Things you forgot to take hunting?

[MRP]

I've got a long checklist for hunting. I'm checking it twice. I don't take everything all the time depending on where I'm going and who I'm hunting with. But have you ever forgot anything important. I once forgot my wallet with license and tags on the kitchen table didn't notice till after I shot my moose I was awful nervous coming home. Several times I forgot to bring a knife good thing for Leatherman and a backup knife in my pack. I've never forgot anything that ended my hunt, yet, I knew a guy that after checking his rifles put them in the cases, but somehow forgot to put the bolts in the rifle left them sitting on the bench at home.

[Darksith]

one time I forgot the bolts to the rifles in the rifle case left in the truck on a fly in hunt. Good thing we had a method of communication, didn't miss a day!

[j270wsm]

Forgot my clip/bullets, luckily I was only 20min from home. Early that afternoon I killed my first bull elk

[Harvest the Land]

Forgot my bolt on the back seat of my truck one day last November while Blacktail hunting and didn't notice until after having crossed 2 sketchy raging creeks/rivers and then hiked about another 5km up into my hunting spot. Fortunately it was a nice day and I didn't see any deer so that eased the pain. Also forgot my boots while on a scouting trip last month and had to use my sneakers for the weekend (rough)

[srupp]

lol actually did have a hunting partner leave his rifle bolt at home too..
strong believer in lists also...nothing essential so far
Steven

[Downwindtracker2]

I have rifle with a mismatched bolt #. I bought it used like that. So some previous owner did something stupid.

[HappyJack]

I don't get why you would take the bolt out in the first place unless you were cleaning it, forgetting your bolt is even worse than putting a trigger lock on and forgetting the key for it. We do know a few fellows that have leaned rifles up against trucks and driven away, almost as bad as leaving your kids in the back seat and going shopping. :-)

[Gateholio]

Why do so many of you remove the bolts of your rifles? I only remove them when I am cleaning the rifle and then I will replace them.

[375shooter]

Last year I forgot my rangefinder on an 18 day backcountry horseback hunt. I never ended up needing it, but it sure was a bummer not having it. I won't make that mistake this year.

[TheObserver]

I don't get why you would take the bolt out in the first place unless you were cleaning it


Why do so many of you remove the bolts of your rifles? I only remove them when I am cleaning the rifle and then I will replace them.

Same .

[moosinaround]

A hunting partner once, actually, he was over 30 minutes late, so I left without him! Forgot my "spirits" to a hunting camp once, ONCE!!!! moosin

[Everett]

Forgot the key to the trigger lock last year didn't realize to the morning of the flight. I never use a trigger lock but it's required while going through the national park. Needless to say two trigger locks got broken that morning.

[IronNoggin]

Haven't forgotten anything essential heading out (quickly knocking on wood!).

Have wandered back a few times to collect knives and binocs at kill sites (Idjut! :roll:).

Best I ever saw was an Inuit hunter madly filing a trigger lock off while his buddies in the background shot multiple caribou... :lol:

Cheers,
Nog

[Bernie O]

When the first round of registration came in many people removed their bolts to comply with safe storage as not many had gun safes. My long gone hunting[ buddy ]forgot his bolt. That and a few other things he did made him long gone from me.

[saskbooknut]

Forgot my sleeping bag once.
All the clothes for a week hunting did not make nights comfortable.

[BlackOwL]

I forgot my gold bond extra strength :oops:

[Darksith]

Why do so many of you remove the bolts of your rifles? I only remove them when I am cleaning the rifle and then I will replace them.

Stacking 2 rifles into a hard case...don't fit with the bolts in. I don't use that case anymore haha

[HappyJack]

I forgot the salt and pepper once....boy did I hear about that one!

[Citori54]

The poles for our wall tent frames are in one bag, the the angle pieces in another. Been that way for years but a couple years ago we get to our moose spot and no angles. Had to resort to the old fashioned way with cut trees for ridge poles.

[jamfarm]

The poles for our wall tent frames are in one bag, the the angle pieces in another. Been that way for years but a couple years ago we get to our moose spot and no angles. Had to resort to the old fashioned way with cut trees for ridge poles.

Yeah, I pretty much did the same thing on my moose hunt two years ago, forgot the wall tent legs and angle pieces, only had the three ridge poles. We crossed the two ridge poles to become one upright, used a huge stump on the beach as the other upright and the tent hung off of the 3rd ridge pole, we made it work.

