Is missing...

This Sunday was Opening Day of General Big Game Hunting Season here in Montana. Legal shooting light found us at the top of a mountain. My grandpa drove the car down, I decided to walk behind it. My brother, for reasons unknown to me, also stayed inside the car. We had went about a mile down this road when I noticed a muley beside the road about 50 yards in front of me in plain veiw. Since the car with my grandpa and brother was about 20 yards in front of me I thought for sure they had seen it. The buck simply watched the car for a moment. So did I...waiting for the brother to get out and shoot. He never did. The buck looks at me. I look at him. I raise my rifle and place the crosshairs on his head...yep, he has horns (in my region, it is either sex white-tail, muley buck, or brow tined bull), an okay 3x3. Not a trophy, but he will put much needed meat on the table. I swing the crosshairs to his chest and squeeze the trigger. In the usual adrenaline rush I barely hear the blast 79.5 grains of powder sending the 160 gr Partition down range. The gun recoils and when it comes back down, the deer is gone. I have never been more surprised in my entire life. Instead of being on the ground kicking like I expected, he was bounding through the trees. My inital impulse was simply to stand there with my arms hanging limply at my sides and that look of disbeleif on my face--like "I missed? But I never miss!" I managed to jack another round into the chamber and attempt a follow up, but to no avail. The deer had long since fled to private property and no traces of blood or hair could be found.

Missing must be the worst feeling in the world. It was the easiest shot a guy could hope for and I blew it. Worse, I don't even know why. Sure I have a couple theories--I wasn't quite used to the light trigger pull and the gun discharged prematurely, sending the bullet over his back. Or it could be that I wasn't used to the weight of the Harris bipod and it threw the balance off such that the added momentum sent the bullet under him. It could have just been a freak accident, something in the alienment of Jupitor's moons. Whatever it is, I hope it does not become habit forming...missing sucks.

Your right, missing does suck, but not as much as wounding an animal, and not being able to recover it. Trust me. I've done it.

Bad news is that you missed-------Good news you can keep on hunting!!! Good Luck !

FarRight, there are three types of hunters.
1. Those who have missed a shot.
2. Those who will miss a shot.
3. Those who lie about missing a shot.

I fall under group #1.

FarRight,

Like everyone else, I've missed my fair share of shots...it's frustrating, but I just figure that when it happens, it wasn't that animal's time.

I kick myself when I miss a shot, but I know it is better than wounding an animal. Nothing in the hunting world can feel worse than that.

Joel Slate
Slate & Associates, LLC
www.slatesafaris.com

7mm Rem Mag Page www.slatesafaris.com/7mm.htm

I'll pipe in about missing vs wounding too. It sure is a sick feeling in the gut but hopefully it makes you a more carefull hunter afterwards, and it does make the clean misses easier to swallow.

Anyone that says that they have never missed has never shot. Unfortunatly it happens to everyone. But that miss will make you practice and become a better shot. Just this year I missed a standing doe antelope then hit her on the run. I guess I just prefer to do it the hard way. Good luck in the future.

This spring I had what was probably the easiest shot of my life- 80 yards at a bear, standing up, facing me.

The sight picture was perfect and I still fear I may have wounded the bear, although we found no blood or hair. My buddy thinks I missed, as the bear had no reaction other than to run off after the shot. After my buddy and I looked for two days with his dog, we gave up.

Funny...I decided to shoot at a can after we gave up the search, to check aim. Nailed the pop can right through the middle at the same distance, and it was almost dark by then.

Better a miss then a wound and lost game. Chin up, you'll do better next time. - Dan

I think you and I both missed the same shot on the same day. The only good thing was that I didn't wound the deer, a spectacular blacktail buck. Okie John.

I feel for you also. We all have been there or will be someday. That why we call it hunting. It isn't as easy as some people think. I missed a 4 or 6 pointer two seasons ago when I tried a handgun shot with my 44 that was fairly far (I had a great rest) and just blew it. Missed. I thought it was a doe until right befroe the shot I saw the horns in the scope. Buck Fever? Maybe? Bad shooting? Maybe. Far shot for a handgun? Maybe. Was I sick? YES!!! Wondering how I missed? YES!!! Did I still have fun? YES!!!

But then I sat there, after searching for blood or hair and not finding any, and thought to myself that I was lucky even to have the chance. I got alot of teasing about being "Dirty Harry" and missing with the pistol. "You should have shot it with your rifle and not screwed around!, Why do you shoot all those rounds during the year if you were going to miss anyway. etc." But I think back and I was sick at missing but also I still had fun. The thrill of the hunt.

