Do You Miss Sometimes?

[Glanceblamm]

Well I did and it was very hard to swallow because I have Never shot at a deer that I did not take since starting in 1981.
I didn’t exactly miss as I had gobs of white hair where the deer had been standing and could only find one drop of blood 30yds down the trail.

A wounded deer demands special attention as you know and I spent two hours just in the woods unraveling the trail along with circling back left and right checking out all the borders and crossings placing markers here and there but found no more blood anywhere.
I spent more time beyond the woods in the fields on three sides looking for a downed animal but found nothing.

This burns my $$ and having distributed my scent thoroughly in this area I was disgusted
And went home. I saw no sign of this deer on day two or day three although I had some small does come through. I really didn’t expect to as this Buck was big enough to go completely nocturnal over an encounter like this.
Another carefull search yesterday reveled nothing so I am fairly certain that it is still alive. If I would have had an inkling that it was dead but unrecovered, I would forfeit
My unfilled permit and called it my deer.

I don’t know what happen that made me botch the shot in fair lighting and at a reasonable range. Could not find any evidence of a limb or sapling deflecting the shot. May have simply pulled the shot even after plenty of time at the range and countless hours dryfiring. Have taken two deer with this handgun over the last two years and it had been shooting great.

[handi243]

Which caliber? load? barrel? scope or not? how long before you started looking? you said white hair which to me sounds like you may have just nicked him under the stomach or chest area. The deer i have taken i find brown hair maybe a little white. Best of luck it happens to the best of us.

[Jerry Lester]

Miss ???

Me ???

Never!!!

Seriously, everybody misses sometimes. I really wish I could sit here and tell you that I've never missed. The truth is though that I've consistantly made beautiful shots that even amazed me at ranges most people would never try, only to turn right around, and miss a shot that my little girl could've made with a pea shooter blindfolded.

I think missing sometimes is good for us myself. It keeps us thinking about our shooting skill level, and from getting too big headed. If you'll do some checking, it's usually after a long string of perfect shots that we end up missing what should've been a routine chip shot.

[Bullseye]

I had not missed for about 10 years untill last year.  Had a buck chasing a doe and I was swinging the gun with him as he ran.  I grunted and he screeched to a stop broadside about 20 feet in front of me.  I fired the shot and did not touch a hair on him.  The only thing I can figure is that a 14" Contender in 45-70 must not stop it swing quick enough and I shot in front of him.  Bad thing is about a minute after he ran off another buck was standing at 20 yards, was not sure if I missed the first one so I let him go.  How could I have missed a deer that close?  The muzzle blast should have done him in.

Then in December I took a shot at a doe at 20 yards with a muzzleloader and missed her clean.  On that one though I found a branch with a fresh break hanging in a sapling below right on my bullet path.

Hopefully I am good for another 10 years of no misses now.  1 for 1 so far this year.

[Doe]

Don't feel bad I miss a big Doe on opening day too did the same thing as you did, just gave her a hair CUT, that all. It was standing broad sided at 37 yards lazered, useing a scoped 44mag.

[Mikey]

Yep!  Mikey.

[S & W 642]

This was the first year I hunted with a pistol and the first deer I shot I must have gut shot because I tracked it for 400 yards and never did find it although I know the dogs had that one. Then on opening day I shot a buck and tracked it for 150 yards and never found it. I am shooting 7mm-08 and at the range I am accurate to 65 yards with 1inch patterns, I have switched back to my 30-06 remington 700 for the rest of the season. I dont like to lose deer. I am shooting remington premier accutip 140 grain bullets through the 7mm-08 these should do the job.  I have decided to go back to the range and not use the sandbags so much and get better at shooting with less support.

[oso45-70]

Glanceblamm,

That's happened to all the honest people that have hunted { no disgrace but disappointing }. Its bound to happen sooner or later. I know you will score on the next one, Keep the spirit. Good luck........Joe............

[corbanzo]

Sometimes it'll go straight through and miss all the important stuff, that is why us humans have hospitals.

[safetysheriff]

........ I have Never shot at a deer that I did not take since starting in 1981.
I didn’t exactly miss as I had gobs of white hair where the deer had been standing .....

May have simply pulled the shot even after plenty of time at the range and countless hours dryfiring. Have taken two deer with this handgun over the last two years and it had been shooting great.

i want to say two things that sound very simple:   first of all, congrat's on your record taking deer since 1981.   

secondly: "hours dryfiring" is probably too much!   reasonable time at the range and reasonable time dry-firing at home are all that's proper.    after that you may want to remember what a friend quoted to me out of the Book: "the blessing of the Lord exceeds all effort!"      no, i'm not a preacher.   don't deserve to be one, either.   but i found that less emphasis on hunting and shooting was actually needed in my life.   it still is........at times.    and His blessings on this hobby have been greater since then, too!

take care,

ss'   

[GRIMJIM]

Misses happen for a myriad of reasons. All we mortals can do is practice and try our best to control ourselves when the time comes to drop the hammer. If you got a deer every time you went out, it would be called killing instead of hunting.

