Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting You ever leave anything behind?

I figured we need some more non-controversial threads, so here it is. Have you ever left something back at your truck when you have taken off on a backpack trip? Have you ever left anything at your camp when you packed up and left? How far did you go until you turned around?

Thought this would be a fun topic. I have forgot things but i don't want to make the first post and look stupid because i might be the only person that has done it before.

I highly doubt it though.

Lost a camo back pack duck hunting once. Put it on the ground to get decoys and never saw it again.

The other one was a pair of Oakleys I set down sheep hunting. I put them on a rock to adjust my boot and left them there. I found them in the same spot on the next years sheep hunt. Just kinda smiled, washed them off in the creek and wore them the rest of the trip. They looked just like I left them except the croakie strap was all faded from the sun.

There have been a few more but I will let a few others share

Hey! I said this thread was supposed to be non-controversial, now you got to start up with that stuff! jk

Don't worry, I'm sure someone will find a way to make this controversial...

But to answer the question, hell yes. I'm sure anyone who hunts much has lost lots of stuff. My list includes a good knife... a jacket... a pair of binos... those three spring immediately to mind.

I have a lot longer and better story's but one thing that i have forgot many times is Toilet paper. Don't do it much any more, have too many pairs of pants with legs missing and half cut off socks, that remind me of it.

Thats why all i used to ware was Army surplus BDU pants, cheap to replace.

My buddy left his tags back at the truck on an elk hunting trip. We were at camp before the loss was noticed. Nice hiking twice the distance before opening day. Would have felt better if he'd filled it.

Now that's some darn good cammo right there!

My wife left her camo fanny pack containing an Sp101 .357 at a remote trail head and remembered it Sunday when we got to the house 90 miles away. I was scheduled to have surgery that Monday so she waited until I was out of the OR and then drove out to the bush she left it behind in the middle of the night. What a relief it was to hear she found it. I was terrified a cub scout would find it and accidentally shoot someone. I really reamed her over it because I asked her if she had it when we got in the truck to leave the woods.

big w

Why do you keep doing this? Your clogging up the backpacking section, take it somewhere else.

Left my uncle's war souvenier Japanese binoculars in the woods when I was a kid. I never ded find them.

Tent poles, left them at home. Scope covers and a knife both got left in the woods. Not all on the same trip though.

Binos out at an old burn that I'd walked into in the dark and left in the dark. Got about 4 miles back to the truck and didn't have them (I thought I'd stuck them in my pack.) Headlamp on, walk back and get them. At least I found them, I guess.

Gloves - scattered from the Florida Everglades to the Colorado Flattop Wilderness!

Headlamp...big mistake that could've been bigger.

The day before leaving for elk camp (pack in) I had my pile of gear assembled on the living room floor. I had everything I needed EXCEPT my elk tag which I'd already purchased but couldn't find. Then I realized I couldn't find my wallet either. Out of desperation I called the last store I'd been to the day before and they had my wallet locked in their office safe. Could have been ugly.

The wife and I were on a long hike out of Rocky Mtn NP and we stopped at a scenic place and I snapped a picture of her. Sitting on a rock next to her in the picture is the water bottle that stayed right there. Good thing she had hers!

Still a cell phone somewhere in the Scapegoat - never did figure out why I took it since there wasn't any coverage, anyway.

Apparently 3 out of every 4 knives sold in the US get lost.

While working for the US Forest Service I found a knife every other day on average. Some on the ground, some in parking areas, a lot stuck in trees (I guess they gutted something and stuck it in there for a second and forgot about it).

I believe it about the percentage of lost knives. I've lost... and found several.

My left behind stuff and a rule I've developed to avoid stuff left on the roof or leaning on a vehicle as I drive off:

Left my bow at home which I discovered when I got out to hunt 80 miles from home.

Trekking poles at my spike camp which I noticed at the first river crossing three miles down stream from the camp. I went back without my pack and got them.

My all time favorite Buck knife on a gravel bar in the Fraser River where I�d gutted a salmon.

A predator call on a basalt rock above the Columbia River on the Washington side upriver from John Day Dam.

My fly fishing vest with one reel, two boxes of flies and a bunch of other stuff in it, hanging on a bush beside a back road where I�d parked to hike down a trail to the river. Took it off to get my waders off before driving home.

Now I ALWAYS place any item of gear or clothing ONLY on the driver side hood or windshield, including rods or guns, if I put them down while unlocking door or putting gear in a vehicle prior to driving away from that spot.

lessee, HH impertech raincoat, check left one of those on a river bank




pair of sunglasses on a moose knob, found 4 years later still looked brand new

left camera at home too many times to mention, don't know why but it's such a pisser.

boy left his sheep boots at home last season.