[Mark-R]

Did this more than once. Forgetting my good insoles for my boots at home, drying on the bench. I'm reminded all day walking around with hard poorly fitted boots. I'm lucky if I'm driving with running shoes and can use those stock insoles but sometimes with flip flops or Crocs, no such luck. I once forgot my hiking boots and did an alpine hunt in the crappiest of rubber boots. Lots of slick off camber rock and snow. That sucked.

Few years ago helped a buddy get an opening season buck up high. We hiked straight up steep avy paths to get in range. Spots the buck, shoots the buck, buck tumbles way down another avy path. Scramble cliffs to reach him, tie him off cause he just wants to keep going down the mountain, process, pack out step ass chute in the dark to finally get to camp. So glad to get off that mountain. Then I realize I left my bino/harness up there. Back up I go the next morning to a gut pile in grizz country.

[Redthies]

Did this more than once. Forgetting my good insoles for my boots at home, drying on the bench. I'm reminded all day walking around with hard poorly fitted boots. I'm lucky if I'm driving with running shoes and can use those stock insoles.

Just plop the insoles vertical in the top of your boots when drying. It won’t slow the process any, and they are always with your boots.


I once forgot my trigger lock keys, but thankfully it was on a range day. I don’t use trigger locks anymore. That almost bit me once though. Getting on ferry to meet water taxi for a week long water access trip and looking “hunty”, and some “kunty” ferry employee made us pull over so his supervisor could check if our rifles had trigger locks on, and luckily my partner had 2 rifles and guy was satisfied with that. My two guns were under some blankets so he didn’t see them, and let us board.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Why do so many of you remove the bolts of your rifles? I only remove them when I am cleaning the rifle and then I will replace them.

Back in the day I never had a gun safe. I didn’t normally remove the bolt for storage but did so one day when my daughter had friends sleep over for a party. Got burned once….but my partner got a nice buck that day so it worked out well.

Let me see…. my bolt that I just mentioned, my rifle another time, my day pack with our licenses inside(thankfully my daughter missed an opportunity on a buck that evening) and my entire backpack on a northern sheep hunt. Thankfully I noticed as I pulled up to pick up my partner just across town.

I’m sure there are more things but those are the standouts in my brain.

SSS

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Oh ya…the poles for my tent on a grizzly hunt. Luckily another friend joined us with his truck camper for that hunt.

SSS

[dakoda62]

Moose trip to the Ingenika river and Nation lakes in a wall tent, left my sleeping bag on the couch.

[CheesyLimper]

Took a zodiac across Dease Lake back in 2017 and hiked over the first set of hills to hunt the Dease Creek/Killarney lake area. Partner was in charge of the tent, map and boat, I took care of food. Got to our basecamp site after a day of hiking to find he had a bag of tent poles with no tent. We put something together pretty quickly with tarps, but I still don't let him live it down.
We went on a fly in last year and needless to say, I was in charge of the tent.
Edit - He also forgot the map.

[wideopenthrottle]

I have a list I have been adding to for years...I almost never forget anything, just some things I choose not to bring

[ACB]

Forgot the key to the trigger lock last year didn't realize to the morning of the flight. I never use a trigger lock but it's required while going through the national park. Needless to say two trigger locks got broken that morning.
I kinda did the same thing, while pheasant hunting in Alta. I forgot my trigger lock keys in my truck ( we were traveling in a buddies truck). Luckily we were able borrow a mini grinder with a cutting wheel from a Hutterite Colony, had to be real careful while cutting the lock off my little Beretta. LOL

[Jrax]

Tarps - first time i was hunting with a buddy and he was in charge of bringing a large tarp for our main camp as we were only bringing in a couple small tents. we quadded in 45km got set up and hes got an 6x8 tarp. most of the trip it was windy, wet and rainy and a couple days of snow.

the next year my brother was coming and he insisted on bieng in charge of a tarp for spike camp (two man tent with tarp over area in front of the tent). I remember i was telling him about the year previous and to make sure hes got a big one, preferrably sil tarp style, I even sent a pic of what we needed. Perfect, he says he got it and its in his pack.

So we get up to our 12km back country camp, set up tent and almost immediatly the skies open up. He opens up the box with the tarp and i am shocked at how compact it is!!! well, it turns out its a rain poncho with a hood lol. I cant remember the dimensions but we set it up above our fly of tent for a laugh. and of course there is the big hole in the middle of this tiny tarp for your head to fit through. we would pretend it was useful by sticking our heads into the hood to look around while bieng protected by the tarp.

He says 100% he got it in the right spot, but probably someone had ditched a rain poncho in the sil tarp section and thats what he thought it was lol.

