Weirdest/most funny miss you can recall?

[THE#1hunter]

:-D What is the weirdest/most funny miss you can recall? :-D

[markc]

I guess it would have to be my first trip for exotic sheep in Tx hill country.  I kept telling the Bro-N-Law to get to the range with his rifle and his comment was, well it was dead on the last time I used it, so it should still be on now.  Yeah right, sure.   He was first up on this safari style hunt.  He saw a nice painted desert ram he wanted, snuck up behind some cedars to about 60 yds or so,  BOOM!  dirt flew every where beneath that ram.  The herd took off a stopped a ways off, BOOM!  more dirt, no hit.  Went to the front of the ranch to shoot his rifle at paper and it was low left several inches.  

So, after my young sons made one shot kills with their little .243, I loaned it to the bro-n-law.  Entering a different ranch a few miles away we spotted a herd of Tx dahl rams.  In the bunch was a beautiful blond ram,   he snuck up behind some trees and with the ram broadside a little over 50 yds, Boom!,  Boom, Boom, he emptied the rifle only grazing the poor ram.  As I ran back to the truck for more ammo for him, I heard a really loud BOOM!    

My brother had handed him his rifle (7mm mag) and yes he finally hit the ram solid, as well as his own forehead right between his eyes.   The picture I took of him with his ram has two rifles leaning up there.  

On the same trip, another guy shot just as poorly and turned a ram into a ewe. But thats another story.   Now I make sure anyone I go with has been to the range to sight in properly.
markc

[labsrule]

Hunting with a T/C Renegade .54 in the rain, tape over the muzzle and with a Butler Creek rubber cap protector over the cap.. hammer lowered on the rubber stub.  Had a six-pointer step out in front of me.... eye to eye at about 40-yards.  In the rain he let me slowly raise the rifle to my shoulder.  I didn't dare to take my eyes off him, rocked the hamer back, grabbed the rubber cap protector and pulled it.... and the cap off.  Klack... no boom.  They buck wasn't willing to wait long enough for me to get my act together.

[huntsman]

Fortunately or unfortunately this is not really my story to tell, as it happened to my grandfather. Since he has been in the happy hunting ground now for a good many years, I guess he won't mind if I tell the story for him.

My uncle had just bought a new place and encouraged my grandfather to go deer hunting on it. It was 70 acres of mostly fields but with a swath of brush on one end of the place just north of about a 1-acre tank (pond to you Yankees). Grandaddy decided to take his tried and true Winchester M94 30-30 and stake out the tank from the cover of some small bushes atop the tank dam overlooking the tank and the entire brush line where it met the open field.

About 3 p.m. a very nice eight-point buck with long tines and a good spread ambled out of the brush through the 30 yards or so of knee-deep grass to get a drink at the edge of the tank. Grandaddy bore down with his 30-30 when the buck turned broadside for a moment after taking a drink. The distance was about 40 yards, and Grandaddy and his iron-sighted 30-30 had waylaid several bucks over the years at ranges much longer than that.

At the shot, the buck dropped like a rock into the knee-deep grass near the edge of the tank. Grandaddy reloaded quickly and waited to see if the buck would get up. He couldn't quite see the deer, but he knew exactly where it fell and had a clear view of the area, which was nothing but grass all the way 30 yards back to the brush. Grandaddy never saw anything get up or move through the grass, so after a few minutes he slowly got up and walked over to where the buck was laying in the grass to confirm his kill.

In the exact spot where the buck had stood, there was nothing but grass. There was no bent-over or matted-down grass, no blood, no hair, and of course, no deer! Grandaddy searched the grass left and right for 50 yards either way, never finding a sign of any deer, wounded or not. It seemed as thought the buck simply disappeared.

Grandaddy went back to the house and enlisted my uncle to help him search for the deer, as there was plenty of bright sunny daylight left for the day. They both searched high, low, back, and forth for nearly an hour, and never found a hint of a deer.

Even if the deer had crawled away through the grass, he would have had to leave a trail of bent-down grass. If he had gotten up, Grandaddy would have surely seen him. To this day we still call him the ghost buck, because he simply vanished into thin air!

