Your bushcraft blunders and failures

[Harvestman]

Here's hoping this could be educational.

There are a few threads about Useless Kit, and the like, but what about when it was all your own fault? Let's hear about your blunders, failures, self-induced disasters, and downright stupidity. Hopefully we can have a laugh and learn what not to do at the same time. There are already threads about "How I injured myself carelessly with an axe/knife" so lets see if we can expand it to mistakes in general, such as cooking, fires, improper use of kit, navigation errors, clumsiness, and general brain-freeze moments.

Top of my list (a long list) is using white spirit in a meths stove, indoors, in a confined space, with my back to an inwards opening door so that when the invetibale huge fireball occurred I was much too close and had nowhere to go. :yikes::twak:

 

[andybysea]

I put this up a good few yrs ago, i used to camp at some remote beaches surrounded by cliff's id gone out one day to it just for a walk,good 1.5hrs walk from my house, i had climbed down to the beach the normal way and once down decided to recce, to see if i could find other routes back up, i saw what looked like a gradual slope up and set on up.The more i climbed the steeper it got, but instead of turning back i co ti ued on up and the gradual to steep walk became almost a climb, until i reached a point i could go no further up (sheer rock) then as i realised id need to go back, it dawned on me i maybe stuck. Under foot was moss,scree,rock and all loose and in parts slippy, i hadnt told anyone were i was going facing down nothing but beach and see and 100ft of sheer cliff bebind. Bu**er i thought. I finally plucked up enough courage and went down on my bum legs and hands, took me ages shredding my trousers, finally at the bottom the adrenalin pumping i made the 1.5hr trip home in under 40 mins. I dont know why i did it i hate heights anyway defo lesson learned.

 

[Bishop]

The dangers of carrying condensed milk.
Ever since the little sets of travel bottles appeared in £shops they have been a regular part of my loadout for carrying brew-kit and cooking supplies. They're just the right size for a weekend and the contents can be identified at a glance, well most of the time. During summer trips however there's a joker in the pack. After one particular hazy day hike pausing a couple of times to rest, hydrate and admire the scenery things etc inside the pack had got a little disorganised. When I finally set up camp for the night I was really looking forward to my reward of the day. That rich cup of steaming coffee, the real stuff not instant powder and ruined a perfect moment with a generous squeeze of sunblock into my mug.

 

[Harvestman]

The dangers of carrying condensed milk.
Ever since the little sets of travel bottles appeared in £shops they have been a regular part of my loadout for carrying brew-kit and cooking supplies. They're just the right size for a weekend and the contents can be identified at a glance, well most of the time. During summer trips however there's a joker in the pack. After one particular hazy day hike pausing a couple of times to rest, hydrate and admire the scenery things etc inside the pack had got a little disorganised. When I finally set up camp for the night I was really looking forward to my reward of the day. That rich cup of steaming coffee, the real stuff not instant powder and ruined a perfect moment with a generous squeeze of sunblock into my mug.

That is brilliant!

 

[Stevenm]

If you keep going off the beaten track the track may well decide its time to beat you back

http://m.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news...lowing_cliff_fall_at_St_Alban_s_Head/?ref=mr&

3 weeks in hospital and 3 months off work

 

[Harvestman]

I should re-share this one of mine too

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=88507

 

[Gcckoka]

Well I'm sure I will have much but nothing comes in mind
This may not be bushcrafty but its funny
I was 12 years old it was the second season my father took me with him hunting with my own shotgun , everyday he told me keep it on safe until the bird comes out , I am a lefty when it comes to shooting a firearm so the safe on the shotgun was on the other side of where my hand was and I thought I lose time while turning the safe off and then take the shot , so the hunting day was a success and we're at the end of the day , and we are on the last steps before the field ends , and bam my english pointer Max froze next to me , I saw this and I thought "bro you have had the safe on the whole day , this is the last shot probably for the day , so I'll take the safety off so that I can guaranty the quail" so I turned the safe off and the bird came out unexpectedly if flew right next to my face and by instict I fired gun right away , thank god I always had my shotgun pointing up , so my father who was next to me saw this and I'm thinking "bro you screwed up sooo mucchhhh he will never take you with him hunting again , its the end , what to do what to do and the light in my head went on , idea , I will start crying so that my father sees that I understand what I did I am sorry and he won't be mad at me" and I started crying like never before And it worked he didn't say a word until we arrived home and than the anger was gone and I came out with few warnings and few threats but nothing serious

 

[jimbo75]

Three bushcraft greenhorns, halfway up a mountainside in snowdonia, raining like crazy,
all trying to sleep under one DD tarp.
got everything soaked. But one of us had bought half a fresh trout to eat, which luckily didn't poison us and was actually quite delicious.

 

[Nice65]

If you keep going off the beaten track the track may well decide its time to beat you back

http://m.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news...lowing_cliff_fall_at_St_Alban_s_Head/?ref=mr&

3 weeks in hospital and 3 months off work

Ooof, was that you fella?

 

[woof]

As a youngster in the late 60's, a group of us decided to go camping in a wood, no such thing as bushcraft back then or wild camping, well not to us anyway. So of we go, we set up camp, sat round for a bit, then had breakfast. Went off, explored, climbed tree's etc, got back to camp & had dinner or lunch, depending if you are from the north or south.... Explored some more, had a game of football, & we were all truly tired out, went back to camp & had our tea or dinner...
Anyway, we didn't have a watch between us, so asked someone who was walking by what the time was, yep it was 10.00 am !& we had eaten a weekends worth of food. As it dawned on us, the prospect of a hungry day & night lay ahead, the "gang" started to drift away home(it was only a 10 minute walk), I stuck it out until 1600 on my own, then went home for tea.

