Epic misses

Everyone misses, but my most epic miss was while duck hunting this fall. It was just barely legal shooting light, nice and early in the morning. I told the boys to load their guns, and we started calling. It was a little foggy out, so it was hard to see if something was coming in. After about 15 minutes, I lit up a smoke, and got complacent...lol...A beautiful drake mallard came in, hovering at 10 yards...it almost looked slow motion. I grabbed my gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger...nothing...f**king safety was still on!! So I click off the safety quick, and incredibly the mallard is still hovering...So I aim, bang, miss...now the bird is getting the hell out of dodge...so I rack another one, bang...miss....wtf....third and last shot...bang...miss...f**k!!

The first miss I think I was rushing, but I know I lined up the other two....

Lol what I neglected to notice was that I had taken my choke tube out while cleaning the gun after the last hunt, and hadn't reinstalled it. I had to scrape out the plastic from the wad out of the threads of the muzzle for about a half hour afterwards...I have missed plenty before, but this was my EPIC fail.
 
Years back one morning I was in amoung some round bales while hunting whitetails. A big, big buck that was or close to a book animal in my estimation sauntered through a small valley directly below at a nice 150 yards or so.

I stopped him with a grunt and fired broadside with my Sako 26-06. Deer ran off as I waited for him to stagger and drop. Nothing like that!. Perplexed I walked down to track it and there was absolutely no indication of a hit??

Walked back up to the bales and to my horror infront of the bales on the snow were hundreds of toothpick sized bits of straw scattered about!

I had shot down the length of this bale I was resting on and my bullet clipped a portion of the bale. Through my optics all looked well but due to the downward angle and position of the muzzle the bullet ripped through about 18 inches of packed straw and thus went astray.
 
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Out for a walk with the dog and my wife when the dog flushed out a hare about 15 feet left and back from me. I heard it coming, raised the 12g quick, started shooting as soon as I saw it, it ran towards me first, bang bang, then bolted straight past me, about 5 feet away then forwards over a small knoll. I was firing as fast as I could pump em. Some shots about 5- feet range, basically point blank. No hare was harmed. (Well, maybe deafened).

My wife was unfortunately there to witness this, just stood there shaking her head. The dog even came back, stopped, and looked at me with what I took to be a 'WTF?' :redface:


(next day I got one about 75m away, running fast, one shot - dead, made me feel better anyway!)
 
my miss happened on jan 1 2011. i was out with a bunch of friends for an annual pheasant hunt and they invited me along. so 13 guys out walking bush and then a field. the last time we walk the field im about to unload my gun, my feet were killing me and i had a patch of skin missing from loose boot syndrome on the heel of my foot. all of the guys are walking along the side of the field back to the truck, well im just about to walk off the edge of the field when the last pheasant jumps up, scares the daylights out of me and flys away, i turn, safety off, and fire all three rounds as fast as i could pump. there was no aiming at all. just point and shoot. everybody turns around to see what the hell im shooting at, most guys were still in line with the bird so they open up. im sure in total we fired about 19 rounds at that thing but nobody got it. out of the 43 birds we got that day, that was the only one that didnt get pumped full of lead. lucky bird.
 
You guys miss,can't help the story line here,never experienced it.I have let animals go with a warning shot just to keep them on there toes,but never a miss........!!!!
 
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I had what I am going to call a miss, even though a shot wasn't fired.

Was my first year at deer camp, was set up on a watch beside a beaver pond. They said the deer had to come right out here, pointed to a spot, and said look that way and be ready.

Well, the doggers started up about 45 mins later, they got closer and closer, and sure enough I could hear Heavy Footsteps and a lot of banging and crashing going on. Suddenly this Black Beast flies out of the Balsams, and it had a Giant Rack on it........MOOSE.......it was like 15 yards from me when it fianally exited the bush, and scared the begessus out of me! Never been anywhere near that close to a moose before, and not legal to shoot either.

So, the doggers are still pushing, and my stomach is half way out my mouth, my heart is racing, and I start to hear more crashing coming through the woods. Sure enough, 30 seconds later, 2 Deer come out the exact same spot the Moose did......exactly the spot they had pointed to and said watch here.

