Sportsmen love to play tricks on each other. There is no limit to the creativity that Tricksters will take. The only things that change are the environment and the seasons. Fishing and hunting pranks are different. Pranks we play on kids have some limits but never turn out the way we plan.
Some of the camping pranks can also get out of hand. The black snake in the sleeping bag can cause a heart attack. I once put a dead copperhead in a guy’s sleeping bag, and he came after me with a knife! He also needed to change his pants afterwards. That one was a Backfire.
My deer hunting Buddy has lost his eyes as he aged. Hawkeye was also the first to prank any and everyone over anything. Instead of crying about his new eyeglasses, and making up excuses, I tried to make light of the situation. I made him a special pair of “shooting glasses”. As titillating as they looked, they didn’t work, and this prank Backfired too.
Anytime we are near water something wet happens. It starts with a splash, then a shove. Usually, the pushed, and pusher gets wet. There’s always the hooked hat trick that gets cast away.
One of my buddies was complaining about his orange pheasant hunting hat. The brim was too long. Finally, he threw it into the air, so I shot the brim off. That trick worked out and he wore the lucky, bill less hat with pride, and his shooting accuracy improved.
I once owed a guy a case of Moosehead Ale. He had won a bet and bugged me all Fall to pay up. I finally brought the case of longnecks to hunting camp, but he was not there. Instead of taking them home, I laid them in his sleeping bag. My plan backfired. He came to camp the next week after several below freezing, cold nights. The beer froze and the bottles broke. He wasn’t a happy camper!
On my last trip with Shrapnel, we had to use a car wash to clean the mud off his hunting ride. Next to the wash bay was a bunch of what looked like wet $100 bills. I know because Ben Franklin is one of my favorite founding fathers. Anyway, I placed $800 worth of Ben Franklins on his console and told him they were gas money. I usually donate gas money, but this was way too extreme. At first, he was excited and surprised until he saw that the bills were fake and were from Halloween. Even my 5-year-old grandson figured out they were fake when I tried to give him one.
Another friend was given some fake $100 Trump for president dollars. Trump’s face was on a $100 bill that I found at the end of my street. These fake bills are slightly larger than a real bill. I simply added one to his Christmas card for fun. Little did I know that he thought it was real! This trick Backfired! When he went to spend it, the cashier brought security over to deal with him. Fortunately, he had a credit card so he could pay up.
That’s what you get for not sending back a Thank You card!
Montana Grant
