Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

I went out for a shorter hunt this morning because I had some work obligations to get back for. I finished hunting and got back to the truck right at 10:00. I leaned my gun against the tree and made one last attempt to strike a gobble with my long box at the truck before I packed it up. I didn't hear anything so I load up and head home. I get a few things done at home and get ready to take the kids into town. I start unloading my turkey hunting stuff to make room for the car seats. I get out my vest, clothes, extra boots, my extra shotgun and......... where is my main shotgun. I double check the truck and there is just an empty soft case. No gun. I look back inside with my other stuff. No gun. Oh my gosh my gun is gone!  I think back to where I last had it. I remembered leaning it against the tree to try my box call at the truck. I left my shotgun leaning against a tree an hour away from home and it has been about 3-4 hours since then. Luckily this road gets very little traffic and maybe you can't even see the gun from the road. I drop the kids off and make the one hour drive my back to the WMA. I pull up to the spot and there it is leaning against the tree. I don't know if anyone had passed through there but they could have seen it if they were looking. Thank you Lord I've got my gun back. I used to make fun of people for doing stuff like this. The way I backed my truck out and swung around I never looked over. What a brain fart. So how many of y'all have left a gun behind somewhere?


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I've never left one behind, but I left one in the bed of the truck once luckily I had a tailgate.

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Have never done that....... YET!!!! Glad you got it back!!

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Yes sir, the Lord was definitely looking out for you or at least your gun. I personally have never done it but it wouldn't be that hard to do. All it takes is to get your mind on something else or be distracted for a minute or two. That would be any hunter's nightmare. I did have to go back about 10-15 miles one time to retrieve a walkie talkie that my buddy accidentally drooped stepping over a small ditch beside the road. Glad it was still there for you.

Happy to hear you got your gun back. I never left my gun but the lord knows I left or forgot other things from time to time.

I once laid one on top of the truck and didn't remember until I'd drove 3-4 miles down the road. I slowly pulled over took a deep breath and looked....it was still there, whoo. My buddy laid his down to pick mushrooms and then walked off and left it. We went back that evening and found it, but it took some serious looking

Duck hunt - 5am, unloaded boat, put decoys and other paraphernalia in it.  Pushed off and traveled down river about three miles.  Set the decoys and realized the cased guns were back at the launch site.  Left decoys in place and buzzed back at full throttle.  They were still resting against a tree.  Whew!  This had to be 40 years ago and I remember it like yesterday.  I still have that 870 Wingmaster.  My buddy's was stolen later in a house burglary.  If may have been jinked.

I always worried that this would happen to me. I have a regiment when I get back to my truck. The FIRST thing I always do is unload my gun, open my right crew cab door and slide it in the case. I close that door. I walk to the other side of the truck, open the left door, and take off vest, sweaters, and any other gear and hang them on the clothes rod. I am sure if I did not do this, I would be driving back to my parking spot to pick something up (gun) that I left behind. I am glad you got use back.....

Not with a gun but after bowhunting for deer one fall I drove off and left my Lone Wolf tree stand by the truck. Realized it when I got home...drove the hour back to the spot. Gone.

Was goose hunting with a buddy one day and it started raining pretty good so we walked back to the truck and i leaned my gun against my front tire and hopped in the truck to wait the rain out. After a while it never stopped so we decided to go into town to grab breakfast, forgot about my gun, took off and ran right over it. Got half way down the road and realized. Luckily it was wet and soft where we had parked and the truck just kind of pushed it down into the mud.

I've almost done that.  I've left the house without my gun before and had to go back and it.


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Quote from: Tomfoolery on April 28, 2022, 07:27:41 AM
Was goose hunting with a buddy one day and it started raining pretty good so we walked back to the truck and i leaned my gun against my front tire and hopped in the truck to wait the rain out. After a while it never stopped so we decided to go into town to grab breakfast, forgot about my gun, took off and ran right over it. Got half way down the road and realized. Luckily it was wet and soft where we had parked and the truck just kind of pushed it down into the mud.

