Almost a really bad scouting trip

[Griggs]

Almost stranded on my sxs once, I Thought I had put a spare fuel can in the back but apparently I had forgotten, as my son and I then left camp. Reached the PONR, went to refill, and saw no can. Turned around and drove back, on fumes for miles and miles. Once we got back to about 14 miles out, I was running plans through my head, such as carrying my son, taking he rifle but leaving the ruck, as he was 4 and it was now dark, etc. had time to come up with a bunch of different plans, all of them terrible.

We made it back within eyesight of camp, and the sxs died, but we managed to coast it in and stopped literally at the base of the trailer. Stupid mistake on my part but a lesson well learned. Never skip PCC/PCI and double check your gear before rolling out.

 

[psycho]

Ive been stuck or temporarily detained more times than i can remember. I love to explore. Something pushes me to see where the road goes. When i was about 20 in northern Nevada in my shiny new 4x4 truck i went a little too far out and slid down a soggy hill to a stop. couldn't go up or down. Hiked 10 miles back to town and got my brother in law and drove out then he got stuck right next to me. Hiked 10 miles back to town. He got two buddies with trucks and i got another buddy with a truck. they went out and they got stuck. I called my dad with his suburban and he stopped at the top of the hill and said, "Im not going down there so everyone load up as its dark and we going home". When i got off work the next day and headed out there again i passed a D4 dozer headed out there to pull out his truck and found another 5 or so trucks trying to pull out the first set of stuck trucks. They were playing leap frog pulling until stuck then one would go around or just pull them straight back when it was too boggy off the road. My sister and dad stayed at the top and just got a video of all us idiots down in the bottom. Some guys were very angry and threatened to leave me back there but getting them stuck. I still pulled them out next time they slid off the road. We all finally got out but it took some time. Learned a lot on that adventure.

 

[Rhino Hunter]

I went out scouting this morning and took my 4 wheeler about 35 miles into a unit literally called “the big desert”. Things were going great, saw some nice bucks, lots of foes and fawns.... then the 4 wheeler decided to take a nap. I was at a 10 mile hike from a butte where you can almost get enough cell reception to make a phone call... I was Just about to give up and start hiking and on my last desperation attempt the 4 wheeler fired back up and I made it back to my truck.

Anybody else have some “stranded” stories?

Glad you were able to get your wheeler started back up. What make/model do your ride?

I've never been stranded...yet. I ride a Yamaha Wolverine SXS.

 

[TheTone]

Second was locking my keys and phone in my truck on a WY pronghorn hunt. @TheTone drove right on by... Hitched a ride to the interstate where I met the tow truck and AAA paid to have to the truck unlocked. One time I was kinda glad to be hunting in an area that was a bit crowded.

yeah, yeah my bad!

If it’s any consolation I thought I lost my keys somewhere on a stalk in that same unit the next year. Finally found them stuffed under my back seat after basically tearing the truck apart

 

[D4570]

I have a keyless entry for this exact reason.
I take the keys out of my pocket and stash them in the cab.
I also have a key that stays with the truck. I give my hunting partners the code of the day in the event they need the truck to come and get me...

 

[Mallardsx2]

I was duck hunting with a guy and a random boat came floating by us right at daylight....It was his.

He took it upriver to "tie it off". He swam to the boat and came back to get me and our gear and we had to go home.

We were on an island in the middle of nowhere with 0 cell service so I have no clue how we would have gotten back to the mainland.

 

[1_pointer]

yeah, yeah my bad!

If it’s any consolation I thought I lost my keys somewhere on a stalk in that same unit the next year. Finally found them stuffed under my back seat after basically tearing the truck apart

Lol. No worries. It's not like we've met before. Good times on the prairie!

 

[EastTNHunter]

In East TN I hunt almost exclusively in small pockets of landlocked public property accessible only by boat from the river/lake. My brother and I hunted together a bunch, and we found a great little spot that we checked out early one morning. He had gotten a new welded aluminum bass boat that was much heavier than my little jon boat, and he wanted to take it out. While we were hunting they dropped the lake level a pretty substantial amount, and when we got back to the boat it was firmly on dry ground... actually it wasn’t, it was firmly sucked into mud. No walking back. No backup boat. No good way out at all. All that we could do was roll up our sleeves and start rocking, pushing, and pulling until we were both soaking wet from both sweat and having fallen in a few times, but we finally got it back into the water.

