Thread: Pre hunt stuff ups

So a couple of years ago the day before I was due to fly in thought I better check the rifle was still good. Into the range and couldn't hit a 20ltr drum at 100. Couldn't sit the shots due to long grass. In the last box of ammo. Flying in early morning and no chance of getting more ammo. Brought target right in too 25 l to see I was hitting well high. Turns out without zero stop I had wound a revolution up not down and was 20" high at 100. Fixed luckily as next shot secured my first 8pt sika.
Yesterday similar thing. Better check rifle. Sig binos say they need a software update. No worries press ok. Update fails half way through and can no longer see any information in binos. So now have no rangefinder or drop chart. Changed battery with no result. Persisted for a while and turns out buttons were still working but not showing anything so managed to complete update and everything appeared backs as normal. Phew crisis averted. Now just have to wait until I get amongst the sika on Friday.
Anything like this happened to you,?

Mate has had a few blinders, unfortunately only spotted when we were already in the field.
1st one was unpacking the guns to head out, and all I heard was swearing. Turns out the trigger lock was in place, but the key was 5 hours away.
Second was shooting goats, and he couldn't hit the side of a barn. I had a shot, and noticed the front ring had come loose, and the scope was flopping around.
Luckily there was a second rifle on hand, and the trips were not written off.

Know someone that turned up to a search and rescue call out witj pack and jacket complete with their slippers...... somehow forgot boots on the way put the door

Happened to me last weekend.

Sighted in my CZ452 .22LR the weekend before and hitting the bullseye at 40m.

During the hunt I had well over 30 opportunities to shoot rabbits and possum at typical ranges.
I missed every single shot.

Later I found the whole barreled action could be slided back and forth in the stock by hand. All 3 action screws were loose.

I’ve never had any seriously terrible hunting gear stuff ups. Trip I did with my brother just after Christmas just been I forgot to bring my mug & cutlery, but luckily there were some definitely not clean ones left at the hut & I happened to have some cloths & hand sanitiser.

But I’ve had a couple of fumbles on dives before- one time drove for about an hour to a spot to realise I didn’t have a mask. Usually have all my gear packed & ready to go (complete with a spare mask) but this was first dive back after I’d been diving in Vanuatu & I’d popped mask in outside pocket of suitcase instead of with the rest of my dive gear. Dive buddy that day didn’t have a spare mask so it was a long mission back to town to grab it.

45 years ago my wife and 2 lads flew into Boyds. Got to the hanger at Taupo and only had one rifle, not one for me and one for the boys. When we got home a week later the other rifle was still in it's bag where I had left it on the deck at the back door at home. Just as well we lived an hour from town and 20 mins from the closest neighbour. And just as well it was 45 years ago and not now.

I want to hear from people who have forgotten or lost their knives. What do you do if you shoot an animal? Teeth, sharp rock?

Last weekend.
New scope on the Rifle and some new ammo to sight in with as had run out of it usual favourite. Heading away following weekend so she'll be sweet.
Missing paper at 100M so close the gap and start again, three shots later and two hits on paper in opposing corners and one AWOL, the two hits are sideways on paper, check suppressor, all tight, no baffle strike, try again with suppressor off. Same result. Ammo tumbling, no remedy until I go buy the usual pills. But that'll be after my trip.
223 tagging along now not 7mm-08.

5 years ago or so, Drive to road end one and a half hours away, sleep in the wagon for the night. Up at 5, gear up, no bolt for the 7.62 so in a bout of pure stubbornness I drive home to collect the bolt, then back to hunt zone for an evening stalk, sleep in the wagon a second night and get in a morning hunt. 6 hours of driving for 3 goats. Who would..

Western Australia, 2012. Organised a trip all the way up to the Northern Territory border for a spot of scrub cattle and donkey culling on the station. It’s a full day drive and by that I mean about 1250km, 15-16 hours. Four blokes, me driving the Prado. Decided to use the big Thule roof pod as there was quite a lot of gear. It was perfect for storing rifles in their bags, wrapped up in sleeping bags, to cope with the endless corrugations.

Arrive at destination... hot, rattled to hell & back, dusty, very thirsty... you have probably already guessed... Old mate who shall remain forever nameless has decided at the last minute to add something to the roof pod, taken my roof pod keys and then gone for a last minute slash before we left. The keys were on top of the cistern. No good to us there.

