Let's Hear About MISSES on Game

[35 Whelen]

O.K. we've all read and told of our cross-county type shots at game and we've read the tales of members shooting prairie dogs in the head at nigh on 1/2 mile, but let's have a thread about misses, or worse yet, game that was hit but got away. I'll humble myself and go first:

I've missed my share of game in 30+ years of hunting, but the one that really sticks out was a buck that a buddy of mine jumped out of his bed in some post oaks. The buck ran into a clearing and stood not 50 yds. from me. I rested my 6.5 against a mesquite tree, hastily aimed behind his shoulder and let go the first round expecting him to drop. Nope. He just stood there staring at me. Repeat. Same result. Repeat. Same result. Finally, with the fourth shot, he leaped into the air, ran a few yards and fell. I could see hair drifting down at the place he had been standing. I had finally hit him in the throat and he was quite dead. "Hmph", I thought..."my rifle must be off". Check my rifle and it was still hitting exactly where it was supposed to be. Definitely a case of buck fever.

NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!

35W

 

[CBS220]

One time I was shooting at a groundhog.

I aimed for his head, centered him in the reticle, and pulled the trigger.

And I missed!

I spent agonizing hours wondering what went wrong. Naturally, it was the ammo. Or maybe the barrel wasn't good enough for a sub 100 yard shot? No, it was the trigger, definitely. Or the scope, yeah, I bet the scope was all out of whack! Possibly the bases.

But I didn't miss that groundhog of my own doing, that's for sure!

 

[Jason_G]

About three seasons ago. Not a total miss, but I would've rather it been.
I shot at the biggest buck I've ever seen in the woods. Huge rack- I know everybody who misses one says that, but it was true this time. Shot must've been low. I got a spot of thick blood and a tuft of hair-white-, but not much blood. Tracked as far as I could, and made circles for three days, but never found him. I hope he healed up and was OK. Made me pretty sick. I hate to lose any deer, but especially the buck of a lifetime.

Jason

 

[.38 Special]

Excellent thread!

I have not told this story to anyone, because I was and am ashamed of it.

I once gut shot a wild boar with a .45 Colt, heavy loaded in a 5 shot conversion. I was young and egotistical and I thought I was capable of making the 100 yard shot with iron sights, because I could make that shot from a benchrest. I tried it from kneeling. Later range practice showed that I could make that shot from kneeling about 75% of the time. Doubtless the boar would have been happy to know it.

As it was, he undoubtedly suffered a horrible and agonizing death over the course of many days, because I was unable to track him through the dense California chaparral.

So for those of you who have been offended by my posts on the subject of long distance hunting, there you go. Please, know you can make the hit. Trying is an evil thing.

 

[ziggy222]

35whelen that really did seem like bad ammo.i only use ammo i made myself now.

 

[Chrome]

I missed a ground hog at 265 yards today. Still have no idea how I missed him. I'm half convinced he lived long enough to go back down into his hole.

Later,
Chrome...

 

[yesit'sloaded]

I missed a squirrel about 5 times in 3 seconds with #6. Little booger then ran down the tree, got on a fence post, and I swear he shot me the bird. Too bad he forgot about that sixth shell. Leaves from the tree were still raining down as I blasted his smug furry butt.

 

[LJ-MosinFreak-Buck]

+1 on .38 Special.

My miss was the first shot at a deer I have ever taken.

My Muzzleloader's rear-sight fell of while walking through the brush (who would've thought CVA didn't tighen their screws for the rear-sight at the factory... This was on a Wolf 209 50 cal) Well any ways, the sight fell off so we (me and step-dad) rigged a primer and duct-tape to hold the primer to the gun (yes I know, a little redneck, but it was good for ~25 yards).

A nice doe pops out (either-or-tag, but I've always liked doe meat better, and she was a cow of a deer) going at a full run, me being naive decided to try and lead the shot. Well I missed. She ran. Step-Dad came running in, panting and asks, "Did ya hit anything with that?"

I told him "No, I missed."

Well anyway, we get back home and call CVA. They said that they didn't (at the time, I don't know about now) tighten them because supposedly they "let the hunter fine-tune it the gun". Oh well. They sent a free replacement, go to the range, sight in, and torqued that sucker down.

Now the gun is good to go.

 

[35 Whelen]

35whelen that really did seem like bad ammo.i only use ammo i made myself now.

