Your Worse Miss Come on guys lay it on the line !!!

Almost twenty years ago, my first bear hunt alone (maybe 17 years old) and my first with my spanking new (from last summer) Model 70 in 338 win mag. About day three of out spring bear hunt (had seen about 30 blacks and a couple of grizzlies and passed on all of them) I see a really nice light colored grizzly waaay off on a hillside by the river; I decide to climb after him and take him.

About half an hour of very hard and sweaty climbing later I get to where I want to be and as I crest a roll on the hill I see the bear and get good news and bad news. The good news is it`s not a grizzly, it`s the biggest brown phase black bear I`ve ever seen (and I`d seen a couple hundred by then), the bad news is I`m still 400 yards away and he`s seen me and is running his ass full speed for the top of the mountain and I;ve got very little time. Well I`m pretty confident with my .338 as I heartshot my moose with it last year and I practice lots, so I quickly sit down and line up my crosshairs four inches over his shoulders (for 400 yards) and carefully squeeze off a perfect kill shot. The bear never slows and never flinches, I confidently fire off two more shots at the running bear, both four inches over ths shoulder, totally sure he`s going to crumple. He never does. Two hours of searching and tracking turn up no blood or anything; then I calmly look from where the bear was to back where I shot from - it`s 200 yards, not 400. Never saw a big brown like that again, probably three hundred bears later.
 
Here's one that one of the guys in camp just admitted too.
They were showing off with their scopes in camp, focussing in on flies on the ceiling.
Seems he forgot to re-focus it before he went out.
Huge buck and a doe cross the logging road in front of him. He runs after them. They crash into the semi frozen creek, and wait to be shot on the other side.
All he can see is a white blur. They are still out there.
 
Well... many moons ago... broadside 8pt. whitetail at about 40 yards. Rem 700 mountain rifle and Elite 4000 1.5-6x scope. 180gr. NP handloads. Gun shoots 3 into 1 1/4" all day at the range. I'm in a tree stand in a big spruce, but I'm shooting out the back of the stand into the woods, and not out front toward a power line cut. Deer is in open hardwoods. So, I get the crosshairs nice and steady on the sweet spot. BOOM!! Deer jumps about 6 feet sideways and looks around. Then I'm flustered so I jack another in and BOOM!! Deer turns and disappears with his flag high. No hair, no blood...nothing. That was at dusk so I went back in the morning with a buddy for a thorough double check. Buddy got into the tree stand and I stood where the buck was. Buddy says he can't even see me through all the spruce branches (it's a big, mature spruce and we hadn't trimmed anything out the back). He has good look into the thick spruce I was shooting through and sure enough finds where both bullets ripped into the branches. I was looking right past all the junk with my scope. Lesson learned.:rolleyes:
 
Back in around 1987, I went to Sask to hunt with my brothers for birds.
One sunny, October day, I was standing on a side-hill while my brothers' dogs worked the brush patch below me.
The Sharptails started boiling out of the rose bushes. I connected on the first shot, then things went downhill.
When the flurry of shooting was over, I was standing in the same place that I started with 13 empty shotgun shells at my feet, and 1 dead bird.

My brothers just about peed themselves listening to me on the hillside. I'd fire a couple of shots, then curse a blue streak as I tried to reload and keep up as the birds kept coming out of the bushes.
 
#1: 1999. A 40 or 50-yard shot at a BIG bear, broad daylight, standing broadside, totally motionless. Saw the .54 muzzleloader slug hit a tree about 4 feet over his head. Can you say buck (bear) fever?

#2: 2004. 25-yard shot at a nice buck, again perfect conditions, using a crossbow. Take careful aim, following him with my scope, waiting for the opening. It comes, I take the shot, and the left arm of the crossbow whacks a 3-inch diameter tree trunk, throwing the whole d**n thing out of my hands. God knows where the bolt went. Thank goodness it wasn't the other limb, but as it was something gave me a good smack in the chops during the process.

#3 (my favourite): Northern Quebec, this year. It's cold and raining, and I'm taking a leak. 5-inch #### + 6 inches of insulation = problems. I look up to see two nice caribou casually walking by at about 100 yards. I'm right in the open, no rest or cover available, reach down slowly to pick up the rifle, take careful aim. POW, good hit. He's still standing, hit him again. Still standing. Again, and now he goes down. I watch for a second through the scope, see no movement, lower the rifle and start forward. Next thing I'm flat on my face in the lichen. WTF? NEVER run across the tundra with your pants around your ankles!:redface:

John
 
When Remington first brought out their M-700 in stainless with the tupperware stock a pal of mine got my hands on one of these with a Leupold 3.5-10X mounted on it, and asked me to load some ammo and sight in for him for "long range" shooting. I loaded some 130 gr Nosler BT's and it proved to be a good though not remarkable shooter.

The game was caribou, and you couldn't have a much better outfit than that so I figured I'd use this rather than my M-17 "06. I sighted so that the bullet hit 4" high at 100, so for close range I'd hold a might low, and wouldn't need any hold over for a longish shot.

