Well I bet I'm not the only one, but anyway, yesterday I was shooting several different bows in my back yard, trying different arrows on different bows, different strings, yada, yada, yada.

Anyway, this morning at 7AM, while letting the quackers out and feeding the chickens, I looked up toward the back of the house and there lay my Blackhawk (Jack Smith) longbow on the ground. Of course it rained last night too so it was pretty much soaked and still strung.

After taking it in and toweling it off, it seemed none the worst for wear, other than drying out the leather handle wrap it seems to be just fine. Still irritates me though to do something like that.

Anyone care to admit they do bonehead stuff now and then? :)

All the time. Usually leave mine on the porch but it is under a roof. Can do stuff like that in the sticks where I live. Never left one overnight on the ground though. Did lose my bow while hunting years ago. Took me half a day and miles of walking to find it.

Ha forgot mine hanging in a tree stand. Climbed down and knew I was missing something looked up and there it hung. Getting dark and really didn't want to climb back up I left it and got it the next morning.

I had a BW MA II in 1984, got done hunting and put the bow on top of the cap on my truck. Got home and no bow. Went back and found it in the road ditch.

Hap

Did pretty much the same thing with a Roberton Purist (pick of my quiver at the time), luckily, they glue those things up good; but don't get me started...

Left a Super Kodiak on the roof of my truck drove 10 miles home never saw it again

Not bow related ,but I killed my 4 th rabbit of the day, and gutted it close to a back road . My brothers lived about 2 miles up the road ,and I was anxious to give them the rabbits. On the way back home I noticed no shot gun in my car. It is a beautiful AL 48 Franchi. Went back to wear I gut the rabbit, and their it was. Laying in the weeds.

Left a nice little .22 bolt action out on the deck furniture one night, it poured rain

OUCH!!!!

The worst bonehead thing I've ever done was when I bought a Wing Thunderbird, a beautiful bow, at 55#, strung it up and pulled it to see how it felt. My fingers slipped off the string and I split the upper limb at the nock. It was a dacron string to boot.

I owned that bow for less than fifteen minutes before I ruined it.

Not even going to talk about putting a longgun atop the car roof after a hunt and driving off, not once but twice...8^(((

About 10 years ago,, 1 day before leaving for a long Illinois trip back wen I still lived in PA. I was shooting and had just laid my bow on my tailgate, a client called and asked me to come for a quick estimate before I went west.out the drive way I went,got to his place,and immediately was horrified by that very empty tailgate,still down,bare,aghhh the horror,had I actually left my prized,love of my life there??? Alone,naked, to be thrown into the roadside???? Hell yes I did,,,what a long,painful trip home,looking for that lost soul,,did I mention how stupid I was...?? I didn't find it...but after I returned from Illinois,a neighbor saw a reward notice that I'd posted,, he reluctantly returned the bow,,and asked for the reward Id offered,,,prior,,,he often drove by as I'd be shooting,so he knew it was my bow,, but never stepped forward till I offered a reward,,such a Richard......

last savage that neighbor is a big bag of richards!!

Well, in my compound days I had hunted a spot one night, and the next day was going to go to another spot. I went to load my bow into my truck and, no bow? WTF!!! Thinking about it, I did not recall putting it in my truck the day before. So, go to where I had hunted and luckily, there lay my bow on the ground next to where I park.

I have had to refinish and repair a couple of Osage Royale bows I made for people who left them on top of their vehicles and drove off. One customer watched a logging truck run over his bow. He said he could see the bow bouncing around under and between the tires on the gravel road. He re-named the bow “Road Warrior” after I repaired it.

Last week, while bowhunting for deer in Southern Illinois, I got up in my unheated camper in the dark. Still groggy, I got dressed, but didn’t put my boots on while I visited the outhouse. I headed out to hunt, and got about a quarter mile down the hill when I noticed my feet were getting cold. That’s when I realized I had my plastic Crocs on and not my ?? boots. Back to the camper and late to my hunting spot.