[Bugle M In]

Forgot my good pair of boots once, so soaker city for a week.
Forgot to get my scope repaired after it had dogged up the season before, so iron sight city it was (but did drop a bull!).
And forgot all my elk diaphragms one time.

Have never forgotten rifle bullets or tags.
Forgot a few “wanted to bring things but not necessary” stuff.

There have been a few things I would have “liked to bring along”, like after 7 days of virtually no sleep and have my cuppucinna maker along.
But that’s not hunting, it’s glamping.

[MRP]

There have been a few things I would have “liked to bring along”, like after 7 days of virtually no sleep and have my cuppucinna maker along.
But that’s not hunting, it’s glamping.
In the last 50 years I've dun under a tarp, no tarp, under trees, under the truck, no sleeping bag, 2 in the cab of truck, on bare pickup box no mattress, no cooking utensil, a partner brought the water in a can that he accidentally used for gasoline once and there was no other water for 20 km. And probably a couple dozen other things I can't think of or are trying to forget, I'll take you up on that glamping expedition anytime.:)

[Citori54]

I have a list I have been adding to for years...I almost never forget anything, just some things I choose not to bring

Oh we have a list too but that doesn't necessarily stop us from forgetting stuff:mrgreen:

[caddisguy]

I forgot the bolt for my rifle once on a trip where one day was the last day of bow hunting and the next day was the first day or rifle. I would have kicked myself if I saw a buck in rifle range come the 10th that I couldn't get to with the bow. Never happened though, only saw a few does.

I forgot the keys for the trigger lock but was able to circumvent the lock with a few tiny screw drivers.

I have forget to bring sufficient clothing as well and had to pretty much avoid any significant rain because if I got soggy I would have nothing to change into. I actually hunted the first evening in only my underwear. It was near freezing and coming down like a hose. Figured there's only an hour or light. I don't want to miss out but I can't afford to get my clothes wet. Be hilarious if someone saw me or if there was a trailcam, I'm sure they'd be telling this story from a WAY different perspective.

I forgot to bring food once on a weekend trip (yeah I know lol) woke up the first morning hungry and had 3 grouse messing around outside the Jeep which let me shoot at them one by one and I came up empty. And that was all I saw all weekend. I was pretty hungry.

Forgot to bring a release on a bow hunt trip, but caddisgirl had one so no big deal.

Forgot game bags and knives once. I could have "made it work" with a multi tool, but came up empty on the hunt anyway.

That's all I recall at this time.

[Darksith]

I kinda did the same thing, while pheasant hunting in Alta. I forgot my trigger lock keys in my truck ( we were traveling in a buddies truck). Luckily we were able borrow a mini grinder with a cutting wheel from a Hutterite Colony, had to be real careful while cutting the lock off my little Beretta. LOL

take 2 pliers/vice grips/channel locks whatever and grab each side of the trigger lock and twist.

[Bugle M In]

Actually, reminds me, since to move I had to borrow 7-8 trigger locks from a friend.
And now this thread reminds me I have forgotten the combo #’s.

[HarryToolips]

My wife on the elk trip where I was stung on the d**k by a wasp and I would've actually been adequate size for once..

[Squamch]

Dad's buddy had to buy a new rifle, bases, rings, and scope at Corlanes once....
It was a perfect match to the one he left at home in Victoria.
I realized opening day of archery season one year, that I hadn't bought a deer tag that year.
Buddy forgot his boots a couple weeks ago when we had a 16km dirtbike ride ahead of us, before our 1.5hr hike.

[BlackOwL]

A hunting partner once, actually, he was over 30 minutes late, so I left without him! Forgot my "spirits" to a hunting camp once, ONCE!!!! moosin

are you able to remember what to do after seating on the toilet?

[ACB]

I forgot my Mindel Canada boots at the back door once before jumping on the ferry to Horseshoe Bay, was going through my list in my head while having coffee on the ferry when I said to myself, " I can't remember my boots in the truck" so go down to the truck and look for boots, sure enough their not there. So I had a choice, go get in the ferry line up with my truck and trailer or go downtown to Broadway to A J Brooks and get a new pair,..... took a little while to break in those new boots. LOL

[Redthies]

My wife on the elk trip where I was stung on the d**k by a wasp and I would've actually been adequate size for once..

Did you at least take a picture of it to show her what she missed out on? :mrgreen:

[MichelD]

Coffee (when I drank coffee) and even though I had black tea, I couldn't drink enough of it to really feel awake for the whole 3 or 4 days I was out on that trip. Now I don't drink either and I'm raring to go from sun up to sun down. Go figure.