Post your weird gun stories

Not a mystery, more of a CRS syndrome tale.
I had several 1911s in a cabinet and noticed that the Colt was missing. Casual search turned into serious search turned into tearing the house apart. Same thing with my truck. Fretted over that for three days.
Then the phone rings. It was Alex Hamilton calling to inform me my Colt was ready to be picked up.
It was stainless and the finish was scratched up pretty bad. I had him bead blast it and just forgot about it.

I was working on building some stands on my hunting lease and having just gotten to the location, realized I'd left some tool back at camp. Drove the 15 minutes back to camp, grabbed whatever it was I'd left and started driving back. About 5 minutes into the return trip, I noticed something white off to the side about 30 yards from the two-track and about 20 yards from some trees and bushes. I stopped to see what it was because it wasn't there when I came through heading towards camp.
What I walked up on was a freshly dead whitetail doe. This was in August. I looked for a wound and couldn't see anything except a couple of 'streaks' down the side. I grabbed one of her ears and turned the head to look at the back of the neck and saw that the hair there was wet and there were 4 puncture wounds on the neck, two on each side.
The .357 was in the truck. When I got back to the truck, I noticed pug marks in the sand in the tracks I made going to camp.
That fall we saw a cougar three different times and never got a shot (they're considered varmints here in Texas - no closed season on them). We noticed a definite decrease in the feral pig population that year and some does that had twins in the summer only had one in October.
I've always wondered if that cat was watching me mess with his/her kill.

I went hunting with my son, 14 at the time. We were on a rim overlooking a large natural bowl in woods. Had a nice open view from up there. I spot a deer, point it out to him. He sets up for the shot, I'm watching the deer. I ask him quietly why he doesn't shoot, says he can't see the deer through his scope. I look over and a small bird had landed on the barrel of his rifle, blocking his view.

The deer walked into a thicket before he was able to see it again.

Had another incident in the same exact spot. I was alone and in place before the sun came up. Very quiet, dawn just breaking. All of a sudden the air is filled with a frenzy of wings. A large owl had flown silently around a huge boulder to my left and almost flew into me. I don't know which of us was more freaked out. lol

Bbear wrote:
I've always wondered if that cat was watching me mess with his/her kill.

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Probably.

He/she must not have been too hungry or it may have decided to not leave the kill, or worse yet, it may have left the kill and stalked around behind you to get "two for the price of one". Big or small, cats seem to be acutely aware they were overlooked by the ACA and so don't have health insurance and as a result will tend to give ground to a determined adversary (or perceived adversary), but extreme hunger changes that equation.

My weird story is only obliquely gun-related. Some years ago, I noticed some people hunting at night on the fringe of what appeared to me my property. I went outside, shouted a warning and then went over near the fenceline to see what was going on. I was armed. I took my place on a clearing on a promontory that a former owner had cleared for a house that never was built. It gave me a clear view of the fenceline for about a quarter-mile. The hunters who were spotlighting encountered the fence but didn't trespass and made their way into the darkness. The night was cool, the breeze was gentle and there was a stump of convenient height to sit on, so I waited for about a half hour to see if they would continue on or double-back.

And then I heard a pack of coyotes coming my direction. It sounded like I was right in their path. They came right to the edge of the clearing and then half the pack went right and half went left and I could vaguely see silhouettes moving through the trees. Except for one juvenile who came right into the clearing and was headed straight towards me. I chambered a round, took the safety off and waited. When the juvenile was just a few feet from me he/she suddenly noticed it was about to run into a human and broke to its left and made for the trees. Based on what I heard next, it seemed the juvenile was getting a lesson in "don't play with the humans" from mommy.

I cleared the rifle and made my way back to the house playing out in my head all sorts of scenarios of how that could have gone differently - none of which ended well for me,

In keeping with the OP, here's my squirrel hunting grave story. I was hunting in Windsor Ohio and found a Civil War graveyard back in the woods. One of the stones had an epitaph that read "Hark ye mortals standing by, ye are made of dust as well as I. As I am so you shall be. Prepare for death and follow me". As a kid, it spooked me enough that I remember it decades later.