I think I left an assortment of my outerwear to “air out” after a hard and fruitless day of seeing not even a squirrel on public land during our ML season here…. Where success rate averages under 5%….

And I once walked away from a good fly-rod, but I got that one back.

These days, if I hang up my jacket at a social function, I make sure to leave the car key in a pocket. Same trick works for anything I don’t want to leave without. And somebody gave me one of those air-tag gizmos which is on my keychain, so theoretically I can find my way back to that… although I misplaced my key the other night and my phone seemed to think that my phone WAS the key, so I may have some reprogramming to do….

1973 at Devils Kitchen Lake in S. ILL I scouted a spot I had never hunted. Looked real good, and I was trying to decide to hunt there or the spot I had hunted that morning. I decided to drive the couple miles back to hunt my morning spot. As I made the curve behind the dam, I saw, luckily, something fly off the roof of my car. I stopped and walked back to find my Shakespeare recurve on the side of the road. I had been arguing with myself so hard as to where to hunt, I forgot and left it on the top of my car while I unlocked it. I did kill an 8ptr that evening, so I did make the right decision.

To add, I also did the same thing as Okaw. Half way back to my stand in the dark one morning I realized I had my shoes on instead of my boots. Same outcome.

Before cell phones. I was working in the driveway near the garage door and set the phone on the bumper of my pick up. Forgot about it and drove to the grocery store, backed up into the drive way and as I walked behind the truck to go in to the garage I noticed my phone still sitting on the bumper.

old hunting partner and I often rode together to the farm to hunt

once met him there and parked my truck in the sand pit and we rode to different areas hunting

and rode home with him

next morning no truck

-had forgotten we drove out separate

had to call him up to go get my truck

Happens to me occasionally. Usually due to a distraction of some sort.

Yesterday, I tore the front gate off the chicken coop with the front end loader on the tractor.

Was hauling sand for installation of another brood box. Trying to work the tractor around a tree, looking behind me, and didn't realize how close I was to the gate.

Oh well. Something else to fix. Keeps me busy. :-D

Rick

My stupid was I quit Archery, my last post here was 20 years ago. guess I burned out. finally retired three years ago and now have four Grand kids. # 3 Jake is the sportsman of the group and hounded Me this summer till I busted out His Dad's 22# recurve. His constant enthusiasm has lit a fire under Me. I still have My HH Wesley Special and Sentmen longbow among a few others. Now I'm focused on regaining my strength to draw the bows. I've been lurking here for about a month now and really love the forum. Thanks To All.

Glad that I’m not the only bone head. Have done dumb things to many times to count. A few of the notable ones are —————— leaving bow on truck topper, then watching it bounce on the pavement. Another time I was running late to go hunting so I drove like heck 40 miles to discover I left my bow at home. Years ago while arriving at a 3D shoot I slammed the lower limb of my recurve in my truck door. I can usually attribute these fiascos to being in a hurry. If I slow down I usually stay out of trouble.

Just pretend like you just came in from hunting in the rain. Won’t hurt it. My bows have been wet a lot. I’d worry more about it being stolen .

JR, you're right about that, it just p'eed me off about being so forgetful.

Tried to drive into the garage, it 'caught' on something so I backed up a hair and tried again. Wouldnt go, had two the bikes on the rack...bikes and the gutter got most of the damage, some to the car roof too. That was in Washington State. About 20 years later, I did the same durn thing in NY at home where I live now. Car got most of the damage that time. STUPID!!!

I can't tell you if my faculties are all intact...my mind is the mental equivalent of the "one-room schoolhouse", so there wasn't a big staff to start with! I think somebody is still working part- time....

Friend of mine took the bolt out of Xbow put in the back of his truck. Hit the trigger on something, went off, blew it to pieces. Brought a smile to my face.

