2022 Failure Thread

[NMGuy]

Drew a NM rifle deer tag in a unit that holds some big bucks, hunted 3/4 of the opening day then came down with Covid and missed the rest. Still managed to see a very big buck that my father in law missed on opening morning.

Before that, I drew my first choice archery elk tag. Started the hunt alone after three different people were unable to join me. Met some kind folks from out of state and we exchanged phone numbers just in case we (mostly me) needed help. After opening morning we exchanged some info about what we were each seeing and they offered to call for me if I wanted to join them at their spot. I jumped at the opportunity, but then screwed it all up with a bad shot on a bull we couldn't find. I failed to account for the bull being uphill and slightly quartering away. What would have been my first bull (first archery harvest of any kind) and one of the best days of hunting did a 180 and went downhill so quickly.

 

[Beignet]

I had a day that had seemed like a colossal comedy of errors turn into a success.

I drove over to Region 4 in mid November with an OTC whitetail doe tag in hand. It’d been snowy and extra windy like it gets over there and kind of a miserable first day of trudging through thigh–deep snow. I got up early on my second day of the trip and decided to drive an hour or so east into plains country to try to fill the doe tag on some BMA land. Was cruising along with no problems for a bit until I started hitting a few snowdrifts. Nothing too big so I kept trucking. I finally tried to send it on one deceptively large drift that was too much of a match for my wide-open rear differential. Even with 4x4 and studded snow tires I was real stuck.

Did I mention the cold and wind? I got out and started shoveling, but was still very stuck and getting very cold. Not a sign of life in sight. No houses, no headlights, nada. I was close enough to a few towns and still had cell service so I thought I’d live a little and let Geico and a tow truck driver of their choosing come take care of this. One said he’d be on the way and to hold tight.

About an hour and a half later I get a call from the tow truck driver. Now he’s stuck in another drift coming from the opposite direction! Uffff-daaa, indeed. I was going to have to get myself out of this pickle. By now the sun had come up so the cold was a little less stinging. I got to work with my transfer shovel and eventually got free of the drift. Now I had to go find the marooned tow truck driver though.

He was kind of embarrassed and insisted I could go on my way, but I wasn’t going to leave him hanging. I called the guy out on a Saturday morning and felt obliged to help him get back home. We got his rear wheels chained up but the truck still wouldn’t budge. Dude was wearing jeans and a hoodie in the cold and wind and losing steam fast. I had a tow rope and a hitch on my little V6 1996 Tacoma, so “what the hell?” I thought. We got him hooked up and didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I finally backed up and gave it a good gunning while he did the same. Lo and behold, the little Tacoma that could pulled this giant tow truck out of the big drift. Eat that big dually diesel bros!

The tow guy followed me back to the main road and we went our separate ways. By now it was about 1pm and was half-tempted to just head to a local bar, have a big lunch, and watch some college football before trying to salvage my last day of the hunt the next morning.

But, there’s plenty of time for Saturday day drinking after hunting season. I bee-lined back to the mountains to check out a spot I’d marked on the map just to have a look-see.

The wind at the new spot was doing its best impression of a hurricane when I arrived. “I’ll just make a quick walk up to that hilltop and see what’s back in that timber on the other side then call it a day,” I thought. The wind had been blowing hard enough to clear snow off the ridge so the walk wasn't too tough. The timber held the wind at bay and there was deer sign all around. I quickly bumped a group of does then followed them at a distance until they calmed some on the other side of a hill. I sat and watched the does for about 30 minutes until an ok buck came strutting up to sniff some butts, then I shot him.

Never did fill the girlfriend's antelope tag, but we did get her into a doe later that season (her first non-winged critter).

 

[Hunter4Life78]

The elk I got this year had been shot with a caliber insufficient to kill her prior to me finding her multiple times and in areas that werent fatal. Found the fragments in the rump and in the shoulder.
Wounds to the hindquarters infected and rancid. Same on the right front shoulder. Thought backstraps were gonna be ok, when the old man and I removed them there were pockets of infection scattered through them too.

I would like to find the person(s) responsible and say thank you for causing the animal to suffer and spoiling her.