Missed deer ***!!

[Quilcene Brian]

Last November while hunting with my partner in Montana I had three opurtunitys at three nice bucks. Two were whitetail bucks and one Muley. All were wall hangers.
I missed all three Clean...
One shot was 170 yards One was 268 yards and one was 358 yds.. I checked these ranges with a range finder,
I am noted among my hunting peers as being a dead eye shot and I never miss.
I shoot a Ruger 270 stainless with a 3x9 Leopold
I hand load a 130grn speer SPBT with 53 grn of IMR4350
I crimp each round with a lee crimper.
I sight my rifle in at 200yds to shoot 2 inches high.
My theory is my trigger pull seemed hard and I was pulling up while shooting. Or am I just getting old and cant hit S$$t anymore. It seemed like I was shooting high. any suggestions would be appreciated... I have made long shots up to 400 yards with no problems.

 

[Long Trang]

Did you verify your zero before the hunt? I'm assuming you were with your partner in Montana and that you were visiting? If so, anytime you transport a rifle with a mounted optic (especially by plane) you need to reverify the zero.

The other possibility is the increased trigger pull you mentioned. That one sounds very odd. Try to find out why the trigger felt so hard. I'm sure you know just how much pull your trigger is normally set.

Good luck.

 

[screech]

check zero and get it so it isnt so high. I missed way more bucks having a gun that shoots 2" high at 100 than I have holding over at 3-400

 

[roninflag]

what size three shot groups does your ruger shoot at 358 yards??

 

[Buffalobob]

Give the crimper to your mother-in-law on her birthday and tell her it fits in the blender.

 

[Buffalobob]

Secondly, take the rifle out of the stock and the bolt out and use a good spray type carb cleaner on the trigger and on the bolt to get old built up oil out of the firing pin mechanism and the trigger mechanism.

Put everything back together and test the bolt closure and trigger to ensure it does not fire upon closing.

Cold weather, old sticky oil and slow lock time coupled with any other problems is a problem and crimping isn't helping anything.

 

[Oliveralan]

All good advice, however to me this sounds like most likely an unchecked zero. I doubt a slightly heavier trigger or slightly slower lock time would throw you completely off a deer sized target at those ranges, maybe at the 350yard shot but not all three...

 

[Quilcene Brian]

Thanks for the suggestions.
The crimper will be removed from my reloading bench. I did tear down the rifle when I returned from Montana. I did get a nice 5x5 white tail by the way (10 point for you fellas east of the Mississippi.
I found some grit down in the trigger mechanism which I cleaned with a degreaser.
I then put a blank round in the chamber and tired the trigger. Bingo the pull was better.
Im sure now after reading your suggestions the trigger pull was off but I think the real culprit was a poorly sighted in rifle.

I usually get back 300 yards to sight it in and can usually shoot shoot a 2 inch group from a rest.
I dont have a range near me so I use this old blocked off logging road where I can get back to 300 yards. Well the state decided too many butt heads had dumped to much garbage on it so they closed the access.
I just didnt take enough time with my rifle before the season started. Lesson learned.

 

[Magnumitis]

I'd recommend just zeroing your rifle at 200 yards.

 

[flyin lizard]

Two inchs high at 200, thats is a bit much, I would go point of aim at 200.

 

[LRSickle]

You missed one at 170 and another one at 268. What about buck fever? Seriously, it happens to alot of people. Please don't be offended. I'm just sayin'.

 

[21buck]

With a sticking trigger, airline handling, sighting in too high, and buck fever ??, there are lessons for all of us. Congrats on getting a whitetail. Been there and done that in my earlier days. Sighting in 1.5" for most occasions is ideal and close to dead on at 200 yards, for me has put more meat in the pot.

 

[J E Custom]

Last November while hunting with my partner in Montana I had three opurtunitys at three nice bucks. Two were whitetail bucks and one Muley. All were wall hangers.
I missed all three Clean...
One shot was 170 yards One was 268 yards and one was 358 yds.. I checked these ranges with a range finder,
I am noted among my hunting peers as being a dead eye shot and I never miss.
I shoot a Ruger 270 stainless with a 3x9 Leopold
I hand load a 130grn speer SPBT with 53 grn of IMR4350
I crimp each round with a lee crimper.
I sight my rifle in at 200yds to shoot 2 inches high.
My theory is my trigger pull seemed hard and I was pulling up while shooting. Or am I just getting old and cant hit S$$t anymore. It seemed like I was shooting high. any suggestions would be appreciated... I have made long shots up to 400 yards with no problems.

Everyone misses . but three times in a row !! It tells me that you have a sight problem. The bases, rings or the scope it's self . go to the range and shoot at 100 or 200yards and see where it hits.

Sometimes things get lose or fail and all at the worst time.

Check the zero.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Willys46]

I had the same excat thing happen. I used to point and shoot and then started getting into long-range shooting. I started practicing a lot more all the time. I started focusing on fundamentals in shooting and sight picture.

When practicing I would look for the perfect alignment for my cross hairs and line them up on the target. When I transferred this to deer I relized I was trained to line up my cross hairs perfectly and that happened to be the back of the deer. I was placing my horizontal cross hairs on the back and shooting high.

After I missed I went and resighted my gun...dead nuts on. When I went to bed I had a mental picture of my sights on the target and BAM it hit me.

When shooting at deer you can get excited and you fall back to what you practice.

Now I know what to look for i have not missed since...it was frustrating, that year I had shoot more than the pervious years of my life and could hit anything from 100 to 900 yards. When I missed I was completely ****ed!

Just my experience, it takes a lot to look within and not blame equipment.

Willys46