What messed you up today?

[KentuckyTJ]

Well I thought it may be interesting to start a thread about all the things that happen to mess up our hunts this season. With that I'll begin...

I get off work today and headed to the farm to a smokin' hot spot I found a few days ago that I immediately hung a stand on and got everything trimmed out just right. I have really been eager to get to this spot for the past few days. I get settled in today around 4:30 and long about deer30 I hear someone talking...well not long after I see a man and a women holding hands just walking and talking to each other coming my way up in the field. Then I see their two dogs running around with them. One of the dogs cuts down in the woods and proceeds to run right under me and straight down where I'm expecting my deer to come from. He starts barking and then you could tell chasing something. Well I get unhooked and climb down to ask the lovely couple what in the hell they think they are doing. "Just taking a walk". Really???? I can handle bad winds, coyotes or getting busted by a noisy doe but these kind of things really get to me the older I get. I was trying to be as kind as I could be as I was representing hunters with all my gear on but was almost shaking I was so mad. I explained how much time and effort I expend to hunt and that they have totally ruined my evening. They were very appologetic and I am sure I'll never see them again.

Ok lets post our daily hunt busters here for the season and it will hopefully make you guys feel some better as this has for me.

[David Mitchell]

So, do you have exclusive rights to that place?  Did they actually do anything wrong?  Trespassing?  Just curious.  Stuff like that just sometimes happens. Sounds to me that they were just out enjoying themselves as you were.

I had an evening bear hunt ruined in Maine when a couple of guys showed up at an old gravel pit across the road from where my guide had a bait I was on.  They blew away a few hundred rounds while I stewed.  They left about 45 minutes before dusk.  Nothing I could do....they had no idea I was there and were breaking no laws.  Just sometimes bad breaks happen. But they had as much right as I to be where they were.

[Grizzbear]

Sounds like a good place to do some whining.. I had to work.always a buster

[SAM E. STEPHENS]

I was going to go hunting today but I had to go to work , so I'm here in the firehouse for a few days....
,,,Sam,,,

[rastaman]

Hey Tom!  A swirling wind at the last second on a perfect stalk on a hog.. The wind was perfectly steady for the previous hour and a half! Go figure..there's always tomorrow!  
Sorry your hunt got busted up..

[Oldskool2]

well, you could of just shot the dog and said you thought it was a yote!!   hahaha.... totally just kidding!!  that sux but its part of life and hunting. I was out this weekend and had a strolling couple that sounded like a herd of buffalo walk right through the woods towards me and then said oh hey are you hunting?  I just nodded but I felt like saying "heres your sign"

[Hawkeye]

Had a good friend stop at my door just as I was preparing to walk out of it dressed in camo and bow in hand.

I stayed and talked with him about a problem he had. No hunt, but not "messed up".

First things, first!

[JamesV]

This is my first year to wear a safty harness, always wore a safty belt. Had a doe come straight in and pass at 10yrds on my right. With good back cover  and a short drop line to the safty harness I couldn't get to full draw and keep the bottom limb of my bow from hitting  the stand. Did manage to get off a good shot thur the limbs, crouched over with a short draw, unfortunately it was about a foot too high. Other than that I had a great day in the stand. That was yesterday, today I was under constant atack from the skeeters and nats. Man I love this bowhuntin!!!!!

James

[vtmtnman]

Two days in a row I've had the deer become obsessed with a hill side behind me.

Time to repostion..

[Jack Denbow]

Deer not reading the script and coming the wrong way and getting my wind.
Jack

[Lamey]

I made the most basic of mistakes today... Scouting a spot behind my shop was creeping quietly, slowly....  patiently.....  then RRRRIIINNNNGGG.....RRRIIIINNNGGG..... from my pocket...yeah my phone was on!

At the same time about 50 yards across the creek I heard crashing, looked over and yep.. big buck ive been trying to get for 3 years running through the brush  

[huntnmuleys]

work got me!  it hit me starting monday, and through today.  but tomorrow im off.  look out deer!

[TxAg]

Was this public land?

[ChuckC]

I was out for a walk the other day with my sweetie. It was great outside, the pups were having fun.  We walked across a pretty field and into a woodlot.  I was hoping for a smooch, . . .  and then, some rambo guy comes climbing out of a tree and gives me grief ! What the heck !