I shouldered the Sportered 6.5x55 M38 that I had, and just as I got the gun to my shoulder, the 2 deer stopped dead in their track, not 14 yards away from me.....they obviously got a wiff of me.......the only shot I had, was on the lead Doe, and it was a head shot.......I took careful aim, squeezed the trigger, and she went down........my heart is really going now....

So the Second deer takes about 10 steps, as I am trying to cycle the action on the Swede.....for some reason it is jammed......I cycle it forward and back, and this second Doe is standing broadside for like 10-15 seconds looking at me looking at her with a jammed gun.......finally she just bounded off.

It turned out, that on the way to Hunt Camp, I stopped at Elwood Epps, and bought some Butler Creek Flip Up covers, and the added diameter would not allow me to cycle the action when I was under stress, it just bound up.

I never did tell the guys there were 2 deer, LOL! Good thing there was no snow on the ground!


This one is about one of the other members in camp.

So, Bill has been going to Deer Camp for like 16 years, and had never seen a deer, so he obviously had never shot at a deer. Now Bill is one of those guys that has a the toys, GPS, 2 Compasses, New Boots Every year, Dry Cleans his Orage jacket, you know the type, has like 2 boxes of ammo in his pack, enough clothes for 2 days, emegency stuff, LOL....it's not like we are hunting out of shouting distance from one another, LOL.

Anyways, it was the first push on Opening Morning. He is set up on a watch, with a ridge running right across his front about 30 yards away, the deer basically have to run this ridge in order to not back track into the doggers, and all the blockers basically set up facing this ridge, a few 100 yards away from each other, and Bill is at the end of the line.

So sure enough no less than 3 deer run along this ridge in front of him at 30 yards, he is ready, because it was one of those snappy mornings where all the leaves are frozen, and the bush is quiet as night. Well Bill lets fly with the 30-30 Blam-Blam-Blam-.....I am one of the doggers quite aways away and after the third Blam, I go for cover.....Blam-Blam-Blam...........Blam.......

And then nothing. about 10 minutes later we get the call to continue dogging.

So we were all pretty excited, so many shots, there must be deer down.....

Nope........

not a spot of blood or piece of hair to be found........


But there is more....

Bill, on this day decided to leave his pack in the truck, as we were not far away, LOL......ALL of his extra ammo, 2 boxes worth are in the pack. Well, didn't those deer stop running after he quit shooting, smelt the guy at the next watch, turned around, and slowly walked by Bill with an Empty gun........LMFAO!!!!!
 
We were dogging out a bush when one of our blockers had a doe go by him and he was pretty sure he had wounded her. She went into the next little bush of about 5 acres so a couple of guys hiked around to the far side and with fresh snow on the ground were able to tell she hadn't gone on through. They proceeded to dog it back to the rest of us. The two bushes were about 200 yards apart with a small strip of corn running down the center of this area .I picked a spot in the corn, a row or so in and waited. Shortly i made out the form of a deer filtering down the inside of the bush. As it got across from me it stepped out and started angleing across the field. To my surprise it was a six point buck. i let him come a little closer than squeezed off a shot and down he went. I had hardly pulled the trigger when a big 8 pointer came out following exactly in the others footprints. The sudden demise of his buddy confused him cause this one came right at me. I went to rack another shell in and the gun jammed on the spent cartridge, it had never done it before and has never done it since. When the buck got within hand shaking distance it suddenly recognized me and bolted away. By the time i got the jamb cleared he was long gone. The doggers said they could hear me curseing clear to the other side of the bush.
P.S. we found the doe dead just inside the bush
 
Same year, different spot, again, Rambo.
This time he's using his 30 M1 Carbine.
five deer run by him, at fifty feet or so.
the rapidity of his firing is beyond belief, and no deer fall, no trace of blood on the light snow.
We followed up, trailed the deer, nothing.
Back at the spot where the deer were standing, one of the guys sees bullet damage on the Ironwoods.
Must have been them tall deer he says, as he reaches upward to point out the marks on the trees.
30 M1 does not penetrate a 2" Ironwood by the way. Not the best choice for deer hunting.
Later that evening, we were visited by the CO in camp. Someone had reported that he had heard a full auto firing in the bush, and we let him examine our rifles.
We always figured it was Rambo that fired those shots, he has the fastest trigger finger I've ever heard.
He can fire his Winchester Defender three times so fast it sounds like one shot. (missed that deer too)
 
Then there was this episode.

