My favorite saying: "That's what happens when you THINK you're real good"

I've said that to myself a few times over the last 50 or so years......

I was around 16 or 17 when, one foggy morning, I was slipping along a creek bottom looking to pot a squirrel or two. It wasn't long before I came undetected upon a bushy tail rummaging around in the leaf litter under a big hickory tree. Well, I let him have it with a load of low-brass sixes from my 16 gauge, but he was able to struggle over to the tree and climb up to a hole in the trunk maybe 12 or 15 feet off the ground. The squirrel disappeared into the hollow, but its tail remained visible outside the hole.

After regarding the scene for a few minutes, and the tail not even twitching, I came to the conclusion that the squirrel had succumbed to its wounds. So I sat aside my Ithaca and shinnied up the trunk and gave the tail a little tug. Two seconds later, we were both laying belly-flat....the squirrel on a horizontal twig 40 feet higher up the hickory and me dazed on the ground with my hand bleeding from so many bites and scratches that it looked like it had gotten caught in a sewing machine.

In a minute or so, I regained my senses, spotted the squirrel again on the high twig, and finished the job with another round from my shotgun. Thus ended the drama, but as I recall, I missed about two weeks of fast pitch because my hand was so swollen I couldn't grip a bat.

Back in 1986 Thanksgiving weekend in Cass co at about 200yd had a buck walk out into the field following a doe like a bull calf behind his mama . Took the first shot ...nothing he was so enamored with that doe he didn't even look up. Second same thing , now im just falling apart. That buck never took his eyes off that doe neither picked up the pace just a slow shambling walk across that power line. I totally had the biggest case of buck fever I have ever had lol I emptied the rifle shooting at him never touched him. To this day I can still see that buck just walking along behind that doe. Lol

Was hog hunting outside caldwell tx....LO called me out of the blind to come up to the house and see his new rem 270...i walk back up the hill about 500 yrds to the house...it was a nice remmy ..so while lookin at the rifle i see movement at the feeder and look through his new scope and sure enough 4 young hogs about 70/80# each are rooting around eating corn..now there is absolutely no cover between where i am and the 500 yrds DOWN the hill to the blind but im going for the stalk ...im moving steadily down the hill trying to keep the blind vetween myself and the hogs...i make it all the way back and im shakin and breathing hard from the excitement..sit down and they are still there about 75yrds away...I MADE IT !! I grab my rifle stick it out the window at the tastiest lookin hog in my scope and let loose..BLAM!!
clean miss...i mean total miss nothin nada no hog ...cause i didnt take the time to stop breathing so hard and calm down.....lesson learned.

Many years ago, I was hunting antelope in SE Wyoming, on a friend's ranch. I saw a hugely horned male about 1/2 mile west....so every time he put his head down to feed, I ran a few steps forward, but stopped before he could raise his head. The ground finally ended at junction of 2 ravines meeting in front of me like a "Y", and about 3/4 mile from my car. When animal's head went down to feed, I stepped off the ground and slid (on my butt) down the ravine wall.....and funneled a big clump of prickly pear right up my crotch. It knocked my butt in the air, and I refused to cry out, because of the effort to that point in stalking the antelope. So, my butt dropped again to the gravel of the ravine wall...and I continued my skid....into ANOTHER cactus clump!! Well, I finally hit the floor of the ravine and fell forward to the ground, where I lay for a few minutes, while catching my breath and composure. My crotch felt on fire. I couldn't walk. So, I crawled on my belly up the other (and less steep) side of the ravine, until I could see the antelope about 100 yards away, and still feeding. I was using a pre-war model 70 in 220 Swift ..... loaded with only 1 shell (I had put more ammo in my pocket). I was shaking with pain, and my aim sucked....I hit the antelope, but had not immediately killed him. And my pockets were empty...the extra shells had fallen out on the bottom of the ravine. So, I had to cut the poor bugger's throat. I gutted the animal, but could not carry both it and my rifle, so I cut the animal in half across the spine....and carried one of the halves plus the rifle back to the car. My crotch-pain was beyond description. I then drove the car forward to the edge of the ravine, and retrieved the second half. Home was over a hour away. When I got there, I BEGGED a friend to pull out the spines that encrusted my entire crotch. I lay on his bed while he went to work....it took him an hour. I gave him the meat in return, then went back to my rented apartment and remained in bed for 4 days, while nursing the affected areas with antibiotic ointment.

You win, even if you did get the antelope