Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Confession, I have missed

I have told, hear and read of hunters making great shots on critters both near and far.
But I for one have also missed some both near and a ways out there.
Perhaps I’m not alone?
I’m guessing that this might be the shortest thread ever on the site😀

I have missed with bow and gun. (Yes, gun; shot for birds and slugs for deer.)

My jackass shots are inevitably when there are witnesses around. Came home from work one day wife is pointing and screaming up the ridge, kids hollering and pointing, dogs running around in circles barking, I look up and see the buck of my lifetime bedded about 380 yards away up there. Grabbed the rifle on the back porch, fired four closely spaced shots at the trophy, he calmly got up and walked into history. Oh the shame of it.

Yeah. I have a couple doozy’s as well.

Not a miss but I shot a small bull on the top of the mountain in Oregon. Snow was blinding me and the herd was out in the open. 420 yards with my 338. Knew my elevation hold but never thought about the blazing wind blowing my hat off and snow in my eyes. Well first shot knocked him down but he popped back up. I said to myself “self, you’re dumb, the damned wind is blowing like hell”.

Second shot I finished up the small rodeo once he cleared some cows.

I believe I learned from that.

I had a good buck I’d been hunting all season. Finally got a chance during our ML season. Buck steps out at 268. Well, funny me my data was on my phone since I changed my load up a little before season and I hadn’t made a new dope chart. Problem was when I pulled my phone out to check the dope. Phone was dead. I knew my 200 yard dope so I spun to it and held on his back.

Nope. Not a chance. Beautiful buck was gone before I was settled from the recoil. Looked and looked. Never touched him. Snow made seeing my disappointment in the lack of blood that much easier.

I’d been shooting that rifle out to 300 and 400 all year. I was just too lazy to print or write down my darned data.

Oh well. He popped back up on the cams shortly after so maybe my brother and I will get another try at him.

if you haven't missed or worse you haven't hunted very long.

That is a fact, missed a giant bobcat about 60 yards away a few years ago. I had bobcat fever.

Definitely mis-directed a few in my day - the bad results have made me a more patient & deliberate shot

A big kudu in Africa. I wanted one more than any other game. I must have lifted my head to see him fall. He was less than 100 yards..

+1 specially early in hunting when you got more excited

Missed the first buck I saw in the woods. He came walking through the woods about 75 yards away and when I shot, he ran off. I walked over to where he was and no blood, hair, no nothing. Went back to my stand and back to where he was and finally I saw a bullet hole in a tree at just about chest height on a deer. He had walked behind the tree just as I shot. Dammit!

That was before I’d made enough money to put a scope on my 243. I’ve done pretty well in the 55 or so years since then.

I missed a few first shots at deer as a young hunter. I wasn't good at range estimation and had little understanding of ballistics. Invariably I would shoot high, thinking I needed to allow for drop while I was well within PB range of my .270 Win.

A friend invited me to join him and six other guys on their annual muzzle loader season hunt in eastern Ohio. After missing on six easy shots from about 40 - 80 yards I finally connected with a decent buck, although I had to track him back to his bed for a finishing shot. I had run out of loads and had to bum one from one of the guys for the finishing shot. My friend had been talking up what a good shot I was, and it was embarrassing to have missed so many. I took a good bit of ribbing from the guys as you can imagine. When I got home and was getting ready to clean the rifle, I through it up to my shoulder and looked out the window. I noticed that the crosshair wasn't centered, and while still looking, it disappeared down to the bottom of the bell. I felt better after that, but it didn't stop the guys from giving me grief the following years.

Yep, I've had my share of misses and a couple poorly placed shots. Only a couple of each in my life, thank goodness.

This describes me and my first .270 exactly.

Have made some spectacular shots.
Some good.
Some not.

Have even set off 2 rodeos, that if they were how things normally go,
Would make me quit hunting.

Distinctly remeber looking at a cow elk at about 125 yards and thinking,
"You are mine".

Broadside, in a meadow.
She went down hard.
After the second shot.

I have missed with everything I have. This year however I took two shots and got two deer.

I’m very proficient and confident, both in myself and rifle setups at distances from a field rest.

I absolutely suck at off hand shots when the animal is either standing still or running farther than 100 yards.

I don’t practice offhand shooting, so I should suck at it....I’ve missed several deer, coyotes, and ground squirrels off hand.

🤦‍♀️🦫

When I was in my teens I was pretty good offhand fifty yards and in. There is no telling how many thousand offhand shots I took with my spring piston air rifle that was as large and similar in weight to a centerfire rifle. Now, forty years later, not so much.

Missed one deer with a 30-30 when I was about 14.
Just this year my buddy gut shot a deer, so I opened up on it while it was at a dead sprint. I hit it once in the ass and once in the neck, oops.
I have missed a lot of squirrels, a lot of woodcocks and pats, and a few crows that were too far for my rifle shooting ability.

Have not yet missed a deer with a scoped rifle, but I have made some high shoulder shots that were definitely not meant to be high shoulder shots.