have you ever srewed up and brought the wrong ammo?

[rimrock]

I was talking to a long time friend and he told me this years ELK hunt was a bit different, in that he brought two rifles, on his hunt, one in 300wby and one in 375H&H and had 60 rounds each in those slip top plastic containers that hold 20 cartridges, in the back of his van,on opening morning he slipped 5 cartridges into a elastic cartridge holder on the butt stock of the 375 H&H and slipped the next box of cartridges, from his supply stored in the 50 cal ammo can, into his pack and proceeded to walk into the area he hunts for several hours walk well before dawn, with a buddy, who hunts with a 35 whelen
as the sun started to come up he went to load his rifle and found he had stuck 300 wby ammo in the butt stock elastic sleeve, reaching into the pack for his spare ammo ...yeah! he brought 300 wby....searching his pack he found a single 375 H&H cartridge
he loaded that and started still hunting the dark timber, with his friend, he said the whole time he kept thinking about how stupid it was to not check more carefully and that while he usually brings a ruger 44 mag revolver, on elk hunts, but he left that home this trip, (another dumb decision) he saw over a dozen ELK and about 40 mule deer during his days hunt but nothing, he felt he had a 100% dead certain shot at.
his friend shot a nice mule deer near dusk so the day was not a total loss,
he told me that from now on hes going to be far more careful and make darn sure hes carrying both the revolver and the correct ammo
any of you guys ever screw up?
I know I have in the past, but I almost have 8 cartridges in my rifles elastic ammo sleeve on the butt stock,(almost all my rifles have one) so even if I pick up the wrong box of ammo IM not totally screwed
"HEs picked up the habit of using an ammo sleeve but he rarely leaves it loaded like I do"
but Ive sure left equipment in camp on occasion

[Rock Chuck]

I used a 270 for everything for 30 years. Now I use a 300 WSM. A well built load is good for deer, elk, moose, and bear. I can't mix them up if I only have 1.

[Altjaeger]

No, but I once got to my hunting area to find I had forgotten the keys to the locks on my gun case.:eek1:

[Sabre]

Nope, never forgot ammo but I drove 50 miles to hunt once and realized I forgot my hunting license when I got there. I took a chance and went hunting anyway. Illegal as hell but I wasn't driving 100 miles round trip and wasting half the day to go get it. Damned fish cops can find out if you're licensed in two minutes anyhow so making you carry your license on you and fining you if you don't have it is just bullschitt anyhow.

[Bill Gunn]

Nope, never forgot ammo but I drove 50 miles to hunt once and realized I forgot my hunting license when I got there. I took a chance and went hunting anyway. Illegal as hell but I wasn't driving 100 miles round trip and wasting half the day to go get it. Damned fish cops can find out if you're licensed in two minutes anyhow so making you carry your license on you and fining you if you don't have it is just bullschitt anyhow.

I did the exact same thing about 90 miles from home.
I hunted 'till about 11:00am in southern NYS, and when I took off my hunting jacket and threw it in the back of the truck, I noticed that I was wearing my Pennsylvania license!!
Not 2 minutes later the local warden pulled up behind my truck (awww poop !!!).
He was a very tough old bird that stuck to the letter of the law, and the harder you cried, the faster he would write !!!
He asked me how the hunting was, and I lied like hell, and told him I'd been sleeping in the truck, because my buddy was hunting, but my license was at home.
I had a feeling he didn't believe me, but he didn't push the issue.
He did drive by the truck about 3 times that afternoon though. If he would have come 3 minutes earlier that morning, it would have been a very expensive mistake!
Right after that I bought one of those dual license holders that held 2 licenses, you just pinned it on with the correct license showing.

[ncboman]

So far I haven't mixed up ammo to gun like that. I think it's a pitiful sign of TOO MUCH MONEY. <wow>

Being raise by depression wise parents does that to ya. You buy one gun and make do. <grin/sad>

I have forgot my release but killed the damn deer anyway. <crazy image>

and then there was the time I killed the same deer twice ... actually, a couple times I can remember. ...

but you guys doan care what went on in NC back in the day. <rolleyes>

[Bushman]

I've forgot all my ammunition once when I went up north deer hunting. Handloads and reason enough to be using something that other guys in camp might be using too. I forgot all my bow hunting camo one morning and sat there on the ground in a red checkered shirt and blue jeans and shot an 8 point buck at less than 10 yards; go figure. The only ammo screw up that I remember was when I tried to put a .308 cartridge into my 7mm-08 rifle at the range. They look too much alike, so from that day on I've always used different bullet types to more easily tell them apart.

If your friend was hunting elk where I was, there is no way that I would have packed an extra 3# of .44 Magnum pistol up those mountains in addition to my rifle. In fact every morning I would look at my stuff and say, "Do I really need 10 cartridges? I'll bet I could get by with only 8 today."

[Bill Gunn]

I forgot all my bow hunting camo one morning and sat there on the ground in a red checkered shirt and blue jeans and shot an 8 point buck at less than 10 yards; go figure.

