My bolt wasn't closed all the way

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Nothing as exciting as elk or bighorn sheep, but I've had it happen. Duck hunting. Loaded up my gear, and put two rounds in the tube of my 870. It was before shooting hours and I figured that would be a little safer wading out to the blind, thigh-deep in water, in the dark, than fully loading the gun (one in the chamber). I got to the blind, had a cup of coffee, and waited for shooting hours. The ducks came in, cupped and started to land in the hole. I popped up, shouldered the gun, and nothing. I'd forgotten to chamber a round. I got a gorgeous view of the ducks flaring away into the sunrise, I guess.
 
Several times I have climbed into a stand and when it got too dark to determine a legal deer, I went to unload my gun before climbing down. At least 5 times I had neglected to chamber a round while sitting for 3+ hours. Fortunately, I never saw a 'shooter' deer at those times.

Once I climbed to a stand and after sitting for ~ 15 minutes realized I left my rifle in the rack on my ATV. :confused:
 
usaral63 said:
Almost as good as noddin' off and waking just in time to see his tail end framed in antlers going over the hill!!!
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not quite ready for my AARP card.......but...

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One of those two had almost run clean past me while I was sleepingf in the sun leaning on a rock.
I was working nights at this time, and had flown out right after shift the day before. Wasn't quite recovered (I didnt sleep much if at all that night).
 
I find that younger hunters tend to fall asleep and wake up to a deer standing in front of them before scaring it off with their waking realizations more than seniors.
Most of the newer hunters that I have taken hunting do this. They aren’t ready for how tired they are plus how still and cold the woods are in the early hours. They bundle up, get warm, and blink… 2 hours later they regret it.
 
I've missed deer because of bullet deflection off a small branch and also from a loose action screw on a Savage 110. I'm sure those problems pale in comparison to all the tactical flub ups I've made over the years though, most of which I remain blissfully unaware.
 
Was hunting in near 0 deg F. temps. Nice buck appears, pull back the hammer on the Browning lever action and.... click. Hammer strike wasn't sufficient to overcome the frigid oil slowing down the firing pin.

Deer looks right at me but doesn't move. Thumb the hammer back again, and thankfully this time it goes boom. Sprayed the action with solvent when I got home.
 
vongh said:
I was Barbary sheep hunting in Southern New Mexico. We heard the sound of some rocks falling. So we just sat still. I was with my wife and daughter. After about 10 minutes of silence we saw them. There was three of them walking on a high ledge. As we were watching them the lead sheep skylined himself and I couldn't believe the size of him. So I put my cross hairs over him and when I was ready shoot nothing happened. Checked the safety it was off. Looked at the bolt wasn't rotated all the way down. Dope. By the time I reshouldered the rifle the bruiser backed away from his majestic perch. I can't be the only one that has botched a shot at a trophy animal. Am I? Hopefully I am cause I really felt like a dweeb. If not let's hear your stories.
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Nice part of Mosin comrade is bolt so stiff you have to smack it down like Cossack woman. Bolt never fails to close after that comrade.
 
Legionnaire said:
I was hunting the Connecticut Hill WMA below the finger lakes in NY because I couldn't get a Deer Management Permit (doe tag) closer to home in Onondaga County. It was cold with icy snow on the ground so I couldn't walk without crunching. I found a seat under a blowdown that gave me a good vantage point within 50 yards of a couple of crossing trails. After a while I heard several deer approaching. As they passed, I scoped the three good-sized does looking for antlers. As the last one disappeared into the brush it dawned on me: I'm here because I have a doe tag! Only deer I saw that day, more's the pity.
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There's a special season tin Tompkins county in January. 2x doe a day for the whole season and you get as many tags as you want.
 
vongh said:
Looked at the bolt wasn't rotated all the way down. Dope.
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Been there, done that with my Sporterized M1917. Generally happened when I would sneak hunt and the bolt would get hooked on the pockets of my hunting vest/coat. After a few times, I got into the habit of pushing the bolt down on the way up to my shoulder. Became a natural part of my motion, like taking off the safety.
 
Harsh lesson about cleaning off all lubricants in cold weather. -3 degrees using Mauser 98 in 308 kicked up a real nice buck whistled him to a stop pulled trigger nothing. Buck stood there and watched me cycle all 5 rounds through the action pulling trigger on each one. No bang no buck. I swear he was laughing at me as he walked away. When I got home and dismantled the bolt I found the culprit was grease on the spring and firing pin.
 
Patocazador said:
Several times I have climbed into a stand and when it got too dark to determine a legal deer, I went to unload my gun before climbing down. At least 5 times I had neglected to chamber a round while sitting for 3+ hours. Fortunately, I never saw a 'shooter' deer at those times.

Once I climbed to a stand and after sitting for ~ 15 minutes realized I left my rifle in the rack on my ATV. :confused:
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I sort of did that on this one pictured:

GxFEiv7l.jpg

A few years ago at about 15 minutes prior to end of our buck season, I spotted him in the woods across a field from me, brown movement on snow. I waited till he moved out from behind some brush and took a shot, he jumped, ran a few steps , stood wobbling, head down, and laid down. I waited about 10 minutes watching him, zero movement, dead deer. I climbed down and walked over to him with the empty case still in my chamber. By now it's getting dark, when I got within about 15', when he looked up straight at me, jumped up and bounded away. Me watching him, speechless, my mouth agape, and the fired case still in my chamber.

Took 3 hrs of searching till I found him in a ditch on the backside of the woods, no blood, deer tracks everywhere. He was hit behind the close shoulder, just a hair lower than I like, the round clipped both lungs, entrance and exit holes and he managed to go about 150yds.
 
My dad was notorious for doing this. He originally hunted with a Remington 742 and later got a Ruger 77 Mk II for Christmas. I'm the "gun person" in the family (the rest are avid hunters but are only into guns as strictly tools), and he complained after a while that the new rifle had "snapped" on several deer. It worked every time I tried it though and I never duplicate the issue. After a while I discovered that he often didn't have the bolt handle all the way down. He has a bad habit of not unloading the gun between hunting sessions (basically he just puts on the safety and then takes it back out the next time). Half the time by the time he'd made it out to the stand again something had bumped the bolt handle enough to rotate it slightly.

It also took a while for me to get it into his head about how CRF rifles have to feed from the magazine. He kept dropping a round into the chamber and thinking something was wrong when he couldn't close the bolt :).

My brother did a similar thing. He hunts with a Winchester 94 AE and he called me cursing one morning that he had just pulled the trigger 4 times on a buck that morning with no bang. He was literally on the way to the store to buy a new rifle. After pondering for a second I asked him to check the safety on his gun (on the 94's the safety doesn't prevent the hammer from falling it just blocks it from hitting the firing pin). A few seconds later he says " . . . oh. Ok I'm headed back home.". I could literally feel the embarrassment in his voice :).
 
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vongh said:
I was Barbary sheep hunting in Southern New Mexico. We heard the sound of some rocks falling. So we just sat still. I was with my wife and daughter. After about 10 minutes of silence we saw them. There was three of them walking on a high ledge. As we were watching them the lead sheep skylined himself and I couldn't believe the size of him. So I put my cross hairs over him and when I was ready shoot nothing happened. Checked the safety it was off. Looked at the bolt wasn't rotated all the way down. Dope. By the time I reshouldered the rifle the bruiser backed away from his majestic perch. I can't be the only one that has botched a shot at a trophy animal. Am I? Hopefully I am cause I really felt like a dweeb. If not let's hear your stories.
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Have taken a couple here in NM, they're no good eating if it makes you feel better, YMMV.
 
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