Including a 6-point bull elk I had my sights on my very first time hunting.
I pulled the trigger. Nothing. Panicked, I re-chambered my rifle, ejecting a perfectly good round before I realized what was going on and lost the shot. To make matters worse, I was down in a meadow and within the range of fire for the rest of our hunting party, preventing them from taking a shot. To add a final insult to injury, that was the only bull elk anyone saw the whole week we were up there.
I never went elk hunting again.
Drew, I never use the safety on my go to rifle, my Marlin lever 30-30.
But I just bought my first tree stand and because I had to climb the ladder and get hooked up, I had the safety on.
Anyway, sure enough a decent buck comes out where I was looking - aim - click. Nothing.
Damn! A story I’m not proud to tell.