I just about pulled the same move. But luckily it didn't get ran over. Propped it up on the front passenger tire, got in my buddies truck and had to make a sharp left turn to get outta the spot we was in, so the gun just slid off the tire and fell to the ground. Hauled down the road to get a better position up above the bird we heard gobble a ways out. We pulled up to the new spot and got out and couldn't find my gun nowhere lol. Had to haul back and get it.


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had a deadline to leave opening morning due to kids soccer practice, which I coach.  Right before stop time, I had 2 birds close, but they didn't like something and slipped away.  I quickly slipped out, to return another day.  Almost off the property, I realize I left my Watkins fiddlebox on the ground beside the tree.  Luckily, i know right where it is and go back for it, making a pretty good walk to get it.  Those 2 birds beat me multiple times before I finally got one last week.

Also once left my boat keys on my back bumper while hooking up the boat chains, lights, etc.  Made the  hour ride to the boat ramp, get out, and walk around to start getting boat ready, and keys are still sitting on back bumper.  WHEWWWW

Glad you found it first. Once I was hunting a neighbors farm and leaned the gun on a tree to dig out calls. I guess all the scouting with no gun made it natural to just walk away. I got a few hundred yds away when I hear a gobble. I then remembered real fast I had a gun this time. I was young and sprinted back to retrieve it. 20 minutes later ole Tom got a shoulder ride.

I did it once, killed a bird on the opener in Missouri, leaned it against a fence post to jump the fence.

Took a client out the next morning and when I grabbed my vest I noticed the empty case, had no time to drive over and look for it, so told a friend that was in that area to check for it, morning was slow so I was actually online shopping for a new 20ga

Buddy sent a pic a while later if it leaning against the post, guarantee many people drove right by it!


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 :TooFunny:  Funny you should bring this up.  I did this just a week ago on a hunt.  I had just killed a gobbler and had leaned my shotgun against a dead snag to fill out my tag, admire the bird, and savor the hunt.  After a bit, I got up, loaded up my stuff, and threw the gobbler over my shoulder to start back down the ridge I was on toward my truck.

I consciously remember thinking, as I was starting to walk down the hill, that it seemed like "things" were lighter than I would have expected.  Fortunately, I only got about a hundred yards down the ridge before I realized I didn't have my shotgun!  It was easy to locate then,...but if I had walked all the way out, I would probably still be looking for it!

Decades ago, I did the same thing in the middle of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico.  I was hunting way back in the middle of nowhere and stopped to rest for a bit.  I got up, gathered my stuff, and started walking back up a big, long, steep ridge to go back to my truck,...which was five miles away.  I had walked about a mile when I realized something wasn't right, and then suddenly realized I had left my shotgun way back down in the canyon below me!  Fortunately, the place I had left it was in a pretty obvious spot,...but unfortunately, it was a long ways back down to where it was. 
...I was a lot younger then.  If that had happened recently, I might have had a long discussion with myself about being a dumbas* (which I admittedly did in the most recent episode).  ;D   

An extremely good looking fellow I once knew left his gun laying in the grass next to his truck in a public hunting area last year. I told him he may be good looking but not very bright. Fortunately it was still there the next morning. At least thats what he told me.

Been there and done that. I leaned mine up against the tailgate and changed clothes real quick to get to work. Pulled into work parking lot and looked on back seat of truck to make sure my gun wasn't visible and realized I never loaded it. Drove 30 minutes back to my spot and there it was, fortunately the ground was soft and no damage when I backed over it.

A guy I know returned home from a duck hunting trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina and it wasn't until he was unloading the truck, that he'd left the gun resting against a tree...a 5 hour drive away.  It was still there and he recovered it. 

On another hunt, the SAME GUY, drove to the coast to hunt ducks and when he got to the place where he'd drawn blinds to hunt, he realized that his shotgun was still at home in Wake County.  D'oh!

