Has a rifle issue ever cost you a hunt?

Joel

Joel

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GunNutz
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Or, at least, a day of a hunt. Something that couldn't be fixed then and there?

For example, I had one of the locking nuts on the trigger adjustment screws of a Zastava Mauser fall out, and end up wedged in such a way that the trigger could not be pulled.

Curious to hear what has done it for y'all
 
Long time ago I made the error of getting off the horse "for just a minute" and leaving my rifle in the scabbard and leaving the horse loose. He didn't run off but he rolled on the rifle and although I could detect no damage it must have moved the zero as when I shot at a deer at about 300 yards I missed. Second shot I saw the bullet impact a rock wall behind the deer so I held accordingly on the deer's throat and dropped him. Ended well but was a little mystifying at the time. :)
 
I'd never needed to adjust my scope in 7 years, so on year 8 I didn't sight it in before I went hunting.

Fired 6 shots at a deer about 50 yards away and didn't hit a damn thing.

Then one of my buddies that I was hunting with dropped his rifle getting out of the truck so we spent the rest of the day getting our rifles sighted back in.
 
Not really a rifle screw up, but I was scouting an area with my dad. We came around a corner on the road and about 300 yards away was a big gray wolf. I got out and proceeded to fool around trying to get the magazine in, then the floor plate closed on that goofy setup a kliengunther k14 has. Anyway the wolf calmly walked off the road and that was that. I sold that rifle after that.
 
I had the scope bases on a rifle loosen up after ~10 years of use. I had shot that rifle at least a half dozen times in the last few months without issue, but I guess bouncing around in the truck for a week did it in. Luckily I had another rifle with me.
 
I had a nice shot at a good sized doe. After missing what should have been a "gimme" shot, and thoroughly PO'd. I discovered that the scope mount had loosened. I didn't have the Allen key I needed so I took my back up rifle and managed to nail a nice buck later on in the hunt. After the hunting season, I took off the scope and used loktite on the mounting screws, like I should have done in the first place.
 
I forgot ammo for my main rifle this year but thankfully I had my backup 308 ready to go. Without that backup rifle my season would have been over.

I never thought that I would have been one of those guys to forget the ammo, but with the kids running around pulling me in their own direction along with dad/husband duties while trying to pack...things do get missed.
 
Gatehouse said:
Long time ago I made the error of getting off the horse "for just a minute" and leaving my rifle in the scabbard and leaving the horse loose. He didn't run off but he rolled on the rifle and although I could detect no damage it must have moved the zero as when I shot at a deer at about 300 yards I missed. Second shot I saw the bullet impact a rock wall behind the deer so I held accordingly on the deer's throat and dropped him. Ended well but was a little mystifying at the time. :)
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What a story 🫡
 
My current Savage rifle came from the factory with an incorrect firing pin depth. 50 yds or less at a WT and click no bang, deer split. Light primer strike. Spent the rest of the day grouse hunting.
 
Not a rifle problem, but a scope problem. I had a cheap Tasco fog up internally on a deer hunt. It was the only rifle I owned, and it had no back-up irons. I carried on, but I could barely see through the scope. That's when I started buying Leupolds.
 
I’ve seen a few rifles over the years fail to feed properly. Jams, cartridges not being picked up from the magazine etc. Those were rifles of guys I was with. Myself, I’ve had two DBM’s fall out along the way. One cost me a pretty good whitetail.
 
For his first year of deer hunting I lent a friend a rifle. I had hunted with this rifle for years and it had never failed me in the woods or at the range, but now I was using a muzzleloader so it saw little use. We tested the rifle at the range before the season, got it sighted in for him, did some practice, and again it worked fine.

Fast forward to a cold drizzly day. He's sitting in a brush blind, getting rained on, and a nice deer comes out. He aims, pulls the trigger, and CLICK! The deer hears the click and is now staring at him from about 60 yards away. He doesn't know what to do so he racked the bolt and that sent the deer running off. I get a frantic series of texts. He assumes that it must be user error because he's new to firearms and hunting.

A couple hours later another decent deer comes out. As he's sizing it up in the scope, a better deer walks up behind the blind and blows from just a few yards away. That puts the deer that he's aiming at on alert. He paused for a moment, unsure what to do. Should he turn and try for the one behind him and risk scaring both away? He decides to go for the one he's already aimed on and pulls the trigger... CLICK!! That sends the deer behind him running and spooks the one he tried to shoot as well. Both gone. I get the most dejected phone call ever.

I meet up with him. We keep the gun out in the cold, on the back of the truck, and drive to a range to test fire the gun. It fires every time we pull the trigger. The ammo is high quality premium stuff that's never given me any trouble in the past. Then I notice that the indent on the primer is less pronounced on the two rounds that failed to detonate compared to the shells we are ejecting at the range. The two failed shells both fire when we try them again.

Best I can figure, the gun might have had grease, dirt, or gunk accumulated in the channel that the firing pin pops out of. Combine that with the cold wet conditions and there must have been just enough friction to slow the speed and force of the firing pin enough that the primer wasn't being hit hard enough to detonate. We tried to remedy the potential issue by putting a drop of oil on the opening of the firing pin channel and dry firing the rifle a bunch of times (with snap cap dummy rounds), then repeated that many times. The gun has never again failed to fire but I have lost confidence in that rifle.
 
fargotol said:
For his first year of deer hunting I lent a friend a rifle. I had hunted with this rifle for years and it had never failed me in the woods or at the range, but now I was using a muzzleloader so it saw little use. We tested the rifle at the range before the season, got it sighted in for him, did some practice, and again it worked fine.

Fast forward to a cold drizzly day. He's sitting in a brush blind, getting rained on, and a nice deer comes out. He aims, pulls the trigger, and CLICK! The deer hears the click and is now staring at him from about 60 yards away. He doesn't know what to do so he racked the bolt and that sent the deer running off. I get a frantic series of texts. He assumes that it must be user error because he's new to firearms and hunting.

A couple hours later another decent deer comes out. As he's sizing it up in the scope, a better deer walks up behind the blind and blows from just a few yards away. That puts the deer that he's aiming at on alert. He paused for a moment, unsure what to do. Should he turn and try for the one behind him and risk scaring both away? He decides to go for the one he's already aimed on and pulls the trigger... CLICK!! That sends the deer behind him running and spooks the one he tried to shoot as well. Both gone. I get the most dejected phone call ever.

I meet up with him. We keep the gun out in the cold, on the back of the truck, and drive to a range to test fire the gun. It fires every time we pull the trigger. The ammo is high quality premium stuff that's never given me any trouble in the past. Then I notice that the indent on the primer is less pronounced on the two rounds that failed to detonate compared to the shells we are ejecting at the range. The two failed shells both fire when we try them again.

Best I can figure, the gun might have had grease, dirt, or gunk accumulated in the channel that the firing pin pops out of. Combine that with the cold wet conditions and there must have been just enough friction to slow the speed and force of the firing pin enough that the primer wasn't being hit hard enough to detonate. We tried to remedy the potential issue by putting a drop of oil on the opening of the firing pin channel and dry firing the rifle a bunch of times (with snap cap dummy rounds), then repeated that many times. The gun has never again failed to fire but I have lost confidence in that rifle.
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Huh! And nothing was done between his time out with the rifle and your firing it together?

Wonder why it would just suddenly start working again? Enough bumpy truck ride to dislodge what schmoo was slowing down the works? Or did he just have supremely bad luck and had two cartridges with very tough primers.

Weird!

What kinda rifle was it, out of sheer curoisity?
 
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