Good advice Art,
You reminded me of another "lost" adventure.
About 18 years ago I bought a Remington Model 7 rifle in .308, I changed the walnut stock over to a black Bell and Carlson Synthetic Stock.
One rainy dark day my partner and I were hunting deer about 2 miles in the bush. At lunch I set down my unloaded rifle, made a fire, toasted my sandwiches, boiled the tea pail, told some stories ... then spent we 15 minutes looking for my rifle!
It turned out to be a lot closer to where I was sitting than what I thought and I had missed it the first time I quickly checked the area.
An old guy I used to work with told me that people spend a large portion of there lives "looking for something", and I can believe this because I search for stuff all the time. I keep a running list of things I cannot find (currently my L.L. Bean boots, Altoid PSK, brass Silva Pin-on Compass, light axe head, trolling minnow bucket ...).
The same guy used the saying, "Look Once, Look Well", that way when you were done checking one spot you did not doubt youself and go back to check the same place again.
Yup, live and learn.
Mike
A little off-topic but this reminds me of three tales in one.
(Caution: very lengthy post from new user!)
When I was studying in South Africa in 2006, my landlord (and environmental education lecturer and shooting instructor) had 750 acres of hunting land, full of steep kloofs (gullies) with dense, often thorny undergrowth of acacias, prickly pear cactus and so on. Challenging terrain to hunt in.
I shot a bush buck there and when I set off with my landlord to the other side of the gully, I took the bolt out of the .25-06 Ruger model 77 and put it in the pocket of my jacket, which I left close to the rifle. This to make it a little safer to leave the rifle behind. I carried my friend's Garand to follow up on the buck (botched my first shot a bit and eventually headshot him in very dense undergrowth as it was still alive and bush buck have a fearsome reputation when injured and cornered) while he went off to drive the toyota hilux up around the other side of the gully.
My landlord and I field-dressed the buck, took its head off and put it in the chest cavity to make it easier to carry, and slowly made our way out of the gully, leaving the Garand propped up against a tree.
When we got back to where I'd left the .25-06, the bolt was missing from my jacket (zipped up pocket, no holes) and when we made our way down the gully to pick up the M1, it wasn't where I'd left it either... I was nervous, thinking baboons might have taken off with it, but ended up finding the Garand almost hidden, next to another tree. We had to return another day with a borrowed metal detector to find the Ruger's bolt buried underneath a nearby patch of leaves.
That friend of mine turns out to have bouts of kleptomanic and obsessive lying behaviour. Never go hunting with someone like that!
I tied the buck's head to a tree to let ants take care of the cleaning up, but the skull eventually vanished. The taxidermists that I left the skin with, went out of business.
All I have left are pictures of that hunt and a slightly sour after-taste.
Edit:
Notice the missing bolt.
Regarding colour choices: "wild camping" (i.e. not on a registered camp ground) is illegal here in Holland, so when I do it (often) I use/wear gear that is fairly inconspicuous (Army surplus poncho as a tarp, neutral coloured or green backpacks, etc.) and try to keep track of everything. I keep my wallet (containing bare minumum) in a zipped pocket of my pack.
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