I left my tackle box with about $700 of tackle & lures in it on the bank in some rocks at a local reservoir.  Didn't realize it until I went to trim line off lures and organize it for the next trip that it was gone.  I drove to the lake and hiked to where I'd left it.  If it hadn't been so far from a parking area, or not in the rocks, I'm sure it would have been gone.

Jim

Ive done it more times than Id like to admit.... its always been after I shoot a longbeard and pack him in the vest and begin the hike out.  smh lol.

Well I don't feel quiet so bad now. Y'all have some good stories. I also normally have a routine when I get back to the truck but I just got distracted this time. Maybe this we'll help someone remember not to lose their gun this season. This also reminds me of me leaving my phone at the tree a couple years ago. I got to the truck and couldn't find my phone. I was really worried I'd lost it because I had walked through some thick briar cutover roads and down a steep hill through the hardwoods. I walked the mile trip back to the last tree I had sat against and it was sitting there on the ground. I was glad it didn't get lost between the truck and the tree. This tree was sitting by a road in some pines and was easily recognizable so I was able to go right to it.


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Yeah I've done that too.   Luckily my gun was still there right where I left it. 

You sure being lumped in with the rest of us err I mean those sorry chaps makes you feel better?

I did, except I left mine leaned up against the truck and drove over it from one end to the other.  Got down the road a couple of miles before I realized it was missing.  Drove back to the field I was parked in and there it was laying in the tire tracks.  Had to replace the forearm and buttstock, but other than that it didn't even put a scratch in it.  Heck, didn't even break a fiber in the sight.

Was hunting alone, but met up in the woods with brother and nephew. I had a hot bird coming and some hens came behind me over the ridge and went to him and he shut down.  I just knew I was killing that bird.  I was telling them the story as we were headed out and just when I got the good part of the story, I had to whiz.  Leaned the gun against the tree and immediately picked up the story when I turned around.  Got about 1/2 mile away and out of habit reached to where the gun was and realized.  had to backtrack our hike and my nephew found it.  Amazing how all the pizzing trees in the woods look the same. 

Quote from: g8rvet on April 28, 2022, 05:19:10 PM
Was hunting alone, but met up in the woods with brother and nephew. I had a hot bird coming and some hens came behind me over the ridge and went to him and he shut down.  I just knew I was killing that bird.  I was telling them the story as we were headed out and just when I got the good part of the story, I had to whiz.  Leaned the gun against the tree and immediately picked up the story when I turned around.  Got about 1/2 mile away and out of habit reached to where the gun was and realized.  had to backtrack our hike and my nephew found it.  Amazing how all the pizzing trees in the woods look the same.

I did something similar the other day. I shot "at" a turkey and jumped up to grab him. I missed and that turkey just vanished into thin air. I have no idea where he went. I had my phone on a little tripod filming when the bird was coming in. I looked around for the turkey or any sign of feathers and blood. When I walked back it probably took me ten minutes to find that phone and I knew about where I was sitting. I thought.


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A tall hickory tree with a squirrel cutting on a nut near the top without any other trees nearby for a rest made it necessary for me to lay flat on my back beneath the tree for a vertical .22 shot. After successfully making the shot, I hunted a bit more and, when reaching the truck, dug in my pockets for the keys which were nowhere to be found. After a little thought, I made my way back to the vertical shot tree, scuffed around in the leaves, and uncovered my keys, much to my relief.

Had a buddy who left his gun at home, he had set it by the door (was behind the door when he opened it to load up in my truck) two hours later we're at the motel and unloading and he walks in the, back out to the truck and back in the room, asks me if I took his gun out of the truck? Thought I was messing with him, nope I said.

He called back home to his GF and sure enough in the back hall at the back door...

Well at least she got to see him fill his tag ;)

I didn't have my gun on this trip, didn't have a tag so left it at home.


MK M GOBL

I haven't done it with a gun, at least not that I remember... But I did do it with a 7.5 HP gamefisher outboard at the boatramp. When it got back after an hour or so, people were backing in trailers around it like it wasn't there. Sure was happy to see it sitting there, got a trailer shortly after that so I wouldn't do it again.

