Closest Miss and Worst Shooting!

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Pudelpointer

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Lethbridge, Alberta
Well, since we have "farthest kill" and "closest kill" threads going, how about a thread about when things go wrong.

I can take the criticism!

Closest miss - 2 years ago I had a BIG whitetail buck come in to some calling. Bugger snuck up behind me in deep powdery snow. When I first saw him he was speed walking at an angle towards me, max 20 yards. Rifle was slung on my shoulder as I was using an antler to rake a tree trunk. I dropped the shed and swung the rifle off my shoulder an flicked off the safety at the same time. He heard the click and stopped. I got the old '88 up and pulled the trigger as his chest filled the 2x scope (at a flat run) at 11 yards. I thought he was dead for sure. Nope, not a hair or drop of blood for the 300 yards I tracked him. Lucky SOB.

Worst miss / shooting - I once missed a decent mule deer buck 11 times with a 270 Ruger #1 that was sensitive to forend pressure (I learned later). 9 shots were at 200 yards (ranged the next day) and 2 were at 425. Oh, did I mention I ran out of ammo at 9 shots and ran over 300 yards to my truck to get more? Yikes.
 
I missed a deer twice at about 15 yrds maybe 20 yrds...

Straight over his back with the first shot. He just looked at me.

Not thinking about what had just happened, I put the gun up again and fired the exact same shot (instead of lower)... the deer took off as I was shaking my gun and shouting what the f**k ??!!
 
I had a small buck walk buy me at about 25 yards. It was at first light and he was standing broadside behind a few stalks of tall grass. I put the cross hair of my muzzle loader on him and boom. The smoke cleared and all I saw was him running away untouched. As it turns out there was an old fence post in the grass and I hit it dead center.
 
Missed a bull moose at 30 yds.
Early one frosty morning I gave a few calls at a likely looking spot . After a few minutes I started to hear some snotty grunts heading closer my way .Giving one more of my version of a cow call, I scuttled back about 30 yds. down wind . Soon, out of the heavy timber came a young bull moose , still making those sloppy snotty grunts . He sauntered across a small bog and up onto the ridge trail that I had been calling from , stopping broadside to me but with his head swung around facing in my direction . I slowly eased myself up from a small blow down root mass, pulled my 70 lb. compound bow back , centered the sight behind his shoulder and triggered the release . He jolted into a stumbling run and as I quickly notched another arrow, I was waiting for him to start to falter....but the further he ran the more sure on his feet he became .
Keeping an eye on the departing moose I got to the spot where he had been standing and there was my arrow laying in the gravelly dirt...5 feet before it even reached the moose .WTF.
Later, back at our tent camp, after shooting a half dozen practice arrows I had one arrow that fell through the fingers of my arrow rest just before I reached the end of my draw.....which is what must have happened when I took a shot at that lucky bull .
 
Since Keepa went all archery on us, I guess I should add this years antelope hunt.

Missed 3. First one - just lost it. Second one - forgot RF, shot under. Third one - forgot RF, shot over.

This is still pretty fresh. I don't want to talk about it.
 
I took a shot at a nice buck at about 50 yards running through a clear cut. I had time, and felt confident in the shot when I squeezed the trigger, but the deer didn't stumble or break stride or show any indication of a hit, and I was somewhat surprised. After about 20 mins, I went to the spot where he was, and located his tracks in the snow, but no hair, no blood...nada!
Did a few circles without locating any signs of a hit, then picked up his tracks and followed them for a good distance up the hill. Still not a thing, not even a speck of blood.
Went back to the spot where I had shot at him, looked back toward where I was standing when I took the shot, lo and behold! A 3" diameter Yew trunk just about straight in the bullet's path. On inspection, perfect hit [on the Yew] and obviously no hit on the deer. Eagleye.
 