I think that's what the bunny huggers think. All you do is walk into the woods and there's a deer and you shoot it, it drops right in it's tracks and turns into meat magically before your eyes.

[rockbilly]

Miss, me?  Yes I do, matter of fact I missed a monster deer two weeks ago.  I had been watching several doe about 100 yards from my stand, it was almost dark , and I was about ready to call it a day.  The buck just appeared all of a sudden, I looked him over and thought it may be the 17 point buck we had pictures of on the trail camera.  ......now for the rest of the story.

My stand is 10 feet off the ground and on a high point that catches the setting sun, the deer were downhill, and in a shaded, or dark area.  I can't see through the scope with my glasses on, I looked at the deer, took my glasses off and found him in the scope, I squeezed one off and watched him trot off between the cedars, I couldn't find him again in the scope for another shot.  I waited for about thirty minutes, then went down to see if I did hit him.  My son and I looked for about 45 minutes, but couldn't find any sign of blood.  I returned the next morning and set in the stand untill about 11am, then got out and spent another hour looking.  Still no sign of blood, or any indication that I hit him.

I know my limitations, so normally I would not take a shot that I could not see clearly, but even us near 70 year old hunters get "buck fever" once in a while and do something stupid.  I think in the future I will just unload my gun about 5pm, watch and not take a shot after that time. 

The point is, "Yes it happens to all of us at some point."  Even those of us that have killed many, many deer in the past,  Just learn from this experience, try to figure out what you did wrong and try to correct the problem in the future.

Good Hunting!

[GRIMJIM]

I would hope you still get buck fever, if I ever lose that shaky knee feeling I think it's time to give it up.

[Glanceblamm]

Thanks for the many supportive and honest replys. A miss really didn’t bother me so much as the thought of having a wounded deer that would end up dying latter without being recovered out there. While I know that this did not happen in my case, I still would have prefered no sign of a hit at all although I still would have followed up on the tracking as this has to be done.

Most of my success rate can be attributed to my .50 Blkpwdr rifle along with a fair amount of time shooting on the circuit. I held my own very well here and when the hunting season would come around, The deer would make for easy targets in comparison.
I would still treat the rifle like the single shot that it was and wait for the high percentage angle of a standing animal.

I had pretty much transferred this mentality to that six gun. Paid off big time the last two years but this year…just call me botch…I know that this is  why our sport is called hunting and not killing but still cant believe I bungled this. My friends and even my wife cannot believe this either, I do see the humor in their latter remarks of  buying me glasses and putting me in the nursing home and such.

Safety Sheriff, Yours was very well written and I know exactly what you are saying. The dryfiring really does get into hours though. It seems like a lot but is really just 5 to 15min everyday. Is a routine kind of like brushing your teeth that adds up to a lot of time on the whole. It seems to help a bunch at the range.

 

[xphunter]

I know I miss sometimes.
I usually learn more from my misses (practice and when hunting) than I do from my center-hits.

[JKump]

It happens.  Last year, I shot a big Doe at about 125 yards with my 243.  She jumped as hit, fell to the ground got up and ran.  Never found her. We searched for about 2 hours with no luck.  I hated to have lost a wounded deer, but it happens.  Hunting later on in the same area, after switching to a 308, had another doe walk in front of me at about 30 yards, I took the shot and just plained missed.  Now that I am thinking about it, last year I took a shot on a big buck at about 100 yards thru the Pines and another miss.  Misses happen.  I am a very confident shooter, it goes with the job (a police officer, I qualify with all my weapons in the 90's).  This year I have pulled the trigger three time and have three deer in the freezer.  Last year I was 50 percent. Missed three and shot three. Everyone is human and misses happen.

[safetysheriff]

glance'

i admit, 5 to 15 min's per day shouldn't be taking us away from the top priorities long enough to hurt.    good for you to have a handle on that!

speaking of handles:   "glanceblamm" ..............  that's kind of catchy!

good hunting to you,

ss' 

[Lloyd Smale]

Hell i dont like to admit it but 3 years ago I made a complete miss on a 4 pointer with a 500 linebaugh at 17 yards out of a tree blind. Tried to take it in the neck but it just laughed and ran away.

[handi243]

The shockwave should have killed him!!!!!!!!!!

[Scott T]

Yep.  Happens to all of us.

[TrenchMud]

This year was the first in a long time. and as others have stated it was not very far away either.
Now one of my handguns should just about qualify as light artillery. It is kind of a Custom made
single shot 50 caliber that uses a 50 grain charge of black powder. looks similar to the old
50-70. It speaks loudly when you touch it off. Any how, I laid the sights just below the
deers jaw and sent a huge smoke plume down range. That thing echoed down the valley
so bad that It sounded like several other folks shot after I did ! .
I fully expected to have a nice portion of tenderloin ready to be toted out of the woods
but nothing ! No hair, no blood but some pretty deep hoofmarks where he had caught dirt
and took off !  Should have taken the shot with my rifle but I just had to try it
with the hand cannon. sights were on at 45 yards, I must have flinched !