What Caused Your Last Miss?

[loneranger]

Was first hunt in Iowa on my land. Sunny mid afternoon. Heard grunting,,watched 10 pt coming up trail. Got so excited,,did not try to stop him. Took aim and shot with crossbow. Complete miss. Now I was dead on, and only 15 yrds and for those who think a crossbow is so easy,,well they make a heck of a noise. that buck exploded straight up in the air. Never touched him. Figured sure he would run off. He stood in timber wondering what happened. Walked back out in front of me. milled around and dug in a scrape for 15 minutes. Why didn't I shoot again? Had another arrow? Cause it takes alot of doin to cock a crossbow again, with deer right in front of you at 10 yrds,,,no way. So I had to sit and watch him finally stroll away. worst hunt of my life. Coming from poor MI hunting,,fun to watch,,but hard to just sit there.Yes I do have a handicap permit..

[tysonc]

In early November I was hunting a buddy's stand on a property I had never been to before. The stand was a 15 foot leaner on a small hill overlooking the edge of a large clear cut with several years growth as it transitioned to some mixed hardwoods. Between the edges was a sandy road on which at the bottom was a feeder. I was told the feeder was 110 yards from the stand, then the land started to rise again. My buddy said he had never seen a buck there but recently he had seen plenty of does come to the feeder just before dark and being a doe day in South Carolina, I could take my pick of does. However, if a buck happened to come through, it had to be eight or better. Well, sure enough I listened to my buddy thinking only does would come. So I sat down playing Angry Birds on my phone and waited for dark. Now, what I hadn't considered is that being November, where the does are, the bucks will soon enough come. So sure enough while tapping away on my phone I caught some movement in the clear cut, but it was moving quick towards the hardwoods. I was unprepared and didn't have my binos out of the case so I quickly got them out and put them up to take a look. When I did he was staring right back at me. All I could see was the neck up, but on his head was at least a 16" main eight with a big drop tine on his left side. My heart went "kaboom!" as it was certainly the best buck I've seen in my limited hunting experience. I put the binos down and grabbed my rifle. When I did the buck started trotting. It had about 20 yards to go until it was in the road, once it passed that it would be in the hardwoods and impossible to see. So in that two seconds I thought to myself, "Just yell, they do it on the TV shows all the time. That should stop it for a second." So when the buck got to the road at what I thought was 20 yards passed the feeder I did my best bleat yell, I probably sounded like a kid yelling "Ma!" but it stopped him. He was quartered away facing left, I put the crosshairs (which were on at 100 yards) on his pump room and squeezed. The shot rang, the buck ran.

That night when my buddy came to pick me up we looked for an hour and didn't find a drop of blood, a tuft of hair, or kicked up dirt. What I hadn't thought of was the way the land rose after the feeder. What I thought was a 130 yard shot and aimed level was in actuality, 210 yards and maybe 20 feet under my barrel. I must have shot right through his legs.

Suffice to say what caused me to miss was probably a combination of things. So all I can say is next year I will - Learn to range targets better, not play on my phone as much, and I most certainly will not listen to anybody if they say "only does come here".

[mnslayer]

Last miss was this year on a young buck. At first I thought it was an enchanted deer because it surely had to be bullet proof to not even flinch when shot at 30 yards. I watched in amazement as this animal disappeared in the brush. I climbed down and checked for hair & blood but nothing. if not for the tracks of him heading to a new county I would have thought iwas seeing things. I trailed him best I could without snow no easy task, yet nothing in the sign of ever hitting him. At this point I gave up all hope of seeing him again and returned to my stand. While walking the trail back I got busted by what I thought was a doe. Trying to salvage my hunt blew on my buck grunt in hope of calming her down.I waited 5 minutes then continued to my stand grunting ocassionally. after walking 300 yards a deer suddenly appeared to my right head down and charging. without thought I shouldered my 270win and fired.This quickly changed the deers mind on charging me it dropped 100 yards away trying to run away. upon recovering the deer, a buck who had lost his rack some how, I noticed that my shot was dead on point of aim. Now I was really baffled about my earler miss. when I got back to my stand I acted out my previous shot. The deer had appeared from nowhere when I was checking behind me it was just stepping behind a tree. With it's shoulder in full view broadside 30 yards away this should have been a give me shot. I climbed down and checked for blood and hair once more nothing. I turned back towards the stand to check the angle again that is when everything became clear. The tree the deer was passing behind had a knot about 10 feet up and on the underside the bark was completely gone. while I was tracking the deer in the scope I did not notice the large knot and from the stand you could not see the missing bark. I am glad the scope wasn't off or that buck that charged me would have been the one doing tagging.

[kellory]

And the public thinks Bambi is real....

[SwampLife]

Punched the trigger and flinched, 3 times. I was completely caught off guard by the deer.

[MI_bowhunter]

I missed a 140" eight point on public land last year...would have been my biggest to date. It was a chip shot at 15 yards too. It happened quick. First note, I hunt out of a tree saddle. Second note, I practice practice practice so my shot is true. I had plenty of time to draw and prepare for him coming in with his nose to the ground. So I stopped him right in the middle of my lane and squeezed my release trigger....and the arrow went flew clear over his back and to the left. I almost puked. Irritated I grabbed another arrow and let it fly at a dirt spot near where the buck was standing...and it hit it dead on. I climbed down and headed home to each lunch a regroup. Upon climbing back in the same tree about an hour later I figured out what had happened. Take a look at the picture....bet you can guess what my arrow hit. That pine branch was so close to me that as I looked through my sights....I was clear. However my arrow path was not. BIG lesson learned!!

[Joel Spring]

This sapling. The 8 point buck who was behind the sapling was unharmed in the making of this photo. This is a photo of the exit hole. Bullet must have dropped like a rock out the other side of the hole. The deer was untouched. 240gr bullet, fired from my Taurus 44 handgun -- at 18 yards. Well, to be fair, the sapling was at 15 yards. The deer was at 18.

The only thing harmed was my pride and this tree......

The size of the tree looks exaggerated in this photo. It's actually a small sapling, photographed in closeup.

I did get another deer with the handgun on the last day of the season, but nothing like the buck that survived this shot.

[DEER30]

Over the years I think just about everything has tried to reach out and grab my arrow on its way to a deer. My cam hit a branch on the tree I was in, arrow hit a branch, string caught heavy camo on a late season hunt, etc. But the latest catastrophe came in '08 when a tall tined 10 pt walked to about 35 yards and stood broadside. I hit a twig! Not even a branch, just a little twig and it was enough to drop the arrow flight just enough to slip under his chest. A clean miss, thankfully, but it still gets me fired up remembering it. That's bow hunting!

[msbadger]

Buck fever ...plain and simple....I've gotten it just twice...and don't ask why because...I've had bigger deer in view and shot one in archery with out it hitting...but this year during gun a twelve point walked after I shot the maples he was behind...my left leg started out with a slight jitter that erupted into this ...I mean crazy!...wild bouncing thing that brought two things to mind...1...if my knee hits my face it will knockout and 2....I look like thumper on Crack!!!...then it migrated to my shoulders and arms..I laid the gun across my lap and told the buck to walk away

[DEER30]

Ah buck fever, antler panic.....whatever you want to call it, its hard to control sometimes. But its that excitement that keeps us coming back. Good luck in the future msbadger with bucks that big walking by you gotta get them on the ground