These are the stories that I can participate in. :(

I had my back to a tree, sitting in a brushy, grassy dip on a small hill in a tree lot. I was blowing on my new to me Deer Talk call, holding my recurve and hoping to fill my whitetail doe tag. After a while I heard a rustling coming from behind me, not where I expected the deer to come from. I slowly looked over my shoulder and saw the grass parting, coming my way. I readied myself and in a second, a coyote ran right past me so close I could have grabbed his tail. He stopped on the deer trail only a few yards in front of me and looked around looking for the deer. I already started to draw and he caught my movement. To this day I swear his eyes opened up as big as dinner plates and took off on a full run to my right. I finished my draw and started leading him. I released when I figured I had it about right but the arrow disappeared through the grass, however I heard the most wonderful whack sound. So proud of myself, I grabbed another arrow from my quiver and stepped out to see if I could see him running, and to look for any sign. Instead I saw neither, so I went back to my seat to look where my arrow flew. I followed it's path and found my arrow, sticking proudly in the most beautiful tree. (Great trophy, lots of points)

That is still my favorite story to tell. :)
 
I missed a HUGE northern ont whitetail at 15ish yards with my 12ga loaded with slugs. Was a perfect broadside, steady shot, and a complete miss.
 
One of the new guys at camp, he's never seen a bear before, and suddenly finds a bear has snuck up on him, and is working over an old stump, 25 feet from him.
He's thinking his rifle is feeling kind of small, looking at a bear up close for the first time, and proceeds to miss, three times. I trailed that bear a long ways, no evidence of a hit whatsoever. Dam bears are hard to trial with no snow.
When I finally lost him for good, I went back to analyze the shots. Found one hole in the old stump, and two more, five feet up the trees.
The guy just lost his cool.
 
Last day of last season I was tramping through the bush at about 3pm. I woke up a decent 160-ish whitetail at about 60 yards. My heart stopped!! Up with the ol' '94 and no fire. I pulled the rifle off my shoulder to take a peek as this buck was looking at me wondering "WTF is this idiot doing?" I realised that I didn't have the hammer cocked and as I pulled it back and let it go (my finger stilll apparently on the trigger) KABOOM---from the hip. Long story short, The bullet whizzed through the trees, I crapped my pants, the deer ran away and I had tag soup.


Crud.
 
Me, yup, I've missed.
Missed my first deer, through buck fever, I just froze. I was I think sixteen. The buck seemed huge, and the distance enormous, but it was fifty yards. I waited too long for him to get ... CLOSER?
Can't believe I did that. Then when he disappeared, I ran after him, and dumped shots into the bushes, I now realize well over his head.
 
Just this year, my mule buck was just laying there in a field, i creeped in to about 150 yds through some tall grass until I found a good shooting spot, he had no clue i was even there. I lined up my .270 right behind his shoulder.....got really excited (my first mulie buck! Not huge, but still the biggest deer I've ever shot!) and pulled the shot. so much that it was a clean miss. He stood up and started running, I panicked and fired 2 quick shots without really aiming, both misses. That was my worse miss.

My best shot came right after though. I stopped, said to myself "OK Steve, you know how to aim, now take your time and do it." Repositioned myself, lined up carefully as he ran, and gently squeezed the tirgger. This time he stopped, stumbled for a few seceonds and fell down.

Mulebuck.jpg


Not a the biggest deer on the planet, but a trophy to me.
 
I missed numerous times coyote hunting this fall, 12 to be exact, no reason for the misses other than hollllly !@#$ its 5 feet from me and looking right at me. after the 12th time I decided to just use a shotgun, success rate goes way up at those distances.......30-06 at 10 feet with a 6x scope just not a good combo when your holding a remote and calls....
 
One comes to mind that happen to a friend of my kid.