Two years ago I saw a big buck about 80 yards away in the swamp, standing with a weird posture, maybe ready to run, I wasn't sure. He was quartered away from me. I put the crosshairs on the back of his neck and squeezed the trigger. The 358 Winchester barked and with the recoil I saw him drop, so I thought. I lowered the gun and a doe was looking back at me in the exact spot the single buck had been. And then she ran away.

Panic sort of set in. Did I just imagine antlers on a doe and take a shot on what I imagined I saw? If so, it's good I missed.

I made my way over and sure enough, the buck dropped at the shot with a broken neck. Big SOB in the swamp. I then realized the doe's expression when she was looking at me may have been
"Seriously? You couldn't have waited 20 more seconds to shoot?"

My uncle died rather suddenly after a short illness. He was an owner/operator of a semi. Some friends boxed up his personal belongings from the truck and sleeper, and gave them to my aunt. She left the boxes unopened on the garage floor for years. When she made preparations to move closer to her kids, she started going through the boxes.
The next time I saw her she gave me a folded towel that contained a rusty old revolver that had been on the bottom of one of the boxes for all those years.
I unwrapped the gun and discovered what was left of a 4" Colt Python.
It was in horrible condition, the grip was nearly gone on one side. Deeply pitted. The hammer spur was broken( I suspect long before). The bore was awful etc, etc.
I called Colt and sent it to them for resurrection.
They did a fabulous job.
I should carry this gun more, because it doesn't have the collector value of a normal Python.
A new barrel and silky action. (Shoots like a rifle) The pitting is still visible under the new royal blue finish.
This was almost 20yrs ago. I have been told that Colt no longer does jobs like this. Too bad.

Does forgetting that I bought a 20 gauge Winchester Model 12 count?

Ru4real said:

Two years ago I saw a big buck about 80 yards away in the swamp, standing with a weird posture, maybe ready to run, I wasn't sure. He was quartered away from me. I put the crosshairs on the back of his neck and squeezed the trigger. The 358 Winchester barked and with the recoil I saw him drop, so I thought. I lowered the gun and a doe was looking back at me in the exact spot the single buck had been. And then she ran away.

Panic sort of set in. Did I just imagine antlers on a doe and take a shot on what I imagined I saw? If so, it's good I missed.

I made my way over and sure enough, the buck dropped at the shot with a broken neck. Big SOB in the swamp. I then realized the doe's expression when she was looking at me may have been
"Seriously? You couldn't have waited 20 more seconds to shoot?"

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Your story reminded me of a time that I had to research by looking at the inside of skull-plates to see time & dates of deer I have shot. (On deer that are shot, I "date stamp" them) It was on 11/11/03 that was not a good day. In the stand B4 sun up, no action, really getting discouraged with the rising temps,melting snow etc. and decided to walk back to my wheeler and maybe go back to deer camp. It was Mom's B-day so gave her a call when I got back to the wheeler, on the cell phone, her 70th. She encouraged me. Walked maybe 5 minutes into an older clear-cut, sat on a stump behind some aspen whip and here a noise that my good friend and hunting partner had described in the past....... Here comes a pig!! GRUNTING! No, a doe being chased by a 12 pt. buck.BLAM!! Shoot the buck! YEAH! but that doe kept running back and forth between me and the dead buck 3 or 4 times bleating and darn near crying B4 leaving. Oh, the time it was shot....10:57 my birth month and year!

I don't have any mystical gun stories to share, unfortunately. But once I was at the range and from the bay next to me I saw a slide go flying down range and hit a target. The shooter and I both stood back and I saw he was holding just the frame of a Ruger LCP. Seems he forgot to close the window tab that retains the takedown pin. Oops.

Another time at the same range I felt something thump me in the chest. I looked down and saw a mangled chunk of lead clinging to my jacket. I guess technically I was shot with a ricochet! Being a man of steel, I just flicked it off and kept shooting.

At another range, a fellow showed up with a Desert Eagle chambered in 357. He was struggling mightily to rack the slide so I offered to help. After trying and failing for several minutes, he held the grip and I was able to get the slide back. It took both of us to complete the job. We probably looked like fools... I have never encountered such a stiff recoil spring.

