I was sitting in an elk treestand over a little waterhole/mineral lick. I see coming through the thick vegetation what I think is a doe whitetail only when it emerges I see it's a cougar. I have a tag in my pocket!! Then my mind goes back to a week before, hunting the same spot, my buddy and I casually wonder when the season opens incase of the long shot that one could be seen. We never resolved it and didn't think about it again. Until now! So now I have a good chance to arrow this cat at thirty yards as he drinks or stands up. I'm franticly trying to validate the season on an app on my phone while the cat gets up and slowly pads away. Just as he disappears I get the "Season Open" icon ! Grab a elk calf call and start chirping plaintively. And it wasn't fake 'cause I was in distress! No dice and no cat. What a dummy.
Did I say I did a stupid thing? Make that two.
I called a big 5X5 into my stand. It's dark, gloomy and thick in this bush, but at eighty yards I quickly confirmed it was a big five that was on a traill cam from earlier in the month. Or so I thought. Another DOH!! A pic of this one shows about two inches of beam hidden behind his fifth which I thought was his beam tip. We need six points to be legal.
I also had a big 6X6 get in about twenty five yards behind my treestand, where I couldn't shoot him and just stare up in the tree for two minutes before trotting of with a couple of big bull barks.
To add insult to injury another bull chuckled about eighty yards back in the jungle while "my" bull left. Between him and me, he was the only one that thought it was funny.
At least you’ve got the memories of the experiences to relive, over and over and over….
I’ve done dumber though. Good luck.
