Lets talk about bad shots...

[gspn]

It's an unfortunate fact that if you shoot at animals long enough…you will eventually experience some bad shots. In my mind the important thing is to learn from that bad shot. I thought it might be an interesting change of view to discuss some of our bad shots and what we learned from them. I'll start.

A few years ago I was stalking whitetail in sub-freezing temps. It was windy and I was freezing. As I stalked along a field edge I was quickly presented with a broadside shot at a deer roughly 70 yards away. I took a knee, aimed, fired, and watched as the deer took flight.

After a short bit of trailing I recovered the animal I noticed that my shot (which was aimed at the lungs) hit too far to the right. It was effective, but not where I was aiming…I chalked it up to the conditions…kneeling, quick opportunity, windy, and freezing. I dressed the deer, hung it in the cooler and went home.

The next week I shot another deer…again it was too far to the right and did not result in the quick and humane death that I strive for. It was at that point I suspected I had a problem. I had shot this time from a solid rest at a stationary target…and missed my mark. I shoot a lot…I'm good with my rifle…I know my limits..and I only take shots I know I can deliver…so this was alarming.

My next shot was taken on the range. Sure enough my gun was now printing several inches to the right at 100 yards. I had not dropped it…not banged it…hadn't changed ammo...to this day I have no explanation as to how my zero got off. It has never happened since with that same setup.

My lesson? Because I only take shots I'm confident I can make…if I have a problem on a shot my immediate next step is to take the gun to the range to eliminate that as the source of the problem. I'd much rather prove it on paper than on a second animal.

 

[osprey176]

You are quite correct in that with experience comes a bad shot or two. Most guys who brag about never missing haven't shot very much. I lost a buck several years back by trying to take a questionable shot. My partner missed a snap shot and the buck came my way. I had a small window through the brush to shoot,and made a he was running. Should have passed,but I let my ego take that shot. Hit him across the chest in front of his shoulders. We were on public land, so we started tracking right away so as to find him before someone else did. I jumped him after crawling through a hole in a thicket,with my rifle on the ground! My ego had told me I hit him well,we had a good blood trail,and he was surely dead.Wrong! A buddy came back three days later and found him near where we stopped looking after losing his trail and coming upon another hunter. Confidence is helpful, overconfidence not so much. I think before I touch off a shot now.Hunt enough,and you WILL be humbled.

 

[gamestalker]

Ya, I have had my share of bad shots.

While hunting mule deer some 25 yrs. ago I was presented with, or rather surprised with a close range shot of no more than 50 yds.. When I raised my rifle up I quickly realized the scope was on 9x, so while I fumbled to turn it down to 3x, the deer had walked into the sun, thus causing me to see nothing but black out. So because I left the scope on 9x I missed an opportunity to take an easy shot at a really good mule deer, easily a 165" buck.

Back in the late 80's I was glassing and calling for bear on the Mogion Rim one day. I managed to get the attention of a nice looking sow, she was standing about 200 yds. off the rim, good clear shot. But because I had failed to consider the sharp down hill angle, I missed a perfectly good opportunity to take a nice bear, live and learn.

GS

 

[1911 guy]

What's the old saying? "Good judgement comes with experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." We've all boogered a shot, whether it's on big game or small game.

Sometimes, we gamble on unproven bullet construction, marginal caliber or just plain blow the shot. I've not skimped on caliber, but I have used a completely unsuitable projectile and blown two shots.

The projectile as supposedly the "latest and greatest" in shotgun slugs. The result was a deer laying on the ground, feet kicking frantically as steam blew out of the two holes through the lungs as it tried to breathe. Cutting open another shell revealed the slug to be nothing more than a hunk of copper. No expansion at all, just an ice pick through a deer. Might as well shot it with .30 caliber FMJ.

The first blown shot of my life was a squirrel. I tried to hold off a squirrel a bit to save meat since I had a full choke gun. The result was a severely wounded squirrel trying very hard to get away. Made an impression on my 12 year old self.