Sure enough a couple of hours into the hunt we stumbled onto a lone caribou, at 50 yards or so. I assumed a kneeling position, my hold was solid, and and I shot carefully for a heart shot, knowing full well that with the horizontal wire in line with the lower edge of the chest would allow the bullet to rise into the chest. Note to self . . . if you aim at air you'll hit air. Caribou jumped and scooted. Went to where he was standing and found some hair that was clipped off from the bullet and no blood. Guess I needed a bigger gun!
 
#2 This fall, near Lesser Slave Lake, biggest WT buck I've ever had a shot at. I had stalked in on him in the snow and really thick brush, scraping trees with my rattling antler and calling as I went.

I expected him to come at me from one side, turns out he had circled me completely and came in right behind me 5 yards upwind of my trail. I hear a swoosh in the snow, look over my shoulder and there he is not 15 yards out and coming hard. I slip the rifle off my shoulder (I had a call in one hand and an antler in the other) and start to spin. He's turned around by now, and as I hit the safety he bolts.

At 25 yards I have him dead-to-right with my '88's scope set on 2x, hold tight to hi shoulder and BOOM! ....... Silence. He must have gone down. I stand there for a minute or two gathering my composure, then proceed to follow his tracks for over 2 miles, no blood, no hair, no nothing. Not sure how that deer fit that horseshoe completely up his hoo-ha, but I doubt he will be coming in to any calls or scraping anymore.

#1 Many moons ago I managed 11 shots with a 270 Ruger #1 at a big mulie buck @ 200 yards. Figured out later that putting down pressure on the rear stock when using a rest on the front stock could cause bullets to strike up to 9" high at 100y. Keep the pressure off and you could slip one behind a deers ear at 300y.

Did I mention that after 9 shots I ran out of ammo and ran 1/2 mile back to my truck to get more, then returned and missed twice more just as it got dark?

I'm feeling depressed. Who started this stupid thread anyway??
 
Many moons ago in the 1st few days of my first legal age deer season,I was toting my brand new,then scopeless 30-06 Rem pump.Late afternoon,I was on a hillside in the woods between a brook and a hayfield that the deer were using at night.This part of the hill was littered with blowdowns and fairly open compared to the surrounding woods,so I'm standing there deciding on a spot that offered the best view of the hillside to sit until dark when I see a big deer ass standing motionless behind a big black spruce only 20 yards away.Twisting and leaning to get a better view,I see some antler and realise it's a decent buck,but I can't see the vitals at all.Leaning around off balance,I could gut shoot him now or lean a little further.I'm just getting over enough that I can start to see ribs when he bolts.I straighten up and he's bouncing away over the windfalls as I unleash 3 shots at him.At the last shot he was clearing a windfall and he hit the ground on the other side and hunkers down.I can see him under there,only 40-50 yards away,twitching and tail flicking,laying down on his belly,but I don't have a clear shot to finish him off so I start over towards him assuming he was down for the count anyhow.I made about 3 steps towards him when he leaps into the air and bounces away without another shot opportunity.Expecting that he wouldn't go far,I sat down and had a smoke,then went over to the windfall where he had hidden to pick up the bloodtrail.There wasn't any?I followed him for several hundred yards until I lost the trail in an alder swale peppered with tracks,and never in all that distance found a single drop of blood or a single hair out of place.3 shots at 30,40,and 50 yards,then he lays down and hides,get's up again and runs away unscathed???Only thing I can figure is I musta hit him in the antlers and stunned him for a minute?
 
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grinrgrn said:
Many moons ago in the 1st few days of my first legal age deer season,I was toting my brand new,then scopeless 30-06 Rem pump.Late afternoon,I was on a hillside in the woods between a brook and a hayfield that the deer were using at night.This part of the hill was littered with blowdowns and fairly open compared to the surrounding woods,so I'm standing there deciding on a spot that offered the best view of the hillside to sit until dark when I see a big deer ass standing motionless behind a big black spruce only 20 yards away.Twisting and leaning to get a better view,I see some antler and realise it's a decent buck,but I can't see the vitals at all.Leaning around off balance,I could gut shoot him now or lean a little further.I'm just getting over enough that I can start to see ribs when he bolts.I straighten up and he's bouncing away over the windfalls as I unleash 3 shots at him.At the last shot he was clearing a windfall and he hit the ground on the other side and hunkers down.I can see him under there,only 40-50 yards away,twitching and tail flicking,laying down on his belly,but I don't have a clear shot to finish him off so I start over towards him assuming he was down for the count anyhow.I made about 3 steps towards him when he leaps into the air and bounces away without another shot opportunity.Expecting that he wouldn't go far,I sat down and had a smoke,then went over to the windfall where he had hidden to pick up the bloodtrail.There wasn't any?I followed him for several hundred yards until I lost the trail in an alder swale peppered with tracks,and never in all that distance found a single drop of blood or a single hair out of place.3 shots at 30,40,and 50 yards,then he lays down and hides,get's up again and runs away unscathed???Only thing I can figure is I musta hit him in the antlers and stunned him for a minute?
Click to expand...


