The Miss That Haunts You?

[chiefgobbler]

Do any of you have that one miss that haunts you? It just stays in your head. You think about it when you are trying to go to sleep? It pops into your mind as you plan your next hunt? You think about it when you are preparing for a shot at another animal. I have a couple.

I drew an Oryx Tag in New Mexico several years ago. This is only a two day hunt. On the afternoon of day one I missed a nice bull that was at a full run. I only had one shot and thought I was right on it. Never touched a hair. I was fortunate to take a small bull on the afternoon of day two. But I always flash back to that running shot.

The second was an Ocellated Turkey hunt in Mexico. I missed one flying through the jungle on day 5 of a 5 day hunt. The only opportunity I had during the hunt. The guide said I shot in front of it. I have made tons of similar shots on Pheasant, Chukar, Quail, etc. This miss hurt. It was a long flight home reliving that shot and realizing I would have to go back again if I wanted to complete a Wild Turkey "World Slam".

 

[Blockcaver]

Lets see......a B&C Colorado ram, a +90" Wyoming pronghorn and a stone sheep come to mind. Some were 30 years ago and one more recently. There are also some shots not taken that should have been that bother me, specifically a B&C Colorado Whitetail and Elk and a huge British Columbia Black Bear. I was waiting for a better opportunity when I had a good shot right in front of me in two of those cases, and the bear was going to be too long of a pack for the time I had left as it was Sunday PM and I was 8 KM back. In hindsight I should have taken Monday off work to pack him out.

 

[go_deep]

September 2004 archery elk Idaho day 5 of a 13 day hunt. There was a huge 7x7 herd bull that we couldn't get to respond to a call period. I got high that morning as he bugles I just made sure I was directly above him about 1/3 of a mile. Every morning the whole herd would bed within an hour of light. My idea was to get straight above them wait for them to bed then slow stalk down into the bedded herd. I didn't drop 500 yards and he was laying above the herd by himself a little. I belly crawled down to 46 yards, drew and then put my 40 yard pin on his heart, and shot just under his chest and shot him in the opposite leg. I spent the ready of my hunt trying to finish what I started. Got close a few times, but never was able to put one in him that counted.
Thanks for bringing up such good memories!
That memory makes me practice my tail off even harder.

 

[dan maule]

October 2008 Wyoming 6x6 elk approximately 100 yards I was in such disbelief that I looked for blood for the next two days. October 2010 Wy 4x4 mule deer miss judged the distance and shot over his back twice. November 2012 Upper Michigan 160" Whitetail he sat there and stared at me straight on at 350 yards for what seemed like forever. With every second my heart pounded harder and harder until I foolishly told myself I can make that shot, I don't have to wait for him to turn. I am going to stop with that I don't want to be asked to leave the forum.

 

[NDHunter]

For me, it was a whitetail when I was in college. I was hunting some open country and could see a deer laying down in a small pocket of trees. The thing absolutely wouldn't move its head and so I couldn't tell if it was a buck or not. He was laying right at the base of the hill though and so I walked around and came right over the hill on him at about 50 yards. When he saw me, I was shocked that it was a big 5x5 and he took off running. Not a monster but a great buck. He ran across a wide open hillside and I missed him twice under 125 yards. I think I jerked the trigger so hard on each shot I feel like I probably shot 5 feet over his back.

 

[packmule]

The year was 2006, the date Oct 17, the location was the Neches River bottom in Deep East Texas, the lucky deer a 170s 10pt whitetail. The brief story, because the agony of defeat still exists, was a dumb Hunter, me, forgot to pay attention to where his bottom am was in relation to the rail of his climbing stand. Arrow took a nosedive about 20yds out and the deer was 25, still ducked into enough to clip its belly and draw blood. The day after our season closed, Feb 1, the buck walked out without a care in the world while I was trying to thin out hogs. Had hunted that deer almost daily during that timespan and when I finally saw it I had never been so happy and ticked at the same time in all my life. Never saw it again.

 

[mntnguide]

160 class Idaho bighorn in 2007...300 yards but didnt take into account the steepness of the shot like i should have...Shot right over his back and never got another chance at him...ended up with a smaller 4 year old ram. . Big 330 class bull when i was young and dumb with my first draw rifle elk tag...Was so worried about the cows around him, never took the shot at 200 yards..That is one i look back on and think i should have, but at the same time, am glad i did not take a shot and wound him or a cow which would have been terrible start to my hunting career...So he still haunts me!...Oh and to many misses by clients that made me want to cry on great animals...nothing like working all week for that one shot to have someone miss because they didnt do their part and practice with their equipment! great thread

 

[missjordan]

In 2011 missed my very first antelope at around 350 yards becuase I forgot to adjust for the wind. I didn't draw another rifle tag until last year and I got a nice buck that I ended up shoulder mounting .

