Hunting Shots You Took That You Wished You Hadn't.

[Colorado Cowboy]

UH got me thinking about just the opposite of his post. What shot did you take that you wish you could take back?

For me the one that really stands out was on a buck deer many years ago. My Dad and I were hunting in the coast range of southern California inland from Ventura. We had just started on a trail up a ridge to a mesa we wanted to hunt. It was just after dawn and I looked up and there was a really nice buck standing in the brush looking at us about 100 yards away. My Dad didn't see it so I decided to shoot. All I could see was his neck and upper chest below his head. At the shot the deer flipped over backwards. I thought "dead deer". When we got up to the spot there was nothing but a big spot of blood about 12" across. We looked all day and never saw any more blood and never found the deer. I guess the bullet just opened up the skin, but didn't enter the chest cavity or neck. In 60 years of hunting this is the only deer that I shot and didn't kill. Wished I would never have pulled the trigger.

I made several mistakes that I never make today. Shot offhand...no rest. Got in a hurry. Was breathing hard as we had been climbing, couldn't hold steady. Really dumb mistakes that you make when you are a kid and get in a hurry!!

 

[packmule]

Shot a buck with my bow at 54yds, estimated 55. He was trailing a doe and paused, so I let it fly. He went back to chasing her while the arrow was in flight and it hit him square through the hams. I crawled a long way through a big *** briar patch following that deer and a friend found him 3 weeks later. Still makes me sick to think about.

 

[wolftalonID]

We all have a shot that haunts us...its why we hunt the way we do now..so we never do that again.

 

[packmule]

We all have a shot that haunts us...its why we hunt the way we do now..so we never do that again.

I was a slow learner bc I repeated on a much larger deer. No shot at finding him later (that's really not even a consolation prize), bc the next day water was 10' high where I shot him.

 

[ivorytip]

my first year archery hunting I was walking down a steep open sage brush hill at sun down, sun was at my back and out of no where I see antlers in front of me. I kneel down and creep back up to get a look and 4 or 5 nice bucks were feeding having no clue of my existence. ranged them at an even 60, I had practiced my arse off and was comfortable at 50 so I crawled 10 yrds, pulled back and was literaly able to watch my arrow fly all the way with the sun reflecting off of it, it flew right over the top of his back!!!! I didn't adjust for slope and used 60yrd pin instead of 50!!! kills me to this day. that same year I had a golden impossible to draw rifle tag in my favorite unit, opening day I seen the big bull ive watched the few years prior. 80 yrds..... 80 yrds with a rifle!! im a pretty damn good shot and had no doubt in my mind id kill him dead. I missed. how or why ill never know but I missed my dream bull from 80 yrds with a gun rest and all. that beast was shot last year and died as a 340 bull. a guy I ran into has found his sheds for 5 years straight, the year I hunted him he was 365. his boy got him with a bow. so that's cool.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

Now this I've done a few times. Over confident in my shots I've missed a 190" and a 185" mule deer bucks. I could have gotten closer on both bucks but thought I could make the shots at longer ranges. I now have it set in my mind that if it's going on the wall I will get as close as I possibly can. If we are doe hunting I'll take the longer shots so if I miss it's no big deal. I'm much more comfortable at 400 yards or less now. When I missed those bucks they were at 600 and 700.

 

[mallardsx2]

I was looking through some old pictures today and this post really hit home.

I used to run beagles a lot on rabbits and snowshoe hares in PA. We chased rabbits and hares all over Pennsylvania and we killed a pile of them...and had some great times doing it. The last time I hunted with my number one dog was back in January 2012. My dogs were brothers and both died that year. If there was ever anything I regretted shooting I would honestly have to say it was the last hare I killed over those dogs.

I killed that hare cleanly with one shot from my .410 but something to this day has made me wish that I had left it hop away and caught the dogs, praised them, and walked out of the woods with my gun unloaded....

This may seem strange but I always felt like the chapter closed with that last hare....

I now work on the road selling my life for money and I don't get to enjoy hunting the mountains for hares like I once did. I guess I always felt like I closed that door in life. Its scary looking to the future to the unknown when you know how good the past has been.

Damn...those were good dogs. I raised them from pups and the best hunting partners of my life. I often wonder if they are still chasing hares or rabbits somewhere...

RIP Boys...RIP

 

[JimP]

I can actually say that I have never taken a shot that I regret. Now I have taken some shots that didn't have the desired outcome after I pulled the trigger or released the string.

I can also say that I have recovered every animal that I have ever shot with a rifle. A couple took a lot of tracking but they came home with me.