Not sure if this qualifies but it sure as heck was weird back then. I was a mere lad fishing after dark on a beach, north coast of Jamaica, yes, that Jamaica, the Caribbean island. An amazing light appeared in the sky that convinced my cousin and I to drop our gear and bolt for cover. Later on we learned a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral was most likely what we saw. I have no idea if rockets were launched at night or not, or if we saw a UFO, that we both slept under our beds that night, well, kids are scared easy I guess

Using a hand held blown rabbit call I was calling coyotes on a farm, sitting in the high grass around a fence post, the grass higher than my hat. I saw a couple of coyotes coming across a plowed field to my left, working their way towards me, and started calling softer. As I started to bring my rifle up to sight on the lead coyote my world exploded with wind, loud flapping, and the squalls of a Red-tail Hawk that had landed on the post I was leaning against, looking a rabbit dinner, took flight. Never been so startled, took a while for my heart to quit pounding like a drum. No idea what happened to the two coyotes.

buflow

Years ago just out of the Army on the hunt for a Mulie with my brother in the Davis Mountains, SW Texas. We had a real nice blind on the side of a hill with the sun behind us and a good view of a game trail 100 yards out. We parked our 4 wheeler's behind us and got into the blind right before dawn. I had a Browning BAR in 30.06 my brother a lever action Marlin in, I believe, 45/70. Both scoped. I also had my trusty .357 Security Six my brother a .22 Colt Woodsman.
About a half hour after first light my brother, who was about twenty feet away using his binoc's, caught my attention and motioned to his left. I brought my scope up and didn't see anything at first but a few seconds later I saw a figure step out of the brush. He was carrying a Mini-14. Not your typical deer rifle. He stood there for a couple of minutes and then we saw five other's, three male and two females, all unarmed but carrying army style rucks. All Hispanic. My brother and I stared at each other wide eyed. They slowly moved along the trail in front of us. Just as they were going out of sight another one appeared where the first ones came out. He had an AR that appeared to be an early model M-16 A1. This guy was real careful. He would walk about twenty steps then stop and look around. I motioned to my brother to keep his eye on the ridge where the others disappeared. I took the safety off my Browning and kept an eye on the one in front of us. It took the guy a good four or five minutes to clear but he didn't see us. We waited about a half hour then took off on our ATV's.
No cell phones back then. Took us a couple hours to get to a phone and report it. When the border patrol and park rangers showed up we showed them on their excellent maps of the area where we had been. Scared the stuffing out of us.

My buddy and I hunted mule deer does for several years in a row, at a high reservoir in southwest Idaho. One year, I climbed up to a spot that had a good view of a wooded bench below me. Bud continued up to the rimrock. Mid-morning I heard him shoot. Didn't hear anything after that. As the sun rose, it illuminated a very small clearing in a stand of aspens. And just as I noticed that, a huge muley doe stepped into the light. She was a giant. She started browsing, giving me a perfect broadside shot at 130 yards. I got my elbows up on my knees and had a perfect sight picture. Except.....my heart was beating wildly and I was breathing fast. Couldn't hold the crosshairs still.

I had never gotten excited about any deer before, and here I was having to control my breathing to slow my heart rate. When I finally got calmed down enough, I put my eye to the scope in time to see her rear end disappear into the trees. Never saw her again. But soon I heard something coming down the mountain to my left. As I watched I saw my buddy coming down the track that doe must have used. He asked me, "Have you seen my doe? I got a quick shot at her and know I wounded her." "Is she big?" "Huge!" I told him where she was headed and within a half-hour he found and killed her.

Again, I have never before or since gotten that "buck fever" or whatever it is called. But that one doe did it to me in a way that I couldn't even have attempted a shot. I was just breathing too hard. And to cap it, she wasn't even mine to claim!

Posted by everydefense today:

"DALLAS (Reuters) - An East Texas man was wounded after he fired a gun at an armadillo in his yard and the bullet ricocheted back to hit him in his face, the county sheriff said on Friday.

