Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Getting Lost?

Anybody have any good tales about it? (Only looking for happy endings,grin)

Happened to me once in Colorado. I got back to camp around 10:00pm with the assistance of a lodge owner near Electric Mountain.They were familiar with the area I was camped. Not to big a deal but I wasn't to hip on spending the night in the woods.

A bugling bull sucked me in. I got too wrapped up in him and soon darkness got me.

If you didnt spend the night then you werent lost, just momentarily confused

"momentarily confused"-that is a daily occurrence for me!

For a flatlander........I WAS LOST!!

A hunting partner, now ex hunting partner, had a good one, that I'm glad I wasn't there for. Dumbass shoots a bull on his son's license, cause he only has a cow tag. Of course, he had back problems, and couldn't do much field dressing or quartering himself. Buddy takes the bull back to camp with his horses, and Numbnuts never shows up. His then 12 year old son cries all night, worrying about his dad, while some of the other guys go out looking for him. Spends the night under a tree under some branches while it snows in 1st season, probably ODing on painkillers for all I know. Eventually stumbles into camp the next morning. Was going through a rough divorce and all that fun stuff, but that's the last time he hunted with our group.

I've never been lost, but have been someplace other than where I thought I was at the time...

I do have a lost story about another guy. My hunting partner and I had gotten back to camp after dark, like usual, on an elk hunt. I fired up the lantern and grill and got dinner going. Just opened up a beer when I start hearing things in the woods below camp, mostly sticks breaking. We'd had deer in camp the night before, so I didn't think too much about it. After a couple more minutes we hear a "hey, glad I found you guys", and see a guy come staggering out of the trees. He was a bit panicked, so we got him sat down, gave him some water, and let him have dinner with us. Finally he starts the story about how he, his cousin, and his uncle are camped down by the main road and how he'd been trying to find camp most of the day. He said he had a gps, but loaned it to his cousin because he had a poor sense of direction. At this point I have to bite my tongue, and think of a diplomatic way to ask him a question... I know that we're camped about half a mile above the main road (actually the main Forest Service road into the middle of nowhere). As he describes exactly where they are camped I know that they are directly downhill from us a half mile. Okay, so I ask him the question - "not to be a smart a$$, but if you know your camp is downhill by the main road, what have you been going up hill most of the day for?". He thought about that one for a couple minutes, then sheepishly admitted he didn't know, as it didn't make sense. My first thought when he told us where his camp was was to point him in the right direction, but after talking to him I knew he was the kind of guy that would get lost in his own bathroom, so I told him I'd drive him back to his camp. Even though their camp was close as the crow flies it was 10 miles one way on pretty crappy roads. When we pulled up to his camp there was a big bonfire going, so I thought at least his family was trying to help him find his way. I rolled down the window and the cousin came over; his breath dang near knocked me off my seat, and I swear I got an immediate second hand drunk off it. I asked them if they were missing anybody, and neither had a clue. They were both falling down drunk and it was only about 8:30pm; guessing that they didn't leave camp that day... The guy got out of the truck and thanked us, then said that he'd hunt closer to camp for the rest of the trip...

Then there was the time my hunting partner and I took another guy out. He was familiar with the area, so I showed him the map then got him started on the ridge he was going to hunt. He was going to go straight down the ridge hunting one side then turn around and hunt back to the truck on the other side. It was a gray morning and about half an hour after we left the truck it started snowing. Then it started snowing harder. Pretty soon it was coming down a couple inches an hour with no sign of letting up. About noon I met my hunting partner back at the truck, as all three of us had agreed to do. No other guy. Luckily we had a spare set of keys, as he'd driven. We ate in the truck as we watched for the other guy to show up. Visibility was about 20 feet... We finished lunch and had the time to go look for him conversation, and left a note in the truck telling him to stay there if he came back. I went to where I left him and began tracking, which was easy because of about six inches of old snow. He'd started out okay, but then crossed the ridge after only a couple hundred yards. Then he doubled back and went up and over the ridge again. He cut his own track and then went off a different direction. He did this over and over again until I couldn't tell which track to follow. We met back at the truck after an hour and no sign of him. We went back out for another hour, and still nothing, and his tracks were almost gone. We went back to the truck and he still wasn't there, so I sat in the truck honking the horn every 5 minutes while my hunting partner continued the search. My hunting partner comes back after another hour and still no sign of the other guy. Now we are pretty concerned as it's starting to get dark and the snow still hadn't let up. We were having the should we call Search and Rescue discussion when the other guy pops out of the trees. He starts walking one way, then stops and starts walking the other way, then stops and starts looking around. He actually turned back to go into the trees, so I hit the horn and he jumps, then nonchalantly comes strolling over to the truck. He's beat, and had left his lunch in the truck. After he eats a little we tell him we'd been out looking for him for hours. He immediately says, "I knew where I was the whole time"... Now when my hunting partner and I are out and we're someplace other than where we thought we were at the time we refer to it as "Hugh-ing around".