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

Ugggg...I wondered when this topic would come up! Ha ha.

1987 (23 years old): In the Yukon, my guide and I spotted two great rams and sat on them all day hoping my dad and his guide would circle the mountain and get on them. We finally decided to go for it. I missed a great ram slowly trotting at around 75 yards. I later killed his smaller buddy which was 39 1/2" with 15" bases.

1990 (27 years old): I drew the top antelope unit in Nevada. I pulled into the area late before opening day. I had picked a roadless place out on a map and hiked in first thing opening morning. That morning I shot at one of the largest antelope I have ever laid eyes on and had a clean miss. Later that fall I hunted Unit 100 in Wyoming on a bull elk tag. I got on a very nice 6 point late one afternoon and missed three different set-ups on him. I finally had to pull out since it was too dark to shoot. The next morning the rifle wasn't even on paper (same rifle as I missed the antelope with). That was a new rifle and it was the last season I used that rifle.

2002 (38 years old): I drew my Nevada desert sheep tag. I had a 200 yard shot at a feeding 170 class desert ram and a clean miss. Found out the BOSS on the end of my Browning rifle had come loose in the scabbard (we were hunting Mt. Jefferson at 10K feet) and was rattling on the end of the barrel. It was a new rifle, and it was the last time I hunted with that rifle. The following day I took out my .270 I had hunted with for years and killed a ram that was hauling tail. That ram finished my slam all taken with the same rifle my uncle had stocked from a walnut tree we cut on my dad's ranch.

2005 (41 years old): I burned a pile of points for a third season CO deer tag. Mid day some elk hunters bumped a 180 class buck and his does out of the timber and they bailed off into the sage. They were in a slight depression, so I sprinted to get in position, folded down my bipod and took a shot from the prone position at around 100 yards. It was a total chip shot. To this day the only thing I can figure out is I clipped some sage near my barrel by setting up too low.

I'm 50 now and have learned from the school of hard knocks. When you hear me preaching to use one rifle you know and develop trust in, you now know why. Two of those misses were with new rifles I had not developed confidence in. In 2006, I bought a custom Christensen Arms 300 WSM which has been my sole big game hunting rifle and have had no significant rifle misses since then that I can recall.

P.S. I won't even begin to tell you the stories of hunting rutting blacktails in the rain with a muzzleloader with cap ignition over the past 30 years. That would just make me cry. I'll just say that I now have a very meticulous loading procedure intended to make one single reliable shot.

P.S.S. I just remembered, last year I "missed" a 350 class bull in CO at 15 yards in thick oak brush with a muzzleloader because the primer had fallen out while hunting that morning. Killed my bull the following morning with my wife which made up for it.

Believe it or not I have made a few shots

 

[laxwyo]

My biggest regret is the shot I never took.

Sierra Madres, saw good buck and he laid down in nothing, I snuck up a crevice and popped up even with him. Laying down broadside at 40-50 yards. I should have waiting the 5 minutes for the sun to hit his back but I stood up and got ready to draw. He blew out and I never stopped thinking about it. Nice non typical

 

[coloradoshedhead]

2012 OTC Archery Elk Colorado, Snuck in and put an arrow in a 350"+ bull on a wallow. It was a rushed, too far back gutshot, due to wind swirling and half spooking him. I tracked him 400 yards and tried sneaking in to 30 yards as he was dying and during my last step while drawing I stepped on a twig. Anyhow, he busted and headed into unhuntable country and I never saw him again.

I'd take that last step back if I could, but hindsight..... Gets you every time.

 

[Fink]

Just thinking about the shot I didn't take still makes me want to vomit. I just about hyperventilate just thinking about it, even 15 years later.

For about the last week (first week of November) I had been bow hunting a little saddle in the middle of our timber. It's an excellent spot to catch deer cruising through, at all hours of the day, during the rut. Over the next few years, I would kill several really nice bucks out of this spot, 8AM, Noon, 2PM, just about any time. During this week, I was having tons of sightings, seeing upwards of 15-20 deer a day, which was really good. I had passed on some nice deer, and couldn't make it happen on some really good bucks.
Saturday was opening day of our gun season. I headed back to my spot, and waited.... And didnt see a single deer. At noon, I was starting to thing about heading back to the house for lunch, when I heard deer running through the woods. I looked up and watched 4 or 5 does come out of the thick timber, and transition into the big white oaks, not 10 yards in front of me. Right behind them was an absolute giant 10 point. Super wide, awesome tine length, he was an easy 180, and probably much bigger than that.
He walked out of the scrub, and turned to walk away from me. Only 15 yards away. I put the crosshairs on him, right in between the shoulder blades. And I didn't shoot. I don't know why I didn't shoot.
He walked over the hill, out of sight, and I suddenly realized what I had just done.. I climbed out of the stand, climbed down two steps, and just jumped the rest of the 15 feet. I hit the ground running after him. But when I crested the hill, he was gone.

