Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Of all the things you can forget to take on your hunting trip

Oh [bleep] I did forget about that one.

I had one pair of 9.5, and a size 10 same size same color.

Had worked overtime the week I packed and grabbed too right boots ... Not sure if that was my first or second elk camp...

Haven't done that again - I put yellow ties on one pair so it's harder to mix them up.

During late archery season a few years ago, I got up early, got my stuff together and drove an hour south to where I wanted to hunt. Pulled up to the gate to park in 4" of fresh snow thinking it was going to be a great day. Put on my pack, stocking cap and gloves and reached behind the seat to get my recurve. No bow. Looked in the front seat, no bow. Back of the truck, no bow. Sh#t! Drove an hour back home, walked into the house and found my bow right where I left it, on the kitchen table. Loaded it up and had a fun day hiking in the Coast Range in the snow. No critters were harmed in the making of this story.

At o'dark-thirty opening day of deer season a couple years ago I found a full box of .270Win cartridges scattered on the highway about a mile south of town. Someone's morning sucked.

Forgot the swizzle sticks, once. Decided to tough it out.

Forgot food one time, had to go to town

Saturday I tried to find my tree stand in the dark with my GPS. I did not turn it off the last time I used it, so the batteries were dead. I had to wait until light to find it. Spare batteries are in my pack now.
I always keep ammo in the truck, and a few rounds in my pack. I forgot the mag before, so single loads that day.

muzzle loading caps.

not hunting but fishing. ten of us drove 60 miles down the island to fish for 3 days. We got down there and set up camp and found out no one brought ice, everyone just assume someone else had got it.

After a 10 hour drive to deer camp, I realized I'd packed the previous year's license...

I found a near full box of .270 130 grn old school Winchester silvertips many years ago on the edge of an old gravel road.

In 2010 I shot a cow elk during archery season. I tagged it, then packed it out like normal.

I normally cut up my own meat, but due to having a moose tag that year and the warmer weather we had, I took the elk to a processor. A couple weeks later I got the elk back, with the tag attached to a package of steaks. Looking at it, I realized it was my 2009 elk tag, which went unpunched the year before.

So, not only did the wrong tag get past me, but the butcher shop too.

Pretty funny now that I think about it.

I sooner try to drain the ocean with a teaspoon than quarter an elk with a Swiss Army Knife. Just the thought of it raises blisters on my thumbs. Truly the embodiment of the saying "where there's a will there's a way".

Ok - I've remembered two more. One was the daypack with my jacket and rain gear in it. It was in the back of my truck with the rest of my gear, and my pilot friend (float plane moose hunt) helped me load the stuff. It was tucked into the front corner of the bed and out of sight from a quick glance, and he gave me an affirmative when I asked if everything was out of the truck. And I didn't't double check.

Got chilly after he left camp just before sundown and --no jacket. Did have a spare shirt tho - that helped. Borrowed a partner's cell phone (just after they first came out), and called the wife to call the pilot to bring my other pack in when he came out again in the morning.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Moose Camp"

long pause....... "That's disgusting!"

After a 350 mile road trip, but prior to the 18 mile hike into our sheep mountain, I discover I'd left the Pyrodex for the wife's Seneca behind. She had to shoot that 30-yard, full curl with the scoped .270.

The remaining 6 rams conveniently ran a half-mile and thru a saddle where our hunting partner on that trip picked off the other full curl.

Not real sure just how Steve got to come along on our honeymoon........

I do not tend to camp much when I hunt. We often just go for the day. When we do camp for a few days, I always end up carrying half the groceries back home. Ain't nobody ever gone hungry in my camp!

Often I will sleep in the truck seat one night before season opener and hunt opening day. I did that with my Dad about twenty years ago. Sitting around the campfire that evening, I decided to check my 30-06 reloads for function in my rifle.

Yeah, now is a hell of a time.

Out of 100 rounds in the truck, none would chamber. They were all seated long.

I managed to drive the bullets deeper on a half dozen rounds and was set for the next day.

It had been a year... and we just could NOT find all the 338-06 ammo, had stashed it good in AK the past September.....

But I NEVER have a gun without rounds in the mag.... those 4 would have had to hold me over, until we found the ammo at the last second... I bet we NEVER forget where we leave it ever again. LOL.

Binocs...ain't worth going hunting without em...

BIL crawled up in his bow stand once..... and then back down and walked back to camp to get his quiver of arrows.

Don't leave without a roll though... ever.....

A good family friend, that was like a parent to us, shot a whitetail one year, had the ranch hands clean it, it was supposed to be a book BC deer, while it missed it just a hair, it was a good deer. He gave his license to the hands.

Called me on the way home. Bringing it over to cape it out for him. Told me he got pulled over a couple of times on the way home by wardens, the news had traveled, they wanted to see the buck. NICE buck.

I got hold of it that evening and caped it. Then when recording the tag data in my book, realized it was tagged with an antlerless only tag. At least 2 if not 3 wardens had missed that....

Thats why you don't use crap like trigger locks. LOL

If I ever forgot something on a hunting trip I can't remember what.

Last year a coworker asked if I wanted to hunt the next day and that I could ride with him.

Told him I would meet him there as all my stuff was in my truck already.

Imagine my shock when all the stuff was not behind my seat, I had taken it out the previous Sunday PM.
I came up with required orange and some pieces of sorta cold weather gear.
15 degrees and about 10-15 mph wind that morning and I was chilled out pretty quickly.
Deer came by . . . I just wasn't ready. Pretty close to the coldest I have ever been.
This time of year pack stays packed.

I just have to make sure ammo and gun go together.

Had one of those "can field dress 3 elk and 4 grizzly before resharpening" knives.

Went dull as a butterknife 5 minutes into field dressing an elk. Of course, there was no pocket sharpener available either.

Bought a WorkSharp when I got home and went over EVERY knife I own. I also ALWAYS carry a sharpener, and when hunting elk, an extra knife!