Anybody Willing to Talk About Their Misses?

It wasn't a miss, but I shot and never recovered the biggest whitetail I have ever seen while hunting. I missed school for two days to look for the buck, and was immediately sick after we didnt find him the first night.

This was about 5 years ago, and I was hunting on a wednesday when I was in high school. I had just bought a new bow, and I accidently mixed in some broadheads from my older set up. The bow was shooting a little high, and I didnt realize it. To set the scene 7 racked bucks all walked within range, and I almost drew several times. The last two deer that showed up were a typical 10pt and the huge non typical that I picked out. The 10pt may have scored better, but the non typical put his head down and the 10pt got out of his way.

When I shot the deer was at 15 yards and the arrow went into the no mans land area and stuck in about 4 inches. He ran off with the arrow standing straight up and bobbing through the woods. NEVER FOUND HIM!

Ever since this I take my equipment and practice much more seriously. I lost the buck of a lifetime because I didnt do my homework. The very next year I killed a wide six point from the same stand and he didnt even make it out 30 yards before falling dead. Ive tightened up since the miss a few years ago, and I am def. a better hunter.
 
I've missed many doves, grouse, geese, ducks, and rabbits. I've also missed a really nice buck with my compound bow. That is a sick feeling:( LOL
 
I wish I could recall which outdoor/hunting show it was, but they had a culmination of foul ups for fishing and hunting, the hunting involving pistol, shotgun, and rifle. It was pretty funny seeing the fisherman fall out of the boat several times in different places, but then to see the cameraman also fall was cool too.

The hunting stuff was great. They showed several clips where shots were taken but the animals acted like nothing happened. One guy attempted to shoot ducks several times with all misses, blaming somebody for loading blanks on him. He shot into the bank and kicked up a huge amount of mud.

Aside from shots that went high or wide on deer, they showed several that his in front of the animal, kicking up dust and usually startling the deer. Even funnier were the clips of the guys attempting to take shots with unloaded guns.
 
The other day I was out with my Remington 597 shooting (at) gophers. I couldnt hit a daggone thing all day long and killed maybe ten with 100 rounds of CCI Mini-mag.

I got home and thought ok something is wrong here... I took the gun apart and the barrel screw was loose. the barrel was flopping around in the stock. No wonder the gophers were so safe all day. Im usually deadly to about 100 yards with that little beauty.
 
20 yards

I missed a bedded doe at about 20 yards with a muzzle loader.
I was trying a head shot and she must have dropped her head.
I was attempting to keep her from bolting down a huge bottom.
I now stick to the higher percentage shots.
It broke a twelve year strech of not missing/one shot kills.
It was humbling.
 
I once missed an upright sitting woodchuck at 120 yards with a very accurate .223 with a 6-24 scope - set on 24 power!!! THREE TIMES IN A ROW!!

Come to think of it...I don't want to talk about it....Don't ask..

:o
 
buck-fever

First racked deer I ever saw while deer hunting, second season in the field, first year with my new .270 bolt action rifle........

Big 6-pointer trotted out of a cornfield, 35 yards in front of me, broadside.

I was standing with my back against a large Oak Tree.....

Thumbed off the safety

BANG

Fired straight up in the air........
 
Anyone who says they have never missed must have not hunted much or has never taken a shot.

I missed a lot when I was younger. As I have aged the misses (mainly due to my better understanding of my limitations) don't happen as often.

A couple of good ones that come to mind. Three years ago I started bow hunting again, and was fortunate enough to kill my first deer (a nice six point), but I made the shot with the last arrow in my quiver after having shot the rest of the arrows at the same deer including a miss at 3 yards (strait under the deer's body).

Top that 5 misses at a range of 3-18 yards. I got lucky and made the last shot at 26 yards. LOL

Last year I missed a nice doe at 45 yards with a rifle I have hunted with for years. I don't know how, but I never found any blood or hair. The shot was not difficult I guess I just blew it. I was shattered. I have only missed one other deer (at 350 yards) with that rifle in over a decade of hunting with that particular gun.

We all miss. I just strive to not let it happen to me again.
 
I've missed a few... but all of my misses have been at very short range. I seem to have good luck in the 50-100 yard range with a rifle, but the few times I've hunted deer with a shotgun, its been hit or miss.