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14-15 years ago I leaned my 16 g Ithaca featherlight against the truck after grouse hunting. It was a hot day and I had run out of water for the dog, so was anxious to get her watered and in the kennel. I had left the lights on and was worried the battery would be dead, so jumped in and started it up. Drove 2 hours home and it suddenly dawned on me I never put the gun in the truck. Drove back and it was gone. Some guys were offloading their ATVs as I drove out. Their tracks were their next to where the gun would have fallen. Never got it back. It had been my dad's first gun and he had the safety switched to left handed for me when I was 13. It was a pump that ejected out the bottom. I loved that gun. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it. Just got so distracted and made a dumb mistake that I have to live with forever. I've had nice guns since but I never seem to shoot anything quite as well as that old Ithaca pump. I know there are worse things in the world but still hate it.

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I too leaned my gun up against the truck on passenger side after hauling a gobbler up a Missouri ridge- loaded the turkey in the back and promptly jumped in the drivers seat never circling back by my gun- back at camp 10 miles away I stop cold and realize what I had done- hustle back over and fortunately my gun was still laying in the forest service road - ran over with back tire and some good rock dents mashed in the wooden stock... glad to hear some other folks have done this????

My 2 nephews met up for a hunt.  When the older went to his truck to grab stuff, he realized he had left it at home.  The  younger offered his gun since he had already killed a bird that year and older said "No, I need to be punished".  They called in two mature longbeards at first light straight off the roost and younger killed one.  Said a double would have been a slam dunk.  Older says he will take the gun now and they walk to another area. As they are easing down the road they see a fan facing away and drop.  Set up and called him in for the older to get his bird with the younger's gun.

You see you had work and kids on your mind. Martin Mull once said "Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain."

Left a 1942 model 94 against a tree a few years ago while i ws moving a stand and feeder...  forgot all about it for a few days until I noticed it was not in my truck.  It was then that i remembered leaving it on the tree...  Raccoons had mud all over it but it was easily cleaned.

Shot an bull in Colorado in the middle of a big burn.  Leaned my rifle against a black stump - one of millions in the area.  Loaded the quarters out on horses and realized I left my gun.  Had to find the gut pile to triangulate where I left it.

So far it seems like the moral of the story is not to lean your gun against the truck. If your going to leave it behind, lean it against a tree so you don't run over it on your way out lol!


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Can't say I've lost my gun doing that, (yet) but I have lost many a ThermaCELL the same way.

I found an old school 835 during spring season few years back laying in the wet, tall grass at a trail head in the middle of a huge tract of public ground. Pretty obvious someone leaned it against their vehicle, packed their stuff and pulled away leaving the 835 behind. I actually drove over it with front driver's side wheel pulling into that spot. Missed it when I stepped out of my truck in the dark. Could tell it had been lying there a good two weeks.

It was the old style camo, early model. Been carried a lot from the wear marks. Started to rust on the action from the rain, and the factory xtra full choke tube was seized up. Took it back to camp, disassembled it, got it cleaned up, penetrating oil in the threads and got the choke tube out and cleaned. Thing was in fine working condition after a bit of needed attention.

Left notes saying I found a gun, but caller had to describe it in the area's general stores. No one ever called for the 835, but I did get a couple calls from guys who had lost other guns in the woods, just not that particular one I found.  :z-dizzy:

I dropped it off as 'lost/found' with the local state police barracks. Called the trooper who took the information 6 months later, and learned someone had claimed the 835.

Man, that's great you got it back! I've had some hunting buddies do that with deer rifles, drive off and leave them. Most folks I hunt with are older. Hasn't happened to me yet but sure don't mean it won't. A couple years ago I remember seeing a missing poster at a hunting shop down where I hunt a lot and it was someone who'd left an old rifle by the road. Honestly I think if I found a gun in the woods I'd call a game warden and hope somebody had the presence of mind to call him.