The second was a deer. Underestimated the range hunting with a .50 caliber muzzleloader shooting patched balls. Hit the bottom of the ribcage behind the animals right shoulder. I mean bottom. I had to get help tracking it. Took about 2 hours and had to finish it when we got close enough. If we hadn't found it, the deer likely would have died of infection, not gunshot.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Pulled a major foul up last year on a broadside standing 200 yard pronghorn from a solid rest. I shot him just forward of the hind legs right through the gut. No excuses I simply did not shoot well I came out of the scope in the shot, AKA no follow through, buck fever, and horrible technique. Amateur day, ETC ETC. Fortunately the buck didn't go far and I was able to finish him in short order.

I killed 5 deer and several coyotes last year after that incident. All we perfect one shot kills at ranges varying from under 100 yards and running hard to one shot at over 300 yards one a windy blustery day. As they say the sun does not always shine on same dogs butt!

 

[matrem]

I'm certainly well represented in the bad shot category.
Some, I can still look back on thirty years later & laugh at myself. Like the time I shot at a broadside buck from about 40 yds and watched a small branch fall from at least a foot over his back after being cut in half by a twelve gauge slug. I sure wasn't in a laughing mood when it happened, as a buddy I was hunting with killed that buck less than a minute after I missed.
From that I learned that staring at a bucks rack while somewhat "seeing" a front sight behind the shoulder is not a good idea.

Other bad shots I've managed are no laughing matter at all because an animal ended up suffering because of my shortcomings.
Those bad shots are the reasons I pass on an awful lot of shots that I'd have taken years ago.

 

[3212]

The wind saved my day.I had jumped some deer on a windy early morning going to my spot.It was doe season.They ran over the ridge into a steep sided valley.I took my time and circled back to the end of the ridge and got on top.Slowly walked out the top,peeking into the valley.I saw 4 doe at the bottom out of the wind.I lined up on the shoulder of one and shot.It was windy at the top.The deer continued to feed without any movement.I took another shot with the same result.I finally realized they didn't hear the shots and I was shooting over them.I held at the bottom of the chest for the third shot and she leaped forward and fell over a log.It took a couple hours to get her up out of there.

 

[herkyguy]

Bad shot out of my blind last December. I knew it was bad a millisecond after I let the bullet go. She ran into thick brush (almost all of my property is nearly impenetrable tangles of brush).

If that isn't enough, then I had the brilliant idea to walk the hundred yards down a trail and see if I could find blood. At that point, she bolted from somewhere in the tangle of thorns. Mistake #2.

Then, I waited a bit and went after her, ultimately getting myself caught up in a good tangle of thorns before falling in a finger creek and getting soaked, rifle and all. I had to do a detailed stripping of that gun to get all the crap out. And it was a cold and miserable walk back to my truck.

 

[courtgreene]

This is the internet. I can't believe there's people willing to say they've ever made a bad shot. Here's mine. I thought a deer was a lot further out then she was when I aimed high and put a .308 exactly where I was aiming... HIGH. Thus, broken spine. I had to finish her off with a mini14 because that was my last .308. Yes the mini did the job so it can be done. I cary a range finder now.

 

[jmr40]

I've been fortunate, most of my bad shots were complete misses. The one bad shot that was a hit actually broke the deers back and resulted in an instant kill. It was still a bad shot that almost went completely over the back. No where near the spot I intended to hit.

The deer that ran the farthest after being hit, was with near textbook shot placement. He was trailing a doe about 40-50 yards directly in front of me. At the shot he bolted and ran in a semi circle around me maintaining the same 40-50 yard range. I fired twice more, once after turning 90 degrees to my left, and the 3rd shot in the exact opposite direction from the initial shot. All shots at his left side.

After the 3rd shot the buck turned and showed me his right side where I could see a large exit wound directly behind the shoulder with blood pouring down the right front leg. Only my initial shot connected. He staggered another 30-40 yards before falling. Altogether he ran at least 100 yards and probably more. Until he turned I thought I missed. Had visibility been worse, or had he ran in a straight line away from me I might not have recovered him.

 

[ldlfh7]

I made a questionable shot a few years ago with a rifle I was not familiar with. It was a 7mm mag and shot it at about 250 yards. It was farther back on the animal towards it guts. It was a hit but I ended up tracking it for god know how long. Finally I caught up with it and was able to finish it off. The meat tasted pretty bad and I guess this was due to all of the adrenaline pumping through the animal. I am now more patient and wait for better shots.

