There was a thread similar to this some time back, but something this week made me remember the following account.

I hadn't been hunting deer very many years when I let my father-in-law talk me into using his .30-06 to deer hunt opening day of season. (I was using a .30-30 to hunt with at the time.) I had never shot his .30-06.

He told me where a deer had been traveling every day and I could hunt for him out of an old wooden coral and the deer would be within a 100 yards. He had talked me into using the '06 because the shot might be near 100 yards and the '06 would have more knock down power, but it didn't have a scope (neither did my 30-30 for that matter).

I had a friend who would be hunting in the same general area about 400 yards away in a high tree stand.

Sure enough, right on schedule the 8 point buck came just where he said he would come--stopping about 100 yards away, broad side to me. I took steady aim (using the wooden coral for a rest) and pulled the trigger. Gun discharges, but the buck just stands there looking around to try and locate the direction the sound was coming from. Although I hadn't been shooting centerfire rifles that long, I wasn't that bad a shot, but I had obviously missed, so I took steady aim again--pulled the trigger and the gun discharges and the deer takes off, crippled, toward the stand my friend was in.

When the deer ran under the tree where my friend was hunting, he had to shoot straight down to hit the deer. The recoil and the awkward position he was in caused him to loose his balance and he fell out of the tree and broke his collar bone. (He did kill the deer.)

Upon examining the deer I saw that I had broken one of the buck's front legs just below his chest--I had shot very low--but why?

I took the rifle home and went to the shooting area and shot the gun and it was shooting several inches low. I took it to my father-in-law and told him about the ordeal. He asked "Where's the quarter?" "What quarter," I asked. "The one under the rear sight that I used to elevate it." I did not know it was supposed to have a quarter under it to elevate the rear sight to the proper position--he hadn't told me that and it had gotten knocked off somewhere.

Moral of the story--never hunt with a gun you haven't shot before, or recently. Also, tell your hunting buddies to wear a safety harness.

Very good advice.