Let's Hear About MISSES on Game

[charby]

Last deer season was my season of misses.

I missed one deer at 30 yards, three shots later I still missed it. I missed another deer at 70 yards, I even shot at it again as a warning.

I missed 4 deer another day when I kept hitting trees with slugs, I'd put a cross-hair on the deer, pill the trigger and see a 3" inch tree explode. I'm still getting crap for that one from my hunting buddies because they saw all the trees I killed.

I did finally connect with a deer during muzzle loading hunting, I shot that on with a iron sight Hawken rifle at 110 yards.

 

[Art Eatman]

I had a nine-shot, one-hit kill, way back when.

I was working some finger ridge country, with sparse oak and cedar. I spotted a buck across a valley, messing with a doe. I sat down and got all comfy with a rest. I figured him for around 400 yards, maybe a tad more. So, I held about a foot above his back. A bit of a slight breeze, so I held on his head, figuring for a chest hit.

I did seven rounds of Bang...nuthin'. At the eighth shot, he picked up his left hind foot and sniffed at it. That's when I realized there was more "breeze" than I had allowed for, and he was well beyond any 400 yards.

Dumb me.

But, dumb him. The doe wandered off, and he turned and headed down the hill toward me. That put him below the wind. He stopped and posed, head up and proud. Big mistake. I held on the top of his horns and centered his chest. One shot, DRT.

 

[koja48]

I'm a southpaw, but I learned to shoot a recurve bow right-handed (it was a "freebie" and to this day, still shoot fair-to-middling from that side, tho I swapped to the strong-side many years ago). Saw a red fox cross a hay field . . . ran to the bale stack, peeked around the corner, and saw said fox with its head inserted between two bales. It was "mousing" and could go no farther . . . I nocked a broadhead, drew the bow, anchored, and let fly from less-than six-feet . . . and promptly missed (tho I cut-off a fair amount of fur)! Fox jumped, barked at the still-quivering arrow impaled firmly in the off-side bale, jumped-down, and ran. Next arrow I plucked from my back quiver was a flu-flu . . . the results of that shot were less-than-impressive. On the plus side, I switched to left-handed bows shortly thereafter.

 

[taliv]

i don't hunt, so I haven't missed any animals


however, I did have a miss offhand in the NRA HP match I shot this past sunday. ouch.

 

[homers]

No, not me missing, but still fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-d_oYISAa4

 

[Savage Shooter]

I was hunting with a drive party we had finished are drive and we were standing around next to an old rock quarry pit talking when this little doe poped over the edge maybe 10ft from all of us there was about a dozen of us. the doe shot out of there quick as could be then stops about 70yrds out the guy next to me opens up on it right in line with the road and one of the guys houses who we are hunting with he gets yelled at. Misses by a mile It run a little further stops again i open up on it this is my second shot at a deer in my life i missed probably jerked the trigger so hard its a wonder I didn't break it . The deer runs around this little ridge that more of our party is on and Probably every one in the party shoots at it all at a slight trot NO ONE HITS IT nobody not a one. I still stand by my statement to this day that ing deer was wearing a bullet proof vest. There getting smarter i'll have to get some armor percing rounds.

 

[S&WKING]

ive missed lots of prarie dogs and pheasants but when i missed my deer last year i was shooting straight at him between shoulder and missed then he took off running so i saw hair in my scope and shot. i couldnt c him and thought i missed again but i started to walk his way and he was dead on the ground barely kicking

 

[41magsnub]

When I was a kid I dropped my .243 out antelope hunting. I didn't think I had dropped on the scope so I didn't think much of it. Had a shot of all of 100 yards on a nice little buck. Missed a bunch of times, finally I spotted where the round was going, way high and to the right by a couple of feet, did some Kentucky windage and got him. I ended up replacing the scope and mounts.

 

[rantingredneck]

My funniest miss story:

My father in law and I used to do bowhunting man-drives. We had this spot where there was a funnel deer would run (more like trot) through. He'd ease along through a thicket leading to this funnel and the deer would come trotting by me. I'd killed several this way.

So this one time a nice doe and two yearlings came out. The doe was in the lead and I tried to grunt her stopped. She kept trotting. I took a lead on her and released. Arrow zinged right in front of her. She put it in high gear and ran. The second of the two yearlings followed suit. Problem was his brother slammed on brakes. So the two of them spent what seemed like eternity trying to untangle themselves. They kept standing, tripping, standing, tripping. I sat there and laughed. I could have probably nocked an arrow and killed one of them in the time it took for them to untangle and run away.

My second funniest:

I emptied a Winchester 94 at a broadside 8 pointer from 75 yards once. I missed every round.