A good read but hard to read... use the space bar and enter key to separate your paragraphs a bit.
 
grinrgrn said:
Many moons ago in the 1st few days of my first legal age deer season,I was toting my brand new,then scopeless 30-06 Rem pump.

Late afternoon,I was on a hillside in the woods between a brook and a hayfield that the deer were using at night.This part of the hill was littered with blowdowns and fairly open compared to the surrounding woods,so I'm standing there deciding on a spot that offered the best view of the hillside to sit until dark when I see a big deer ass standing motionless behind a big black spruce only 20 yards away.:eek:

Twisting and leaning to get a better view,I see some antler and realise it's a decent buck,but I can't see the vitals at all.Leaning around off balance,I could gut shoot him now or lean a little further.I'm just getting over enough that I can start to see ribs when he bolts.I straighten up and he's bouncing away over the windfalls as I unleash 3 shots at him.At the last shot he was clearing a windfall and he hit the ground on the other side and hunkers down.I can see him under there,only 40-50 yards away,twitching and tail flicking,laying down on his belly,but I don't have a clear shot to finish him off so I start over towards him assuming he was down for the count anyhow.I made about 3 steps towards him when he leaps into the air and bounces away without another shot opportunity.

Expecting that he wouldn't go far,I sat down and had a smoke,then went over to the windfall where he had hidden to pick up the bloodtrail.There wasn't any?I followed him for several hundred yards until I lost the trail in an alder swale peppered with tracks,and never in all that distance found a single drop of blood or a single hair out of place.:confused:

3 shots at 30,40,and 50 yards,then he lays down and hides,get's up again and runs away unscathed???Only thing I can figure is I musta hit him in the antlers and stunned him for a minute?
Click to expand...

Better?
 
grinrgrn said:
HOLY Grammar Police,batman!:eek:At least I used sentences,capitals and punctuation without any(many?)mispelled words,unlike some of the internet ramblings I've witnessed?
Click to expand...

No trying to be a jerk, just found it hard to read that's all...
I made a few larger posts like that too when I first joined the forum.

Just so you know, I read the whole post as it was interestting, usually I skip the long posts with no separation.
 
I was told years ago by an old timer that when you hunt long enough you will eventually come across a miss that you can’t explain. This happened to me the first day of my 2 days deer hunt.

I was sitting on a stand over seeing an open area. The stand is backing onto a cliff dropping down 50 feet. I was watching the front instead of the back. This doe sneaked up behind me from the bottom of the cliff. Without rushing, I put the cross hair on its cheat and fired one shot. I watched the doe hop twice and disappeared into the woods. I was calm and composed to remind myself to give it 15 minutes before the search. So I unloaded my rifle, pissed in the tin can and put away everything in the backpack before climbing down the stand.

As I got down to the bottom of the cliff, I couldn’t find blood drop. By tracking the next 50 yards there was no blood drop at all. At this point my buddy came over to assist. We started back and looked again three times for the next two hours. There was no blood trail and no deer. We finally gave up.

I thought about a few factors:
1) Could I have missed because the down hill factor? It might have been a factor had it been a 200 yards shot but not a 30 yard shot with the cross hair on the center of the chest.

2) Could it have been a case where the bullet didn’t exit and therefore no blood drops - Possible for a 308 not to exit shooting the full length of the doe. But the doe has to drop some where.

3) Was the scope aligned properly? I checked and confirmed it two weeks later at the range that the scope alignment is Okay.

To date it remains as a mystery how I have missed.
 
This was told in a previous post about a year ago:

IIRC, it was about 5 years ago, Sharptail and I were hunting sharptail. It was early season and they were in singles and pairs. We hadn't seen many so far that day, so our senses were on edge. We caught one by surprise as we came over a ridge, and the sound of cackling and thrashing wings filled the air.

Sharptail was carrying a double and I, a pump. Our first shots were from about 25 yards out. The bird stayed low to the ground and disappeared, unscathed, below the curve of the hill. We had let loose with such a barrage that we had to tell each other how many shots we had taken - we hadn't been able to hear each other's shots over our own. Turns out we both emptied our guns - 5 shots in all.

It wasn't the first time we'd missed, but it was the first time we missed so miserably in front of a witness. Only after the dust settled did we notice the bow hunter in full camo standing 30 yards off to the side. After watching our display of hunting prowess, he sneaked off without uttering a word (probably too busy laughing).
 
My first year hunting whitetails. I missed four deer in two days. Total coast - 12 shots at appox. $2.00 a pull (with a shot gun that is), = a s**t load of teasing from the gang, no deer, and an empty wallet.:mad:


:shotgun:
:shotgun:
:shotgun:
 
I have had so many spectacular misses I cannot remember them all.


I do remember missing a lot for a few years when I was young. It turned out that my POS Bushnell Banner (hey I didn't know any better) was hopelessly busted. I would crank it up to 9 sight in then turn it down to 6. Well everytime you adjusted the power the cross hairs would jump around like a Mexican Jumping Bean.

Geezz I missed a lot of nice bucks because of that scope, worse it cost me my confidence for quite a few years afterwards.
 
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