 

[silicosys4]

First deer I ever killed, was what I'd call a bad shot.
uphill shot, 14 years old...
I aimed for what looked like the center of the chest, but in reality there was a foreleg in the way, and after blowing the foreleg completely off, the bullet creased the stomach just enough to spill the entire gut cavity onto the ground. When I got to where she'd been, I was confused because there was a steaming gutpile on the ground just like a fresh kill would have. I'll admit I got sick to my stomach when I saw the lower intestines trailing away, wrapped around branches, and realized what had happened.
When I got to her she was dead from blood loss, having ripped her entire gut cavity out.

Since then I have worked very hard on shot placement and haven't had a deer run more than a few yards or live more than a a minute or two.

 

[buck460XVR]

Coupla years ago I was bowhunting late in the rut, the week before gun deer season. I was hunting an area where I had earned a "bonus buck". This meant because I shot an antlerless deer after shooting my regular buck, I earned the opportunity to shoot another buck. Snow had fallen the day before and I rattled a set of antlers as soon as the woods lightened up from the sun coming up. I hadn't even hung the rattlin' antlers up before a nice basket eight came around the hill lookin' for the fight. I was hunting a steep sidehill and the trail went directly beneath my tree. Coming in so fast he got closer than I wanted to before I was ready. With him almost directly beneath me I aimed as low as I could and let the arrow fly. The buck went down instantly and started to flounder around. I assumed I had hit him in the spine and immediately started to lower the bow to get down and cut his throat. Halfway down the tree with the climbing tree stand, he got up and stumbled away. I watched him crest the hill and disappear, thinking he was well hit and he would be an easy find with the fresh snow. Hit the ground and there was blood everywhere. The trail the deer took up the hill had blood 5' up on trees. Followed that deer for three hours and he never laid down again. Lost his trail when he backtracked for the third time. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out where I had hit. It looked just like a good hit when the arrow impacted the deer. The amount of blood and the knocking of the deer down gave me the impression the shot had to be close to the spine, thus close to the main arteries.

Week and a half later, there was a knock on my door and when I opened it there stood a friend of mine holding the arrow. He told me he had shot my buck that afternoon during gun season with the arrow still sticking outta it's back. Told me when he skun the animal that indeed the broadhead had grazed the spine and had actually broke the tip off one vertebrate. But the arrow had hit on the far side from where I was shooting and the almost straight down angle made the arrow go the full length of the deers chest between the ribs and the skin. Thus just a very minor wound. The deer could not reach the arrow because of the placement to pull it out and the depth of the arrow(up to it's fletching) kept it from being broken off. My friend said other than a tip of the arrow sticking out, there was no sign of the deer being hurt when they jumped it in the swamp. When skun, it showed little damage to the meat and the deer was butchered and ate.

Unfortunately, I'm sure my other bad hits were not so fortunate.

 

[gspn]

First deer I ever killed, was what I'd call a bad shot.
uphill shot, 14 years old...
I aimed for what looked like the center of the chest, but in reality there was a foreleg in the way, and after blowing the foreleg completely off, the bullet creased the stomach just enough to spill the entire gut cavity onto the ground. When I got to where she'd been, I was confused because there was a steaming gutpile on the ground just like a fresh kill would have. I'll admit I got sick to my stomach when I saw the lower intestines trailing away, wrapped around branches, and realized what had happened.
When I got to her she was dead from blood loss, having ripped her entire gut cavity out.

Since then I have worked very hard on shot placement and haven't had a deer run more than a few yards or live more than a a minute or two.

By sharing that chapter in your hunting career you are insuring that everyone who reads it does a small check in their head, no matter how experienced, to make sure they are on when they take to the field. It's a sober reminder that what we are doing, and more precisely HOW WE DO IT…matters a lot.

You are the man for sharing that.

 

[gspn]

As a young bowhunter I made a mistake on the biggest buck that ever walked in front of my arrow.

Around sundown in a swamp we hunted a lot, a buck came out and walked right in front of my stand. It was about 5 minutes before the end of legal light, but due to the fact that I was under dense foliage, and using a peep sight, when I came to full draw I couldn't see him. Outside the sight he was plain as day…through the sight I couldn't tell what I was aiming at.