No way. Even with "bad ammo", a 50 yd. shot with a scoped rifle at a buck standing broadside is a gimme. And I meticulously handload all my ammunition and am very particular about accuuracy. I also know myself too well and realized that I rushed every shot at that buck and I probably jerked the trigger so hard, that it's a small wonder that I didn't pull the entire trigger assembly as well as the trigger guard right out of the stock.

35W

 

[PotatoJudge]

I might have made three or four complete misses because of buck fever. That was one lucky buck. Now I make sure to take at least 5 rounds while hunting.

When I was learning to hunt and didn't shoot but for sighting in my rifle, I made a few shots I shouldn't have. Missing your one shot at a deer any given year is a painful lesson and each miss or startled animal is a lesson I won't forget. I'm just lucky not to have wounded any animals.

 

[Wildfire]

Well !

Hey There;
Only if you don't tell any one. Last fall, Hunting a farm. Was sitting 20 yards away. Got up, Raining hard, going back to the truck 50 yards away. THERE in the barn yard, ( No cows any more) lay a gunnie sack. I need a gunnie sack.
Walked over to it and , HOLY CRAP. The biggest buck I have seen in years jumped up and left. I just stood there and watched. Never even try'd.
What the ? 10 yards ????? Hunted that spot the rest of the year. Never saw him again.

Shot at 8 point at 150 yards ????? aimed right for that spine. (always) sitting w/ bi-pod. clear shot. Went 1" too high. Took 1 1/2" chunck out of the top of the back. My son Killed it. No Blood from my shot... He was only 90 yards. DA.
Had a coon becoming a problem. Took my Ruger .22 Gov, mod . out and at about 60 yards pulled up and the damm thing just kind of went off. I wasn't really ready to shoot. Didn't even aim yet. just getting ready to say OPPPS.
My wife standing there says wow you sure are a good shot. That coon fell out of the tree dead. OPPPS. Don't tell her this. I want her to think I'm really that fast and that good.

After 35 years of hunting I could go on. but some one else needs some time here too.

 

[yesit'sloaded]

Figure a deer kill zone at broadside at 10 inches. At 50 yards even shooting 20 MOA would be a killshot.

 

[KC0QGL]

I missed a squirrel about 5 times in 3 seconds with #6

Don't feel too bad. The first time I tried to shoot a rabbit I missed the fury little snot 30+ times in about 2min. at only 5 FEET. Then my Dad got him at 60+ feet with his old Win. Mod. 1906 .22 right in the neck. Also the first time I saw blood spray on the ground.

 

[yesit'sloaded]

For some reason every time I talk about quail hunting there is some old guy around that starts laughing and says "I used to hunt those things with a little .22 pistol". I have had some unspeakable days dove hunting. Next season I think I'll leave the gun and bring a sack of rocks. I might kill more that way.

 

[dutch pirate]

I grew up shooting a rifle, but the last 4 years I have been shotgunning only, so I was out of touch with a rifle (and aiming at something in general). Last fall, the future inlaws wanted me to shoot a doe for them for meat. It was important because it was the first time they let me hunt on their place. They had seen of pictures of and heard stories from all my hunting escapades, so they believe me to be a decent hunter. Grandpa was even asking me to shoot it in the head to not ruin any meat. No problem I thought, no shot on this place is more than 70 yards.
I borrowed one of their rifles (1st mistake, now I can't blame the rifle). and proceeded to miss 4 times at 4 differrent deer in about 2 hours. (Did I mention it was overpopulated?) Frustrated and embarassed, I went back and got MY shotgun, and I didn't miss the next one with 3.5" 000 Buck. Trauma wise, that was really gruesome, and it was kind of hard to process a deer with the head blown nearly clean off. They still rib me about missing 4 times. What can I say? There is a lot more space around the deer, then there is inside of them.
Lesson learned: I bought my own rifle. It is mine, and I know that is is on.

 

[juk]

I hit a doe but never found her. It was late in the afternoon, just about dark, and she and a few of her friends came out of the woods. We lasered the distance later and it came back at 198 yards. I was using a much lighter bullet than normal and the shot was downhill. I set up and took the shot. The bullet hit. We tracked the trail for a solid 200 yards before it just vanished. I spent 4 hours looking for her, trying to make the worthless dog pick up the trail, and getting lost. No luck. Second time I had ever had crosshairs on a deer.

