I once camped with a friend the night before deer season opened. Woke up early, headed down to where the stands are.
After several hours a good looking doe wanders into range. At about 130 yards I shoot her with a .30'06 that two nights before I had used to knock golf balls off a fence post at 100 yards.
She just stands there.
Jack the bolt back and forward, place the cross hairs, shoot again.
She looks over towards me.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
She gets bored after the third shot and wanders back into the woods. I wait a bit, climb down, and spend a few hours looking for blood trails. Found nothing.
Never did figure out what had happened. The next day I used my buddy's .25'06 to take a doe. Checked my rifle the next weekend - it was dead on at 100 yards.
Ten years later we are hanging out shooting rifles. I fill a gallon jug with water and put it on the berm at about 75 yards. My friend picks up my rifle and misses by at least a foot. Shoots again with the same result. The curse has returned.
I check the scope mount - it's fine. Nothing loose on the rifle. I look at the ground and see one of his .25'06 cases with a badly swollen mouth. I mention to him that something really odd is going on... and suddenly it clicks. He had loaded my rifle with his ammo. A decade before I'd woken up in the dark in a below freezing tent and grabbed a few of his shells and done the same thing. By the time I was done looking for any sign I'd hit that doe it was dark and I never retrieved the cases, so I had wondered for years what had happened.
I always double check ammo now, but I did manage to load one round of 9mm into a .40 magazine. The top round. Then I chambered it and holstered the pistol before driving across the state... I'd been at a machine gun shoot all day, and had dumped my carry ammo into a pocket on my range bag to load up with ball to shoot at steel plates. I then spend much of the day playing with various 9mm subguns. Got home, took my holster off before going to bed, and heard an odd rattling noise. Glad I didn't need my pistol that day!
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