Cass County Sheriff Larry Rowe said the man, who was not identified, went outside his home in Marietta, southwest of Texarkana, at around 3 a.m. on Thursday morning. He spotted the armadillo on his property and opened fire.

'His wife was in the house. He went outside and took his .38 revolver and shot three times at the armadillo,' Rowe said.

The animal's hard shell deflected at least one of three bullets, which then struck the man's jaw, he said.

The man was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where his jaw was wired shut, according to Rowe.

The status of the animal is unknown.

'We didn't find the armadillo,' the sheriff said."

(source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-texas-armadillo-idUSKCN0Q52KR20150731)


East TX. Sounds like a "hold my beer and watch this" moment gone wrong, as they usually do...

Although I wouldn't think of doing it now when I was younger I dispatched plenty of 'dillos that trespassed into my mom's large vegetable and flower garden. Mostly used a pump Crosman with .177 pellets or my trusty Glenfield firing .22 Shorts. At fifteen feet the Crosman would drop one with two or three shots. With the .22 one right above the front shoulder or in the head usually worked. Both always penetrated. There's got to be more to the story here. I would guess he missed and hit a rock, tree, sidewalk or something or it was a through and through that struck something on the other side and ricocheted back. It also could have been real old ammo or something along those lines. Armadillos almost always jump two feet in the air if you have a close miss or just wing it.
In Texas Bars close at 2 A.M. so it does make one think alcohol was involved. Also as someone who shoots easily a thousand rounds of .38 Sp a year and carries a J frame S&W Model 637 90% of the time I am a little biased.

TrickyDick said:

I don't think so. Fire flies glow on and off, and don't come to a complete stop in midair. Plus, this thing was very far away.

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I have hiked Deer Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park before dawn in order to see the sun rise over the mountains. I saw the same thing you described. As the first hints of dawn started to creep into view, I realized I was seeing other hikers who were going up Long's Peak and were screwing around with a flashlight. They may have actually seen our light and were trying to signal us. The thing I noticed is that the light contrasted with nearly uniform darkness surrounding it gave the appearance that it was floating.

I have no idea if there were any mountains or hills near you, and I'm not saying that's what you were seeing, but it sounds very similar to my experience.

That was an eerie hike. We were walking up to herds of elk that were bedded down not 20 yards from the trail. You would suddenly hear lots of movement around you and then need to flick on the flashlight. Yes, I had a gun on me, as well as bear spray.

The creepiest one I ever had was a particular hike on a fairly distinct hill top. It was a seven mile round trip hike from where I parked, to the peak, and back. When I was about a mile from my truck dusk was well underway and I started getting a weird feeling and felt compelled to look over my shoulder a lot. When I was about a quarter mile from my truck, I had a very strong urge to look over my left shoulder. As I spun around, it was just in time to see a brown head of some sort of animal duck down very quickly behind a large juniper bush, out of reaction to my very sudden movement.

My first reaction was that it was a deer or young elk, but the ears of the brown blur looked too short. So I stopped dead in my tracks, drew my FNP45 because we have A LOT of mountain lions in my area. I assumed I had seen a deer, but wasn't sure. I expected to see one running off in the opposite direction since I'd obviously spooked it. Once you spook a deer or elk into moving, they run flat out and don't try to hide. However nothing was seen running away, nothing at all. A stalking lion or even just one that is curious would be more likely to crouch and hide, as it is the natural instinct of a hunting cat.

I walked slowly towards the juniper bush to get a better look, but my better sense took over and something told me that I was pushing my luck. I literally walked backwards the final quarter mile to my truck with my weapon drawn, cocked and locked. To this day I don't know if it was a ninja like deer, a trick of the light and a case of over active imagination, or if there was a lion watching me from the bushes. Part of me wishes I'd found out. The other part of me acknowledges that at dusk, the forest is the lion's domain, and I am a visitor. Best to not overstay your welcome.

