It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sure I'm supposed to be doing something productive.

So, with that in mind.......................


My most disappointing miss in the last couple years came about after a long hot September day at the lease last year. I had been filling up feeders and fixing things that seem to just quit from month to month.

I have a spot that is at the back of our lease. It is about 1.5 miles in off the main gravel road we use to access our hunting areas. The path to access this spot is just wide enough to get an ATV through. I'll park my ATV and walk the last half mile uphill as its too thick and steep to access it any other way than on foot.



I call it "The Cliffs" as where I sit is a sheer rock face that is about 100' above the floor of a 350+/- acre bowl. Directly below is a dry creekbed that runs in an east/west direction






If you look closely you can see the spin cast feeder. It's about 160 yds out, to the right of the dry creek bed.





I had been working all day in the heat and had let myself get too hot and somewhat dehydrated. IIRC I got out about 5 PM. This time of year one can see until almost 9 PM.

I keep game cameras set out from time to time and Had picked up pix of a group of javelina that would come in from time to time. IIRC I had a half dozen pix over a three month period. Guess they would range in and out of the area as they did not show up on game cam regularly.



I was jazzed as I've been on this lease since 2004 and had not seen the first Javelina.

It was about an hour before dark and I was glassing the bowl. Sometimes will see Aoudad up high near the tops of the surrounding hills. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I lowered the glasses and got just a glimpse of the hindquarter as it entered the brush and was lost to sight. I thought to myself that was strange. Sure didn’t walk like a hog. I watched the area for a few minutes and went back to glassing. About 10 minutes later I caught motion again on my left at the same spot where the critter had disappeared into the brush. I put my binocs on it and damn if it wasn’t a javelin and not only that, a monster of one at that. The javelinas I’ve killed are usually mid 20 to low 30 lbs. This guy had to have been at least 60 lbs. He was a stud puppy for a Javelina. He was walking a game trail on the far side of the creekbed and I figured where he would come out would be about 150 yds. Too far for me on a freehand shot.
I was not in the most appropriate spot or position to make the the shot.

This afternoon I was shooting my Rem 700 KS in 300 H&H, zero’d for 200 yds.



I was on an incline with my feet about 12 inches below my butt. I tucked my shooting sticks into my boot tops in order to get a rest, but due to my quivering from the heat and dehydration taken with the “buck fever” I was experiencing I could not seem to get a steady rest.

He came out of the brush and I knew I had a small window to make the shot before he disappeared for good.
I couldn’t get a steady sight pix, but I figured this might be the only chance I got and I let fly. I didn’t hear the "whop" and I sensed that I shot over him. It takes almost 30 minutes to get down from my perch to the ATV and then drive to where the Javelina was when I shot, but only 10 minutes or so to scramble down the cliff, which I did. I looked high and low till dark for any evidence of blood or fur, but to no avail. I was elated that I had got the shot, but bummed that I had missed. I hate missing.

Best,

GWB

I hate that when it happens, but even if it was nothing more than a javelina, I hate finding hair and blood, but not finding the critter.

A complete miss is a downer, especially when everything looked good at the shot.

But I will take a clean miss any time over a hit and not find.

I sort of figure you feel somewhat the same.

quote:

complete miss is a downer, especially when everything looked good at the shot.But I will take a clean miss any time over a hit and not find.

Very true

Yup

I think my most disappointing miss was on a 30 inch plus nyala that I could of gotten closer too but told the PH it wasn't necessary. Right! I always feel on a miss you get a "do over" so it's not really a big deal but as others have said wounding and not finding the animal is just gut wrenching. Unfortunately if you hunt much it will happen to us all and is just part of the process of hunting.

Mark

Snuck up on this buck in his bed in Mexico and had him at 40 yards. I was hunting a deer that was easily over 200" so I decided to pass this buck. I didn't miss this one with a rifle but I missed him when I judged him. I thought he had 18-19" G2's



Whistled to get him to look at me for better pics....



This will give you a better perspective of how big this deer is. It's an old, mature Sonoran desert deer...



Anyway, fast forward to this year and I found his left antler laying on the desert floor. It was from the same year and it's unmistakable due to the curvature of the antler. It's definitely his....



Anyway, I really missed as the G2 wasn't 18-19", it was 22" and the G3 is 13". World class back fork and I missed him by a fair margin at 40 yards. Kind of embarrassing but I don't regret not shooting him for a second. Seriously fellas, y'all should have seen the big deer

My most disappointing was last October. I was hunting with CrazyhorseConsulting, and we were in the stand the first night. We had waited for the sounder to come in to the feeder lights. I knew my rifle was on since I had sighted it in at Randall's range just a few hours before, so I was good to go. We waited.

The hogs came in just as Randall predicted and from exactly the spot he said, so I was ready. I put the crosshairs, at least the parts I could see , on the biggest one and squeezed the trigger. At the shot, all of the pigs took off. We waited a few minutes and went looking. We found nothing. No hair, no blood, nothing. And it wasn't for lack of Randall trying. I had just made a clean miss.

So now I was sitting at dinner thinking that I was sure that Randall would think I could not shoot and he would have to treat me so. Bad feeling. Luckily I redeemed myself the next morning, so all was fine, but it was embarrassing.

I missed a very nice 25"-26" 4 X 4 muley on a muzzleloader hunt in 2011. No magnification was allowed on the hunt, and I had fitted my White with a Lyman 57 SMET sight and used it to get used to the sights. Well, I left the target peep in the rifle instead of changing it to the hunting peep, so when I got to Idaho I had the wrong sight.