only got one and it wasnt for very long......out north of Fort Peck Lake looking for mule deer for me and a cow elk for a friend, dropped off of a ridge after a cow and we split up hoping that i would cut it off and chase it back to my friend.....sneaking around down in the timber i managed to get turned around without knowing it and since i hadnt heard a shot i figured i would head back to the truck......we had gone a ways down the coulee and i wasnt going back up where we came down but thats alright cause i knew where i was at

getback up to the top of the ridge......its actually quite a shock cresting the top and seeing a nice two lane gravel road where your expecting to see a two rut jeep track.....i think it took a full 30 seconds for my brain to process the situation before it dawned on me what i did......yelled "SON OF A B!TCH" spun around 180* to see my truck on the ridge straight away from me bout 1 mile and a half straight away from me......my wife thought it was funny as hell when i finally got back to the truck........

Screw all that talk about not panicking. I find it best to panic right off the bat, best to get it out of the way.

I've also learned to carry 2 compasses, because it's too damn easy to argue with one.

TFF...I always have 2 compasses. Dare I say for the same reason?

Not exactly a "lost in the woods story" but a coworker in CA was cruising along in the Delta, and found a boy about 8yo floating in one of the big rivers - IIRC the San Joaquin, a few miles before it joins the Sacramento. He'd fallen out of the family boat; no one noticed, and the boat sped off without him. Luckily the water was fairly warm, and they pulled him out before hypothermia hit. They called the Coast Guard, who collected the boy, and probably(hopefully) reamed a boat owner up, down, and sideways for losing a kid.

had a guy i was hunting with move the truck to the end of the road we were hunting on to save me some walking. i walked a long ways lookin for a road with a ford at the begining of it.

Pretty hard to get lost here between open sky and section roads. Did get disoriented on the side of a mountain in NY near sunset after a sleepless night. Sat down, thought about the landmarks I'd seen going in, and walked out. Without that it would have been a LONG walk, a little voice in my head kept yelling, "NO! Go the other way!"

Been lost bigger than schit twice. The worst time happened on the last day of deer season in '89.

BIL and I had hiked to the back line of a place which bordered the Homochitto National forest. We hunted till dark 30 and I went and got him. There was no moon and it was so dark I couldn't see him.

I still don't know what I did wrong, but we ended up lost in the 14,000 acre Homochitto National Forest...no flashlight.

It was so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, so that made it hell walking without running into limbs. After walking a few hours, we finally came up on an old logging cutover.

We crossed that, found an old skidding trail and hiked it out to another dirt road. Flipped a coin and made a right.

Came out at Rosetta, Ms. 11 miles from where I had parked the truck at the camp.

It was daylight when we got back to it.

JM

The country I hunt isn't big enough to get really lost in. If you can walk a mile or two you'll come out on a road of some kind or other. May not be where you intended to come out at but you won't be lost just turned around.

Do have one "lost" story though. Discovered a sure fire way to get un-lost though. Happened this way. Two friends and I went duck hunting in an old beaver swamp. Doing so required about a quarter mile walk from where we left the pickup to the swamp. You can get lost in 450 yards.

Ducks were numerous and we stayed too late. Time we got out to the bank a fog you would not believe had come up. Couldn't see more than ten yards. On top of that there was only one flashlight and it was weak. So, here we go all loaded down with ducks, waders, decoys, shotguns etc etc. Stomping our way through the heavy timber and underbrush.

Directly we started walking back into water. Knew that wasn't right because there was only one little spring branch that you could step over between us and the pickup.

No matter which way we turned kept getting in water. Dawned on us we were lost. Pulled out to dry ground, scuffed up some leaves and stuff and lit a fire. Sat down to try to figure out where we were.

Jerry Ed, Bill and me were sitting there all limber necked with our heads hung low just a thinking and thinking. Suddenly Bill straightened up and it was like a great light from heaven had shown on him.

"Boys, I know how we can get out," he says.

Whoop, whoopie, yeaaa how we going to get out Bill?

"We wait until an airplane flies over and then we will know which way to go," Bill says.

We think about that for a few minutes and then Jerry Ed says, "How we going to know which way the airplane is going?"

"The airplane will be going North and south," Bill says.

We think about that for a while. Then I say,"Bill, how we going to know the airplane is going north and south?"

Looking like an inspired idiot, Bill says, " Look, we don't know which way is north do we."

"NO" we said

"Well then we will just CALL it north and south."

When that sunk in we just fell off the log we were sitting on and rolled on the ground laughing until we cried.

Broke the lost feeling though and we gathered up our stuff and walked out.

