Stupid mistakes and lessons learned

scotsgun

Well-Known Member
The weather has been terrible lately (my neck of the woods anyway). The wife got distracted for 5 mins so i decided to nip out for a stalk before she had time to think of reasons not to.

Arrived at the forest which was unfortunately still flooded from the weeks worth of torrential rain. Some of the rides had turned into rivers but i reasoned that the day was to be dry and that to return home would be to admit defeat. Mistake No.1

Slogged into the forest which took 5 times longer than usual due to the constantly moving mud, fording the floods etc. 30 mins in and my legs were plastered with mud and i was chuffing like a steam train. The deer must have had a right laugh.

An hours or so in and I then got distracted (mainly due to mentally kicking myself and being miserable) and walked right into a sink hole. Fortunately years of training took over and i threw the rifle forward and onto safe ground but i was now stuck waist deep in thick mud. Mistake No.2

I did panic when i realised just how thick the mud was and how i'd now sunk down to my chest. The 15mins or so it took to swim out seemed like hours and i can't ever remember being so knackered. Lying there panting away, i realised that i hadn't told the wife where exactly i was and my mobile was now completely knackered due to being in my pocket when falling in. Mistake No3

Dragging my sorry self back to the car, i then had to strip off my trousers, boots and socks and drive partially nude due to not having a change of clothes in the car and taking the wife's car which has an expensive leather interior. Mistake No4 & 5

I am now officially a numpty! :oops:
 
Scotsgun,

I have every sympathy, the heart often tells you to stalk when the head says you haven't got a hope!

Glad you got out of your sticky spot, though sounds like you knew what to do in the end. I bet that's made a new secret compartment of grateful thanks in your brain - it would for me.

Good job they weren't out filming another epsisode of Sky Cops - then you would have looked like a numpty.

I don't know when you had your experience, but on Friday night my self and a friend had a right job getting cars out of a field of mud in the pitch dark with towropes in horizontal rain. Drenched, muddy to the eyeballs, swearing and no deer! Just like a regular stalk!
 
Scotsgun

Thank you so much for your post - I now feel a lot better about the times I've:

a. left the bolt at home
b. left the binos at home
c. left my stalking sticks leaning on the car and driven home
d. realised the magazine had dropped out in the rifle case when I was up on the hill about to shoot

willie_gunn
 
scotsgun said:
and my mobile was now completely knackered due to being in my pocket when falling in. Mistake No3



I am now officially a numpty! :oops:

Have a look at some of the fishing sites, you can get a waterproof container for the mobile for about a fiver.
 
paul k said:
scotsgun said:
and my mobile was now completely knackered due to being in my pocket when falling in. Mistake No3



I am now officially a numpty! :oops:

Have a look at some of the fishing sites, you can get a waterproof container for the mobile for about a fiver.

If you're going to use it for fishing, make sure you get one that floats. This might sounds obvious, but as a black belt in losing mobiles I've dropped one into a river whilst fishing that was 100% waterproof but 0% floatable. It's embarassing to say the least, but much more so if you go down on your hands and knees in the river to retrieve it and only then realise that your lifevest is automatic....think about it. :lol:

willie_gunn
 
willie_gunn said:
If you're going to use it for fishing, make sure you get one that floats. This might sounds obvious, but as a black belt in losing mobiles I've dropped one into a river whilst fishing that was 100% waterproof but 0% floatable. It's embarassing to say the least, but much more so if you go down on your hands and knees in the river to retrieve it and only then realise that your lifevest is automatic....think about it. :lol:

willie_gunn

:lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks Willie_gun, that brightened up my day!

Gez
 
it would seem that we'll have to form a sub group - especially for the numpties.

Maybe we could use the 3 stooges for our coat of arms?
 
it would seem that we'll have to form a sub group - especially for the numpties.

Maybe we could use the 3 stooges for our coat of arms?
 
Generally the people who have never made a mistake or forgotten something vital either haven't been out a lot or have a problem dealing with the truth!

Sometimes in deep mud useful to take your jacket off and sit on it if not to deep in or use it to spread your weight as you crawl out onto it. Rifle can be used on top of the jacket to spread load more. Try going out the way you came in rather than trying unknown ground.

Spare fleece jacket and trousers very comforting to drive home in but strip off all wet clothes first or you'll be cold for a long time. Spare set also very useful if you find yourself covered in ticks

Bob
 
stupid mistakes

i have posted this previously and i post it again in the hope that even one person learns from it.

i had a lovely ruger m77mk2 international in .243 win. it was a smashing looking little rifle- but was not very accurate. it was a tutzen with a band at the muzzle.

in my infinate wisdom i decided to make it more accurrate. Rugers have a foresight that is held on with a sleeve round the barrel and one little allen bolt. so i thought i will whip off the foresight and then that will leave about a milimeter around the barrell of space away from the stock. Logic seems okay so far?

I took off the stock and un did the allen bolt. the foresight did not just undo. so i gave the sight a gentle tap with a rubber mallet. still no movement. This was the point at which i should have put the rifle back together and had a coffee.

i then held the foresight ramp in the engineers vice in the garage and gave the muzzle a tap with a pice of dowell and the mallet- no movement - another oppurtunity to go inside for a coffee.

so i picked up a piece of brass rod and a small ball pien hammer ( :cry: this is where things went awry) gave the muzzle a tap with this and... no movement. i picked up a big hammer and a pice of mild steel rod ( :cry: )

still no movement. however the muzzle was now damaged. I got my angle grinder out and just buzzed through the sleeve and removed the foresight leaving me with the damaged muzzle. :oops:

I went off down the local quarry and tried the rifle. the bullets were hitting a piece of a4 paper at 20 yards.. but sideways.

i went back home and decided to sort out the muzzle and tidy it up with....wait for it... my dremel.

an hour later i was back at the quarry. no change.

finally i went in and had the long overdue coffee.

In the end i cut the stock down to sporter length and refinnished it. i had a new 11 deg target crown cut in it. i had damaged the blueing on the barrel so much it is now black barbecue paint painted. now it is very accurate and a good to use if not very pretty rifle. When i tried it with the bullets i used in it first of all, it was still inaccurate. maybe i should have just tried different bullets first.

moral of the story. Don't do what you can't do. it will end in tears. there is a reason you pay for a riflesmith... his skill and experience. :idea:

stupid swampy
 
Bob,
Thankfully i'm well versed in hauling myself out of thick mud and sink holes. I spent a very unpleasant time in Belize in which we'd be thrown in worse and expected to get round an assauly course.

Swampy, that sounds just like something a mate would do. Maybe i'll describe sometime how we used to make bombs out of old fertilizer and icing sugar...that and how he almost blew us up.
 
here's my input from a stupid mistake i made last sunday.
shot a fallow buck and transported it back to the larder.
on arrival i found once again that the lights weren't working, the only available light was from the open fridge,i was in a hurry and using the knife a little too quickly i sliced straight into my wrist (stupid as i have a butchers glove at home) immediately the place was covered in blood and my thumb stopped working!
result was an operation yesterday to repair to cut tendons and it will put me out of action for weeks.
good news for the deer though!
take care!
richard
 
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