Thread: hunting incompetence

Can anyone give me an example of really bad hunting to cheer me up a bit? I need a lift.

I had an appallingly bad hunt experience this morning. My son was out for a ride on his bike and saw 5 deer on the millet crop. So we took the rifle (SMLE as the decent rifles are now banned), and I was walking down the ridge where we thought the deer were, the boys hanging back a bit watching. I was all ready to shoot, had the bolt semi-closed, earmuffs on, and peering down into the trees on the south side of the ridge. I was moving super-slowly, making sure the deer were not there before taking the next step. Finally one of my boys comes up behind me and points out that as I had been walking down the ridge peering into the trees on the south side, I had passed not more than 5m away from the deer standing on the North side of the ridge! Sure enough, there they were, hightailing it over the horizon. All I had to do was turn my head 30 degrees and I would have seen them. I had to laugh at my own incompetence... and couldn't really blame my sons for laughing either.

Ok I'm getting a bit long in the tooth but this is ridiculous. Anyone else been more incompetent than this?

Missed a deer at 10m that was kind enough to wait for me to cycle the bolt and everything lmfao, managed to bag a trophy punga tree behind it instead.

Took a rifle with me this morning that is being threaded for a suppressor next week. Like to check the accuracy before threading and shortening so I know if there is a prior problem. Thought that I would fire a shot in the pines on the way in to check where it's shooting. Pulled the trigger, nothing happened, not cocking, no Allen keys to pull it apart. Not like the old days when you could leave a spare rifle in the cab. Gave the dog a run ,hoping nothing arises and came home. So you not on your own, but glad nothing walked out in front of me.

Sneaking along a track and the guy following me sees a deer 20m through the bush.... I didn't see it and of course he didn't have the rifle

Last week I was on the bike going home for lunch when a red spiker jumped out of a bunch of scrub onto the track barely 10 meters infront of me he trotted along slowly for about 100 meters then seemed to realise something was behind him stopped turned broadside and stood there till I was a couple of meters away then went shit and buggered off at full speed. I know spikers are dim but he didnt even look left then right before pulling out onto the track we could have had a terrible accident!. If Id had the rifle instead of a spade the result may have been different.

Yeah, waiting up half the night for a troublesome pig to pop out of the bush.

The pig appeared. I took the shot. 83 metres from a stable position and missed

Two oldish hunters out hunting some bunnies. One old fella shoots a bunny on the other side of the electric fence. The other old fella (me) thinks I can climb through the fence without getting zapped. While one lifts a non electrified wire up I try to climb through. But the inevitable happens and I touch a live wire and we both get a big shock. He falls backwards and I tumble down the hill and into some blackberry. After retrieving the rabbit I feel warm blood trickles down my legs. Thankfully nobody else was witness to our demise and we had a real laugh all the way home. Wives think we are just two silly old men but We still get a laugh out of it.

Originally Posted by garyp

Wives think we are just two silly old men.

you know women have a sixth sense about such matters..........

anyhoo was the first one up at a flycamp off the tikitik leaned my rifle against a log and walked around the other side of the fly to see a stag standing in the stream staring at me....couldnt go for my rifle as he would hav bolted whispered to mate who was a light sleeper to get out here and come out hot , but he couldnt see it till he lifted his rifle and spooked it........... awesome to have a stag so close to camp tho

7 years ago went on a hunting trip. Drove 5 hours, set up camp before I realised the rifle was at home

Wow. Hard to beat that Paddy!

I have a video clip of a chamois standing just 120m away staring at us while my very experienced hunting mate set up shop... bipod on, perfect rest, loads up, stuffs around, and finally shoots the rock behind the chamois. The video is 2 minutes 37 seconds long and I started rolling only after the several more seconds it took to get the camera out and turned on. To this day I'm buggered if I know how he missed when he had over 3 minutes to get sorted. Naturally I like to remind him about that miss regularly.

I have plenty of other hard luck stories available... it's an intrinsic part of hunting.

Had a mid day snooze on a ridge in the sun, woke up to a whistle and a buck chamois staring at me from about 50m. Bang & missed, I was still half asleep and totally stuffed it up. Didnt see another animal all day

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I shot two reds about 300m from my house (thats auckland by the way! not bad for the big smoke) about a week ago. first two shots put em both on the ground.
Thought I was doing pretty well until the second one got up and staggered around a bit, I thought he was going to make a getaway and suffera slow death somewhere where I could not find him. So I lined up another shot and as I closed the bolt the shot went off I was pretty excited by that point and must have touched the trigger early.
That left me with two more rounds to finish him off, I proceeded to shoot near him with the last two.

So my great start turned a bit embarrassing once the tally of two shots/two deer morphed into five shots/two deer....

Anyone else I tell about this will just get the two shots/two deer part of the story

out shooting wallabies on thursday....all morning Id had 2 ttsx loads in bottom of mag incase something bigger popped up...took them out and filled mag with ZMax loads turn around a nd a plurry great porker walks out below me.....poked shot in centre of back hoping for spine...it dives back into scrub then pig pops out 50 yards uphill of first sighting so both bro in law and myself hit it..... get over there and finish off one very grumpy and now sick 140lb boar before he could poke a hole in my dog....I ALWAYS put 2 heavy/solid loads in top pocket for this very thing.......but not this time.

Originally Posted by Ben Waimata

SMLE as the decent rifles are now banned

Filthy infidel!!! how dare you insult the great Prophet of battle rifles! I will gouge your heart out and eat it, and get your strength.