Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game When is the last time you missed?

In the real world even the pros miss all too often in many kinds of sports, from basketball to biathlon to trap shooting.

I have missed many times over the last forty years and I will miss again. I have gotten buck fever and missed easy shots for no good reason. On the other hand twice I've killed animals under huge pressure when they were trying their best to kill me, once a wounded bull moose, and once a charging brown bear.

Human imperfection is the biggest factor in misses, but there are lots of other factors that come into play as well, especially in long shots: miscalculated ranges, warped stocks, changing wind, banged scopes, faulty ammo, etc.

Life has a way of humbling us sooner or later.

Definitely an under-utilized technique.

An adult and juvenile cougar came up behind me as I watched a bear trail for the Volkswagen Bear. I swung around when I saw them and fired four shots so fast it sounded like an auto burst. Missed all four shots at less than 30 yards before they made it out. Savage 99F 358

A couple years ago I bought a really, really nice custom Mauser 30/06. Sighted it in with Barnes 130 ttsx, missed two bears at 40 and 95 yards and said that's it, no more new guns before hunting season.

Missed a standing buck at 600 once. Killed a bunch under difficult circumstances, usually busting out of brush at close range, but can't hit one standing still it seems. Agree with BSA, jackrabbit hunting makes good big game hunters.

This year. I tried to brain shoot a little buck for sausage with the 223 with silencer. He jerked his head up at the right time and i missed.He stuck around but i let him go.Had my shot at him already. ED K

This year I shot over the back of a buck with my crossbow because I over estimated the range and whiffed on a doe with my suppressed 300 Blackout. She just stood there and I fired another shot and she still didn't run. I figured I wasn't going to kill her with the third shot and called it a day. That rifle is accurate and the shots were about 25 yards at her neck. I couldn't believe I missed. Later that day on my range at home the rifle was shooting 6 inches low at 25 yards. I don't know how the Leupold scope could have been off that far from the last time I used the rifle.

Perry

11-5-2006. I missed a buck that was trotting past me at about 75 yards. Just as I squeezed the trigger, a small tree popped into view and I know I stopped my swing. A clean miss.

A few days later, I was hunting about 300 yards from the miss, and while a guy never knows for sure, I killed a buck that had the same forked eyeguards, just like the one I had missed a few days before.

I loved it and laughed out loud. Should have told you so I guess, cause it is good satire. You post good stuff. The best satire is so true that it fools too many readers!

This year. REALLY early (first moments of shooting light) at a decent buck. Just flat missed. I could blame it on a twig or something in between (likely), but it was a clean miss. Saw him walk back through the brush a few minutes later.

Killed an even larger buck just a few minutes after that.

A few weeks ago. My 16 yo grandson missed a whitetail at 7 or 8 feet with his scoped 270. Shot over it from a 10' ladder stand. Did not miss the second shot.
As I am a still hunter, missing is not as rare for me as it seems for many of the other posters. A fair percentage of my hunting is done in thick cover, so near instant judgement of whatever shot is presented, is the norm.
Over the long haul, I think my percentage is good, but I contribute some of that to use of Partitions most of the time. They often seem to take up the slack when all else is less than ideal.
While I used a bunch of calibers over the years, most hunts have been with 270's, 35 Whelens, and 50 cal muzzleloaders. A 300 Savage is seeing more use in recent years.

I knew it was going to happen. My shooting blind and rest was perfect. The bait was hung and too tempting to pass up. As shooting light began to appear, i knew the big ole male was near if not already on the bait. My heart rate went up. Slowly, his outline appeared on the limb. He moved slowly - like a thick liquid rolling - toward the bait. My finger tightened on the trigger and i knew this wiley raider was mine. A sudden noise - he stiffens and slinks down muscles tense. Movement as I fire - he leaps down and disappears in the thick brush under the tree. Did i miss or do I have a wounded male to follow up?

I get up from my lawn chair and head to the bird feeder. The noise that spooked him is a fast approaching car. As I near, the big ole tom squirel runs to cross the road and get into the oak woods. The car splats him. As best as I could tell, I missed but the ford got him. 0 for 1 in '16

Last year, hunting some hardwoods in western PA... jumped a group of 4 or 5 deer who bounded up the next hillside (maybe 60-80 yards away) and stopped to look back. Centered the reticle quickly on the chest of a mature doe and shot.

