anyone admit to making a terrible shot

[lloydsmale]

I shoot alot of deer every year and take pride in the fact that i usually shoot well. Last night was an exception. Most deer we shoot are out at 300 plus yards. Last night i had one in front of me at 125 and was using my 300 H&H with a 150 tsx. Shot the deer and it dropped on the spot. It was early so i kept hunting but didnt see anything else. At dark i went over to guy it and found it laying there dead with a broken back. i was shooting right behind the shoulder and the shot felt right and hit the deer right where the hind quarters conect to the back bone. I dont remember my gun getting bumped so i cant blame the gun or scope but i will either check it today if i have time or grab a different rifle till i have time to. I think what happened was that it was such a short shot i didnt take my time and just thought it was a chip shot. It taught me a lesson though. A guys got to take the same attitude toward a shot on live game at 50 yards as he does at 500. I just as easily could have sent that deer off to die a terrible death.

 

[ILtoMT50]

Yup, first archery kill on a deer. I wasn't in correct shooting form and my sleeve hit the string when I released the arrow. Pinned the does back legs together for about a second or two then it got up and took off. Thank God I hit the artery back there or Id never found her. If your goin to hunt I think its something that happens to everyone eventually.

 

[RT2506]

If you shoot enough game you will eventually put a bad shot on something now and then. Probably the worst shot I ever made was on a deer out in a power line cut about 10 seconds before it got too dark. I was using a 7mm Rem mag with 139 gr Hornady interlocks. There was a lot of sage grass and the deer was 300 yards away. I spotted him with my binoculars and he was facing right. By the time I got my rifle on him he looked like he was facing left. I placed the cross hairs where the center of his front shoulder should be and boom. What I thought was him took off running to the left but what actually was him was crawling with his front legs to the right. I got down from the stand and went quickly out and had to put a finishing shot in his neck. There were two bucks. When I first spotted what I thought was one deer it had its head up and was facing right. When I got the scope on him he had his head down and another buck that had it head down when I spotted the first one was standing on the other side of the first buck and had it's head up facing left. I though between the time I dropped the binoculars and got the rifle scope on him he had turned around. Ended up placing the shot right where I aimed. It was dead center in the ball socket of the hams. Do you know what a 139 gr Hornady SP from a 7mm mag does to a deers hams. Both hams looked like a bloody can of dog food. Salvaged the back straps and front shoulders.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Yup, first archery kill on a deer. I wasn't in correct shooting form and my sleeve hit the string when I released the arrow. Pinned the does back legs together for about a second or two then it got up and took off. Thank God I hit the artery back there or Id never found her. If your goin to hunt I think its something that happens to everyone eventually.

Mine was a similar situation...First bow kill when I was about 14. but I clipped him in the briskit, right in front of his shoulders...Terrible shot.

We tracked him for hours and hours, found him 2 days later thanks to the buzzards. Meat ruined, so we did the right thing, sawed the antlers off, and left him for the yotes and panthers.

Felt bad about my shot, but atleast we finally found the deer. Have done everything I can to make solid shots every since...And have. I never get lax... 50 yards to 500 yards. I take the same amount of time to make sure I hit where I'm aiming.

 

[jkupper]

I had a similar experience last year, and it was also a short shot, around 75 yards. I had a doe quartering away a bit in some trees. I hurried to make the shot, even though there was no hurry. In my hurry, I used a poor rest, and ended up shooting the deer just in front of the hind quarter. The bullet passed through the guts, and came out on the other side just in front of the diaphragm. The deer laid down, and I got a better rest and shot her again in the neck to finish her off.

That experience made me recognize that I can't take any shots for granted, and that I need to put the same effort into a short shot as I would a long one.

 

[lloydsmale]

give you all credit for your honesty. Many guys would never admit it.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

give you all credit for your honesty. Many guys would never admit it.

Poor shots happen to everyone at some point. It sure makes you feel sick; doesn't it? I had an ID-10-T error last year. Got buck fever & didn't assess wind at my target. Ended up dead on for elevation & nearly a full Mil off for wind, dumb *** rookie mistake & I still think about it. Thankfully my poor shot to the diaphram put'em down & a follow up thru the neck finshed the deal.


It has happened or will happen to everyone at some point. Point is; Are you man enough to do the right thing? Most here are.


t

 

[Broz]

Ok heck yes. I remember them all and there were more than one. Most all of them were when I was younger. I lived in a state that only allowed shotgun slug hunting for deer. Deer drives were common and many running shots in the timbers resulted in me being responsible for some very poorly placed hits. The animal paid the tab. A couple not recovered. As I grew older I traveled to states that allowed use of rifles. I used fast shooting flat rifles and still tried some running shots on WT deer. Results were similar in a few cases. Maybe this is why I like what I do today better. I will take a slow highly calculated shot over a fast spray and pray any day. I have been lucky for a long time now with no recent wrecks. Sure one may land back to far from a bad wind call, but the bullet I use helps me in these instances and animals seldom take more than a few steps. This is where a follow up can be sent if needed for a fast dispatch.

Jeff

 

[Korhil78]

I was hunting whitetail deer in Sonora, TX about 8 years ago. I had about a 100 yard shot on a 12 pt buck. There was a small mesquite tree in the way of him but I thought that I could make it through to his vitals as he was standing broadside to me. I shot which was dumb. The deer took off like a bolt of lightning. I went over to make sure that I either hit or missed it. I got there and saw just a little spray of blood on a rock. It looked like someone had sprayed the rock in a small area with a spray can. Just tiny little droplets of blood.