Once killed 2 does with two loads of buckshot in one day. I felt rather proud of myself. The next week I missed one clean with 2 shots at only 40 foot distance from me. I guess somtimes your the windshield, somtimes your the bug :P
 
Two weeks ago while shooting prairie dogs, I was doing very well on Sat.. But Sunday I would hit one then miss 2-3 times at a 100 yard rat. But finished the shoot with a 250 hit.

Sunday night while cleaning the rifle I noticed that both of the side screws which hold the rear scope ring t othe base, were loose as a goose! So I got things evened up and applied some Loc Tite and sighted in this weeekend. All looks great again.

This may be the last time I allow a store to mount the base/rings/scope for me.

But also, I should have checked while in the field.

Oh, I've also missed at deer at 10 yards-with a rifle! I was in too much of a hurry.
 
This is more about missing an opportunity than missing a shot, but i have a few of them also!:o A few years back i worked at a place where one of the guys i worked with son moved back home for awhile. Their place just off-set a little from where i hunted, and well the son ended up going to work at the same place. After bragging about the size of deer that was on said property, the non-hunting son goes and buys a new rifle and wants to start hunting. Gets the landowner to give him permission to hunt same place. Thats o.k. more than enough room for two of us here. He goes scouting and finds my stand and wants to hunt close by. (NOT) So i tell him of a spot plum on the other side of lease and tell him of a tree that would be easy to set in and all kinds of sign around that area. Well, guess what, he had 3 heads mounted in 3 years in a row from the tree i had him set in. I did o.k. but not mounting size racks. I was sure glad to see him hook up with a girlfriend and move to another state!;)Then the lease went to grandchildren, and they hunt the place now! I got to feeling guilty about what i did and told him, he laughed and said thank you for picking such a poor place for me to deer hunt.:p
 
I was bow hunting on a place East of Tilden Texas. Tilden in known for pretty large bucks, big hogs, an occasion bear or lion. I set up my tripod on a gas line crossing and had a post type PVC deer feeder so I wasn't feeding hogs or cattle. At my first hunt of this location I saw movement slightly behind me and here's a cat looking at me. She would have weighed close to 120 lbs. We stared at each other awhile and she slowly walked into the brush. Well darn, I won't get that shot again or see her again. The next day, she came out at a different location and again I wasn't able to get a shot. The next weekend she came out at the same location as the first only this time I'm ready. For whatever reason, I didn't pull a string on her. We looked at each other awhile and I was noticing just how beautiful a large cat is in the wild. She walked off the same direction as before so I got out of the tripod and decided to see where this cat is coming and going to. Probably 250 yds from my tripod she had a den with two kittens. She saw me about the same time I saw them. She just laid with them watching me. I watched the kittens for maybe 5 full minutes and backed out. I moved my set three miles away in a short oak mott and was watching a fence line. I had lots of heavy brush all around me when I had this strange feeling of being watched. I looked down between my legs and here is this cat looking up at me. Talk about feeling like dinner and here I am with a sharp stick on the end of a springy string. She bolted into the brush and I never saw her again. It wasn't a miss but it is something I'll never forget. There are far too few cats in the wild although I know the ranchers will disagree with me. I don't think that a cat is something I could ever kill unless it is doing damage.

Now about a miss. I was hunting as guest at Dilley Texas, also known for big deer and hogs. I was about 75 yds off of a fenced field that had been left to fallow that year. Behind me was several thousand acres of millet. I was in a raised box blind and was told the deer would feed from the brush directly to me and go into the millet. The fallow field was a measured 880 yds across and they had never seen any deer in the field. Until I came, anyway. I saw this buck across the corners of the fallow field, maybe 1200 yds walking down the fence line. At that distance you could tell it was a buck. I put the glasses on him and it looked like he had hooked a tree on his head- mega horns! It's probably the biggest set of horns I've ever seen. There were also two smaller bucks with him and they were winners as well. I watched hoping that they would come across the field and "big boy" would get the opportunity to live on my living room wall. Well, they just feed and walked down the fence line. When they got to the corner I had to decide to either watch them go or shoot across the 880 yds with my trusty 243 that is benchrest accurate. So, I took the shot. I put the big buck in the bottom of the V12 scope and touch the trigger off. The shot was far enough for me to get back on the deer, settle down and see the bullet hit the tree right behind the big buck. I had shot between his horns. Well, he took off to parts unknown but one of the other bucks jumped the fence and run straight in my direction. I let him go until about 300 yds he got to meet up with the 243. I popped him in the neck. He is now a resident in the living room. He measures 23 1/2" inside and is a nine pointer. Not bad but the deer missed would have been a definite B&C winner.
 
