It finally happened to me. How many of y’all have done this?

[GobbleNut]

   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).     

[Happy]

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.

[7shooter]

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.

[Cut N Run]

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

[DumpTruckTurkey]

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.

[aclawrence]

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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[Ihuntoldschool]

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

[Happy]

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

[vt35mag]

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.

[g8rvet]

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. 

[aclawrence]

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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[TRG3]

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.

[MK M GOBL]

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

[Jmbradt3873]

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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[birdman24]

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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