I searched around and found another area that was sprayed with little droplets of blood but in a larger area. I searched for about two hours total. I kept finding where blood had been sprayed onto the ground. I was starting to get downtrodden thinking that I wounded it and it would run a mile or two and die in agony. Luckily I kept at it an found him about 300 yards away from where I shot him.

What had happened was the bullet bounced off the limb of the tree and slit the deer's throat. He ran off and when he tried to breathe it would spray blood out of his throat and onto the ground. I felt pretty bad and stupid.

I have that deer mounted and on my wall in the living room. I mounted it mostly because its a nice 12 pt buck but it also reminds me every time that I look at it to think about what i am doing and to take good clean shots.

 

[Trickymissfit]

I was down at a friend's range shooting at 400 yards with my brother and Dude. We had a nice target stand set up with four targets stapled on it. We had to carry that stand out there, and of course walk back. Got setup, and was getting ready to shoot into the upper right target. I pulled the first round and blew up the right upper corner of the stand! Of course it fell over on it's face rather dead. But it get's worse! We had to walk back about a third of a mile to get a hammer & nails, and then walk all the way out to the targets. Nice thing about that was that it prompted Dude to buy an ATV!
gary

 

[Joe King]

Sure have, more than one. It's why I hate tracking wounded animals. But it happens even when everything is in your favor, sometimes you'll just muff a shot.

 

[RT2506]

It was not a bad shot but a lucky shot. I was hunting on a power line cut that was mowed down like your yard. It was about 200 yards wide. I was in a chain on tree stand that I built in which I made a shooting rail that would attach to the front of the stand. This was the first time I used the stand. This nice 8 pt buck comes into the power line right at 350 yards away and just slowly walks across. I get my rifle up quickly and rest it on the shooting rail which is a bit too close to your body to rest the farther end of the forearm on and still be able to get behind the rifle well. The buck was still slowly walking and I was tracking him in the scope just waiting for him to stop for a moment to make the shot. In my haste to get on the deer I did not realize that I had set the trigger guard down on the 1/2" wide shooting rail and when I moved the rifle it slipped off the rail and my finger hit the trigger and BOOM. The buck jumped straight up in the air and mule kicked and ran about 50 yards and piled up dead. I had hit him perfectly through the heart.

Another time I was in a big white oak tree that we had a 4'X4' tree house built in on the edge of a huge peanut field. It had been in this tree for many years and some of the limbs had grown larger with more branches. I had to travel 300 miles to hunt and my buddy lived 30 miles away. He was supposed to have went and checked out all the stands and trimmed any limbs that needed trimmed before I got there but he did not do it. I got into this stand the first evening after I arrived and about 30 minutes before dark a nice buck comes into the field. I line him up in the scope of my 25-06 and can see no branches in the way through the scope so I squeeze the trigger and BOOM and the whole tree shook and tooth picks flew everywhere. I had shot a limb on the tree about 3 feet in front of the muzzle. The buck ran way down the field to about 700 yards away and stopped and looked back in my direction for a few moments and then jumped into the woods. I guess he was thinking, "What in the world was that"?

Yes many people will not own up to making mistakes or doing dumb things. Most will say they have never had any buck fever. You show me somebody that does not get a little shaky and their heart does not pick up its pace and the adrenalin does not start raging when a big old buck steps out and I will show you some body that is a dead man.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

My 'terrible shot' happened with the first whitetail I ever shot at. My friend Paul and I were hunting a shotgun only area on a very warm late November day. It had been very dry that fall and one couldn't take a step without crunching the leaf litter of the forest floor. I was carrying my brand new Remington 870 with a 20" smooth bore slug barrel. In the tube were 3 Brenneke rifled slugs.

We were walking down a fire road because it was the only way to move around without making a lot of noise. When off to our right and out of sight, in a drainage, we hear a lot of noise coming our way. I quickly put my back to a huge sugar maple to breakup my outline and Paul likewise gets in front of another tree to my right and behind me. The commotion continues for a few moments when 3 or 4 does appear slightly to our right, pass right in front of us, trot past then disappear to our left. They passed about 30 yards in front of us and never saw us. They didn't seem to be spooked, just making tracks to get somewhere.

That was close and as we're relaxing for a moment before continuing when more noise from our right. This time a 6 point buck comes up from the drainage, just as the does had a few minutes earlier. The only difference is the buck stops about 25 yards in front of me! Broadside, and slightly quartered away.

The deer, Paul and I are standing there like statues waiting for something to happen. Finally the deer turns its head away enough for me to bring the gun up, aim and shoot. The next moment, the deer is on the ground struggling to get up and as it does, I shoot again and miss cleanly. With that, the buck bounds off, white tail raised high, never to be seen again.

I'll admit I had a good case of first time buck fever. Paul said my shaking was more like a horror movie electrocution gone awry. Either way, we walk over to where the Buck fell to look for blood and find none. No fur. No blood, nothing except ……… a piece of antler with 3 points, freshly broken off at the main beam.

Today, I still have the shotgun with a couple of slugs from that box… and a piece of antler on the bookcase. Can't say I haven't missed again in the years since, I have. But I have gotten the buck fever in better control.

Pete

 

[D.Camilleri]

Anyone who hasn't lost a big game animal due to a bad shot, either doesn't really hunt, doesn't remember or is a lier. I have had my share and each time it has happened, I learned something. One thing I will pass on is just because you make a shot and the animal drops in it's tracks and looks lights out, chamber another shell and get the crosshairs back on it ready for a follow up shot. One of the biggest mulies I have ever shot got away because I thought he was done and lo and behold he jumped back up and ran off, got missed by two other hunters and probably died a slow painful death missing half of his face. Had I been prepared, I could have easily made a quick follow up shot.