Now for archery, my first mule deer buck was my only regret. He was a nice 2 pt standing about 20 yards away when I let the arrow fly and then I heard a thump and saw the arrow in his hind end, he had jumped just as I let it fly. After I had waited a while I tracked that little buck up and over a hill and down to a road about 40 yards from my camp, then back up the hill and along a fence and then back down the hill where I lost the blood trail. A friend joined me and we looked for the rest of the day for any other blood but never did find any. The next day I saw another hunter with a nice 2 pt on the side of the road. As I talked to him he said that he found it hung up on the fence above us and the funny part was that the buck had a arrow in his hind end. I asked I I could have my arrow back and helped him load that buck into the back of a truck that had driven up to us.

 

[Joseph]

An offhand standing shot at a spooked whitetail buck from about 150m. He started moving just as i lined him up and he went to jump a deadfall, I led him like you would shooting clays and pretty much blew one of his hind legs off at the knee. He led me on a very bloody 500m trail. I still had to put a finishing round in him. I felt ill, to this day I've avoided offhand shots like the plague and if the animal is at all spooky I make sure I have a solid rest. I do practise offhand at the range quite a bit(every time I go), but offhand at the range is not offhand after hiking for three hours and seeing the deer you've been tracking up the face of a steep mountainside. It's humbling and if I had not recovered that deer I would have felt terrible. I won't take a shot like that again no matter what the headgear looks like, I'd rather lose an animal trying to make the shot as perfect as possible then lose one because of the shot I took.

 

[packer58]

2011 NV Schell Creek Wilderness solo bull hunt.....After a day and a half of a three day pack out i REALLY started to question myself as to why i took that shot . The smiley face would be a good representation if the tongue was hanging out another foot !!!!!

 

[88man]

I missed a really nice high wide heavy with lots of junk mountain muley back in 1999 reg F / near yellowstone park in WY on a guided 2x1 hunt with my best friend. A little excitement and horses stepping around us and we both missed an easy 400yd shot.

The other miss thats worth mentioning is a close friend/family member had a desert type elk tag and he missed a 320 in bull standing broadside in a large mud lake at about 250 yds and the bull was knee deep in the mud. To this day i wonder what we would have done with that elk in a foot of mud!

 

[GOSHENGRUNTER]

2 for me (at least 2 anyway)

1- 2003- the first mature whitetail buck I ever shot with a bow. Took a quatering to shot with a 50# bow. Tracked 2 miles. Farmer found him with the combine.

#2- Wyoming Antelope- my buddy spooked a herd of maybe 12 goats. All does. They stopped at 500, I missed. I never came off my scope. They ran a few seconds covering a ton of ground. I stayed at 500 and watched the second bullet hit short of the antelope I was aiming at. I raised my crosshairs to adjust for the miss. 3rd shot- booooom! Then about 2 seconds later a goat flipped backwards. It was actually a near perfect shot. But, after ranging the downed goat at 850 ish yards....I felt awful for taking that shot.

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[theleo91386]

I regret the shot I took on my first archery 4 years ago. From 120 yards on into 30 yards he was walking directly towards me so I had no chance to draw my bow. At 30 yards he turned broadside and put his head down to start playing in the wallow I was sitting on. I Drew back and let fly, he never made it out of the wallow. Skinning, gutting, and quartering a 5 point bull solo with one leg constantly sunk 8 inches into mud has made me reconsider the mantra I was raised by. Last year (three years to the day later) on the same wallow I had another 5 point coming in and it had me having flashbacks. He wanted to see what was making noises more than play in the water so the scenario wasn't repeated. Got that one gutted and skinned and after the hour and half ride back to camp on the mule I finally got back to my sleeping bag at about 1:00 am. Of course from the depths of the sleeping bag on the cot across from mine I hear, "Well, is it still in the mud?" I replied with an explative that just caused my dad to laugh.

I can't say I won't take that shot again but I know if I do I will regret it, especially since I don't see living the first one down as ever being a possibility.

 

[Prerylyon]

October 2015-early muzzy here in IA. I found a pure honeyhole on a tract of public land with a small food plot that had active deer sign everywhere. It was rolling sand prairie bordered by a clearcut, with a clump of cedars to use as a little blind.

At sunset, there came a racket of a big whitetail buck snorting ahead and in front of my lie and you could hear him shaking his head in the cut as the barred owls started hooting. The wind was in my face and the sound of that brute grew as he walked out of the clearcut, down a slope into a sumac grove. When I could make him out, I saw he was sporting 14 points and he was a real fatty.

He cleared the sumac and was 75 yrds out-still heading towards me. I had no need to hurry, but I did. At 50 yards with a perfect high lung exposure, I mounted my rifle, capped it and shot. Except I shot it like a shotgun. I never really aimed. I drew a blank and for some reason only known in my subconscious did what I did. I clearly remember not aiming as I replay the scene over and over in my head.

The buck looked up, and high tailed it. I searched in vain for blood, hair, anything to no avail-he was close, right? Unconvinced, I even came back the next morning and spent 3 hrs following the buck's trail looking for blood. Eventually, I resigned myself to accept my botched shot.

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