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I did it once... left my 870 laying against a log in SE Oklahoma realized it 30 Miles down the road..  My dad left his 30-06 leaning against the tailgate and drove off once.  He didn't make it but a mile or so before he realized what he'd done.  My boy makes fun of me for doing it so I expect his day is coming.

Never done it with my shotgun , but have done it with a rifle. I also set my bow on the side of the bed of my truck . Drove off, the bow fell off. Drove home , had to come back that night and get it.... It dented the sight housing . Luckily it was an axcel armotech sight.... The motto is built like a tank for a reason . Didn't even knock it off but I did have a slightly egg shaped sight housing . And it was not on public lol

My dad found a nice 1187 propped up against a post at a check station at a WMA near our house. He called a game warden who is a family friend and he looked through the check in box and found out it was an older gentleman who went there squirrel hunting. He was grateful there are still people who do the right thing. 
Some people would have kept it, no way I could have. Maybe a cheap pocket knife or something like that,  but not a gun.

Never left one but found one in the woods 1/2 mile from the closest road.

I took off binoculars and then my turkey vest in order to shed a layer as I was getting hot.  I put the turkey vest back on, but not my binocs.  I left them sitting on a log.  Thankfully it was morning and I still had the whole day.  I sneak hunted my way back to them.

When my dad was young he shot a deer on the last morning of a hunting trip.  He put his gun up against a tree while he and other relatives tended to the deer.  He then helped drag it out.  Someone else grabbed the guns.  It turns out his was against a different tree than the others and they missed it.  The hunting camp was over 7 hours away and they didn't realize it was missing until they got home.  It sat against the tree for a year until they hunted the next year.  It stayed in good shape and is the oldest antique in my gun collection, a Winchester .33 caliber model 1886.   

So far I have never left a gun behind but now that i wrote it I probably will.  My story is one I sort of found. My Dad and I were deer hunting and we climbed to the top of a large rock to survey the surrounding area. We had sat there for about an hour eaten apples and occasionally spoke. I had become uncomfortable where I was sitting so moved more to the right and looked off the face of the rock to see a bolt action rifle leaning against the rock. I told my Dad there is a rifle down there, I looked again and looked to the left of the rifle and noticed there was a sleeping hunter laying against the rock. How we never woke him in the hour we were there is a mystery to me. We climbed off the rock and left

 I got to my listening spot, its a good 3/4 mile up hill walk, waited and waited, finally a turkey gave away his location a long ways off. I pulled out my phone to pin him before I left the spot, as soon as Onx opened up I realized I had a pin on that same spot from the previous year and a harvest.

I proceed the .83 miles to the location down off of the high knob. Its real funny here as you can hear better from almost a mile away as you can from 250 yards... Anyway, I slide into the edge of the area and stop, waiting for the turkey to gobble on his own before I go any further. I had stood there two maybe three minutes before he cut loose, right where they were last year. I went about 40 yards, found a nice hide and set up.

I had set down, call in hand, striker in hand, then it hit me, NO gun! I had leaned it against the tree I had stopped at to let him gobble. No big deal, its only 40 yards away..... So, I get up, start towards the gun, step "over" a downed log and catch the top of a splinter with my foot. This threw me forwards rather quickly, I took three maybe four steps and went down. It was going to be a nice, hard,  face plant but at the last second I turned and landed on my left side.

As I laid there i thought I had broken my arm as it was not right. Then, my leg starts killing me! I remember thinking to myself how much this sucks and that I was going to have to send a friend a pin to come and extract me with a 4 wheeler. I somehow get to my knees, get standing up and decide to suck it up and be a man. I hobble over, get my gun and come back to find a "New" spot to set up.

It took a little bit but finally get the turkeys moving in the right direction. It turns out to be a hen and 4 jakes, one of which sounded really good. So after they decide to leave I work my way back out, slowly, scouting as I go. I hear or see nothing else as I make my way back. My leg is getting more and more sore as the time goes by.