Last spring crappie spawn was on. A buddy and me took the day off work to beat the weekend crowd. Drove two and a half hours. The day was perfect. Backed the boat down the ramp and got in to back boat off trailer. Guess what the boat keys were at home on the dresser. I could write a book about my bone head episodes

I use to hunt more than a mile from the house. Just before dark I shot an 8 point, got down the tree with my climber and left it at the bottom of the tree. I went 40 yards to the

deer , gutted and taged put a white rope on him and placed the other end up on a branch.

By then it was pitch dark. Went back to get my stand, while searching for it my flashlight

hit a tree and must have broken the bulb. I tried to go back to the deer thinking the white

robe would be visible , NO. Went uphill to a farmers field and forgot it was surrounded by

green brier, fell and tore my boot. No moon but a few stars reflected off a lake below. I found the lake, went around to a road that led home. No stand, no bow and no deer. A

neighbor took my son and I back in a quad. With all the lights we found my stand first, then the deer and my bow. With all that and the three of us loaded on the quad we left

and then I remembered my swiss army knife was left near the gut pile. Next day I went

back on foot and found the knife. Still beats spending the night unprepared in the woods.

joebewan, that's not as bad as leaving the ramp with the boat still securely tethered to the trailer. Let me be clear, I did not do this (my boat is a canoe) but was merely an amused observer. To their credit, they noticed pretty quickly when they attempted to trim the boat and get up to speed! If the trailer had a safety chain they might have reconsidered the move....then again, maybe not!

When my dad would see us do some thing stupid like that he would always point at his head, and say empty house, no body home, every body moved out.

Shot a doe one evening and left her overnight. No snow or rain forecasted. Woke up to 4-5" of wet snow. Panicked a little and drove back to my parking spot. There lay the perfectly shaped snow-mounds of my pack and Robertson longbow I'd leaned against the back of the Cherokee. Never even noticed I didn't have them until then, just assumed they were in the hatch.

Started looking for the doe with a hopeless feeling in my guts, then found my arrow sticking straight up under a big white pine (?). Looked around for an hour or so then heard crows in the distance. Turned and looked in that direction and 15 yards away lay the doe, dead. She'd gone maybe 50 yards and was completely covered by the fallen snow.

Okay, Lucky, time to get busy and get her cleaned up and drug out as I worked 2nd shift at the time and it was Monday. Set a new world record for gutting a deer and started dragging her the 200 yards or so to the Jeep. Got her back and didn't wanna stick her in back, so I tied her up with a rope over a handy oak branch, which promptly snapped as I pulled forward to raise her enough to tie off and drive under. In panic mode again, I decided to just wrestle her dead weight up onto the hood, climb up to the roof and yank her on up there. The patience of youth ;)

Finally got her up and tied on, but not before slipping her off the side of the wet vehicle, breaking off my driver's side mirror- in addition to stripping out my wiper on that side. Got home and called work to say I'd be a little late and hung the doe in the garage. Showered and boogied into work with 5 minutes to spare.

Since that incident, I like to think I've learned to try to calm down a little and use my noodle once in a while, but some of the things I've done since...

After many years with off-the-shelf bows, I decided to get a custom Tiaga Caribow. Never had an issue for 30+ years with those other bows. But not once, but twice with the nicest bow you could hope for, I came dragging in from a long morning hunting elk, leanded the bow against the truck, and later drove off, crunching the upper limb both times.

Left my Groves Spitfire hang in a Juniper tree for 2 days on our range before I realized it.

"Lost" a 4 piece Fenwick Ironfeather fly rod under the back seat of my truck for several months.

Let an Ericsson cell phone on top of the car when I pulled out of the motel on hwy. 23 south in Piketon, Ohio.

Among other things......

Quite a few years ago I was on an elk hunt in the high wilderness of Colorado. My buddy and I were sitting on a log when we heard an elk coming out if a nearby trail. Buddy shot the elk , we waited half an hour and there it was….. of course we didn’t have packs so hiked several miles and thousands of vertical feet to the truck, hiked back, quartered it packed out, went back get more, finally finished late at night. Talk about tired! But drove back to buddy's house in Colorado anyway. Then the next morning I flew back home to WA. It wasn’t until I finished unpacking that I realized my almost - newSwarovski 10x40’s were missing! Quick call to buddy, nope he doesn't have ‘em. Goshdarn it they must still be on the mountain somewhere…….. Winter is coming and the snow gets 10 feet there, goodbye binoculars.