That why we hunt it isn't a sure thing.

Hcliff

Some days the force is with you. Some days it's not. The good news is now you have to go out and hunt some more!

My nephew has shot at 15-20 deer and has killed them all without one miss. He takes his time and waits for a good shot. He does pass up quite a few deer. One day he will miss if he keeps hunting. His father and I do not have records quite that good after killing several hundred deer. We miss perhaps one in five attempts on the average. We have only wounded a very small number that we could not find, three for me and about the same for my brother. We go to great pains to make sure that any deer we shoot at either was cleanly missed or is recovered.

I also have "I never miss"-itis, too.

To make a REALLY LONG story MUCH SHORTER... I shot at a Russian boar last September (2001) at a distance that was as good as it gets, with a shot presentation that was as good as it gets... and missed. Huh? "I never miss."

Well... after looking for blood that should have been there that wasn't, after proving with an offhand one-shot "kill" on a hedge melon at 60 yards that my scope wasn't off and, with my buddy knowing "I don't miss" -- we backtracked the shot and found where I'd nicked a half-inch limb between me and the hog. (I was using an M8 6x Leupold and just plain didn't see the limb between me and the hog. Ca-ca happens. Good case for a low-power variable -- but, "oh well.")

I missed.

You either have missed, will miss, or you're lying.

Welcome to the fold, brother.

Russ

[ 10-29-2002, 04:05: Message edited by: Russell E. Taylor ]

We all miss. What's important is that you replay the shot in your head and figure out WHY you missed. Mistakes can be beneficial if we learn from them.

Well I did it right the other day. Tuesday I went out by myself for a late morning and afternoon hunt. Followed a buck around for a couple hours. First time all I saw was him bounding away. I contimplated a Texas heart shot for about half a second. Decided against it for obvious reasons. Followed him around a little bit. Next time I saw him he stopped about 100 to 120 yards away but there was no shot. All I could see was his head and neck. I thought about it for about half a second but decided against it as well--I am not to keen about head and neck shots (though if you want to that is fine) and this is a new rifle with which I have little practice off hand. I let that one go. Went back to the truck, ate lunch. Headed down the road to my next spot, and lone behold, 3 does cross the road right in front of me. One bounds up the mountain as I get out, another crosses the road into private property. The biggest one looks at me sort of wagging its tail. As I walk up the game trail to get a shot it sort of trots behind some trees and then angles up the hill. I whistle and it stops to look at me. I raise up and touch off. I see it stumble then take off. It piled up about 40 feet away--though how it ran at all I don't know. Upon gutting it I found half of a lung--the rest was mush. The bullet went in right where I intended it to behind the left shoulder and exited a bit far back on the right side taking out a lobe of the liver and leaving a nasty 1 inch exit wound. Shot distance was about 50 to 60 feet. Overall very impressed with Partitions and my 7mm Rem Mag. Now all I need to do it get me an elk...

O and funny thing. I don't feel near as bad passing up two bad shots as I did screwing up one good shot. And I don't feel bad about the doe either...that's meat on the table and I can't eat antlers anyways.

DANG! All this time I thought the worst feeling in the world is when your wife meets your girlfriend! hahaha J/K.

Ngumba, you're on the right track however its when your wife and your girlfriend have the same monthly cyle (period). What are the chances of that happening?

Good hunting.

I know all about missing. I misses a Hartebeest at 50 feet. I think, now that I was looking at the animal, and NOT at the cross hairs. How else can you explain it at that range?

In about '85 I was doing almost all my hunting with a recurve bow, shooting instinctively.

One afternoon I was late getting to my area and decided to just hde in the brush of an old fence row.

About 20 minutes after I sat down, a huge bodied 10 point walked right down the row and stopped 20-30 feet in front of me. I instincively came to full draw, released and watched the buck roll over like a truck hit him. As I stood up the buck got up and started staggering like a drunk at closing time.

I finally got a good look and saw that I had cut his right antler COMPLETELY OFF!!!! About 3" from the skull. I just stood there and watched him stagger away.

After he walked out of sight I was standing there getting ready to pitch a fit, when this voice calmly said," the only way this could be any better, is if I had a camera".

One of my "buds" was 30 yards away, about 25'up, in his climber and had witnessed my screw-up.

GUESS WHERE MY EYES WERE AT THE MOMENT OF RELEASE??