His buddy (we'll call him Corey)went hunting with another friend and his dad, and they were driving to a spot, when all spotted this 3 point off the side of the road, so Corey got out, and lined up his 303 British on the hood of his friends Dodge, and Fired, Deer didnt move, and showed no signs of being hit, so he chambered again, and let go, still, nothing. So the friend he was hunting with handed him his 300 thinking that maybe the 303 was out of whack, so Corey grabbed it, and stood up this time, and let one go, and the deer dropped. They went down and found out it was a spike, disappointing, but they gutted it, and drug it back to the truck, as they were going back to the truck, Corey noticed the two bullet holes his 303 had put through the hood to and out the fender, of the Dodge. He could see the deer through the scope, but his barrell had been pointing at the hood. Moral of the story: There's a reason, they tell you not to shoot off the Hood or Window of your Vehicle.
 
Well, there was the time that I shot at a broadside caribou at 75 yards and missed. I knew my rifle, a M-700 .270, was sighted 4" high at 100, so I reasoned that the bullet would rise into the heart if I held at the bottom edge of the chest. Naturally being the remarkable shot that I am, the bullet went right where I aimed, clipped hair off and didn't even break the skin, no blood was found in the snow, and for all I know that boo is still running.

Last winter I was out on the sea ice and a seal was laying beside it's hole about 150 yards from a long ridge of pressure ice near the flow edge. I was able to get into the pressure ice and found a good shooting position that had me about 6' above the seal, with the seal broadside to me. Seals are one animal I prefer to shoot on the length as it provides a larger target, and if you don't hit the head, you'll still cut the spine. But, when broadside, unless they lift their heads, which they do from time to time, the target is only a few inches high. Anyway, I sling up, my position is rock solid, and the 380 gr Rhino would cut the black on a 150 yard target, so I'm good to go right? When laying on ice, you have to make the shot fairly quickly before you get cold and start shivering, and I'm already adding pressure to the trigger. But then like an idiot I start thinking and have a little discussion with myself, "OK I'm above the seal right, so my bullet should hit a touch high, so I should hold at the bottom edge of his body. YA, ya, ya, but at close range and the rifle zeroed for the exact range it won't matter, hold center! After all, when you missed that damn caribou, it was because you held at the bottom edge of the critter, and like the old adage says, if you aim at air, you'll hit air!" So I aim for the center of the chest, the cross hair finds the shoulder at the flipper, I can feel my finger on the trigger, then the Brno booms, and when I recover from the recoil the seal is gone down its hole. I won't repeat the next conversation I had with myself. I walk to the hole, there is no blood, and 30' farther I see when my bullet plowed into the ice. Chalk up another clean miss.
 
Doe at 100 yds with a muzzleloader. Had all the time in the world, no buck fever, and an excellent rest. Clean miss (from a clean bore).

Reloaded and 10 minutes later the same doe came back and I nailed her at 50 yds.

Take a fouling shot!
 
missed a nice buck this pass archery season, 10 yards in front to me, and the idiot i am, (i have a red dot scope) i forgot to turn it on and i didnt think i would have enough time so it was a guessing game and i missed!
 
Missed shot

I took my 12 gage shotgun out one day and got my sights on a buck running across about 60 to 70 yds in front of me. After the third shot I remembered I was using a shotgun, and didn't lead my target. Went back to using my Browning in 270. The guys had a great chuckle over that one.
 
Missed a nice whitetail at about 15 ft, 2 years ago. I had been calling and rattling to no avail and was waiting for my buddies to rendezvous with me at the appropriate time. I had just finished a cigarette and turned around and there is a buck standing beside me. My back-up rifle (an old iron sighted VZ-24) was slung on my shoulder. The buck spent the next second trying to decide what was wrong so I unslung the rifle, worked the safety, shouldered the rifle, point blank aim down the barrel at the broadside buck, pull the trigger and.....nothing! WTF? I look at the rifle and realize that I had decocked it when I worked that old Mauser safety. The buck is starting to move now, I work the bolt, aim, bang! and shot the air about 3 feet behind the now lightning speed buck. I worked the bolt again and aimed at the still close distance (50m) buck running straight away from me towards the tree line, but decided it was unethical to shoot an animal up the a$$ and let him go. I nearly threw that old Mauser in the mud and snow. I got home and promptly zeroed the scope on my other rifle, my main hunting gun, that I had dropped the weekend before.
 
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