Fast forward to next summer; buddy goes for a scouting trip to same area. He goes to the log where we were sitting the precious year….. yep, theres my Swaros, right where I left them when we saw the elk. And get this, they were and still are in perfect condition. Whew, scraped through that bonehead stunt but don’t ask me about another time when the stock of my stevens 12 ga double got caught under the bumper.

I make LOTS of age related mistakes every day. I associate that with being fully retired and not having to focus solidly on what I'm doing because I'm not running power tools al day anymore.

Worst $ mistake ever though- and I was in my 20s when I did it- I changed the oil and adjusted valves on my 65 VW bug, the morning my wife and I left on a day long road trip to see my mom. Well, in the haste of things, I didn't reseat the passenger side valve cover correctly, and didn't check for oil leaks by running the engine afterward like I normally did. Engine pumped out and seized up tight 70 miles outta town. No pressure gauge in that engine either. Kids are funny.

Left my Leatherman Core on the roof of my car at the club. Drove down off of the mountain and noticed it missing when I got home. Went back and it was on the gravel road no worse for wear.

I did a lot of bone head moves over the years. One of my biggest blunders was not replacing my field tip arrows in my bow quiver with broadhead tipped arrows. I knew something didn’t look right after the sun came up and I could see in my blind……..Nimrod

Friend of mine at work told me about his son leaving his near new, very expensive compound on his tailgate (with arrows and release attached) and driving home. Gets home and guess what? No bow. Wants me to keep my ears open if soomeone finds it. I told him if it came off the tailgate and bounced down the road, he probably doesnt want it back. Finders keepers.

I tried to fix my non working Buddy Heater by blowing air through the pilot tube. That seemed to help a little but did not have the right size nozzle to get a good flow. Decided to try the can of electric contact cleaner. Pushed the igniter down, spray a bunch through there, did it at least twice more before the IGNITER ignited the heater and the cloth on my reloading bench. Grabbed the now on fire heater with the right hand while the left was pulling the cloth off the bench and on to the floor. I had the brains to flip the cloth on the way to floor to smother it hoping it would not ingnite any spilled gun powder. Stomped on it once and it was out. Headed out the door with the burning buddy heater and put it under a garbage can hoping it would smother as well. Returned to bench to see if I had anything else flaming. Did I mention the 50 lbs. of powder three feet behind me while this was happening? All was well and my heart eventually slowed back to normal. Second damn time I have tried to burn down the garage. You would think a person would learn but I guess it could have ended up much worse. Threw the heater away and bought another one.

Just last year went on a pheasant hunt with my son and left my 28 ga. shotgun in the garage while kenneling up the dogs.

I had no words to say to my son except I haven't played dog for someone since I was a kid, eating humble pie can taste real bitter.

I have a friend that had to chase down a lady that left her baby on the roof of her car in a car carrier. They didn’t get out of the parking lot and everything was okay but he said the adrenaline rush was intense. I figure anything I have forgotten temporarily pales in comparison.

As we age we begin to think about the hereafter a lot more. Most of the time when I walk into a room I wonder; now what am I here after! I have many of this sort of tale I’m sure. Unfortunately/thankfully I probably forgot most! Left a knife where I field dressed a deer once. This season I finally found a deer I had shot in a thicket at bottom of a ditch, went back for my stand, finally found it also, then realized I didn’t have my bow! Thankful I had marked the deers location on my gps and that my bow was nearby!

Like everyone here I could write a book about my senior moments; I backed my truck out of the garage twice to go hunting and forgot to hit the open switch of the garage door opener. The first time I barely tinked it before I realized my error, the second time I travelel back about 2 feet before I caught my error. I found I could put almost all the metal panels back into place with two sledge hammers and a couple pieces of 2X4.