We started paying better attention to the lake level forecasts after that

 

[JLS]

In East TN I hunt almost exclusively in small pockets of landlocked public property accessible only by boat from the river/lake. My brother and I hunted together a bunch, and we found a great little spot that we checked out early one morning. He had gotten a new welded aluminum bass boat that was much heavier than my little jon boat, and he wanted to take it out. While we were hunting they dropped the lake level a pretty substantial amount, and when we got back to the boat it was firmly on dry ground... actually it wasn’t, it was firmly sucked into mud. No walking back. No backup boat. No good way out at all. All that we could do was roll up our sleeves and start rocking, pushing, and pulling until we were both soaking wet from both sweat and having fallen in a few times, but we finally got it back into the water.

We started paying better attention to the lake level forecasts after that

I had a very similar situation happen with a 21 foot jet boat. Fortunately we recognized the pending situation before we were totally screwed, and then were able to leverage some resources to get off the rocks in the nick of time.

 

[mdhunter]

I was a younger man heading out on a duck hunt when we rung the prop off the outboard motor. Needless to say at that very moment I figured out why you never need a 20’ rope on a 16’ boat.

Thank god for an incoming tide or we would have been in deep *$&#

 

[TexAg09]

A buddy and I decided to duck hunt by kayak on the Colorado river outside of Austin in Dec 18. We made sure we were legal on everything, found a nice big bend in the river ahead of time on google maps, checked the river flow online, and made a plan to put in upstream of the bend a couple of miles and then paddle back when we were done. This was the first time we had hunted this area and it was treacherous to get the kayaks down to the water in the dark, so we decided to just put in at daylight and treat it as more of a scouting trip than a full blown hunt.

We get there in the morning and the river is screaming. Apparently they had opened some of the gates at the dam up river over night. I have spent a decent amount of time on the river in my kayak, but this was my buddy's first time. I asked if he had eaten his Wheaties that morning, and explained how we would have the paddle of our life to get back if we actually went through with our plan. We decided to go through with it, but developed a backup plan of floating down to the next public put in spot if we had to. That would be a 3-4 hour float down river. We would just have to call one of our wives to pick us up if we had to go that route. (Something neither of us wanted to do.) We get done with the hunt which ended up with zero birds, and start the paddle back upstream. My limited experience allowed me to read the current, and pick slower parts of the river to paddle in. I look back, and my buddy is just paddling straight up the middle of the river right into the teeth of the current. I didn't dare stop paddling to call him, and it was too loud to yell to him. I just hoped he took notice of how I was navigating the currents. Nope, he just had his head down, and was paddling with all him might LOL. I finally get back to our launching point with muscles exhausted, and he is about 200 yards behind me. I see him just sit up in the kayak, and I knew he was done. I dig my phone out of my dry case just in time for him to call me and tell me he is done and floating down to the next public launch. The only issue with that is he's never been to that launch, and it can be a bit hidden if you don't know what to look for. I send him a pin on google maps, and let him know I'd been there waiting for him flagging him down. Then I start to figure out how to do the two man job of getting my kayak 200 yards back up the truck by myself. I ended up completely unloading my kayak, and then carrying it on my back. I definitely got my workout in for the day. In the meantime, my buddy had called his wife to explain why we would be back later than planned. His wife is worried, and tracks him by his phone after that. Halfway through his phone dies. Now his wife is EXTREMELY worried, and he doesn't have a way to know when he's getting close to the next public put in spot. After a few phone calls from the worried wife who has also alerted my wife, I drive to the spot and flag my buddy who makes it over to the bank at the launch just before the current pushes him past it. We get him loaded up, and home with no other issues except lectures from our wives about being more careful.

TLDR: River duck hunt goes bad due to crazy river currents and dead cell phones, but all ends well.

 

[Huntin' Fool]

In my younger days, too many to count...

 

[okie archer]

Seems like several of these stories have something to do with duck hunting. I have duck hunted for years without a boat. I know having a boat can open up more opportunities for places to hunt. Just being honest something about cold temps and water scares me. Things can go wrong quick. What little I've been duck hunting with a boat involved I was so uptight I couldn't really enjoy it. Maybe I'm just a scaredy cat but if I have to hunt from land so be it.