 

[stevereno1]

I missed a doe at 12 yards with my bow. So many other missed shots that I can't bear to re-hash them all. So far, I haven't missed a wall-hanger though (knock on wood).

 

[wheelgunslinger]

I had a doe come in behind me completely bushwhacking and not on any game trails whatsoever. But, she kept coming and got to about 7 yards away before turning broadside to go down the ridge on a trail.
I was swiveled around as far as I could be without popping my spine, at full draw, and shooting downhill.
The arrow loosed and I watched it arc perfectly toward the heart/lung area, and then deflect off of a small limb I just didn't see, somehow. I never did recover that arrow.

 

[The_Sheriff]

No real misses on big game because I don't get drawn all that often but I have missed my fair share of small game including birds, sqirrels and 1 coyote.

 

[Zip7]

My most interesting miss was with a bow. The first deer I ever killed with a recurve bow.

It was pretty late in the evening, and was almost dark and a little 4 point buck came out to my right and was standing broadside with his left side facing me about 25 yards away - hard to judge distance with low light though...

I got turned in my stand so that I was facing the tree, drew back to anchor and let fly. The arrow hit the deer and he dropped in his tracks and was dead almost before he hit the ground.

I couldn't believe what I saw, and it was about to dark to tell what happened exactly, so I climb down and walk over there to see, and sure enough, the deer was dead, and the arrow had taken him right behind his right ear. Took me a while to work out what had happened, but when I shot, the deer had his left side to me, but was grazing with his head away from me and turned almost 180 degrees so it was visible under his belly. I was shooting at his vital area, and my shot missed low, passed underneath him right behind the front leg, and happened to hit him at the base of his head and broke his neck.

 

[DRYHUMOR]

A few years ago, during muzzle loader season. I had hunted the morning and come in about 12-1.

Kept my hunting clothes on, had fried chicken and fixings, had to smell like chicken and sweat.

Decided I may as well hunt the last 30-40 minutes, eased out of the house and down a ridgeline, got situated with the breeze in my face. Wasn't really expecting to see anything, just sitting there kind of enjoying the moment.

Well, I smelled a deer. Started easing my head around and saw a doe working towards me about 30 yds. She walked behind a big pine and I eased the rifle up. But did I shoot as she came out from behind? Noooo, I waited until she was about 10 feet in front of me.

She saw me, I shot as she squatted, turned and ran. Must of scared the crap out of her. I made search and found no doe. Then I just chuckled and went back to the house.

 

[Bezoar]

missed a nice buck first year hunting. About 40 yards and he was walking right to me, dead on chest shot. I shot and well he took off real quick like. just found a big pile of white fluffy belly hair from his stomach.
Worst shave he ever got i guess.

have missed hitting turkeys years ago when i went turkey hunting wiht my bow.

 

[MCgunner]

I'm still kickin' myself for missing a hog with my .357 Blackhawk a couple years ago. I shot over him trying to keep the bullet out of the tall grass he was in. He was only about 60 yards, but in heavy grass. He turned and looked like he was going to veer off the trail. I shoulda held a little lower. :banghead:

I ain't even going in to all the bird misses, as if I could remember 'em all. But, that's expected when bird hunting. I do remember this green head (a novelty on the coast) back in 88, wings set, dead to rights. I choked....:banghead: But, a week later on the same hole, I shot two drakes and one sits on my wall as I type this. Both those drakes were shot at over 40 yards. It was just shooting time on the first one and I raised and fired and he came tumbling down out of the stratosphere. My buddy was closer to where he fell behind us in the trees, walks over and I hear him say, "You lucky SOB!" ROFL! Man, I guess I just have to take 'em out there a little farther. ROFL!

 

[Griz44]

This is not a miss, but something I ran across while following some links from here. This is funny.........

Howitzer Deer Hunting

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

I was on a hunt a while back; bagged a turkey (my first) in the morning, and spot-and-stalked a pig in the afternoon. Then I went out that evening to try for a coyote.

I had a cheap electronic varmint call that I set up in a tree. Then I relaxed and waited to see what would happen. I'd never varmint-hunted before, and I didn't expect much, since I'd heard how hard it is to call in coyotes.

About a half-hour later, two coyotes come trotting to the call, directly at me. It was like they came out of nowhere.

I was so startled by their sudden appearance that it was all I could do to shoulder my rifle. I got off a shot on the lead animal, head on, and kicked up some dirt just to the right of it. After that, the coyotes disappeared, and I was done for the night.

I was disappointed that I didn't make a "triple play" that day, but it was a great experience.