That reminds me of another stupid thing I once did (That makes 2 in my whole life... L O L !!!)
I got to my bow hunting spot about Triple "0" dark hundred, and put on my camo outfit and make-up.
I was hunting on a power line cut, in a tree next to a nice big apple tree, waiting for Mr. "Big Buck" in my "Super Stealth Mode".
I was on the power line cut about 250 to 300 yards uphill from the road, but I noticed that each time a car with hunters went by, it would stop, and the driver would point in my general direction.
I knew they couldn't see me in all my camo, and each time I would look all over for the deer that they must have been pointing at. Never did see a deer close enough to shoot at that day, they were all kind of spooky for some reason, and they kept "Making" me.
When I got back to the truck, there was my Camo Hat sitting on the driver's seat.

I had been wearing a nice new bright white hat I got at work the day before.
I never took a white hat hunting with me again, and I can imagine those guys in the cars saying....
"Look at that A..H... with the white hat in that tree way up there !!"

[GF.]

I've forgotten my archery glove, but I can shoot those bows with bare fingers. This year, I forgot my release one day on the Elk trip and was certifiably S O L.

I've forgotten my binoculars a time or two, which (IMO) is almost as bad as forgetting the ammo - at least on a rifle hunt.

Forgot my hunting knife once or twice, but the one time I was close enough to camp to run back & borrow one, and the second time I made out just fine on field dressing with the Swiss Army 'spartan' that I've been carrying now for over 30 years.... and which now goes in my pack every time just in case I ever need it again...

Made a marginal hit on a little buck one time with the ML - a liver/paunch job that could certainly have used a follow-up - and found that I had powder & caps, but no more roundball in my pockets. So I jacked the climber down out of the tree (which pushed him off the ridge) and went for more ammo in the truck. But running off the ridge had taken the last of the life out of him and he was piled up at the base of the hill there.

Once I killed a deer and as I was tagging it, I noticed a spot to fill in your 'firearms hunting tag #'- the small game/general firearms license that you need in addition to the firearms deer tag(s) - and realized that I hadn't gotten one of those yet for the year. :stupid: So I tagged the deer, got as much blood off of my hands as I could, and left that one too cool while I drove to the nearest spot I knew of to buy the license. Then I hunted the rest of the afternoon so that I wouldn't be buying my license at noon and checking a deer at 2:00 the same day.

So.... So far, nothing that has ruined a whole trip, cost me a deer (to my knowledge), or brought me any trouble with enforcement....

But FWIW, I would never go out with two rifles if there was any chance that I could mistake one flavor of ammo for the other. Putting a .300 down a .375 would doubtless produce disappointing accuracy, but to hell with that - at least it wouldn't kill you. A.280 in a .270, or an '06 in a .280, or any number of other combinations could get you looking for a medevac pretty quickly.

[Waidmann]

I've never screwed up with ammo that way (I only have centerfire rifles in .222 Rem, .243 Rem and .30-06, so it's hard to mix them up), but I have headed out into the woods with the wrong glasses on. I can't wear bi-focals, so I have a pair of distance glasses for driving (and hunting), and a pair of "short range" glasses for working the computer and everything else. More than once I've gotten out to my stand before I realized that I was still wearing the short range glasses. I can still see well enough to hunt, but probably not good enough to tell the difference between a spike and a doe at 75 yards. Those are the days I spend more time reading, since I have the right glasses for it. If I'm wearing the distance glasses, it's hard to read anyhow.

Waidmann

[Chuck S]

Nope never for got the ammo but years back when we had little kids at home, I cased my 300 WM Rifle, garbed boxes of ammo and headed out to guide some elk hunters. The drive was around 200 miles or so and at the approx 175 mile point recalled that I had never retreived the bolt from the locked drawer and inserted same in rifle. To make matter worse I had a trailer full of horses and hay. Luckily my wife is understanding, not too derisive, and did bring the bolt up to me as I waited at a coffee shop.

[Twanger]

Not ammo, but I have managed to not bring primers on a muzzleloading hunt and did not notice until I'd walked for over an hour and got up into a tree stand. Only then did the tearing apart of the pack ensue.... :mad1:

[T2133]

I have taken a M700 Rem .30-06 quail hunting, picked up the wrong gun case. That story pops up quite frequently.

[Hi Ball]

Once on an African hunt, my handler put the wrong ammo in the truck that morning. He thought we were going after another Eland but we where actually after a white blesbok. So when it came time to load the rifle, I only had 2 rounds that had slipped out of the ammo belt 2 days prior and were under the seat with some jackets. The ammo box he handed me as I reached for my .338 Win mag, was a 50 count box of .416 Rem magnum. A black cloud hung over us as the truck I was riding in, hit a warthog hole doing 25 miles per hour. I lost my PH out the back (luck he didn't get injured badly) my rifle flew up into the air and when it came down the scope laid across the steel cage on the bed of the truck. Yep, no scope and had to use iron sights..........I think the MAN upstairs laid his hand on my that day, so I could harvest the herd buck.

[Smokey]

I forgot my hunting knife and my regular pocket knife over fifty years ago while hunting in Pennsylvania. I drove about 10 miles and came to a little bar and asked to borrow a kitchen knife to clean a deer. That didn't get me anywhere. He made me a deal and sold me a keychain pocketknife with a one inch blade that said Potter County God's Country for a dollar. It worked and I still have that little knife.

[StringJumper]

So here is how I prevent it...I got one of those fold-over 12 cartridge carriers and put three rounds each of 243/270/7x57/300WM and put it into my pack so I would always have at least three rounds with me at worst case. My only issue is that I have added 2-3 new calibers in the last few years and need to get another carrier.