Thankfully, I get to my truck. I unload the gun, throw it in the bed of my truck, take off my vest and throw it in the bed of my truck. Reach into my left pant pocket and my keys aren't there? I always put them in my left pocket, always? So I dig through ever pocket I have twice and then go for the spare key. I decide the 3 mile round trip to the crash site was not for this day!

The next day my thigh was black, my shoulder quit sore. This past Sunday I walked in to retrieve the keys, they were laying right there, easy to see. It's funny, last year I slide into this spot and had a turkey come in hard on my gun side. I thought he was right in front of me, didn't know he was there until I heard him drum. I can't hear them drum! I missed that turkey twice, at probably a long range of 15 yards. Way to close for my gun. I waited three weeks and went back in there and killed that turkey. Laid him out at the log I tripped on and took some pictures, you can see the splinter barely sticking up on that log that I tripped on this year.

I think this spot has bad juju and maybe I should avoid it in the future.

Thought about uploading the picture of the log and picture of my keys laying at the crash site but that's just too much work. Maybe I will anyway.

Notice the splitter behind the gun barrel, the keys were out of frame to the left. Right where I left them(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220506/cb5697788713d5cfeaa71736fee57f58.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20220506/e4ed23f521d3a14eed9386f21781b885.jpg)

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Never myself or knew anyone who forgot their gun in the field, but was pheasant hunting with a guy who leaned his Browning Citori against his buddies truck where his AM rear pumper meets the rear passenger quarter panel (we drove in two separate pickups that day) was talking with us when his friend backed up and drove over his beautiful 12ga Citori.

Very ironic story behind this I'd like to share and the events that lead up to it.

I did forget my shotgun at home for a five day out of state pheasant hunting trip. It happened because I allowed myself be hurried and become distracted by an completely unexpected situation and a tolerating a person treating me rudely and with considerable disrespect that really got me PO and me suppressing my extreme desire to knock TLS out of this person (as I would have any other time) resulted in my becoming upset which caused my distraction resulting in my gun getting left behind.

As there were 5 of us and we were traveling in two vehicles, one my extended cab 4x4 the other my friends standard cab 4x2. We all slept over at my friends house so we could get sufficient rest and still get a very early start.

When we went to leave unfortunately my less than three year old Silverado I had bought brand new wouldn't start and none of us could quickly determine as to why. So we decide to take one of the other guys pickups. Now for for reasons none of us understood one of the group not really my friend but more of a acquaintance becmae VERY upset (even though we weren't taking his truck) and he jumped all over me about my "POS" truck not starting ets ets, despite it being the newest of any vehicles any of us owned, and still looked showroom new.

The fact it was raining like the proverbial cow P***ing on a flat rock didn't help. So now in a torrential down poor we had to unload all of three guys gear from my truck to the different truck, the other four guys formed a chain of sorts unloading the bed of my truck and reloading the new truck while I unloaded my stuff I needed from the cab of my truck (hunting licenses, maps, hotel reservations etc) and I'm sure most have guessed it somehow MINE was the ONLY GUN that failed to get transferred into the different truck as well as my backup gun as I am to this day the only one in my hunting group that ever brings a backup long gun when hunting. I can believe one gun can be accidentally forgotten but two? highly unlikely.

We get to our hunting spot and I then find out I don't have a gun I asked how did this happen and was one or more guys unloading the stuff from my truck and handing it off to be loaded into the different truck, three of the four replied almost in unison "Mike said he he got your guns from your truck" and I said essentially nothing as I realized doing anything else would result in ruining the trip for everyone.

Three of the four other guy's all said once they shot their limit for the day or trip they would gladly let me use their gun. Well it turned out to be a great trip great weather but very low pheasant numbers so I rarely got to hunt, walked my legs off but very little did I hunt and I was the brunt of endless but good natured ribbing.

Late Sunday about an hour before dark and finishing up our last hunt of the trip, the guy who chewed me out leans his $2k+ Browning Citori against the back of his buddies truck as described above and his buddie for reasons never explained ended up backing over it.

Who says Carma has not a sense of humor?