I bet he didn't realize how much time I put into getting ol Betty Sue to come out for that walk, and for getting my boss to let me off work and how much I have been dreaming of that day.  

     

Just saying
ChuckC

[Tater]

This happened to me a couple years ago on a Public SWA.
   I have hunted this area in the past with great results when I can draw the tag.

   So I know the area and have a stand in one of my favorite spots. It was a very mild fall and most of the corn was still in the fields until right at the start of the rut.

   I noticed they had started to pick some of the surrounding corn fields and felt like the following weekend should be prime.

   I head into my stand well before first light and as I am walking in something seems out of place but I can't figure it out.

   I get in my stand all strapped in and as the sun starts to come up I notice some slash piles along the power line that runs across this property.  Well about 7:30 I hear voices across the river. My stand is about 150 yards off the river.

    Maybe 15 minutes later I hear a chain saw fire up. Well the local power company decided it was time to trim the trees along this stretch of power line. To say I was upset would be an understatement. 3 years to draw a tag and the power company decides to trim the trees on this specific SWA right during the peak of Deer hunting.

   I guess they don't coordinate there trimming with the DOW ?

[nlester]

The neighbors cows got out on our property, which happens a lot.  Sitting in the stand and hear all this yelling and cussing and I see our neighbor running across his field chasing cows onto our field, back over to his, back to ours....he was struggling and down right mad.  Tough to hunt in those conditions.  So, I got down and started yelling and chasing with him...if you can't beat'em, join'em.  Happy ending:  we got the cows wrangled back up!  

[SheltonCreeker]

Well this year has been alright. Nothing out of the ordinary this year. But last year I had been pinned up at week for the first few weeks of bow season and had finally got a few days off to hunt. I had a perfect wind to hunt a stand that I had some pics of a great buck over the summer. I walked down a field edge of the neighboring property and slipped into my stand. Got in early all set up wind in my face. Everything seems perfect and then I here some running thru the brush. I turn and look and here comes some dogs. Then I hear the dull muffle of a four wheeler. Soon I see the neighbor riding down the property line on his four wheeler. He rode not 20 yards from my stand and I hollered and stopped him. He got smart about some Posted signs I had put up on a lease and I got smart about him riding underneath me. Words were exchanged and things were said. After it was over I was embarrased for my behavior and ultimatly apologized but at the time it seemed very intentional on his part. Not the first time he has ruined a hunt in this location. I don't mind the things in nature that booger a hunt wind, deer taking a different trail etc. But when its another person and it seems like its on purpose man that gets my goat. Oh well that why I like to hunt deep and try and avoid other people as much as possible. Cant do it all the time! Thanks for the thread I do feel better!

[KentuckyTJ]

Originally posted by TxAg:
Was this public land?

Nope, private farm that my buddy (the landowner) and I are the only ones supposed to be there. He is going out today to see if they have cut or broken down the 4' barbed wire fence that surrounds the farm.

[Widow's Son]

Work yesterday, taking son to and from school today. I need to get a place to hunt close to the house so I can hunt while my 6 year old is in school.

[Recurve50 LBS]

I have had more than my share of hunts ruined over the years. In addition to me being the cause of having my hunts messed up by me making mistakes I have just as many that have been messed up by other people.

Just this season I've had 2 hunts messed up during the evening "prime time" by having another hunter still hunt through the area I chose to set up in.I was in 2 diffrent spots too.  I'm pretty sure it's the same guy and he passes within 30 yards of me and never knows I'm even there. If I say something to him he might have a heart attack...LOL

On regular occasions I have ATV riders drive through the area I hunt. Again usually during the "prime time". By the way it is illegal to even ride these machines on public land in my state. Complaints to the CO's has lead to nothing.     So every year I try to hunt further in the woods away from the trails they ride on.

It is also not uncommon to have groups of hikers walk through. One time a group came through and one no one even seeing me up in the tree when one guy walks away from the group heads straight for my tree and starts releiving himself. He practally pissed all over himself when I asked him to pick another tree....LMAO

I have even had one pop up blind stolen. I thought that I had brushed it in real well where it would not be found by another person. Apparently not.

I think that it's even more frustrating when these things happen on private property. In that case you can have the law come down on tresspassers.