[broken arrow]

a 6 point buck behind a tree. I lined up his vitals in my scope, waited for the respiratory pause, then squeezed the trigger. I followed-through and ran the bolt, in case a follow-up shot was needed (as-if!)..... Well, Mr. 6 year S.W.A.T. sniper, trained by Clint Smith himself at "Thunder Ranch" failed to clear an appropriate shooting lane! My bullet struck a 1" diameter sapling that became invisible due to the parralax of the scope, was deflected and grazed the animal's chest leaving me with a tuft of white hair. I thank god I didn't wound the animal. Not a drop of blood as he bounded off. I kept the fur as a reminder that no matter how good you may think you are you can be humbled and always clear a shooting lane! :oops:

[Graybeard]

Well I find no humor in missing. Try my dangest not to do it. BUT from time to time it do happen to us all I guess.

I recall a time way back perhaps around '88 or maybe it was '89. I was hunting on private land owned by a friend. Was up in my treestand with my Sniper Shack brand camo shelter around he to hide any movement I might make. Been using my S&W 29 with 10-5/8" barrel and iron sights mostly but this time had a shorter barreled 629 with scope with me.

A six point buck slowing making his way along the woods below me about 75 yards or so away. Stopping from time to time and not in any hurry. I use the padded rest on front of stand and rest the revolver really solid for the shot. Just as he stops in a clear area I get the shot off. Deer acts unhit and as if he don't know what the heck happened. Bounces off a little way and stops behind a thin screen of brush. I take another shot. Deer runs off.

After thinking over both shots I'm convinced both should be hits from the sight picture in my mind as the trigger broke. Then I notice something. The wood rod that holds up the camo net is almost shot into. Yup first shot hit the wood rod which must have been an inch or so in front of the shorter barrel I was using and the scope kept me from realizing it. So chalk up a miss on first shot.

I head down to look for blood. Find none. Find the brush and see where the bullet clipped a limb. Get lined up with where the treestand was and the clipped limb and follow that track to where the buck was. There just behind where he was I see a bullet hole in a tree trunk. Guess the limb deflected it just enough to miss. Yuck! Two shots and both misses due to bullet hitting something between me and deer.

Want another such sad tale?

Well long before that one above I was hunting down in the Barbour WMA in south Bama on a muzzle loader hunt. We went to a place that was near the boundary between the WMA and private land. Figured the deer would be moving between the two. Well yeah they were.

First deer came from my right on the trail that ran just in front of me. I was sitting and had the TC Renegade laid across my legs. I slowly got it up and ready but the deer was to my right and I'm right handed so had to wait for it to make a move. When it did it ran for the private land. I shot as it was directly in front of me less than 10 yards away. At the shot a small tree falls over. The deer runs away unharmed. I perfectly centered a 2" diameter tree I hadn't even noticed as I swung on the deer.

OK so I sit and wait it out but change sides of the trail in case another follows that one. Yup you guessed it. Next one came from the private land now on my right. Same general senario with the deer moving back at a run and me shooting at it from less than 10 yards. Same exact result too. Another small tree takes the hit not the deer. I gave up in disgust and headed back. With luck like that I figured I best get out of the woods before a tree fell on my head.


Seems a lot more funny now than it did then. I didn't think either was funny at all at the time.

GB

[matt d]

My boss really loved to see a coyote shot at the ranch I work on and would often pay a good bounty for them.  We were feeding cattle and came up on four of em and I went to work with my .270 killing two in two shots and as the rest were running up the hill I used his truck as a rest and shot.  I couldn't understand where I had missed, I felt good about both shots.  I looked up at the boss to see him happy as hell, plugging his ears and laughing.  I asked him where the last two shots went and he said he didn't know but the first two were good.  I got back in the truck and saw two holes in the hood.  woops.  I told my boss and he was pissed!  He snarles and says you idiots and your scoped rifles. :cry:

[Chappers]

