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

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...16742504/redemption-sort-of#Post16742504

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.

I've missed dozens of Deer

My buddies grandfather told him. I have never missed a deer and I always hunt alone! Edk

Had one I missed with my dad's rifle he handed to me as we went to try to move some deer to us.

I blamed that scope for my offhand 100 yard miss at a deer facing me...until I took it to the range and it shot great off a rest.

Whoops.

I've never missed, I have merely failed to aim where the intended target was "a few times".

Tom

Haven't missed over the last couple seasons, but 3 years ago I yerked the trigger on a pig at 280yds and missed him clean. Same year, I missed a whitetail doe at 60 yards when I tried to shoot lefty from my treestand. There's been plenty of misses before that, but those are the most recent.

1st time muzzleloader for whitetail. Siting in an ambush point overlooking cut soybean field. Wind dead calm. Spot some humps approaching over low ridge, wtf? Turkeys!

A couple does follow turkeys to top of ridge, maybe 75 yards or so out. Sight on a doe, squeeze trigger, huge cloud of smoke. Can't see chit, hear hoof stomping like a stampede.

Get up out of smoke, critters gone. Looked real good for blood, hair, nothing. Wandered around and nothing found. No snow to help out either.

Took a shot at a whitetail bouncing through a goldenrod field. I bumped this deer up from her bed. Clean miss, never again took a shot at running deer.

I saw Kenny Jarrett miss a bear on tv once, well his bullet hit a limb and deflected before it got to the bear. I was never as self critical of my missed shots thereafter.

Muzzle loader!

If you haven't missed with a flintlock, you haven't used one much!
Have seen a lot of guys humbled by them.

^^^^^^^^^


THIS

Its VERY rare when I miss, but I can remember it happening twice in recent years.

Between Flintlock season and deer drives during Rifle season I have plenty of misses

It's hard to miss a whole moose inside 50 yards, but it can be done...... He was running and dropped over into a 3' depression just as i shot..

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Now, about shooting off the end of that caribou's pecker - well, that wasn't intended placement but it wasn't a miss, so doesn't count

There have been others, but not with range finder use

I've missed a whole Moose at 80 yards broadside. I was holding on it ready to trip the trigger and my buddy kept saying "don't shoot I don't have the camera set up yet". When the finally said he was ready I was already wobbling and I blew it. I killed him a few seconds later on the run

Funny you mention that. One of my ‘misses’ was a walking/trotting Muley that was rutting after a doe. I was framed hard in the timber and had to either take a shot immediately or not. So I shot as the buck walked forward. The range was lasered at approximately 285 but that was before the shot as he wandered thru a little gap in the brush. I was cocky - pardon the pun - and thought my 270 Wby was flat enough to aim dead on over some shooting sticks across a little draw. Wrong. I was a little low and his pecker tip walked right into that little 140gr boat tail. Of course he reacted as we all would have and bucked and swerved all over the place. I knew I had messed up
real bad. I cut my pack loose and closed the gap to within a hundred yds or so cuz I couldn’t bottom out in the little valley and shot him again in the shoulders to punch his ticket right where he stood. When I got to him I immediately apologized for what I had done - I should have never taken a cavalier shot like I did. Glad he didn’t suffer long but 20yrs after the fact I still feel just as bad. Beautiful 3x4 heavy like a rocking chair. Paonia, Colorado.

I’ve missed plenty of ducks, geese and dove. I’ve missed a couple deer and a bobcat with a bow. I’ve missed prairie dogs out past 1/4 mile. I’ve missed on pig #2 after the first one falls and the sounder goes ape-schidt.
I’ve only missed one deer with a rifle back in the mid-80’s as a young teen…first buck I ever saw in the woods and “the fever” got me.

And I missed an antelope cleanly at 500 yards but killed him at 420 about 20 minutes later.

growing up in PENN I killed 4 ruffed grouse, and rough estimate missed at least 50

I feel like forest grouse are the hardest creature for me to kill. I try to head shoot them with a 22 and avoid using the shotgun. There are times where I felt there was no way I could have missed, but they go flying away.

Oh, yeah, grouse and woodcock. And I've been absolutely humiliated by doves.

Amazing how so many post their experiences as gospel for all.

There is so much difference between waiting and shooting,

VS

Hunting and shooting,

They are different sports.

Was never too much into big drives, mostly a couple person push or
still hunting. But, we used to join a group to drive in muzzleloader season.
It was a blast. A lot of blasts. Some deer died. Much profanity and laughing.

If there was snow, there might be a bunch of clicking.

We quit one day due to the snow on branches. It was dam hard to keep your
powder dry. One guy couldn't get his gun to go off. He had gotten water in
the pan and the charge was damp. He took out the touch hole liner, filled
it and the pan with 4F. The blast out the side was epic!