Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Your most disappointing "miss"

kawi you make me laugh.


As far as missed go, i've had lots but this one was the worst. My dad, best friend,and myself had drawn the late buck hunt in Idaho's Unit 40, Owyhee mountains. First day out dad shoots a real nice 4x4, 2 days later Nathan drops an even bigger buck. The next day out we are riding the 4-wheelers back from glassing all morning, we are on an old mine road. I look up the mountain and there are 3 bucks and probably 10 or so does. The big buck of the bunch is like nothing I've ever seen, being from the North part of the state and mostly hunting whitetails. He is a big 4x4 with a little trash on both sides and about 28" wide. He would have scored somewhere between 180-190. Real nice deer. I jump off the 4-wheeler and get my rifle loaded up, I was shooting a Mauser 98 in 264 win mag, I shot it so much it I could take grouse heads off with it. The deer is about 200 yards up hill. 1st shot miss. 2nd shot miss. The big boy mounts a doe and goes to town. 3rd shot miss. He was done at that point and left the country. Nathan says, "sure wish I had my camera, that was a damn nice buck."

I worry more about bad hits than misses. There's no animal suffering with a miss.

Eric

+1, isn't that the truth..

Late muzzleloader 2012....

I'd been holding off through bow season and rifle season because we had a really good buck visiting the farm. His range was pretty big, as a few guys on adjoining farms were getting pictures of him too. In fact, a buddy of mine was getting several pictures of him on a big creek about 1/2 mile from the far end of my property. I'd busted a few does, but nothing with horns yet..

Anyway, opening morning of late muzzleloader (mid-December) I had my one and only encounter. It was raining steadily and I was about to pack it in for the morning. I was cold and wet, no deer had graced my presence. All of the sudden, the buck below comes busting over the ridge! When I first see him through the open timber, he's probably 80 yards away. He's in a big lope/run and coming straight to me. I keep waiting for him to stop and look back as deer normally do. He's getting closer and still moving pretty quick. At 20 yards he changes direction and is completely broadside. Still moving, but it appears to be an easy shot. I fire and he doesn't even flinch. He never breaks stride and continues to run for 100 plus yards until he's out of site.

I get down and find my sabot at the base of a tree. Look up and there's a fresh chunk of wood missing from the tree. I followed his tracks in the mud for a while, but nothing materialized.

I'm still sick about the miss....and I have no idea what caused the deer to bust into the run. No coyotes were following, no other deer were around, no humans -- nothing.

He was killed in 2013 during rifle season about a mile from the house. Everybody that hunted nearby and used cameras had pictures of the deer, but none of us had actually seen the buck in daylight or while hunting in 2012...or in 2013 until the rifle opener.

In my early 20s, get invited to a buddies new land, 200 arces, deer sign all over the place he wants to build a tree stand, in the middle of the place, I fig that we are not going to hunt just build his stand and scout for the next weekend! its about noon we load my old bonneville up with tools lumber cold beer ect. drive to the spot. even turn on the radio hammer away, talking ect. build a nice ladder stand, so its about 4:00 he says we should get ready to hunt, he wants to hunt the new stand, and my spot is about a 100 yrds away,6" up in a old ceder tree, it was about 3 ft. around tho.I tell him its a wast of time! No showers just wipe the sweat off, no sent killer back then. about half drunk, thinking we were wasting our time I even took a 16oz. bud with me. we did walk back out to our NEW spots, buddie had never bow hunted before, had a recurve I have my bear Polar II coumpond bow, well an hour before dark I look to my left theres a Monster buck 12 pointer standing there, 16yrds, I I draw and release shoot right over him, he trots off to the edge of a swamp now hes at 25yrds broad side again I had got another arrow nocked but was shakeing bad, and dam if I didnt shoot right under him he walked away forever, the guy on the next place got him in rilfe season scored in the 160s biggest buck i have ever seen before of since while hunting! Oh and when i went to tell my buddie hes looking for his arrows shot eight of them at deer never hit one! I did take a big doe the next evening! my 1st bow kill!

In 1993 I shot a 72" antelope near Gillette, WY. The following year I stalked a buck that made him look like a runt, probably at least 80", maybe B&C. I crawled up over a ridge and folded out the bipod. Had him dead to rights at 300 yds. Crosshairs high on the shoulder, squeeeeeeze the trigger, CLICK! Dud round! Quickly cycled the action but he was long gone, never to be seen again.

Out of the couple thousand center fire rounds I have loaded and shot over the years I've only had three duds, all on game! The antelope rifle was a Ruger MK II 30-06 and the other rifle was a push feed Winchester 70 338 WM a couple of years later on what would have been my first elk. Had two duds in a row, later in the day got another shot and it went off, heart shooting a big old cow. I suspect gunk in the firing pin assembly on that one. 20 years later I can still picture that stud antelope buck in my crosshairs.

