Epic miss with my gun

[chefsamuel]

Another epic miss...or something like it........was hunting out of my stand over looking a 1/4 mile section, no big trees just brush and little thickets of saplings. Well I see some movement and draw a bead on it through my scope. A beautiful 8 point comes trotting out and starts heading my way. I could feel myself smile from ear to ear. "He's mine, " I think. Well he gets up about 60 yards starts looking my way, figuring there is something there i guess and broadsides me. Could this get any better? Well i put the cross hairs on him and ease the trigger back..."click." Nothing. Misfire. I worked the bolt like a mad man. Well i guess he saw my frantic attempts up in the tree and took off behind some black berry thickets, never to be seen again. I stayed in that tree till dark and never saw a thing the rest of the day.

 

[dennishoddy]

My epic miss was a doozy.
In my early hunting career, shotgun was the only thing I shot as there were not many deer, and I thought people that sat in trees should have their heads examined.(My, how that attitude has changed)

My first centerfire, after the military, was a Rem 742 Semi-auto in 30-06. Took up reloading after the first year as it was cheaper. Finally started developing some contacts, and with a couple of fork horns under my belt, was feeling really good about my deer hunting prowness, and accuracy with the Rem.
Met up with an old high school buddy that didn't hunt but was a ranch hand of a 22,000 acre ranch in Osage county. He said he had been seeing a big buck and took me out there.
I parked on top of a big ridge next to a pump jack. We got out and started walking the rim. This ridge was at a 45 degree or steeper angle and about 400 feet above the surrounding terrain.
We spotted a buck in a clearing. It was huge. By far the biggest buck I've ever seen in the wild. Wide and tall. It was looking away, so I took a sitting position. Guesstimating it to be 250 yds away and downhill, I put the crosshairs on top of its back and pulled the trigger. He just stood there looking at us now. I was freaking out now, and thought it must be further, so I pulled another shot off. It still stood there. Tail twitching, looking at us. OK I have three more rounds! Started elevating 6" a shot and ran out!
Dropped another in the chamber and let the bolt slam home and he bolted, never to be seen again. I wanted to smash that gun against the nearest rock, but didn't.
My buddy couldn't stop laughing at me. That made it worse.
I went home and got out my Sierra reloading manual, and quickly found out about shooting down hill or uphill.
I should have put the first shot on his brisket, and it would have been on the wall.
I'm just a flatlander, and found a valuable lesson of shooting.

 

[J.T.]

Nice 10pt. that I had the joy of watching for 300 yards came to drink at a pond I was sitting on the dam with my son (never live it down). 50 yards with a 300WSM that I could drive tacks with on the range, 2 rounds and 2 hours of making sure I missed and nuttin, even took the dogs out. I got the fever....Bad....


Thats the awful truth. Missing at a million miles would have been a good story but I just got stymied by the one thing I was hoping for.

 

[ohms]

Would be my uncle...I was 12 and we were squirrel hunting in Ark. This was before mandatory hunter safety.... A VALUABLE lesson. Was the only good miss.

 

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

I can honestly say I've never missed large game with my gun(s); but then again I haven't hunted that many years; I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

Sadly, I cannot boast of finding all big game shot and (certainly) killed. This is due to poor bullet performance and/or less-than-ideal hits, but mostly poor bullet *choice* I should say, on my part, because if the bullet poorly performed based on the cartridge/velocity, construction, game, and hunting circumstances/distances, then it's MY fault for not researching better and choosing the right one.

We won't talk about archery misses - I am remaining silent in the other thread.

 

[CASTRATE]

rifle season '08. biggest deer i ever shot at. i first saw him at about 8 am and i took a shot from about 100 yds. hit him and he fell to the ground. after a few seconds he jumped up ant ran into the woods. we waited a little bit, then went in after him. we heard a bunch of noise, then saw him run back out, and couldnt see where he went. waited a little more, and saw him walk out again at about 100yds again. shot, and dropped him. then he got back up, ran RIGHT under my stand. i fired again when he was runnin about thirty yds away. he dropped. not learnin from the first 2 times, i started gettin down. about halfway down the ladder, he got up and took off. my last shot was at about 250 yds while he was runnin away. he fell 3 out of the 4 times i fired, but never found him. lost him his trail after a few hours, and a river between me and him

 

[dennishoddy]

I don't think I would have got down from my stand with that deer taking that kind of punishment, and still getting away!