The first time I went hunting, I borrowed everything from a friend and went to his camp. They set me up on a nice field and sure enough there was a little doe that came out just before it got dark. It looked small, so I whistled, hollered, yelled, and threw stuff at it. It only got closer so I figured "why not? Its my last day anyway..." gun went up, trigger came back, deer fell down. I hate to say that I had the chance to see firsthand what a 30-06 will do if you put a round in the gut.

 

[Chuck R.]

One miss so far, but it was embarrassing.

It was a chamois at about 225 meters in Austria across a small valley. The guide had told me earlier that I had zero’d too high and I put the bullet just over his back. He also said 200 meters and I swore it had to be further, so I held high, but still on its back. I broke the shot, the chamois looked over it's back and the guide said the equivalent of “too high” in German, sort of a “I told you so”. The buck ran a little higher up and stopped to look back, I held lower and it was the last mistake he ever made.

I got ribbed about “too high” the rest of the time I was there. The next two were perfect shots though.

Chuck

 

[Win75]

OK, I will fess up and tell this one. This past deer season, brand new 15 foot elevated deer stand, a doe 12 yards from the base of the stand, and I missed with my .243!!!

She ran into the woods, circled around, and came to the other side of the stand about 12 yards away and I put her down that time.

First time I told anyone about this.

 

[tjj]

Well I've told this story to a couple people. I guess a few hundred more won't hurt anything.

I was target shooting years back with a buddy and his wife at some abandoned gravel pit. I had a SW 66, he used a SW 586, she had some kind of .38 special I think. We shot for about a half hour at paper pie plates at 10 yds or so and then went to a dump site to do some plinking. It was lots of fun shooing cans and bottles in a shallow pond. We were all pretty confident after a while.
Then pops up a nutria rat near the waters edge across the pond. We all scramble over and I figured it would be a gonna after the first couple of shots from anyone of us.
Long story short, we all emptied ours six shooters at about 10 to 15 feet range and the damn rat gulped some air, went under and swam off.
Moral of the story is, don't forget to practice at point blank range too.

 

[Hutch]

My first ever shot at a deer.

I was sitting on a fallen log with turnbolt '06 with 3x9 scope across the lap and a Redhawk .44m in a strongside holster. The fallen log is just past the edge of VERY small clearing maybe 20 or so feet at my BACK. I'm facing downhill watching a bend in a creek, and I expect to see deer down there. I begin to hear dogs barking, as in "running a deer". I simply squirm and expect to see deer running the creek bottom below me, if at all. Louder and louder, and BEHIND me. I can stand it no longer, get up and take a couple of steps thru the brush and then into the tiny clearing, toward the dogs. Rifle at port arms, safety off, good trigger discipline (for now). Into the clearing bursts a little doe. I was close enough to her that I could actually see her eyes bug out (that really happens!). She slammed on the brakes, I am bringing the rifle up and BLAMMO, discharge without any sight picture. She takes off, and I stand there stupidly, trying to figure out what just happened. At this point the dogs then appear in the clearing and slam on the brakes as well. Did I mention Stupidly? I simply pointed in the direction the doe sped off and said (I'm not making this up!) THAT WAY!!!, like a bad actor playing an Indian. I take the 5 or six steps to where the doe's front hooves dug in on the panic stop. They were at least in inch into the soft ground. No blood, no hair, no nuthin'.

I thiink I could have pulled out the Ruger and gunned her down double action at the range I missed with a rifle. If I had stayed put on the log, I think she would have jumped it with me sitting on it. What a yutz....

 

[BoilerUP]

I was 11 years old on my first deer hunt with an old iron sight T/C Renegade muzzeloader...and missed a doe at a distance of about 20 yards. I was shaking like a LEAF at that deer but just KNEW I hit it...how could I have missed with a rifle when I could have knocked her cold with a baseball? After looking 30 minutes of looking for a blood trail and finding none, grandpa told me he thought the deer looked just fine when it ran off and that I wasn't the first hunter to miss their first deer.

Later that day I shot a doe at about 60 yards with the same muzzleloader and hit her high, thankfully in the spine just behind the shoulder. She made the most gawdawful moan I've ever heard an animal make, and feel into a dry creekbed. When we got to her she was DRT.