They all bounded off with no reaction and I watched them for another 150 yards with no adverse effects. Went to the spot, no blood or hair, no sign of a shot... until I looked a bit higher and saw nice 1.5" hole blown through a young 5" diameter oak!

I missed this fall for the first time in I think thirty five years. The first time I shot at a moving deer I was twelve or thirteen, since I've been very consistent, with most big game falling to a single shot. ( one muley took two through the chest without flopping, and one was a dumb choice as a teen, attempting a head shot hit his jaw and followed it up running away hitting him in the back of the head in tall brush.)

This fall I had a ten point at about 40 yards crossing in hard to my left. It was fairly thick but I felt I had a shooting lane, when he stepped into it I held for the shoulder and touched it off. He spun and ran off. No blood, hair, etc. My son went back to where I had been sitting and traced the path toward where it had been. He found a twig with a crescent shaped divot. I was stunned when it didn't fall. I used the same rifle & load the last day of season to fill my tag with a doe. It is just a little high at that range but not enough to miss with the hold I used.

Until this happened I would never have thought such a slight impact of a twig would throw off the bullet so much.

First caribou this year, early November, 150 or less. Forgot rifle was zeroed at 300. Shot over. A brisket hold spined her.

Three years ago during muzzleloader season I had walked in about 1.5 miles in the morning towards a pond and suddenly found myself in range of about thirty does milling around in the morning mist around the pond. Frankly, it was a surreal and beautiful moment and for a moment, I was confounded at which target to pick. I settled on a nice sized doe, dropped to one knee and fired my shot. It was a complete miss. I think I pulled the shot due to the pan flash on my flintlock .54 cal Lyman Deerstalker shooting patched round ball. Although I'd been doing pretty good on paper at the range in preparation, alas, I failed the test that day in the woods. Still, it was worth it just to see all those does circling the pond in the mist that morning. Beautiful sight I'll never forget.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I outright missed a deer.

But I do know that I have passed up a bunch of shots just this year that I was not sure of making.

I've gotten more selective as I've gotten older. If I cannot kill it today with confidence, I will get him tomorrow or next year.

Wed. the 20th.. Took a shot at a cow elk, walking away.. She gave me a slight quartering chance to it behind the shoulder and due to the wind, or poor aim.. I missed.. Later, I did it perfectly on a broadside shot at 200 yards..

I swear I was in total still air and fired at an antelope at 360 which for our area is not unusual, made three hits just barely striking his left side to find the wind howling at6 150 to 360 yds when I got up to him. For me, horrible shots, the worst.

I stalked a bear last September to about 250 yards and couldn't get closer. I sat down an used my sticks, at the shot the crosshairs looked good, and I thought I hear a hit too. Bear took off running R to L. it was a good 200 yards to cover, and I figured since the bear was hit already I better put another hole in him. Emptied my rifle at him, 3 more shots. Two looked good to me. On picking up the track, no blood, no hair, no nothing. Tracked as best I could in the bush, nothing. Went back for my dog, he found no blood or other encouraging sign.
Two days later, same rifle, same load, but about half the distance, I had a bull elk running across an ope field at dawn at a bit shallower angle from R to L. Put one shot through his shoulder and turned him, put another through his neck as he changed direction.
I have no idea what went wrong with the bear, just need to get closer next time I guess.

Four or five years ago a buddy and I were hunting moose together. We were waiting to be picked up in the s-I-l's boat as evening approached. The s-I-l signalled that there was a moose at the end of the bay we had been watching. Where we were sitting, however, we could not see into the end of the bay.

We both moved up onto a little rise where we could see the moose. I sat down behind a downed log and tried to get comfortable but couldn't. Each time I thought I was ready I started to shake. Buck fever I guess. Finally when I didn't shoot my buddy did and hit the moose. For some reason the moose didn't go down. By then I had moved to another more stable position. I waited for my buddy to fire another finishing shot but it never came. Finally I fired two quick shots, both of which hit the moose and it finally went down. (It likely would have died from the first shot but we never like to take a chance on them getting way back in the bush.)

This is not quite what the OP was asking about but it shows buck fever can come when you least expect it. At the time I had been hunting for over 60 years. I know if I had shot too soon I would have missed. (The range was lasered at 300 yards.)

Jim

Kansas, last year, gdang arrow passed over the lungs and under the spine on a giant 9pt buck. , MF'k bowhunting pisses me off!