I did the crescent wrench on the bumper thing, drove at least 10 miles and it was still there when I got home.

I stepped off a trail to answer nature's call before daylight one time, I leaned my bow against a privet bush and walked a little further into the thicket to take care of things. Upon my return to get my bow I couldn't find it in the dark, 30 minutes of wandering in circles and I still couldn't find it. I had to wait for daylight, turns out I had wandered at least 50 yards away from where I finally found the bow.

I was dragging a deer down a mountain and hit a series of vertical rock outcroppings, I left the deer and walked the rim of the cliffs to find a way off the mountain. I found a chute that could go down and went back for my deer, I couldn't find it. I looked and looked but no deer, I thought someone had stolen it.

I ended up hiking back up the mountain to where I killed the deer and following the drag marks in the leaves down the mountain. When I got to the cliffs there was my deer right where I left it.

I did the same thing the other night. I looked out and there was my nice Schafer up against my workshop where I went in before coming in the house after shooting

I did the same thing the other night. I looked out and there was my nice Schafer up against my workshop where I went in before coming in the house after shooting

Bone head things to post well let’s just say too long to post ~ at least I’m not alone

My most recent boneheaded move was related to a faulty memory, I think. Was planning to pull a stand after a very cold morning hunt. Stand was on public land so I had it chained and locked. (Yes, legal where I was hunting.)

I keep the keys in my truck glove box. As I left for the stand in the morning, I reached into the dark glove box and grabbed the keys. When it came time to leave, I found I had grabbed the wrong keys. When I hiked the 3/4-mile back to my truck, I found the keys weren't there, either.

I had taken them out and put them in a safe place in my cabin. So a 7 mile drive back to the cabin and an extra 1 1/2 mile round trip in the snow. On top of that, the stand I carried out was rather heavy. A tough morning for this old geezer.

Wasn't it Monty Browning who said, "Stupid hurts." I can attest to that.

I’ve also had my fair share of “doh” moments. Two weeks ago I went camping/hunting and left my boots at home. Boots were the one thing I had not put on my list.

The dumbest thing I did, or at least the dumbest one that I will admit to, involved Turkey hunting. I was at out hunting cabin with my Dad Turkey hunting. On the second morning, I got to the Forest Service Rd turnaround before sunrise. I got out of the truck and got everything ready, but when I reached behind the truck seat to get my shotgun, it wasn’t there. After the panic, I started trying to figure out where my gun was. I eventually deducted that when I got back to the truck on the previous night and propped my gun against my truck tire, I must have driven off and left it. I quickly grabbed my flashlight and looked around and sure enough there my gun was. Not only had I driven off, but I had driven over my gun. The fore end was shattered, the stock was cracked, and there were several new dings and scratches on the barrel and receiver, but other than that, no worse for the wear. I actually still hunted with it that morning and still hunt it with it today, although it now sports new plastic fore and stock.

You know that rubber plug that you are supposed to put in the transom?

Grey goose shaft. That brings back a bone head story that my dad did. We went together and bought a brand new boat. My dad and my sister took her out for her maiden voyage. They got aways out on the lake and water started filling the boat. Dad gunned the throttle and ran the boat up on the bank. He realized he had put the plug in the livewell hole which was about 4 inchest higher than the hull plug hole. We had a good laugh. Well guess he didn't learn and the next time out he and sis did the same thing again. Almost didn't make it to shore this time. I said dad it's the lowest hole in the middle of the boat how can you miss that. Well next time out I was with him. I said dad you got the plug in the right hole this time. He said I fixed it so that won't happen again. He had taken a jumbo black marker and circled the hole about 6 times and drew a giant arrow pointing to the right hole. I guess bonehead can sometimes be fixed. Sure do miss that bonehead dad of mine

I hate to admit it but one time I shot a deer and field dressed it and took it home. When I went to the cabin the next morning my buddy said your gun in in the gun rack on the porch. He said that I left it leaning against a tree next to where I shot the deer. I never even realized it.

