anyone admit to making a terrible shot

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lloyd Smale

Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2003
Messages
1,991
Location
Munising MI
I shoot alot of deer every year and take pride in the fact that i usually shoot well. Last night was an exception. Most deer we shoot are out at 300 plus yards. Last night i had one in front of me at 125 and was using my 300 H&H with a 150 tsx. Shot the deer and it dropped on the spot. It was early so i kept hunting but didnt see anything else. At dark i went over to guy it and found it laying there dead with a broken back. i was shooting right behind the shoulder and the shot felt right and hit the deer right where the hind quarters conect to the back bone. I dont remember my gun getting bumped so i cant blame the gun or scope but i will either check it today if i have time or grab a different rifle till i have time to. I think what happened was that it was such a short shot i didnt take my time and just thought it was a chip shot. It taught me a lesson though. A guys got to take the same attitude toward a shot on live game at 50 yards as he does at 500. I just as easily could have sent that deer off to die a terrible death.
 
Yes and no....I harvested a really nice mule deer buck last fall. Range was about 300 yards, and one shot dropped him where he stood. When I got to him, I was absolutely shocked to discover I'd sent a 160 gr Partition just below his eye and out by his ear. I was going for a "standard" shoulder shot, using a rifle I typically shoot quite well with. I'm not sure what exactly happened, how I missed my mark by so much, but as they say, all is well that ends well. The deer dropped on the spot, no meat was ruined, and thankfully the rack was completely intact. It was my largest mule deer to date after 23 years of hunting, so buck fever may well have played its part, though that typically isn't an issue for me
 
Last edited:
Guilty.

Almost everybody who has hunted much at all has made that kind of shot. The reasons are many and varied. We all try NOT to do that, but stuff happens. Mechanical, mental, flukes, --there are a zillion little gremlins who just love to muck up a shot when they get the chance.
 
Blah, got you beat.... I was 13-14, was one of my first deer hunting trips. I was using a 12 gauge with 00buck(my dad just wanted me to have my first kill). So here I am sitting as patiently on a log as I could. I had a 6 pointer come within 20-25 yards of me. When I squeezed the trigger, I feel off the log and shaking like a leaf. I missed by a good 3-4 yards... After that I never used a shotgun for anything other than clay pigeons again. I took many deer after that with various calibers (270,30-06..etc) my longest shot before I quit hunting was 309 yards with a 30-06 and dead centered the heart.

Trust me I love laughing and telling people that they are safe as long as I have a shotgun.....

I learned what "buck fever" is. I was shaking like a leaf just from seeing my first buck....
 
critter said:
Guilty.

Almost everybody who has hunted much at all has made that kind of shot. The reasons are many and varied. We all try NOT to do that, but stuff happens. Mechanical, mental, flukes, --there are a zillion little gremlins who just love to muck up a shot when they get the chance.
Click to expand...

Yep. Hunt long enough and sooner or later it will happen. Well.............except for some on the internet. For them it is only one shot DRTs or clean misses.....;)
 
Mine is also a yes and no. I was about 14 or 15 and took a shot at way farther than I should have at a deer. I was aiming for a heart shot and ended up hitting him right where the neck and spine meet. He dropped DRT so he didn't suffer but it taught me a valuable lesson to never shoot if I am not absolutely certain that I can make the shot.
 
I guess about every HONEST hunter has a story. The important thing is what we learn from it. I like to say i will never get complasant about a short shot again but im sure 5 years from now and 300 deer from now it will come back and bite me again.
 
Only when my rifle/shotgun/bow is acting the fool and doesn't do what it's supposed to. :evil:

Yeah, the last deer I shot, a doe so big I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, snuck up on me while I was getting my climber hooked onto the tree. She was uphill from me and had me dead-to-rights at about 30 yards. Luckily enough, I had already shouldered my rifle and was watching her, one eye through the scope. As she began to walk away I squeezed off a round that should have, if I'd taken the extra 2 seconds to close my other eye and make sure the crosshairs were where they should have been, taken out the heart and put her down where she stood. She ran like a wild woman on speed, luckily down the mountain. I found her about 100 yards later with a blown out shoulder. Had to put another one in her to finish the job. The thing that bothered me the most was that it took two shots to end it. I'm a big proponent of a clean kill. This one was anything but.

But, as many have said, you hunt long enough it's gonna happen. At least I was able to recover her.
 
Yeah I've had some bad shots before I've missed several times my worst shot had to be on the first deer I've ever killed it was a nice doe and I had a good rest I thought the shot was good because it dropped right there well because my shot went in behind the ear and out the other side. I think she took a step back as I shot.
 
I made an awful gut shot on a doe with a bow at only 25 yards. The arrow entered the belly at least 18" back of where I thought I shot. I found the arrow covered with brown goo. I followed the goo trail and it started turning to blood. The deer was laying dead about 50 yards up the trail. The arrow had also passed through her udder and struck some kind of artery plus punctured the rear leg.
God gave me a gift that evening. I still use the same type broadhead.
 