We found (my buddy found...) a group of eight muleys on a side hill. I had them at 85 yards, but the target peep wouldn't let enough light in for me to see him clearly, and I shot over his back.

Oh well; but as has been said already, I would rather miss cleanly than mark one up and lose it.

quote:

So now I was sitting at dinner thinking that I was sure that Randall would think I could not shoot and he would have to treat me so. Bad feeling. Luckily I redeemed myself the next morning, so all was fine, but it was embarrassing.

At the time and under the circumstances, you had a "Hail Mary" shot at best. Had we have been hunting deer, even does, I would have recommended passing on it. I was reasonably confident that it was a doable shot, but it just didn't blossom like it was supposed two.

Your next two victims were not as lucky as the first one.

Very nice Springbok, 100 yds off sticks, clean miss. Still can't believe it. Next day, average Springbok, 230 yds, DRT.

Really, really nice 4x4 main frame typical (with a good kicker on each side) mule deer in northern NM during the January bow season. I stalked within about 40 yards, used a small pinon tree as cover to draw, stepped out slowly, and fired at the broadside deer. It seemed like slow motion as my arrow, headed directly for his vitals, struck an unseen branch and buried itself in the dirt at the buck's feet. Clean miss. Of course he bolted, never to be seen again...

quote:

wounding and not finding the animal is just gut wrenching. Unfortunately if you hunt much it will happen to us all and is just part of the process of hunting.

That is about the most accurate statement that can be made about hunting there is.

Missed a 190" whitetail in MT a few years back.....bedded down 150 yds away with no shot. Had a doe with him that spooked and when he stood up I had a split-second shot as he jumped going away.....took 2 more attempted TX heart shots and all missed cleanly. To say I was bummed is an understatement.

I have missed so many "Gimmie" shots and made enough "No Way In Hell" shots, that none really stand out in my mind.

The things I remember are ones like the one time my Dad went deer hunting with me. He was not a hunter, he loved to fish, but he tagged along that morning.

We ended up seeing a good sized doe at about 60 maybe 70 yards. I raised the rifle, got the crosshairs settled on her shoulder and pulled the trigger. I was already to start gutting and dragging but the "Click" that gun made on an empty chamber seemed louder than had the gun fired and the doe acted like a bolt of lightning had scorched her tail.

We loaded up and went home at that point.

In 2001, I was lucky enough to shoot a legitimate 160 P&Y buck with my bow. Being an Illinois resident, I went out and bought a second bow tag, and resolved to hold out for a bigger buck than the 160. About a week later, I was in the same tree stand where I got the 160, and a legitimate 180+ P&Y stepped out broadside at 20 yards. Just as I was releasing the arrow, a nearby fawn saw me and spooked. The arrow sailed right over the 180+ buck's back. Here's a picture of the 160, who netted 156 ⅝ P&Y.

7 or 8 years ago I had a successful hunt for black bear in British Columbia. I took a jet black boar that squared 6'10". I had 2 bear tags on that trip and also had a wolf tag. I couldn't find a bigger bear than the one I took so I ate that tag.

But, on the last day of the hunt I had a shot at a big black wolf. The shot wasn't real long, maybe 175 yards and the wolf was standing broadside when we spotted him. As I moved to a place to make the shot the wolf turned to face me. I took a rest and held in the middle of the chest and prepared to send a 300 gr soft point his way. Just as I squeezed the round off I felt the forearm slip to the right and that's where the bullet went. I saw it impact in the snow behind and just to the right of the wolf. That is the only shot I have ever had at one. I re-live that one a lot in my mind.

Interesting, TommyII. My most disappointing "miss" wasn't a miss. I shot a large black wolf on a bear hunt one spring. I had a chance to put a second in him, but knew he was dead. He spun in a circle, hesitated (and I should have popped him again then) and bolted into the black timber.

He sprayed a ton of blood in that circle and lost lots more in the timber - I searched for two days, but never found him.

Huge whitetail on our ranch...about 1995...would have been 16oish....damn buck fever

Every one of them.

Dave

We put a mule deer buck down for the evening. Got on him the next day. At the bottom of the hill I'm getting ready for the shot- I ranged him. As I'm taking off my backpack and getting my sticks ready, my guide says "What you got?" "I said 366." He says "I got 280." So I put up my binos (Swaro 10x42 rangefinder) and range him again- "I got 360 again." He
(monocular Leica) says "I got 280, you're getting the trees above him." This was my first hunt with the Swaros.

He then says "He's 280 and uphill, so aim low."

I make the shot, buck jumps and runs into the brush. After climbing up the fucking hill, guide ranges downhill. The look on his face said it all.

I don't regret it, the number one rule is you never go against your guide, never. I should have maybe questioned him about the distance, but the real problem was he said aim low. We were at 10,000' so I was hesitant of a flier. Had I aimed dead center I would have had a low heart shot.

When the outfitter wanted to hear my side, I told him my fault we should have gotten a consensus on the yardage, but he seemed sure so I went with it. And I said I follow the golden rule- you never question the guide.

Doesn't matter, saved me taxidermy $$$. And I've got much bigger mulies on the wall anyway.

Bottom line. We bedded him down, made the stalk, I got a number, I put the bullet on the number....too bad it was the wrong number. Great hunt though.

Those high mountain hunts are good for a fatass like me- had about 20 stress tests a day.