the truck bed but the scope was above the bed line? And he couldn't hear/see/feel ricochet?
Buck fever!

I can't say i understand completely myself.....

[Geraldg6]

Bump for more stories from this season!

[muzzlebrake]

Hip Pocket Rule. No guest hunts alone. Period!

[Rat]

Not really a guest mistake, but...

We hunted outside of Lincoln National Forest on public land when I was younger. One year grandma went with us to hunt as well. We were driving down an old burn berm when a nice deer stood up in front of us. Grandma shot a 30-30 lever action, so she jumped out of the truck and, using the door to brace her shot, she methodically levered every round out of the gun onto the ground!

When the last round hit the dirt she turned to Grandpa and said, "I can't believe I missed that deer with every shot!"
To which Grandpa replied. "Missed? You never fired a single shot!"

When Grandma looked down and saw the live rounds on the ground we laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes! If we hadn't been laughing so hard she probably could have loaded the rifle and taken that buck; but he eventually got tired of the hysterics and left.

Even Grandmas can get buck fever!

[Killer]

Not really a guest mistake, but...

We hunted outside of Lincoln National Forest on public land when I was younger. One year grandma went with us to hunt as well. We were driving down an old burn berm when a nice deer stood up in front of us. Grandma shot a 30-30 lever action, so she jumped out of the truck and, using the door to brace her shot, she methodically levered every round out of the gun onto the ground!

When the last round hit the dirt she turned to Grandpa and said, "I can't believe I missed that deer with every shot!"
To which Grandpa replied. "Missed? You never fired a single shot!"

When Grandma looked down and saw the live rounds on the ground we laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes! If we hadn't been laughing so hard she probably could have loaded the rifle and taken that buck; but he eventually got tired of the hysterics and left.

Even Grandmas can get buck fever!

One of the best stories ever!