I have always hunted with a rifle or a magnum revolver caliber carbine, but prefer to be inside 30-35 yds when I take the shot. I've never taken a 100-yd shot in my life. I've never had a real runner, and I always collect my kill immediately. I have never HAD to shoot a deer twice, but will frequently put a second round in the head on a downed animal. I hate seeing them suffer. I like hunting hogs with my SKS because I tend to double-tap if I have to take a body shot rather than neck.

I don't worry about meat loss. Some is more than none, and dead quick is better than dead slow.
 
You know thinking more about this I and I think everyone here is really only considering big game. Most of my hunting shots come at small game. I prefer to do my small game hunting with a .22 over a shotgun which as we can all agree increases difficulty. And being that there isn't a whole lot of meat on a squirrel, or even a rabbit really, I always opt for a head shot. This being the case the margin for error is small with 99% of shots resulting in either a clean miss or a dead animal. It's that 1% that we have to be mindful of.

Actually the last squirrel I took last season was just such a shot. I had a good solid rest and held the crosshairs right between the ear and eye. Right as I broke the shot he decided to bark and moved his head back ever so slightly so that the bullet hit him just in front of the eye. This knocked him out of the tree and he fell to the ground. After he hit the ground he started to do what I thought was a "death dance" from a good brain shot, but then he ran back toward the tree and tried to climb it again. Knowing that something was wrong at this point I shifted the scope over to him and sent a second .22 into the base of his skull.

While cleaning him I could clearly see where the first shot had took out his near eye, all of his sinus cavity, and fractured the brain pan (don't know the technical term). This would have most definitely been a fatal shot as he was bleeding profusely and would have never been able to eat or drink again even if he had survived the blood loss. However it was still a bad shot on my part and caused the animal to suffer unduely. The entire ordeal from the first shot to the second was probably about 3 seconds long but in my opinion even that is too long.

I think that sharing and remembering all of these bad shots is actually a good thing for all of us as it reminds us, even if we haven’t made one ourselves, that mistakes do indeed happen but it is our responsibility as responsible hunters to do everything in our power to prevent these accidents.
 
My first deer kill was from a less than ideal shot. I was 18, sitting alone in the blind, and had never taken a shot at a deer before. I was so new to hunting that I had to borrow clothes from one of my friends. I had a smallish deer walk onto the field about 70 yards out. I waited to see if anything else would follow it in. With the light failing and nothing larger in the area, I settled the crosshair just behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger. It was a "bang-flop". When I went to collect the deer, It was pretty clear that I had gut shot it. At least it didn't suffer. Since then, I have tried to make more ethical and clean kills. I had a good sized doe dead to rights, but did not take the shot because I had good reason to believe that I had knocked my scope out of zero.
 
Yep, deer are funny creatures.

I took a shot at one that must have had military training... just as I shot she dove forward.
Front legs straight out, body flat to the ground.

My shot caught her in the hind quarters as she lunged and hit the spine.
Follow up shot took her out but I was glad there was not a crowd at the processor.
Wasted some good meat too.

Good thing is, she can't teach that trick anymore.
 
I shot a dove one time and cleanly missed, so I thought. I stumbled across a small group of them feeding one afternoon, they took flight and I swung on the closest one. I pulled the trigger and saw the bird flicker a little bit and go into the woods. I thought for sure it was a clean miss and I imagined something. Well, I went into the woods to make sure and low and behold I saw the bird laying on the ground with 2 holes in its head. I proceeded to make sure it was dead and added it to the game bag. I can not for the life of me figure out how I over-swung on that bird, but I guess "buck fever" can do some amazing things. :)

I have also made some bad shots on nutria rats, but those were not as much a concern at the time. The local alligators would take care of the wounded rather quickly and efficiently.
 
Two deer, I was just squeezing the shot when they turned to walk away just as the sear broke and I wound up shootin' 'em in the butt. I managed to drop 'em in their tracks, anyway and the bullet penetrated the length of the deer. I got a bit lucky on that with the shot angle that I wound up presented with. One was shot with a .257 Roberts and a 117 grain Interloc, the other a .309 and 150 grain Nosler BT.

I've never lost a deer, been lucky on that, too, but I don't take iffy shots and most of the deer I've shot have been under 150 yards.