I forgot the boat plug once. By the time I went and parked the truck and trailer and came back to the dock, my little 14' aluminum boat had about 4" of water in it. I'd heard that if you get in it and take off out across the lake, the water will be sucked out of the plug hole. Adrenalin pumpin, decision time, crap, big risk, but I went for it... because I figured I didn't have time to go get the truck and get the trailer back under it. So I jumped in it and took off, and it worked. It took a few minutes but the water was sucked out, I put the plug in, and went hunting.

Never forgot the plug again, and I always keep a spare in the drybox... spare prop and cotter pin too.

The b in my name stands for bonehead! More than once I have let guns, bows, iPod on top of, or hanging from my vehicle and driven off. At 70 years old, a person would think that I would smarten up.

Saturday morning elk hunt 100 miles from home.....called in a 5 point at 25 yards...did not come to full draw with my 68# longbow.....hit him low in the brisket....found only 2 drops of blood but still looked for him till late afternoon. Kept thinking how good that rack would look in my pick-up, but I never found him. When I got home, I called a friend to tell him of the hunt.....he informed me the season had closed the day before.

Several years ago, I benefitted from a supposed bone headed move by another hunter. I floated a small stream with my canoe for ducks and did fairly well, one short of my limit of mallards.

On the way home, I didn't go 200 yards, and there was a dead drake mallard in the middle of the road. It was still warm and wasn't hit by a vehicle. I added it to my bag, filling my limit. I checked it out later. It had one bb in the head.

I expect the hunter placed this duck and maybe some others, on top of his vehicle at the end of his hunt and then forgot it/them there when he started his drive home. Bet he was disappointed.

I once went fly-fishing. I'd been looking so forward to the day off when I could go! I got to the lake, put my waders on, grabbed my basket and vest, OOHHH NNOOO!!! I forgot my flyrod at home! Not to be deterred, I drove the 20ish miles back home, grabbed my flyrod and went back out to the lake. I honestly don't remember how I did that morning, but I'll never forget the day I forgot my flyrod at home. Had it been my waders, I would have gone out in my tennis shoes and blue jeans. But that would have been far too easy!

Waded through a swamp once and hung a tree stand very late in the day. I intended to return and hunt it the next morning. The next morning I could not find it and went on hunting on the ground. Killed my first deer that morning but I never did find that stand again. (it was a Baker anyway)

On a camping trip in bow season I heard "Oh no!" coming from my buddy's tent. He mistakenly packed his kids little sleeping bag. It barely came up to his waist. It was a long cold night curled up in the fetal position.

:^)

in a fit of buck fever years ago, i unhooked the top seat section of my climber from the tree while i was still up in the tree. still don't know what i was thinking...coulda been ugly.

On a long and distinguished list of boneheaded things I've accomplished over the years, one that comes to mind is driving to my spot and realizing that I never put my bow in the truck before I headed out. I got all my camo on when I got there and never even gave it a thought until I was ready to head to my stand. Drove all the way back home and called it a day. At that point I wasn't even old.... At least I have an excuse now.

I asked my friend at deer camp why he had a plywood window in his fairly new cap and he said it was the 4th window he ruined by backing in the car port with the window up.

Was kayaking. Was thinking how comfortable I was feeling. Then I realized I forgot to put on my life jacket. Had to finish the run As I was driving away from mtn biking I looked in the rear view mirror only to see my bike still on the ground. Whew. Left a gps on the roof of my car. Didn’t get that back. Probably a few others I’ve forgot

Was kayaking. Was thinking how comfortable I was feeling. Then I realized I forgot to put on my life jacket. Had to finish the run As I was driving away from mtn biking I looked in the rear view mirror only to see my bike still on the ground. Whew. Left a gps on the roof of my car. Didn’t get that back. Probably a few others I’ve forgot

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