They were driving out after lunch, the group were all in one van. A deer crossed the road in front of them, so, they stopped to formulate a plan, and wait for me, with the dogs.
Rambo, jumps out of the van, and tears off into the bush after the deer, running down the side of the little swamp by the road. he stops, in full view of the guys, to look for the deer. The deer emerges ... from behind him... needless to say, he missed again.
This has become known as the day he outran the deer.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Nobody can touch Rambo.
Guy used to hunt with us. He's in an open field, looking over a beaver meadow. He can see about 4, maybe 500 yards. We are dogging the bush across the meadow.
He's hunting with a Browning BAR in 270Win, open sights.
As he's standing there, waiting for the dogger to push out the deer, he's scanning the beaver grass with his eyes, and spots five deer, laying in the grass, head up, like periscopes.
He opens fire, from the off hand position, at probably close to 500 yards.
He empties the gun, switches mags, and empties that also. He has a box of ammo with him, and proceeds to reload both mags, and continue firing.
The guy on the next watch can see him, from the hill top, and comes down, just as he runs out of ammunition.
He excitedly points out in the beaver meadow to the other man.
He never considers looking way out in the swamp, and does not see the deer. 'Give me your rifle' Rambo says. And proceeds to shoot some more, again off hand.
Now the guy from the hill top, sees the deer, and grabs his rifle back. 'give me that, stupid fool'
Rambo, as he came to be known after that incident, goes down the road to the next man on watch, and explains the situation, he will go out in the beaver meadow, and spook out the deer.
The guy offers him his rifle, but Rambo, figuring he has no chance of getting a shot, declines.
He goes out into the meadow, through the ribbon of bush along the far side, and, emerges fifty feet from the deer, with no gun.
Only then do they get up stand broadside for a minute, and run, down the creek, where there is nobody standing.
No more shots fired. Deer never got a scratch.

Oh yes, where was I? I was the next spot up from the creek, I actually heard the deer go by, but didn't see them.

The dogger?
When all that firing started, he said he found a big beech tree, and hid behind it.

Newbs.......
Click to expand...

too funny .lol
 
One time a long time ago, I walked in to a little spot I always wanted to check out. Sure enough there was a white tail buck feeding peacefully on bush clover. I pulled up a stump and watched him for a good 20 minutes. He was only 70 yards away. Finally I decided to shoot. So the gun comes up, a left handed Ruger M77 in 270 with a $90 bushnell banner scope. I center the vitals in the scope and pull the trigger. It was 100% guaranteed.

At the shot a bigger buck which I did not see jumps up just in front of me then I see a 3rd buck walking around where the first one dropped,,,or was that the one I just shot at? No. It can't be, it must have dropped on the spot. No way did I miss.

So I walk up, get to with in 20 yards of the 2 bucks and start shooing them away. I get there, no deer. Look around NO DEER.


Examined my rifle carefully the next day and found that when adjusting the power from 3 to 9 the cross hairs would jump around really bad. Enough to miss a deer at 70 feet never mind 70 yards.
 
Had six does walk up on me [20 yds] while I was taking a piss on a fence line in a late December hunt. They caught me in the open and it took me about five nerve racking minutes to get my muzzleloader pulled off my chair out from under my gloves and coffee thermos, and as the does scattered I missed my shot. Almost immediately two button bucks showed up and I managed to reload but my fingers were so frozen I couldn't put another 209 primer in the breech. They came to about 20 feet from me before taking off wondering what I was. I think I was almost invisible dressed in blaze orange against the snow covered field.
 
20 yards max, 22 hornet on red fox... I chased the little prick away from the chicken coop with a broom and he sat on the treeline just looking at me.

I said fine, went into the house through the front but came out the back as I saw him coming by for a second time from the window...HE HE I was waiting for him... Bang right in the vitals! Expecting him to stiff'n right up but nope he stops, just look back at me and carrys on as only the little buggers can with his smug fox like grin. I was so dumb-founded that I missed I couldn't even get a second shot off!

However three evenings later I'm fairly sure he met his end to a marlin in 22mag with a 50gr federal as I caught one napping by the wood shed! Silly bugger... I think it was him!
 
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