Well i spent last new-years at my mates in-laws propriety with my misses, my mate and his misses. Well for the pass couple days i would walk along the river for about a 20k walk twice a day, (mooring and then in the afternoon) the pass couple of days i did not see a single dear. Well we got on the piss on new years and woke up late the net day 9am. I was telling my mate that im going for a walk to hunt some deer and asked if he would like to come this time he agreed. After going along the river for some bit we spotted some deer (one six point stag and three does) well my mate spotted them so... faircop he get the first shot. 30-06 to the ready and boom!
 One Stag down, i have seen the stag drop and the three does run over a small hill we at this point of time my mate is looking for the best spot to cross the creek i have started to run and to see where the does are heading but i have not gone more that 20 meters and stopped dead in my tracks. While running i glanced where the staged was dropped and there was another one just standing there just behind a tree and some scrub like he was oblivious to what just happed, i could not believe my luck. So in a split second located my mate in the field now that he was not in the way, closed the bolt, swinged my rifle so it lined up with the stag, aimed though the iron sights and boom.... seeing bark fly off the tree and then
 “ARE YOU SHOOTING AT MY DEER”..........
 “NOooo” i replied.

[Oldtimer]

I was hunting at the head of a small hollow across from my in-laws' farm.  I had some good luck there for several years, so I thought I would give it a try.  I was planning to spend the morning there, and had brought along a small ground blind, and a thermos of coffee.   I set up near the top of the hollow and was just pouring a cup of coffee when I heard something coming down the same trail where I had just been.  A seven point buck was walking in my footprints and there was not so much as a twig between the two of us.  I had recently bought a Model 94 Trapper in .44 Magnum and had it sighted in.  It was one of the newer models with the lawyer safety on the side of the receiver. 

The deer was to my right and the rifle on my left.  Half a cup of coffee was in one hand and the thermos in the other.  Figuring I had nothing to lose, I set down the coffee and reached for the rifle.  Incredibly, the deer just watched me, and continued to stand there as I twisted around to get a bead.  Click.  I ejected the cartridge and cussed myself for bad handloading procedure.  Click.  The deer was still standing there.  I got flustered and short-stroked the rifle, tying it up.  The deer watched me as I dug the round out and chambered another round.  It finally penetrated my feeble coffee-deficient mind that I had not taken off the safety.  I tried for the third time, and the rifle fired.  Deer still at thirty yards.  Would you believe it,  I missed and the buck ran off the way he came. 

I cussed myself some more and finished pouring my coffee.  I was looking at the cartridge bases that had not gone off, looking to see if there were any firing pin marks, when the deer came back.  This time it all came together and he piled up about twenty yards from where I hit him.  Classic performance from a .44 Magnum rifle.  I felt a little sad that I had killed the dumbest deer in the county, but pleased that there was at least something dumber than me, besides the dirt. 

[Land_Owner]

Sitting in a tree blind with the sun burning the frost off of everything it touched that morning, out steps a Bob Cat and sits on the top of bank of a stream in clear view beside a steam/dew clouded meadow 135 yards away.  I take aim and shoot only to see dust fly 3 inches left of target and that cat five feet in the air straight up clawing for more altitude.

[KAYR1]

As I was half-way to my treestand during early bow season, I realized that I had forgotten to put my arm guard on. I told myself that I would rember to cock my arm out a little more, and clear the clothing. Well, you can guess what happend next. I jumped a nice buck on my way in, and instead of bolting, he stood broadside at 20 yards. I was actually able to remove an arrow from my quiver, nock it, draw, TAKE TWO STEPS to get into a shooting lane and let fly. THHHWWWAAAACKKK the string went off of my Scent-Lock colthing, and the arrow went harmlessly under his brisket.  He still haunts me!

[charles p]

Friend and I spied three deer in a corn field.  We decided to take the two largest and agreed to count to three and shoot at the same time.  My rifle fired and my deer dropped in its track.  Friend was struggling with the action of his 742.  Finally he fired and the other deer fell.  We drove into the field and loaded the deer into the rear of an old International Scout.  A few miles down the road I looked in my rear view mirror and one deer was on all four feet with the other deer draped over its back like a saddle.  Needless to say we got out of the Scout as fast as we could.  Opened the rear door expecting the live deer to exit.  I warned my partner not to shoot me or the truck.  The deer died on its feet and collapsed in the truck, with the other deer still over its back.