Gear Failure Horror Stories

[300rum]

I was wayyy back in and had a Remington 700 Stainless Safety freeze because of the rain.  I had to hit it into the firing position with a stick/stone and carried it the rest of the hunt on "fire" and used the bolt as my safety, I just lifted the bolt up 45 degrees and it wouldn't fire. 

[Bullkllr]

Back when I first started muzzleloader hunting, I had the bolt freeze on my TC Thunderhawk.

There was a doe someone had shot in the hindquarter that I tracked through the snow. I got to a brushpile when she stood up on the other side- probably <20 feet away. I raised my gun and aimed- the trigger fired and the bolt didn't. I figured out what happened and rolled the gun over still at my shoulder to defrost it by breathing on it heavily. The bolt came free and I was holding it with my right index finger. By this time the doe started to spook. I released the bolt (kinda like an arrow), but missed (shockingly). Luckily my brother was just around the hill and was able to finish off the doe with a neck shot. Made for a weird/fun story.

[Jpmiller]

Last bear season as I went to check zero on my rifle I found my scope wouldn't hold zero. Not unexpected since I had been meaning to replace it for a few years. It's a few days before season so I borrow a rifle of my dad's and shoot a box or ammo through it, everything seems good. I shot the last of his box and took a brand new box of factory ammo to hunt with.

Opening morning take one of the shells out, load the rifle and it won't chamber. Take it out and the bullet looks like it is barely seated in the Shell at all, way too far out for the thing to chamber. Had to make a quick run into town to buy new shells. That ended up being the only day I hunted last year as my wife ended up with some health complications and I ended up on daddy duty.

The absolute worst failures have been my own fault. I left my boots in my truck when I was out with a buddy and spent a day hiking wet snow in my ankle high merrells. Wet cold miserable feet day.  The previous year I had forgotten to put my custom insoles in my hunting boots so we get about a mile from the truck, off trail of course, and I cant figure out why my feet hurt so bad. I pull my boots off to realize I don't have any insoles in them. My partner offers to run back to the truck to grab em but I told him I'd just push on. Huge mistake, could barely walk the next morning had to sit on a knob and glass all day.

[birddogdad]

oh here is another brain fart!

cleaned my rifle bore.. left the bolt on my bench at home. Figured this epic fail out when i pulled it out of sleeve stopped to go deer hunting not close to home!!!

[vandeman17]

oh here is another brain fart!

cleaned my rifle bore.. left the bolt on my bench at home. Figured this epic fail out when i pulled it out of sleeve stopped to go deer hunting not close to home!!!

Sounds like something similar that happened to my old man last year. I loaded up my pickup with my gear, headed to his house on the other side of town and we loaded his gear. Hit the road for Montana with plans to get there mid day and have the afternoon to hunt a little and see what was around. We got to our spot, started changing and during the process, realized that he had forgot his pack at home which had his license and tag in it.  Luckily, we hunt western montana and its only about a 4.5 hour drive so he hit the road and met my mom in moses lake to grab his pack and head back. Worst part is my mom had went out into the garage about 5 minutes after we left and saw the pack sitting there but just figured we had left it on purpose. If she had just called us to ask but how was she to know? Oh well, I can pitch him crap now about it. 

[Humptulips]

Here's one with a happy ending.
I was elk hunting on Canoe Creek north of lake Quinault. Really rugged country but at that time you could access it through the Park on the North Shore.
I left the road and started up the side of a very steep side ridge. After about an hour I topped out on the ridge and looked over to see many rock cliffs. At that time I decided to go down the ridge and out as it looked to steep for my liking. Soon after I noticed elk tracks going down the ridge the same direction I was heading. Maybe 15 minutes later I came across the biggest elk I have ever shot at. He was broadside and unaware of me. I shot  and the elk stepped forward behind a tree and looked uphill towards me but seemed to be unaffected by the shot. Of course I worked the bolt and took careful aim and was rewarded with a click. Worked the action , same result and again. Finally had to take my eyes off the elk and look at the gun. A piece of lint was sticking the magazine and not allowing a shell to come up. I punched it with my fingers, a shell came up and closed the bolt. When I looked up the elk was gone. What a sick feeling but then I saw his legs fly up in the air as he rolled down the hill.
He ended up sliding under a windfall and hanging up as his horns were too wide to fit. I had to cut his head off as I could not get to him where he was. He rolled down the hill another 200 feet before he stopped. Big black horns with 7 on each side.

