Ever Lost Your Gun While Hunting?

[RIFLE MAN]

Friends:

Have any of us ever misplaced or lost our gun while in the
woods deer hunting? Not necessarily permanently. Have you
perhaps been setting up your stand, field dressing your deer,
or something of the sort, then actually forgot where you
placed it for a while, then after much sweating found it?

Regards,
Rifle Man

[Swampman]

Had a camo 700ML fall over once while I was taking a leak.  It took about 10 minutes to find it.

[Drilling Man]

  A friend of mine lost a S&W M-28 while climbing a steep trail on one of the islands in Prince William Sound.  He hunted and hunted for it, but had to leave without it!  Two years later, he was walking the same trail and found it!  It looked rough and was pitted, but still shot fine.

  I knew another guy that opened his Wby. Mark V while climbing for sheep.  He opened the bolt, and when he got to the top, his bolt was gone, from a broken bolt stop!  He never found it either...

  I knew another guy that bought a new Ruger 77.  He took it to a gravel pit to shoot it, and once done, headed home.  He got down the road toward home a few miles, when he realized the gun wasn't in the car.  Well, he had put it on the roof of the car, and that's where he left it!!  He turned the car around, and backtracked, finding it by the side of the gravel road, with a cracked stock.  He brought it to me, and i glassed it back together for him...

  DM

[Graybeard]

Nope can't say I've ever lost one while hunting. I did throw one away long ago while squirrel hunting cuz it kept missing and jamming. I finished that hunt with my handgun and from that day forward got more involved in handgun hunting. For many years handguns are all I hunted with both in state and out of state.

I was crow hunting once and sat my Remington 870 on top of the car (VW) and started driving off. I heard it sliding and reached up and actually caught it in time to prevent it falling.

[okieshooter]

Hog hunting on horses once and when we loaded everything in the truck he laid a 30-30 on the fender well of the horse trailer. It was about 7 miles out of the mountains and another 10 to town before he remembered it. Amazingly it was still on the trailer. Good thing I drove slow and careful that day.

[Ranger J]

I 'lost' a Marlin 1894c for nearly a year in the house.  I took several extensive searches in every room for it and couldn't find it.  Came to conclusion some house guest must have pilfered it.  Then one day was going to look out the guest bedroom window and when I pushed the curtain aside there it was.  Yes I have set guns against trees and temporarily lost them.  Now will hang something blaze orange on them.  What I really lost a lot were my knives when field dressing deer.  Finally got one with blaze orange handle and that solved that.  With my memory as it is getting now I may have to paint everything blaze orange.

RJ

[ihookem]

I lost a shotgun once for 10 minutes once. I was ready to take a dump and saw a better spot to go. Not thinking anything about walking 20 feet without the gun, when I was done I forgot I walked 20 feet from the first spot. Couldn't imagine where it went till I found it. a while later.

[zoner]

when i was twelve i shot a Penna 5 point buck while hunting with my Dad and great Uncle and others at hunting camp. There was time for another drive so my Dad left me with Unc to field dress my buck and drag it down the hill. I set my m94 against a tree and went to work on the deer( Unc and Pops said you killed it,you field dress it, no free rides). Later after dinner i went to the gun rack to wipe down my rifle and found an empty slot in the rack. Grabbed a flashlight and hot-footed it out to where i got the deer and my rifle was still leaning against that tree. The old boys picked on me a little till i reminded them that of 23 adults in camp a twelve year old kid got the only buck THAT day. They called me "Deerslayer" for years.......

[JW/OK]

Last year while Mule Deer hunting near Silt Colorado I missed my SBH 44 Mag about 20 minutes after sliding down a shale slope on my backside. I followed the track line on the GPS back to the gun at the base of the shale. Was lucky, it could have been covered in the shale slide. The GPS is the cheapest piece of equipment on the market today!

[GRIMJIM]

Yep, leaned my camo mossberg shotgun against a tree while I dragged a deer to a better position to dress it. took about ten minutes to find.

[Walks with Fire]

My rifle has been lost a couple of times; but both times I was holding it. 

[yellowtail3]

A couple times, sort of. Once I was dragging a buck back - stopped to field dress it, should have done that earlier - started dragging again. I was not on a trail, through the middle of woods - stopped to rest (it was a long drag, it was dark) and realized I'd left my rifle back where I'd field-dressed the deer. Backtracked, looked for rifle for a half hour (Marlin 336) and finally found it & gutpile. Then I had to find the deer again. I finally got back to the car with both, but it was scary.

A couple weeks ago I was dragging a spike out when I realized I'd left muzzleloader a few hundred yards back... started backtracking, when I realized I'd had it slung on my shoulder the whole time 

[Bigeasy]

When I was a kid, I had an old Stevens pump 12 ga that was pitted and rusted, and had pretty much turned brown.  Used it duck hunting at the lake near my house.  Jump shot a duck, and as was my usual method, set the gun down, took off my boots and pants, and waded in to get the duck.  When I got back to shore, I could not find the gun.  Looked like an idiot searching for it in my underwear.  Finally got dressed, and started looking again.  Found it when I stepped on it a couple minutes later.  Boy, it sure blended in.

One time, deer hunting with a bunch of buddies up in Maine, a friend did not return from his stand for lunch.  A couple of us walked over to make sure he was all right, and found him snoring, sitting under a tree.  There were fresh deer tracks in the snow about 50 yards away.  I snuck up and took his rifle that was leaning against the tree, and we left.  He showed up back at the camper about an hour later, and he was pretty PO'd.  Last laugh was on us, as he shot a real nice buck that year.

Larry

[Forestclimber]

HAHA,  I can do better than that.  I temporarily lost my quad once when I got turned around in the woods!

[av-doctor]

Lost no, thrown yes.

[Oldshooter]

I hid my model 29 44 mag from "someone" one time and it took me three years to find it!  It was in a cedar closet in the inside pocket of an overcoat. found it just before a cold front!  no moths had touched it!