We spent a very irritating couple of hours in the dark, trying to pick the locks. Fat chance. Tragically for the roof pod, the decision was made it had to be sacrificed. There was absolutely no way of breaking into it without damaging it quite badly. Old mate had fessed up, and promised to cough up for a new one. After we had forced it open there was no way we could close it so we took it off and donated it to the locals who were very happy to use it for God alone knows what.

Old mate duly acquired a new roof pod and decided to fit it to his Prado to get it home, easy enough. Very clever roof pods these Thules, easy as. His wife drove the vehicle to the shops that evening, and attempted to enter the multi-storey carpark...

I eventually got the third pod delivered directly to me. We used it once, changed vehicles, didn’t need it any more and sold it.

Had any interesting rifle fail recently.

Goat culling on the farm in the back blocks of Wairoa. You’d think they farm goats, not sheep. KRG Bravo stock, Howa 6.5 barrelled action. My young mate has been desperate to have a go on this for ages. He has his girlfriend in tow, she’s quite feisty and demanding to say the least. Set him up on the first goat around 300m, easy shot. Clean miss. Bit closer next time, I see the splash way to the left. Has another go, this time to the right by the same distance. WTF? I have a go. 400m, instant dead goat. Now things are getting a bit tense.

Young mate shoots at a goat, wings it and now it’s bleating horribly as they do, and he starts getting massive grief from his girl who is very unhappy about this. So another shot misses, and the goat goes into cover, making a helluva noise. Now there’s tears and runny snot and my two boys don’t know where to look or what to do, this young woman has lost her bundle completely. I took a walk and got a good look at the goat in the scrub, and shot it with my .223 Howa Mini, Belmont 62gr, holding over, which wasn’t too shabby at a touch over 320m. Dead. Now young mate doesn’t want to shoot my “laser accurate” rifle any more. He just wishes we hadn’t bloody come!

I went to pack the rifle away, all very awkward, and noticed a clunk. The front action screw wasn’t tight. What? The action was slopping in the chassis. Back at the house, the torque was checked - perfect..... eh? What’s going on? Long story short the locking plate that pulls up onto the bottom of the recoil lug was poorly machined - uneven - and had a small high spot that had been gradually smeared by repeated swapping out of barrelled actions from the chassis. The alloy plate was now no longer thick enough (by literally a couple thou) to bind to the bottom of the lug, and lock the action in place. It had been a problem waiting to happen for over a year.

(It took a little bit of working out and some videos backwards and forwards to KRG in the US, but good buggers that they are they sent me two replacement locking plates by first class Courier and that fixed the problem immediately.)

This unexpected problem sure took the fun out of the subsequent goat culling because we were now very limited rifle wise (two .223s), it was that mad hot spell we had in January and the temp hit 40° two days in a row. The country there is either straight up, or straight down, and the whole point for my young mate was to do some long-range stuff from good spots with a 360° field of view... but, er, no. He’s a damn good hunter and a very good shot but he was very disappointed... and man did he get his ear chewed. Oh well, live and learn.

Originally Posted by MB

I want to hear from people who have forgotten or lost their knives. What do you do if you shoot an animal? Teeth, sharp rock?

Ran out of ammo, forgotten knife(dunno how it’s like the first thing I strap in when going out to work every day....) had to finish off a goat....flat head screw drivers aren’t THAT sharp...


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Sure is uncomfortable when ya forget your sleeping bag.

Originally Posted by MB

I want to hear from people who have forgotten or lost their knives. What do you do if you shoot an animal? Teeth, sharp rock?

Been there. Just smashed some rocks together in the creek till one broke with a sharp edge. Did pretty OK for a rock!

A bigger stuff up was owning two Rem 700's, one in .223 and one in .308. Guess what, both bolts fit both rifles.....

Got flown into Ngapuketurua hut one roar,unpacked and set up hut to discover my hunting boots were still in the ute back in helisika's carpark. Red bands saved the trip!

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Originally Posted by MB

I want to hear from people who have forgotten or lost their knives. What do you do if you shoot an animal? Teeth, sharp rock?

Done that, thought mate had his knife. Dragged the animal down gully to the creek and left it with water running over it all night. It was actually good as gold in the morning, a little blown but not tainted from gassing up