[Stein]

First Lite boxers.  Not really a horror unless you remember how much you paid and how few times you washed them before they came apart.

[Karl Blanchard]

First Lite boxers.  Not really a horror unless you remember how much you paid and how few times you washed them before they came apart.

the Dodson boxers were the single greatest garment I have ever put over the top of the boys! Too bad they only lasted a single hunt    if they hadn't been free I'd have been really annoyed. Zero possibility there was actual R&D that went into those. How could someone realistically use those on a hunt, come back to the office and say oh hell yeah we need to bring these to market asap 

[huntnfmly]

First Turkey hunt for daughters one has a benelli nova for couple years the other I bought a hautsen semi auto before hunt.
Tom is coming in to decoy full strut beutiful  15-20 yrds daughter shoots pulls the shot Turkey runs straight at us she goes to shoot again gun jams Turkey veers off daughter with benelli in other blind has to finish him off on the run and if any dad's out there have very competitive daughters you understand  it wasn't pretty😅😅

[Pegasus]

First buck story. I was overlooking a wooded deer trail coming uphill to me while perched on a huge boulder. After a while I spotted three does coming up the trail toward me. When the deer were about 50 yards away I realized that one of the deer was a tall whitetail spike. I was hunting with a Winchester Model 1894 with a peep sight with the center of the peep missing. The deer approached until it was about 15 yards below me. I aimed and pulled the trigger. "Click". It did not fire. I quietly ejected the round and pulled the trigger. Boom! All three deer stopped, looked around and started up once again. Now they are even closer but I chambered a new round anyway. I decided, since they were so close, to just aim along the barrel this time. I pulled the trigger and the gun fired, the buck hunched, ran uphill about twenty yards and keeled over. Remember, this is my first deer as a kid. I was hunting with my Dad but we had separated about three hours earlier. I had never seen a deer dressed out, let alone having to do it by myself. My Dad had explained the basics but I always thought he would be around to help. It was back in the day when you were supposed to first slit the deer's throat to bleed it. I approached the deer and it appeared dead. I went to slit the throat and bam, I got kicked in the gut so hard it rolled me down the hill about 10 feet. I eventually figured out that the deer was dead and proceeded to gut it. My knife ended up piercing the intestine. What fun! I finally figured out how to roll the intestines out of the deer and finished the job. Dragged the deer out just as it got dark. My Dad checked the deer over and said "Good Job".

[actionshooter]

Back when I first started muzzleloader hunting, I had the bolt freeze on my TC Thunderhawk.

You just reminded me about an issue when I had one... Bought a ThunderHawk the 1st year they came out. I liked the gun but after a day in the rain, the bolt would RUST and stick... like you needed WD40 and a hammer... Sold it and bought a MK85

[Shawn Ryan]

Opening morning in the dark, my rifle was dropped when the bottom sling swivel came apart. Fell off Dad's shoulder right, on the scope. Can't complain, he was holding it for me while I attended to something else. Didn't look like it got hit too hard (in the dark). Didn't check the zero because I wanted to go hunt. Later, a big buck comes down a dirt field hill, stops at the bottom at 200 yards from me, I shoot, miss, he run towards me. I shoot again at about 100 yards. Miss. He keeps running towards me, apparently unaware of where the shooting is coming from. At 50 yards, he passes me broadside. Dismayed at my lack of prowess, I shoot again. He runs another mile across wheat fields. No blood.

Befuddled, I finally check the zero.  At 25 yards, its 8" high and 4" wide.  At 50 yards on the passing broadside deer, I was 16" above my hold.  Idiot. Dork. Never again. Can't say that was really gear failure, except for the initial sling swivel failure.

[huntnnw]

anything gore tex lined

[Rob]

My dad was in a Tx. deer blind with his Rem 700 hunting whitetails.  He went to pop the safety off and the gun fired and he missed (of course).  Not one to cancel a hunt, he waited for the next deer and then took aim and popped the safety off.  The gun discharged and the deer dropped.  So I guess using the safety as a backup trigger on a faulty Rem 700 worked just fine!

In retrospect he realized that he had experienced two similar instances where this had happened in the past.  At the time he thought he had bumped the trigger when taking the safety off. 

Rem fixed it under the lawsuit/warranty repair situation.

[mburrows]

Mechanical broadhead failure is another one I've experienced, they are awesome until they dont work.  Had one that did not open up. Im back to shooting fixed heads now