Last January. Walking down the lane to watch a trail I knew that nilgai were using after they came thru a hole in the (low) fence. Sliding underneath. About 1/4 mile from cabin and I'm ditty bopping along about 1/2 paying attention to the woods and all, when lo and behold there's what looks to be a blue bull standing staring right at me thru the liveoak and mesquite scrub, not 60 yards away. Can see him about 1/2 way up his neck and head.

Throw safety off the old 9.3 x 57 and make a Hail Mary as he turns his head a bolts. All happened pretty quick. Open sights. Clean miss and all my fault!

Young son did same thing a year earlier. But he had the ague so bad before and after the shot I didn't think he'd ever stop shaking! He didn't realize they were so big. He admitted the thing scared him! As he said it just came up outta the ground! LOL!

Great stories, enjoyed all of them. Great fun. Wish I had a miss to report. http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/default/wink.gif

I've missed but was not too upset because they were nothing special. The worst "misses" were on two animals that I did not get to shoot at...for differing reasons.

They were both toads and once in a lifetime chances, one an elk, and the other a whitetail.I can still see them both clear as day.

All the biggest mule deer I have seen alive on the hoof while hunting are dead.

+1 on the great stories.....

and super T, hunt long enough and you'll prolly have one!LOL

Best,

GWB

geedubye, just fun'n I could fill a book. Killed My first BG animal in 1954 so you gotta know I have my share of f&*@ ups.

Gotcha!

Best,

GWB

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

I 20 years old and hunting with an uncle near Rock Springs, TX. I was toting my M70 270 Win with 130 gr PP. Around noon my uncle saw a rock squirrel on a ledge about 100-125 yds away. He said lets see what that 270 will do. At the shot the squirrel jumped and I hit it's tail which broke about 1/2 way to the tip. I can still picture that poor squirrel running away with a broken tail.

I really need to hunt Sonora. What a buck!

Eric

I bet the squirrel was ok with it considering the alternative

Six or seven years ago I was sitting in a field one crisp morning when the biggest buck I've ever seen in the area comes ambling along the fenceline about 130 yards away. It was the buck spotted in the area that the locals were talking about. Not huge but respectable. An easy shot sitting, my lucky day!

He stops, I shoot. He trots off a little and stops while I'm wondering how the hell I could have missed. With resolve and grateful that he stopped I shoot again. Now I'm wondering WTF and he's looking around wondering what's going on in his peaceful haunt. Third shot I saw dirt kick up about 70 yards so I silently wished him well, come back tomorrow morning.

Did some paper shooting at my cousin's place and way WAY low. Turns out the scope, a good quality one, went bad between range shooting a couple days earlier and that first shot. I always take a backup rifle with me but none of us saw that buck again. And none of us shot an equal or better buck in that area since.

Actually the second time that a gun working perfectly at the range a few days earlier failed the next shot at a deer. Then there's center punching saplings I didn't see between me and the deer. Two shots at a trotting buck under 40 yards, two center punches. The only saplings between me and the buck. Why I don't buy Lotto tickets.

They were all disappointing--how can I pick just one?

There are three that come to mind. The first was the worst in that I hit a large whitetail poorly after four hours in a tree stand in single digit weather. When he paused by a bedded doe about ten yards from my stand, I was so cold I could barely get my recurve to full draw. Instead of through the chest my shot went through his huge neck and though I was initially hopeful, he did not bleed well and the snow was mostly gone. I lost him after spending that day and part of the next trying to find him. Someone else did and eventually offered to sell the rack to me. I shouldn't have taken the shot though he was the buck I'd been patterning and went about the160-170's.

I missed a 6x6 bull elk in Co as he was bedded broadside across a small canyon from me. The range was ~ 225-250 yds as nearly as I could figure if I was remembering my geometry correctly though the answer could lie in the fact he was significantly further than I realized (pre-LRF use). Should of been DRT with no difficulty as I was sitting and had a good rest against a quaky. No hair; no blood and tracked him in the snow for an hour before it became apparent he was completely unscathed. Have no idea what happened. On that shot I also had the apparently very rare pleasantry of a Rem 700 extractor breaking in half.

The third was a beautiful taupe colored black bear in the Bob marshal that was feeding behind a dead fall so only his head and neck were visible. I had to watch him for awhile to determine he was a blackie and not his bigger cousin due to the color. Had about 150 yard shot with just head and neck visible but it should not have been a problem at all. Again, complete miss on a real trophy animal for me anyway. No blood; no hair and again I had no ready explanation for the miss.

There was a fourth. A big bull, about ~ 350-375, in a late CO hunt in January. He was at a ranged 350 yards and I took two "good" shots only to see him run away. Turns out earlier I had slid down a rockslide knocking my POI off a foot to the right at a hundred yards, some forty inches at the bull's position.

No harm no foul on the last three but I admit to poor decision making and ethics on the first and I regret it even more as I get older.

Favorite miss....heck there's to many to pick a favorite.
W:)