God knows we've all forgotten things on hunting trips. I can recall having to borrow shotgun shells because I grabbed the wrong bag when heading out at 4am. And forgetting waders on an opening day trip 3 hours up north, and having to drive to town to search for a pair. But the dumbest thing I did was years ago when my brother and I were heading out to do some grouse hunting in December. It was very cold, and instead of driving with my heavy hunting boots on, I often wore some light shoes to drive, put my big boots in the truck, then I put on my boots on when we got to the hunting spot. For some reason this particular time I didn't even wear the light shoes, just walked into the garage in my heavy socks and got in the truck. You guessed it.....forgot the big boots! So we get to our spot about 30 minutes away, I realize that I have no boots OR shoes of any kind. My options were to drive home and get them, or try to hunt without any. Well being about 18 and foolish at the time, I searched the truck and found some extra socks in the back, and just threw on about three pairs and went hunting.......in the winter.....in the snow! IN MY STOCKING FEET! Now anyone who's hunted upland through the brush is probably shaking their head right now. All the sticks, logs, brush, etc. were brutal on my stocking feet. By the time we got back to the truck about two hours later, my feet were pretty wet and cold, and the outer layer of socks was pretty ragged.
Or how about the time at Harsen's many moons ago when we walked into one of the corn strips without a boat of any kind, and proceeded to drop our only duck ACROSS THE DITCH FROM US. Those ditches are deep. It was an early season hunt, and not too cold, so my friend stripped down to his underwear and swam for it. Probably a first at Harsen's I would imagine. But he did a great dog paddle, and it was a hell of a retrieve!
Good God the stories I could tell.