First hog I ever shot was behind the shoulder. I didn't understand pig anatomy at the time and got nothing, but guts even though I broke ribs. I had to blood trail that pig 350 yards through heavy cover and ended up getting charges before I got to him. Learned a couple of lessons that day. First, of course, is the anatomy of a pig. Second, no pork is worth risking life and limb for. :D I haven't had to blood trail a pig since, though. I did lose one I shot in the but as it was hitting the woods in my back yard several months back. It was getting dark and I didn't wanna go for a wounded pig. Lesson number 2 above. I found it the next day about 50 yards from where I shot it in heavy cover. The buzzards clued me in as to the location. :D I wouldn't have taken a shot on a deer like that, but there is another ethos for pigs around here, only good pig is a dead pig. That one died and apparently didn't suffer TOO much. .308 and a Nosler 150 on that one, too. :D
 
More than once. The worst was a face on shot on a nice mule deer buck, hit it square in the chest with a .270, it fell back on it's haunches then took off for the bottom of a canyon. Searched for a day and a half and never found it, it did not leave a blood trail that I could find, and there were literally thousands of tracks in the area.

A few other times I have missed completely, but I prefer to miss rather than make a bad hit.
 
One of the largest bucks I've killed came in right at end of shooting light. I thought he was well into the shooting lane, touched the release, heard arrow hit brush, and watched white vanes go too high.

Fortunately that time, that broadhead severed his spinal cord. Very fortunate.

A year earlier, had a twenty yard shot at at real good one. Release felt good, lost sight of the fletching, and just plain don't know what happened. My brother and I tracked him for over a mile,(dark blood) and he saw him a week or so later with another buck about a mile from where I shot him.

Yep.. The only folks that are perfect on their hits, just haven't hunted enough.
 
there isn't a hunter alive that has never fudged a shot and anyone that claims that they haven't mroe than likely has never sworn, drank, smoked, danced, or gambled.
 
Well, I for one, am proud to say that all of my shots have been clean-hits, or clean-misses. You all are correct, no truthful hunter ever has not had a bad shot.

Some shots are too far forward, too high, too low, too far back. On occasion, the shot does impact exact where intended. In my experience, it has been rare. Unless the critter is tied to a post, at an exact known distance, lots of variables can and will take effect. For my part, I was taught to shoot center-of-mass. Within the prescribed zero, and appropriate limits, the impact "should" lie within 4" high or low. Of course, then there is windage, or the critter that decides to move "just" as the trigger is squeezed. :D Yeah, that devil in the details.

Geno
 
"A" bad shot? "A" bad shot? How about eight bad shots? In a row. On one nice buck.

So I was ambling along one morning, walking hunting in the "West Pasture" of our deer-lease ranch north of Uvalde. About 2,500 acres. Fairly steep-sided hills with oak and cedar.

I spotted a sorta way-over-yonder buck across a little valley, which I guessed at maybe 400 yards. He was working a doe, trying to be persuasive. I sat down all comfy in some rocks, took a rest, and held two feet above his heart and just upwind of his nose.

Let's just say it was over 400. Bang, bang, etc. I finally figured out that I was hitting three feet downwind of his heart and about three feet below it. IOW, some 500 to 550 yards, mas o menos and breezier than I had thought. All that learning experience took eight shots, and didn't bother either deer.

Dumb me.

So Ms. Doe wanders off, leaving him all lonesome. He turned toward me and came down the hillside. I sat and waited. He finally stopped and looked in my direction, with his head all erect and proud.

Dumb him.

I held just above the tips of his antlers, and the bullet hit between the front legs, maybe four or five inches above the line of his chest.

So: A nine-shot one-hit kill. :)

So I walked the two miles back to camp and got the pickemup truck. Loaded my field-dressed buck.

Truck wouldn't start.

So I walked the two miles back to camp, took the battery out of my VW bus and carried it and jumper cables the two miles back to the truck.

I sure am glad he was a decent buck. :D
 
I missed a dove sitting on a barb wire fence from about 20 yards about 40 years ago. My huntin buddy reminds me of it every time he sees me with a shotgun in my hand!!!! That is a lot of times in 40 years....boy I wish I would have hit that dove....
 
I had a terrible shot about 5 years ago. My buddy and I were walking back towards the truck and about 200 yards in front of us was a good size doe. We stopped and watched her for a minute and I decided to take the shot (I had a 30.06, he had a 30-30). 200 yards is a bit farther than a normal shot where I live. I'd say on average most shots are well within the 100 yard mark. There were no obstructions or anything, I had a perfectly clear shot at her. I pulled the trigger and the instant I did, she spun. The bullet literally hit her between the eyes. She dropped on the spot, it was a humane kill but still not something I felt good about for some reason. In fact I still don't feel good about it all of these years later. Not sure why, I just don't I guess.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

L
  • Locked
strike 4 with a barnes tsx
2 3 4 5 6 7
Replies
151
Views
12K
ZeroJunk
ZeroJunk
someguy2800
  • Locked
Don’t shoot deer in the butt
2
Replies
47
Views
4K
MCgunner
M
courtgreene
  • Locked
Terminal performance of shots fired
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
horsey300
H
S
  • Locked
TWO DEER W/ ONE BULLET?
2
Replies
29
Views
4K
mohican
M
B
  • Locked
What are the farthest and closet shots kill shot made
2 3 4
Replies
76
Views
6K
Paul7
Paul7
Back
Top