All mine have been due to over optimism. :o

Miss 1: 1968, .303 Enfield, open sights, 75 yards, running deer.

Miss 2: 1982, .357 magnum Ruger revolver, open sights, 30 yards, running deer.

Miss 3: 2003 .50 caliber muzzleloader, open sights, 120 yards, walking deer.

Miss 4:2005, 100 yards (rain), .50 caliber muzzleloader, scope, 100 yards, standing deer. (He continued grazing while I frantically reloaded. Sound of reloading finally spooked him. He must have thought the shot was just thunder and lightning...got him the next year with a real rifle, less than 20 yards from where I'd taken the first shot. Deers are creatures of habit.)
 
The first deer I ever shot at I missed 3 or 4 times at maybe 75 yards with a very nice .243, but insisted I must have hit because it seemed like such a short distance that I couldn't have possibly missed. I foolishly got down from the stand and tried to find blood or the deer fallen over somewhere. My dad's friend who had taken me there got out of his stand and walked around a lot too. I felt really bad afterwards about it having ended his morning on account of my stupidity. I learned later I probably wasn't looking through a full view of the scope because I was so excited and kept looking at it through my other eye and around the outside which probably threw it off completely. I think it may have been another 3 years before I finally dropped one.
 
When I first got into muzzleloaders, I did not get a lot of time to practice, and didn't have anyone to show me how to properly operate and load one.
I missed the first 9 deer that I shot at with it, in a week.:(

Since then I got glasses and can actually see the front bead, so I'm MUCH BETTER NOW. I only miss about 1/2 the time.:D
 
If I haven't practiced (shooting clay targets) before opening day of Dove season, I usually miss well over half the doves I see. I guess the worst missed dove, happened a few years ago, when I was crossing a plowed corn field. Really nice dove came up on my left side within 20 yards. Shot and missed, but the dove just kept curving to might right at the same distance. It made a complete circle around me and I missed all three shots. I even managed to load a fourth shell and fire at it, when it was about 35 to 40 yards away and still missed. I did manage to hit it with the one figure salute and a few insults in English & Spanish.
 
I don't call them misses I just call it shoot and release hunting. HA HA!!!!

Anyway, 1st missed dove I was about 10 and had hit a few on the wing and thought I was really good and started running my mouth to my dad and brother when a dove landed in the tree I was standing under. The dove was about 5 feet away and you guessed it I missed. That humbled me a lot and my dad and brother had a good laugh. But I guess it is a good thing I didn;t hit it because there wouldn't have been anything left.

Five years ago I had a 160 inch 10 point come running right to me chasing a doe and it stopped at 10 yards and I have never been a fan of neck shots but this one was so big and so close I new I couldn't miss. Yeah right ya'll guessed it again I missed I have no idea how I managed to do that but I did. I believe if I had taken the shoulder shot he would be on my wall. One reason I I never liked neck shots and will never take another one. Worst part of the story is the next day same deer comes by my brother at 40 yards and he missed him four times and the 1st three shots he was standing still. The day after that one of our neighbors killed him. Made us sick I guess it just wasn't meant to be. That is the only white tail I have ever missed in 20 years of hunting. However, I missed a nice mule deer at about 30 yards but to my credit I did hit a tree branch on that one but still not much of an excuse. I also missed a cow elk and 40 yards but my dad followed up with the kill shot.
But my dad told me when he first took me hunting that if you hunt enough and or shoot enough you will miss some eventually to which I replied about 10 years later I never miss when it come to deer or elk this was right after I flipped a awesome 11 point at about 100 yards in high gear after dad and my brother both missed him, yet several years later I got to eat my words. I hate it when dad is right all the time.
 
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