It finally happened to me. How many of y’all have done this?

[Wigsplitter]

I too leaned my gun up against the truck on passenger side after hauling a gobbler up a Missouri ridge- loaded the turkey in the back and promptly jumped in the drivers seat never circling back by my gun- back at camp 10 miles away I stop cold and realize what I had done- hustle back over and fortunately my gun was still laying in the forest service road - ran over with back tire and some good rock dents mashed in the wooden stock... glad to hear some other folks have done this?

[g8rvet]

My 2 nephews met up for a hunt.  When the older went to his truck to grab stuff, he realized he had left it at home.  The  younger offered his gun since he had already killed a bird that year and older said "No, I need to be punished".  They called in two mature longbeards at first light straight off the roost and younger killed one.  Said a double would have been a slam dunk.  Older says he will take the gun now and they walk to another area. As they are easing down the road they see a fan facing away and drop.  Set up and called him in for the older to get his bird with the younger's gun.

[Zobo]

You see you had work and kids on your mind. Martin Mull once said "Having a family is like having a bowling alley installed in your brain."

[Sasha and Abby]

Left a 1942 model 94 against a tree a few years ago while i ws moving a stand and feeder...  forgot all about it for a few days until I noticed it was not in my truck.  It was then that i remembered leaving it on the tree...  Raccoons had mud all over it but it was easily cleaned.

Shot an bull in Colorado in the middle of a big burn.  Leaned my rifle against a black stump - one of millions in the area.  Loaded the quarters out on horses and realized I left my gun.  Had to find the gut pile to triangulate where I left it.

[aclawrence]

So far it seems like the moral of the story is not to lean your gun against the truck. If your going to leave it behind, lean it against a tree so you don't run over it on your way out lol!


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[Pluffmud]

Can't say I've lost my gun doing that, (yet) but I have lost many a ThermaCELL the same way.

[paboxcall]

I found an old school 835 during spring season few years back laying in the wet, tall grass at a trail head in the middle of a huge tract of public ground. Pretty obvious someone leaned it against their vehicle, packed their stuff and pulled away leaving the 835 behind. I actually drove over it with front driver's side wheel pulling into that spot. Missed it when I stepped out of my truck in the dark. Could tell it had been lying there a good two weeks.

It was the old style camo, early model. Been carried a lot from the wear marks. Started to rust on the action from the rain, and the factory xtra full choke tube was seized up. Took it back to camp, disassembled it, got it cleaned up, penetrating oil in the threads and got the choke tube out and cleaned. Thing was in fine working condition after a bit of needed attention.

Left notes saying I found a gun, but caller had to describe it in the area's general stores. No one ever called for the 835, but I did get a couple calls from guys who had lost other guns in the woods, just not that particular one I found. 

I dropped it off as 'lost/found' with the local state police barracks. Called the trooper who took the information 6 months later, and learned someone had claimed the 835.

[ChesterCopperpot]

Man, that's great you got it back! I've had some hunting buddies do that with deer rifles, drive off and leave them. Most folks I hunt with are older. Hasn't happened to me yet but sure don't mean it won't. A couple years ago I remember seeing a missing poster at a hunting shop down where I hunt a lot and it was someone who'd left an old rifle by the road. Honestly I think if I found a gun in the woods I'd call a game warden and hope somebody had the presence of mind to call him.


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[Gooserbat]

I did it once... left my 870 laying against a log in SE Oklahoma realized it 30 Miles down the road..  My dad left his 30-06 leaning against the tailgate and drove off once.  He didn't make it but a mile or so before he realized what he'd done.  My boy makes fun of me for doing it so I expect his day is coming.

[dzsmith]

Never done it with my shotgun , but have done it with a rifle. I also set my bow on the side of the bed of my truck . Drove off, the bow fell off. Drove home , had to come back that night and get it.... It dented the sight housing . Luckily it was an axcel armotech sight.... The motto is built like a tank for a reason . Didn't even knock it off but I did have a slightly egg shaped sight housing . And it was not on public lol

[Cottonmouth]

My dad found a nice 1187 propped up against a post at a check station at a WMA near our house. He called a game warden who is a family friend and he looked through the check in box and found out it was an older gentleman who went there squirrel hunting. He was grateful there are still people who do the right thing. 
Some people would have kept it, no way I could have. Maybe a cheap pocket knife or something like that,  but not a gun.

