Learning From Other's Mistakes...

A family friend saved up all year for a chance to go to a ranch that had some huge deer. He paid about $5,000 for an all day hunt, and two nights lodging. He gets there around dark on a Friday and enjoys some really good food and gets to review some pics of the bucks at the ranch. In the morning, he woke up to an amazing breakfast. He was feeling really excited and pampered. He gathers all his gear together and heads outside to meet the owners and other hunters. 

At this particular ranch, the owners/guides drive the hunters around the ranch and drop them off at their stands for the entire day. If you got lucky and tagged a deer, you'd call and they'd come get you, load the deer, process it for you...the whole nine yards. If you didn't call, they would pick you up 15-30 minutes after last shooting light. They drop all the hunters with a small cooler, filled with sandwiches, snacks and drinks. Our friend gets to his stand, climbs up into this cozy blind and sets his stuff up. 

Just before daylight he goes to chamber a round. Wait...no round in the rifle. Checks the backpack....no rounds there. Immediately grabs his phone to call the guides back at camp....no signal. Rules were you couldn't not leave your blind until the truck came to pick you up. It was a HUGE ranch and the guy had no idea where he was in the ranch even, as he got there at night and didn't drive the property with them the day before. He had to stay there the entire day, watching B&C bucks walk within shooting range. His $5,000 earned him a chance to shoot any deer he saw. He saw 5 or 6 trophies. He said one even walked almost directly under the blind, and he contemplated if the cooler was big enough to knock him out. LOL! 

In the end, he left empty coolered the next morning. The owner/guides felt horrible for him and worked out a deal for him to come back the next year (since the guy couldn't make it back that particular season) at a huge discount. He never went back. He said he was too ashamed. 

Upon hearing this story, I bought a little bullet sleeve for every single rifle and shotgun I owned, and all of my buddies and in-laws got them for their Christmas present that year, along with the tale of this poor guy's unfortunate mistake. I fill up my sleeve with the 9-10 bullets that it holds before I go out for any hunt. So, even though it wasn't my mistake, I quickly learned from this guys' misfortune. For what it is worth, if you don't have a bullet sleeve for your stock, it is the best $10 you can spend, in my opinion.