Rob

 

[Mesquite]

I went to a meet 6 or 7 years ago.

I decided to have a cuppa after setting up so went to get the stove out only to find instead of the stove in it's case I'd picked up the case containing my cordless drill.

Luckily I had a trangia stove as backup so all was not a total disaster

 

[John Fenna]

In my youth I was crossing Kinder Scout - a "there and back" trip from Edale YHA to the path to another YHA to drop off a group who were not confidant about their navigation.
Easy peasy getting them to their drop off and I returned solo.
The weather was iffy - snow on the ground, snow showers, poor visibility and a biting wind - and rather than freeze my hands I decided to leave map and compass in my pocket and just keep the wind on my left cheek ...
When I realized that I was walking parallel to our outward footprints ( my tread was distinctive from bad cuts in the lugs of the sole) I was at first confused and then realised that the wind had backed (or veered) and I had walked in a circle!
I then got the map and compass out....

 

[forrestdweller]

last year I had a reunion/meeting with a friend I'd met travelling a few years ago when he was passing (for one evening) through the area where I worked. He camped at a spot I'd scouted out, but it was already dark when we arrived and set up camp; after starting the campfire we went to a spring maybe 300m-- 400m away to get some drinking water. In the meantime the fire had burned down (! take note: no risk of fire "" escaping"" during our absence!)--------> it took us quite some time to find the camp again.......
We were about a km away from civilisation so no risk of serious problem(s) but lesson learned : keep a light burning in your camp when you leave! or at least something reflecting (when your heads torch shines on it)......



despite this small incident we had a great night at the campfire .....

 

[Stevenm]

Ooof, was that you fella?

Unfortunately yes

 

[Macaroon]

Unfortunately yes

Fair play to you for posting it and putting your hands up to it!

 

[nic a char]

Running in the Pentland Hills we were suddenly enclosed in mist - 5 metres visibility. Over-confident with our "familiar" sheep-tracks, we ran on - & got lost...
We did have bum-bags with wet weather gear + rations, & there's always plenty clean fresh water in the Scottish hills BUT - very tired, we eventually found a burn, followed it down to a road, & followed that to a town, miles out of our way = MAP & COMPASS ALWAYS!!!

 

[bob_the_bomb]

At the beginning of my Army training in the 1980's we were issued with a Silva orienteering compass for map reading exercises. We were to carry them in the top pocket of our combat jackets.

As a cunning plan I found a sunglasses sleeve that would fit nicely over the compass in order to protect it if I took a dive. Even cleverer, I cut a small hole in the corner so I could thread the cord through it so I could tie the compass to the button hole and not lose it. I was a switched on young soldier (or so I thought!).

On an overnight 'pontoon' orienteering exercise on Salisbury Plain, carrying full bergan, I found myself temporarily geographically embarrassed. I was stood on the top of a spur looking out over a valley as I expected, but the terrain in the valley didn't match the map.

I took the compass out again to check the bearing. As I slid the compass out of the sleeve I saw the needle rock back and forth. I had chosen the most Gucci sunglasses sleeve I could find. It had a metal spring collar that was intended to stop the glasses sliding out. What I hadn't realised was that, if I didn't slide the compass all of the way out, the spring steel was pulling the compass off course. Ever so slightly, but enough to send me along the wrong spur at night...😳

I've only just replaced the Silva compass as the luminous paint had failed. I still use a sunglasses sleeve and cord. Needless to say the sleeve doesn't have a spring in it!

 

[Baelfore]

Last year a friend of mine joined me at a site at a spot for the night. The following morning was a chilly one so I popped a billy on the fire to boil some water. Friend gets up and we start chatting. He begins to talk about the top he was wearing, saying that alothugh he got in in a charity store and it had no label on it, he KNOWS that it is 100% wool. Conversation moves on and the water is boiled, after taking it off the coals, I went to find the blackened, damp, folded up tea towl to help me pour the water. friend jumps in saying that as his top is wool he'll just use his sleeve. Not one to argue early in the morning, I let him have at it. As I'm sure you guessed, the top turned out to be 100%arcrilic and resulted in the top melting and causing some fairly painful (though none to serious) plastic burns on his hand and arm. my 10cm zebra still has some melted plastic seared on to the handle!

atb,
Ste

 

[bob_the_baker]

While just starting out on a DofE night hike, my second suggested we put our torches on. It was a clear night and there was a reasonable moon coming up so I said not to bother as our eyes would adjust soon enough, at which point I walked in to a harrow, measured my length, smashing the bottle of "medicine" in my chest pocket and narrowly avoided missing smashing my face.

Lesson learnt - either wait 10 minutes or use the torch

 

[stone monkey]

Sort of bushcraft, many years ago when at scout camp, in the days when cooking over a fire was the norm, we used to make an oven with one of the old square biscuit tins covered in mud . We cooked the chicken perfectly but the pudding was tinned treacle sponge, and neglecting to read the instructions we did not pierce the tin before putting it in the oven.Some time later the oven door blew off as the tin exploded, and the rest of the day was spent removing said treacle sponge from the outside of the tent, which if i remember correctly was a canvas vango force 10 mk 4