[dublelung]

Never left one but found one in the woods 1/2 mile from the closest road.

[Timmer]

I took off binoculars and then my turkey vest in order to shed a layer as I was getting hot.  I put the turkey vest back on, but not my binocs.  I left them sitting on a log.  Thankfully it was morning and I still had the whole day.  I sneak hunted my way back to them.

When my dad was young he shot a deer on the last morning of a hunting trip.  He put his gun up against a tree while he and other relatives tended to the deer.  He then helped drag it out.  Someone else grabbed the guns.  It turns out his was against a different tree than the others and they missed it.  The hunting camp was over 7 hours away and they didn't realize it was missing until they got home.  It sat against the tree for a year until they hunted the next year.  It stayed in good shape and is the oldest antique in my gun collection, a Winchester .33 caliber model 1886.   

[NCL]

So far I have never left a gun behind but now that i wrote it I probably will.  My story is one I sort of found. My Dad and I were deer hunting and we climbed to the top of a large rock to survey the surrounding area. We had sat there for about an hour eaten apples and occasionally spoke. I had become uncomfortable where I was sitting so moved more to the right and looked off the face of the rock to see a bolt action rifle leaning against the rock. I told my Dad there is a rifle down there, I looked again and looked to the left of the rifle and noticed there was a sleeping hunter laying against the rock. How we never woke him in the hour we were there is a mystery to me. We climbed off the rock and left

[WV Flopper]

 I got to my listening spot, its a good 3/4 mile up hill walk, waited and waited, finally a turkey gave away his location a long ways off. I pulled out my phone to pin him before I left the spot, as soon as Onx opened up I realized I had a pin on that same spot from the previous year and a harvest.

I proceed the .83 miles to the location down off of the high knob. Its real funny here as you can hear better from almost a mile away as you can from 250 yards... Anyway, I slide into the edge of the area and stop, waiting for the turkey to gobble on his own before I go any further. I had stood there two maybe three minutes before he cut loose, right where they were last year. I went about 40 yards, found a nice hide and set up.

I had set down, call in hand, striker in hand, then it hit me, NO gun! I had leaned it against the tree I had stopped at to let him gobble. No big deal, its only 40 yards away..... So, I get up, start towards the gun, step "over" a downed log and catch the top of a splinter with my foot. This threw me forwards rather quickly, I took three maybe four steps and went down. It was going to be a nice, hard,  face plant but at the last second I turned and landed on my left side.

As I laid there i thought I had broken my arm as it was not right. Then, my leg starts killing me! I remember thinking to myself how much this sucks and that I was going to have to send a friend a pin to come and extract me with a 4 wheeler. I somehow get to my knees, get standing up and decide to suck it up and be a man. I hobble over, get my gun and come back to find a "New" spot to set up.

It took a little bit but finally get the turkeys moving in the right direction. It turns out to be a hen and 4 jakes, one of which sounded really good. So after they decide to leave I work my way back out, slowly, scouting as I go. I hear or see nothing else as I make my way back. My leg is getting more and more sore as the time goes by.

Thankfully, I get to my truck. I unload the gun, throw it in the bed of my truck, take off my vest and throw it in the bed of my truck. Reach into my left pant pocket and my keys aren't there? I always put them in my left pocket, always? So I dig through ever pocket I have twice and then go for the spare key. I decide the 3 mile round trip to the crash site was not for this day!

The next day my thigh was black, my shoulder quit sore. This past Sunday I walked in to retrieve the keys, they were laying right there, easy to see. It's funny, last year I slide into this spot and had a turkey come in hard on my gun side. I thought he was right in front of me, didn't know he was there until I heard him drum. I can't hear them drum! I missed that turkey twice, at probably a long range of 15 yards. Way to close for my gun. I waited three weeks and went back in there and killed that turkey. Laid him out at the log I tripped on and took some pictures, you can see the splinter barely sticking up on that log that I tripped on this year.

I think this spot has bad juju and maybe I should avoid it in the future.

Thought about uploading the picture of the log and picture of my keys laying at the crash site but that's just too much work. Maybe I will anyway.