Gear Failure Horror Stories

[highcountry_hunter]

Packed 21 miles into the frank church wilderness elk hunting, had a few horse wrecks on the way in. After a few days of hunting decided to try to catch some trout out of the creek near camp with the collapsible rod and reel I brought along. Dug up a few worms and walked down to the creek. Cocked back for a whopper of a cast and everything except the reel and bottom of my rod went sailing into a lodgepole about 20 feet up. Apparently one of those horse wrecks was worse than I’d thought ha ha

[Archry]

Showed up to camp November.  My buddy came out of his tent with feathers trailing him. His heater got too close to his new kuiu sleeping bag. He had feathers following him all weekend.  I thought I was going to go home with a black eye...couldn't stop laughing

[JimmyHoffa]

Boots and rain gear are pretty common, still seeking something that can last more than one season.

One time I hunted in the rain for a few days and didn't know about stock swell at the time.  Turns out point of impact shifted about 8 inches at 50 yds.
Had the foggy scope that wouldn't clear up.
Had boots drying by the stove and didn't know a buddy loaded it up and let it roar during the night.  I got suited up and made it out the door, but not much farther before the soles fell off.

[Tbob]

Haha. These are great!

  I’ve got a few as well..
was shooting targets in my yard one day, I would shoot into my open garage “just in case”. So on like arrows 20 or so, I pull back and get to about 80% full draw and BAM! The whole thing feels like it exploded in my hand. I punched myself in the throat so hard I actually thought I might die for a second! Arrow went flying about 10 feet up into the front top half of my garage (luckily not into the neighbors yard). Looked at my bow after I could breathe again and the D loop that I had just gotten put on had broke. I couldn’t believe how violent that event was! Lol.
      Last summer my brand new Crispi boots seemed to be leaking a bit just after walking through some wet grass. So I contact Crispi and they told me to send them in for testing.  I send them in for “testing”. About 2 weeks later they let me know that they have tested my boots and they absolutely do not leak!!   
      One month later hiking into our backcountry elk camp I am pouring water out of those same damn boots and had wet feet the entire week! Never again will I ever buy a Crispi boot!

[Fletch]

I have had pack strap buckles break X3.  The most dangerous time, I was descending a very steep hillside on Slide Ridge with a half of a deer and the buckle snapped.  The load shifted of course and Arse over Teakettle I went.  Fortunately my brother was below me also fully loaded.  He braced against a tree and snagged me by the pack frame as I tumbled by.  I am sure saving me from injury. 

[Ironhead]

This was my own fault not a gear failure but a Steve failure. I could hear a Bull Bugling and I knew he was in a small meadow in front of me a 100 yards or so. I snuck through the Fir trees and there he is  broad side with his head down eating. I range the bull (47 yards) then pull my bow up and start to draw . As I draw you hear this terrible squeak  the bull whirl's and he is gone he was a nice 6x7. The night before I was waxing my string and for some reason waxed down to far. When I drew the waxed string went into my cam and made a terrible loud squeak. On my way back to camp I told my buddy what happened and he says pull it back again so he could hear it. When I did the squeak was so loud a bull bugled at us thinking it was a bull bugling at him. My buddy had a pretty good laugh, I wasn't so amused.

[Machias]

Gear failure, I got several....oh wait, most of mine have been operator error, never mind, carry on! 

[Machias]

Hunting dog with a seizure. Thought the dog was dead at first. Carried him out with my gear several miles. Dog was fine once we got back close to the car. Grrrrr.

    I'm NOT letting my dog read this one!!

[Pegasus]

Hunting elk in Montana in the snow. Walking along I stepped onto an unseen frozen creek on a steep hillside and away I went. Fell hard on my hip and ended up on my back sliding downhill backwards headfirst. I could not stop and could not see where I was going. As I slid down the hill I could see all of the trees as I passed them and I realized if I hit one with my head I probably would not be walking out. I tried rolling out and slammed my elbow into a rock but still did not stop. I eventually stopped almost at the bottom. Quite the bobsled ride of my life. There was no sign in the snow that the frozen creek or spring was there hidden under the snow. I thought I had broken my elbow in the fall. A few days later I was home and the pain had not stopped, I got X-rayed. No bones broken but a few days later my entire arm from shoulder to wrist was swollen so much it was as big as my thigh. Went to the ER and my BP was 225/150. They got my pressure down and on antibiotics. My doc asked a few days later if I had worn neoprene or anything rubber which I had not. He said that my infection was by a rare bacteria that fed on foam rubber. After thinking about it for a few days I realized  where the infection came from. The night of my slide I had slept on a bunk bed with an old foam mattress. Evidently there had been a hole in the mattress cover and somehow my busted elbow had come in contact with the foam.

[jstone]

Wow that’s crazy.!

[ironbuck]

  Archery late hunt just trying to get to my stand for an afternoon. See a nice 3pt n he sees me pull arrow out of my hip quiver draw back and there is a hunk of foam stuck/froze to my broadhead, now  buck fever kicks in bigtime. So three arrows stuck in the tree right behind him and two really bloody fingers I call it a day and go see a Doc.  I now carry spare foam quiver blocks and swap em out if its been wet and a small first aid kit in the backpack. 

[actionshooter]

1*    Hoyt Pro Vantage Hunter... they were one of the compound bows with the  laminated recurve limbs.... Laminated (see where this is going)..
 Hadn't shot the bow in 4-5 months, got it out in the spring to start practicing for the year, shot one arrow through it and heard a funny "pop".... Of course I am not smart enough to look at it closely... shoot a second arrow and one of the limbs delaminate... full on bow explosion..... lower limb swings on the cable and a pie shaped shard about 1/2" x 1"x 4"  decides to jump completely through my left hand... literally all the way through, sticking about an inch out the palm of my hand.

It hurt...

[pd]

This is becoming an epic thread.

[Alchase]

Not a fault of gear, but Mntwalker's jetboil in the fire reminded me of one.
Hunting above Winthrop, we were all sitting around the campfire. I ask my son to get the garbage from the camp kitchen and we will burn it in the fire. He walks over and dumps the garbage bag in the fire. A couple minutes later there was an extremely loud "BOOM" and shrapnel from the fire goes everywhere! On piece glowing red, spun and buzzed like a buzzbomb and nails my then 12 year old son smack in the forehead! My son bales with the reflexes of a cat with its tail on fire and takes off running. While were are all still sitting there stunned, he is 30+ ft away hiding behind a tree. 
When he comes out you can see a two inch burn blister in the middle of his forehead. Then my hunting buddy says, "crap, I put AA batteries in that garbage bag."
I asked "how many?"
He replied four! 
And we all bailed for the trees. 
We waiting about ten minutes hiding behind trees, and realized the first one blew the others out of the fire. 

Who knew AAs could produce that much of a boom 

 

[KNOPHISH]

Been there done that with the batteries, lucky someone didn't lose an eye or worse. Scary stuff.