Worst mistake you have made hunting?

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My high school girlfriend offered to give me a blowjob in a box stand in 1989 and for some reason I refused. Something about there wasn't enough room. And there were deer in the plot and I didn't want to spook them.

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I was climbing a tree that had a wide base and narrowed quickly. I got about 15ft off the ground and readjusted my top half of the grand slam stand. When I was readjusting they bottom, I accidentally dropped the pin. My heart fell with that pin. It was like slow motion. After my legs started shaking, while thinking of a plan, I quickly realized that the bullet end of a .270 fit in the hole and got me low enough to where I could bail out. Never ever ever again will I do that.

Didn’t let my wife shoot a huge 9 point 30 yards from stand. Where I was hunting rules are deer has to be 4 1/2 to shoot. Next day dude kills it and club owner doesn’t really says anything about it because it scored close to 150”. Deer was 3 1/2 year old. I was pissed. Biggest deer she ever killed was a spike, and we painfully let that deer walk to follow the club rules.

When I was 12 my dad had a box stand on the edge of a field. In the woods behind it about 100 yards he made a wooden ladder stand for me to sit in. Had a Winchester youth 20ga pump with a scope. Stand was perfect on a deer trail and I’d always see deer. They would walk straight to me and about 50 yards out turn broadside and cross a creek.

One evening hunt I had a buck coming down the trail that looked like nothing I had seen. Tall rack that just looked like a ball off mass on his head. It’s been 26 years and I can still picture it. Tall heavy horns full of points.... I never let him turn broadside. I put my crosshairs on his brisket and sent a slug into it. He lunged straightbin the air and hot the ground kicking. My next shell was buckshot but for some reason I tried to slowly eject the one in it and ended up jamming the gun. The buck was able to get to his feet and made a run towards a big field. We found blood at POI and left to get a dog. When we returned and put the dog on the trail he did good till we hit the field but nothing after. Me and my dad squirrel hunted those woods all around there after the season and the next fall hoping to find it and never did. Had I just let him turnlike I had seen dozens of deer do before

Text are always better with pics of dead deer

Worst mistake taught me a valuable lesson. I was 11 and mistook Daddy's best beagle for a rabbit and pretty much blew her snout off as she came out the brier patch. To this day if I can't tell you it's eye color I don't shoot. I'm not sure why Daddy didn't whoop my arse but the silent treatment for about 2 weeks was worse than any physical punishment I could have gotten.

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Trying to track a monster too early on a hit that was slightly high.

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I honestly think this is the hardest lesson to learn in hunting. 41yrs old and just in the past couple of years have I gotten to the point were I religiously give a deer at least 30min after I shoot before I even go near him. Doesn't matter if he I see him hit the ground dead or not. I don't know how many tracking jobs that rule has saved me but I'm sure its several. My dad is 61 and he's up as soon as he shoots and headed to the deer. Its cost him 2 wallhangers that I know of

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My dad is 61 and he's up as soon as he shoots and headed to the deer.

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I was on a stand in Missouri was was brutally cold. Climbed down early and spooked what I'm still convinced was a 180 inch buck. He would have walked right to me.

Used to hunt in a swamp in the delta area of Mississippi. It was a long miserable walk in waders and then we would stand and wait for the deer to come through. On a cold morning I brought a thermos of coffee and a thermos of gumbo. It created a nuclear situation in my stomach. Was thigh deep in water trying to find something to stand on and lost the battle.