Still he stood, broadside at 15 yards. This was a layup shot. At 40 yards I would routinely stack arrows anywhere I wanted on the target…so close I'd cut vanes off the previous arrows and the shafts would be touching…but that was all with decent light.

Ultimately I decided that I'd move forward of the deer so I could see my pins on some lighter vegetation that was the same height as his lungs, then slide it back to where I thought it should be. "What could go wrong at 15 yards?" I thought to myself.

I let the arrow loose, heard a comforting "WHACK!" and that deer took off like a rocket. When I got down I found part of my arrow but not much blood. Rather than push a bad hand, I decided to pull out and find him in the morning.

The next morning I was there bright and early. I found blood…fresh blood. Fresh blood 12 hours later? Hmmm…that's not good.

I tracked the modest blood trail out of the swamp and into a bean field. The bean field looked like a horror movie…there was fresh blood everywhere…the leaves were smeared and dripping with it. As I slowly tried to make sense of the bean field I found a piece of bone that had fallen out of the wounded deer. It was clear at this point that the deer was hit bad, but not mortally. I tracked for 6 or 7 hours. Never did catch up with it.

I felt really awful about that whole experience…still do. I'm a more disciplined hunter because of it…and i try to teach other young hunters these things so they aren't doomed to repeat mistakes that are avoidable.

 

[Art Eatman]

First, the usual Boom-Whop-Plop. So I head toward my dead buck. Oops! I'd pulled off and had only broken the right foreleg in the upper bone, instead of a quartering center hit between the forelegs.

So he jumps up and runs, and at maybe 50 or 60 yards I figure to make a kill shot. Problem: I had a 4X setting sun jump right through the scope and into my eye.

Lost buck. Moral: Always be ready for an instantaneous second shot if need be.

Fast forward 20 years: Ambling along in scattered timber, I look across a clearing and see two shootable mule deer bucks. I shot one, Bang-Whop-No plop. I'd hit a bit far back and all he did was hump up in the middle. Having learned my lesson 20 years before, I made Bang-Whop-Plop and he quit.

 

[Wolfgang james]

I have had my share of bad shots but most being clean misses. The one that stands out to me most was the first deer I ever shot at with a bow. It was my first time hunting this property and I hadn't been in the stand long, a 6pt came in at 15yds and i didn't see him til he was right there. He stop in front of me broadside. I thought the only way this could be better if it wasn't only a 3" gap between the trees to the vitals. Im thinking I can shoot pop caps I can make this and whack into the tree. The buck ran bout 80yds turned around and came back to stop 30yds out in a clearing. Next shot he bout does a back flip and books. When I went over and found my broken arrow and blood im thinking this deer didn't go far. So down the trail it looked like a leaking paint bucket then I get into the middle of a thicket and it looked like a pig wallow and a murder scene. Not another drop of blood after that. I circled the area for 6hrs the next morning with no luck. When i got the arrow from the tree it was 1.5" longer then the broken arrow. The farmer saw the deer limping across the road a wk later.

 

[jrdolall]

My first deer at the age of 14 was a doe. I shot her at over 100 yards using 00 Buck from a long barreled 12g. DRT! Sounds like the perfect scenario, right?
The problem occurred when I walked up and saw the doe. I had been shooting at a buck! I don't know where the doe was in relation to the buck but we had to look to find where I hit her. No blood at all around her until we discovered a small hole in her head. One pellet into the brain! We also picked up a blood trail on the buck, I guess it was the buck but heck, it might have been a cow for all I know) and followed it a good 100 yards before losing it and giving up. My uncle helped us and he was pretty good at trailing so we gave it a good effort.

As I have gotten older I very seldom make bad shots on deer. That's not because I am a dead eye shooter but because I simply do NOT take questionable or marginal shots. I don't fling bullets 300 yards or shoot at deer running or walking through the woods. 90% of the shots I take are at deer standing completely still or possibly walking through a clearing at a slow pace. I know the deer isn't going anywhere so I will pass up even a shooter if the perfect opportunity doesn't present itself. Most of the time I am on my own land so I know the deer isn't going anywhere. That has not always been the case. There was a time when I would fling a bullet at just about any deer I saw and my success rate was just a bit lower. I have gut shot, butt shot, foreleg shot and completely miised on more than a few occasions.