What had happened was we went aroung a thicket and never sraightened out our line of travel. Walked into the fork where the spring stream ran into the swamp. We just followed up the stream until we got to the crossing point and the pickup.


So, if you are ever lost in the woods, WAIT UNTIL AN AIRPLANE FLIES OVER.

BCR

I got turned around in some flat land along the river once. I was doing an inventory in a huge, very flat, very dense stand of timber and on the way back to the truck I got turned around and came out in a different spot. I figured out where I was and it just ended with me having to walk a couple more miles to get back to the truck.

I now carry 2 compasses and a gps. One compass is always hanging around my neck and the other and the gps are in the pack. My wife gave me the gps, but I still like my topo maps. I guess I need to get with the times and I'm not that old. I just save camp or the truck as a waypoint and leave the gps in my pack. I always get good topo maps and aerial photos for the area I am in.

My friend got sort of lost in Colorado the other year. It was his first time hunting out west and we were in an area where I had hunted the year before. I gave him a couple of compasses and a copy of my topo map. He is a very smart guy, but just had not done much work with a map and compass.

We were hunting this ridge that I had been on the year before and decided to split up, he went high and I went low following the contour. I told him to stop at the cliff at the end of the ridge. It was a huge rock cliff, something that I thought he couldn't miss, well he rounded the ridge and kept going. I got to the end of the ridge and didn't see him so I waited and after a while I started looking for him. I covered a lot of ground but couldn't find him.

It was starting to get dark, so I started the hike back to the truck thinking about where he could be and what I needed to do. On the way back to the truck I bumped a couple of cows and could have shot one of them, but I figured I needed to find him first. I eventually got to the top of the ridge, by this time the stars were out. I could see the truck and I could also see that there was an orange vest on the hood of my truck. He made it back to the truck and I could have shot an elk. I was glad and mad.

I asked him about it and he said he panicked at first, but after a while he settled himself down and told himself he could do this. He looked at the compass and the topo map and started heading due east like I told him. He questioned himself a few times but made it to the road and walked back to the truck.

That is my only experience. I always carry just enough stuff in my day pack that incase I have to spend the night out.

As the saying goes, I've never really been lost, just misplaced camp (or the truck) for a while....

I've been "lost" twice. Once when I was 13, and learned a lesson about keeping track of where I'm at. I finally found a road and walked it out until I recognized where I was at.

The 2nd time I totally got turned around in the fog and came out about 2 miles from where I thought I was. Once I hit the road I knew exactly where I was.

I often just follow a single drainage up or down, so to get back I know to just follow the creek the other direction.

This guy was not from our group but a camp down the road. My partner and I shot our cows on sunday (2nd day of season). On one of my trips in getting meat I ran into a guy. We sit down to BS, I ask him how he was doing and he said not good, been walking all day (little after lunch) and haven't seen an elk. He then says also my brother didn't come back to camp last night, we think he is lost. I was like crap were you the guys shooting after dark down the road? He says "yes, we were signaling back and forth till we think he ran out of bullets".
Let me say, I knew they were dumb at this point because they shot about 2 boxes of shells each in about 45 minutes. I asked what he was wearing and what type of emergency gear he had.
only thing he had was a lighter and cigarettes to go along with his t-shirt and flanel he was wearing.
I was thinking crap, it got down to 20 last night, he is possibly dead! So then I ask him where is S&R? Oh we didn't call yet because we didn't want his picture on television, cause that is embarrassing. I about fell off the log I was sitting on. He wasn't going to call unitil dark of the 2nd day! I yelled at him to get his @$$ back to camp and call S&R or he will have a dead brother! S&R was out there that evening. They ended up finding him after he spent 3 nights on the mountain. The helicopter spotted him flashing them with a juice box wrapper. He ended up crossing the stream just below their camp and then crossing the road above their camp!!! He was able to build a fire each night but he only built it a couple inches high to keep his fingers warm!
unbelievable, I don't understand how people like that can survive.

went duck huntin in klamath lake a while back. very heavy fog. launched the boat at 5am. found land at 11am.

I've not been lost, but have had times in fog or heavy snow when I could not tell one exactly where I was. In the snow, I only had to drop off the mountain to hit a road.

In the fog while moosing in Alaska, I walked in a complete circle during about a 4 hr period showing up at some ridgetop caribou antlers I had seen earlier in the morning. That was pretty much level ground with a maze of alder thickets. Switched on my GPS and went back to camp.

If truly lost, pull out a deck of cards and start a game of Solitaire. Someone will come along and tell you how to play the hand.

If one is with a buddy, a chess board and pieces can have the same effect.

I've always kept my head pretty well, but I've got a cousin who can get lost in his own back yard, and has, a time or two.

He and another cousin got lost on a hog hunt in TN once, and ended up 25 miles from their camp. The two of them together could get lost in a walk-in closet.