God. I'm an idiot.

 

[johnsd16]

I was 21 and sitting in a tree I had many times before. It was rut in MN gun season and I had just climbed up about 1:50 pm. I saw a huge bodied mature deer, the first I had ever seen hunting (I was a very casual big game hunter back then) and was in shock. I fired one round from my slug gun which I had killed some 12 deer or so with prior and never missed. I could only see his top half of his body on the other side of the fence line and it was a clean miss. He jumped and darted back about 10 yds. I was in a small chunk of woods and he in a field. I don't think he could tell where the sound was coming from as with each shot he'd spin around and dart 10' and stop. I emptied my gun and never touched a hair then he bounced into the standing corn. Looked for blood the whole rest of the day. The neighbor came over and asked if it was was big bodied and grey, it was. It was a big 5x5 he would frequently see when his headlights would sweep the hayfield as he pulled out of his driveway. Other neighbor bumped him out of the last corner of the corn combining almost a full month later. It was my first shot at a mature buck and it'd be 9 years before I killed one.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

Yep. Two big bucks on one hunt. Both where 190"+ bucks about 3 days apart. I thought it was my scope or gun but nope it was me. No excuses. Shot it at 200 yards at a target and dead on. I will always think about both those bucks. I've never had a chance at bucks that big since.

 

[Head in the Clouds]

Not a missed shot but a missed opportunity.

Last September, several days into my first solo elk hunt I chased a bull into an isolated valley but ran out of light. The next morning he was still down there bugling with his harem. I guessed their route to bedding perfectly and positioned myself in front of a small fir tree on the edge of an aspen grove. Soon the first cows appeared feeding across the slope toward me. I was 30 yards downhill from the trail they were following. When the bull crested the hill he was a big 6x6 with dark, ivory tipped antlers. Soon he and all 8 of his cows are inside 50 yards. I'm completely just trying to hold myself together at this point... The bull is about to walk into a wide shooting lane and crosses behind a double trunked aspen. I draw my bow and get ready for a 30 yard chip shot. But he puts his dead down and begins feeding. And keeps feeding... And still he continues. I want to let down but two cows are staring holes in me. Between adrenaline and muscle fatigue, I'm shaking uncontrollably. Finally, I can't control the spasm and let down. They're all looking now, the bulls vitals still obscured. A curious cow walks over and lowered her head within ten feet of me. I tip my hat down so as not to make eye contact. She turns and trots away but they're still suspicious and the bull has moved, now facing straight away at 40 yards. He looks like he's going to turn and walk back the way he came. I figure I'm screwed and draw again, hoping... He's walking up hill quartering away and I try inching toward a clear lane. The cows bust me and it's game over. I can't even draw a third time when a confused cow stops in range during the comotion.

I have thought about that encounter every single day since. I have gone through all the what its and should've zones, a thousand times.

I learned a lot that morning but it haunts me.

 

[tttoadman]

2011
I already had a small bull on the ground. I was helping my brother and my niece get into the elk. I almost got run over by the herd bull. Biggest bull I ever saw.

2012
I found him again. I had him at 50yds in a thicket, and failed to see him. I chased him for about a mile. I was moving fast in the snow and tripped over a buried log. I did a super roll, and didn't think my gun even hit the ground. I caught him pulling his herd back together. I had a broadside shot at less then 200yds. I found out I did indeed hit my scope. It was 8" low at 100yds. I believe the main reason I fell was a lack of conditioning and poor quality clothing. I have dedicated to never let poor conditioning or all-around piss-poor effort put me in that position again.

 

[Murdy]

2015, about a month ago, huge tom turkey, I was in some thick stuff and didn't have a lot of shooting lanes. When he got to one, I had to move a little to get on him. I thought he picked up my movement and was getting ready to bolt, so, I hurried the shot. I have one of those shotguns with the double bead, one at the end, one half way back. I don't know for sure, but I suspect in my haste I just used the front bead and shot over his head.

 

[2rocky]

Believe it or not It wasn't a huge animal. Just a wild hog sow at 20 yards. Last Hours of a DIY hunt on a huge piece of property. I'd stalked in on a bunch of pigs and had her dead to rights and had the 20 yard pin right in the boiler room. My Dropaway Rest didn't drop away, and I put an arrow into the creek bank right over her back.

 

[RyanHughes]

similar to this, I have more regrets of bad shots that Ive taken with my bow. Or just kills that I never recovered. That truely is the dark side of bow hunting. Life long guilt.

 

[Zim]

I have many but felt better after reading other's above.