A few weeks later during gun season a 6 pointer cruised by maybe 50-60 yards in front of us and I was shaking so bad I missed him TWICE with my Savage 110 .270. After my second shot missed I heard BOOM and my granddad had uncorked his 7mmMag into a tree about 10 yards in front of the running deer, turning it around. It finally stopped about 45 yards in front of me, half behind a tree. I fired a third shot that found its way right into the boiler room, and it made it maybe 15 yards before collapsing. The poor small buck probably died from adrenaline OD instead of the bullet...

Before deer season the following year, I received a scoped T/C Nighthawk to use for muzzleloader from gramps and shot a box of ammo through the 270 at a paper plate at 100yds.

Since then, I've had buck fever a couple times but (thankfully) always been steady enough to make an accurate, proper shot.

 

[BoilerUP]

Another one, although it wasn't me...

A few years back I was in the tree stand and got a call on the radio to come help a guest on our land gut his deer. Naturally I was pissed because deer were moving that morning, but I dutifully climb down and make my way over to his location. When I get there I see a decent-sized doe that had been shot THREE TIMES with a scoped .357...in the rump, in the leg, high in the gut, but never in a kill zone. The poor deer finally had to be dispatched by a non-hunter with a 40SW because the putz who wounded this thing was too "shaken up" to put his wounded animal down.

Needless to say, this yahoo hasn't stepped foot on our farm since that day.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

I am somewhat ashamed to say that I have missed on deer, with both a bow and a muzzleloader. Well, on the ML, it's possible I hit the game (don't see how I could have possibly missed), but could find no blood and no animal. There was some thin prarie grass partially (mostly) covering the vital zone of the deer, but I figured that a 250 gr .45 cal saboted ML bullet would blow right through the grass (the deer wasn't 6-7 yards behind the grass).

The arrow miss, I intentionally aimed for the neck, so that I'd get either a good hit or clean miss (body was behind trees) - got a clean miss - my arrow hit a small branch in the way and deflected. The doe was only about 14 yards.

I kick myself repeatedly for taking those marginal shots, and vowed to never do so again. The ML shot I described was the first time I ever shot at a deer.

 

[K3]

I missed Hank at 50 yards. He was the grandaddy 12 point on our lease. I took a standing offhand shot and had such a case of buck fever, I'm suprised the scope didn't shkae right off the rifle.

I swear to this day he laughed when he stopped to look at me when he topped out on the hill just before going over.

 

[jonboynumba1]

I've got two "spectacular misses" that I often think about. The first one was at 425 yards (thought it was 300...hadn't hunted that stand/area before and judged poorly) Now had it been 300 yards I'd have nailed him! I know this because I saw the gravel and dust "poof" behind him (he turned around and looked at it and then ran at an angle towards me!) Oh yeah you think this is going to end happy don't you...nope. Now he did run to about 300 yards from me and I did squease off two more rounds as he did so...but he was very safe...then the second deer ran out following him....yeah I know...you still think this is going to end happy...nope I wa too flustered at that point to hit anything at 300 yards. I guess everyone does that once in their lifetime...I had 1 of 5 rounds left in my .270 BAR and just sat there thinking....you big dummy!....why did you even pull the trigger after the first shot!....If you'd have SLOWED DOWN you MAY have gotten a decent second shot on the second deer. With one exception that was the last time I ever shot more than once at a deer (and the last time I missed a shot since then...though I'm sure that is more luck so far)

But no that was the second lesson the first one was several years before that...I sat halfway down a beautiful hardwood bottom that opened up on one side into a series of hardwooded bottoms watching a little funnel 30 yards away FREEZING cold with poor clothing at the time and a humble win 94 iron sighted. I hadn't yet realized it but I was on the verge of hypothermia. Third day watching it all morning and here comes the deer JUST like I pictured it in my mind all morning for now the third morning in a row to spite some of the coldest weather we'd had that year. I rushed the shot...at THIRTY YARDS downhill RIGHT in front of me!!! and shot over the animal. Rifle wasn't fully settled in on my shoulder and front bead was not fully pulled down into the rear sight notch...HOLY CRAP I could have kicked my own arse all morning long. I got up and checked for blood and realized how dang cold I really was...then to add insult to injury a minute later I heard a gunshot ring out a few hundred yards away....I somehow just KNEW it was "my deer" he probably deserved it...I sure didn't that morning-LOL. I'll leave out the two shots I took AFTER that glorious miss sliding down the hill on my butt sideways....they where nowhere near hitting anything-LOL But yup...the 94 did handle pretty quick-LOL fastest 3 misses you've ever seen!!