Alte Schule said:

Years ago just out of the Army on the hunt for a Mulie with my brother in the Davis Mountains, SW Texas. We had a real nice blind on the side of a hill with the sun behind us and a good view of a game trail 100 yards out. We parked our 4 wheeler's behind us and got into the blind right before dawn. I had a Browning BAR in 30.06 my brother a lever action Marlin in, I believe, 45/70. Both scoped. I also had my trusty .357 Security Six my brother a .22 Colt Woodsman.
About a half hour after first light my brother, who was about twenty feet away using his binoc's, caught my attention and motioned to his left. I brought my scope up and didn't see anything at first but a few seconds later I saw a figure step out of the brush. He was carrying a Mini-14. Not your typical deer rifle. He stood there for a couple of minutes and then we saw five other's, three male and two females, all unarmed but carrying army style rucks. All Hispanic. My brother and I stared at each other wide eyed. They slowly moved along the trail in front of us. Just as they were going out of sight another one appeared where the first ones came out. He had an AR that appeared to be an early model M-16 A1. This guy was real careful. He would walk about twenty steps then stop and look around. I motioned to my brother to keep his eye on the ridge where the others disappeared. I took the safety off my Browning and kept an eye on the one in front of us. It took the guy a good four or five minutes to clear but he didn't see us. We waited about a half hour then took off on our ATV's.
No cell phones back then. Took us a couple hours to get to a phone and report it. When the border patrol and park rangers showed up we showed them on their excellent maps of the area where we had been. Scared the stuffing out of us.

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Holy smokes! That would have been a helluva gunfight! One hopes that marksmanship and optics would have won the day over volume of fire.......glad you didn't have to find out!

NIGHTLORD40K said:

Holy smokes! That would have been a helluva gunfight! One hopes that marksmanship and optics would have won the day over volume of fire.......glad you didn't have to find out!

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Sure didn't want to find out either. Juniper Ash logs and plywood wouldn't be much protection. Good thing my cousin, who managed the area at the time, insisted on setting it up in a natural thicket as it was almost impossible to see especially with the sun behind us. I had been in some scrapes while in the Army and prepared myself mentally for the possibility that the one with the AR would bring that rifle to his shoulder and point it in our direction. It was a relief when he went from port arms to carrying it with one hand and slowly walking up the hill away from us. Kept my Weaver on him the whole time though. I was pretty shaken by the whole thing and it still bothers me some 35 years later.

Great thread.
I haveThoroughly enjoyed these posts.

Armored farmer said:

Great thread.
I haveThoroughly enjoyed these posts.

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I totally agree - very entertaining thread. I am a little jealous that I can not think of a weird tale.

One year I had an invitation to my friends dad's property. I set up in a ground blind and at about 730am I hear two shots. Maybe two minutes after those shots the biggest whitetail I have ever seen in Arkansas comes walking maybe 20yds from me. I cock the hammer on my 3030 and boom! Deer runs about 10yds spins around as I pull the hammer back (notice I didn't say I jacked the lever) and click! About 20 second s after my friends dad's comes up and says, "I heard you hit him." I was so excited I could hardly hear what he said. He asks, "Where'd he go?" I pointed up the hill. We started tracking it when heard another shot, from the other side of the hill. There was a private deer lease on the other side. About 20 seconds after that another shot from over the hill. A week later friends dad's was talking to a fellow, who belonged to the lease, said 2 hunters had shot the same deer, but what they couldn't figure out was how it had three bullet holes in it. Wasn't strange to me, but I guess it was like an episode of unsolved mysteries at the camp!

I think my tale qualifies as stated in the OP.

While squirrel hunting in the still hunting tradition, I was sitting under a tree. We had gotten up early in the AM, to be in the woods at "sun-up".
I was alert looking for any movement or noise, indicating "tree rat" to be eaten for free.
After several minutes, and being very early , and starting to get bored, I fell asleep.

Sometime later I felt it hard to breathe, as if something were on my chest.
I opened my eyes and see "a rattlesnake"!!!!!
If I moved or shouted to my buddies, he might strike!
Try as I might, I couldn't think of what I could do!
So, I went back to sleep.

Not !!!!
It qualifies as a "weird gun story", but it is a joke!
Never happened, at least to me.

If it is not the truth, be sure I'll let you know.

I think I have some more gun stories that ARE TRUE, later.
I'm enjoying reading this thread, and let's hear from some more of THR guys !