Have you ever had a what the h--l shots?

[Critter Picker]

I'm glad you found him!

After this experience I swapped to single piece G5 broadheads (montec, I think). I never archery hunted again though so I haven't tried the G5's. I went back to rifle after that season.

He was alive and well by rifle season. Smarter than our first encounter.

The montec heads give great penatration, but lousy blood trails. I can't see me quitting bowhunting, been doing it for over half a century. Always return to thunderheads and slick tricks. Been gun hunting the same amount,but I like the solitude of archery season. Less people, better weather.

 

[marksman1941]

He was alive and well by rifle season. Smarter than our first encounter.

The montec heads give great penatration, but lousy blood trails. I can't see me quitting bowhunting, been doing it for over half a century. Always return to thunderheads and slick tricks. Been gun hunting the same amount,but I like the solitude of archery season. Less people, better weather.

Good to know about the G5's. I was new to archery when i shot mine, and I wasn't committed to the game enough to stick it through after that experience.

My area (southern oregon) has gotten so hot the past decade that archery season is rarely better weather than late season rifle. So I'm not gaining much by chasing with a bow. I hunt traditional muzzleloader when I can draw the tag, and rifle when I don't draw muzzleloader.

 

[memtb]

I have 2.

My only archery deer was out of a tree stand. Giant 4x4 blacktail (10 point for you easterners) came in front of me. Shooting a 100gr muzzy at about 295fps, 17 yards. I hit the buck square in the onside shoulder and it sounded like a hammer hitting a 2x4. The buck reared up, fell over, and lay there grinding its face in the ground, paralyzed from the neck down. I shot it again through the back strap and down through the heart. Upon inspection, the first shot utterly broke. Broadhead crumpled on the shoulder, and just shocked it so hard that it crumpled.

Second was last year. Elk hunting, with a 30-06 shooting 165gr trophy bonds and using a Swarovski z6 2-12. Great setup. A herd ran in front of me and the last was a small yearling bull, which I was happy with. At 18 yards, on a slow run, crosshairs settled right behind the shoulder, I… missed. Flat missed. I have zero understanding or explanation. I followed tracks for a mile and never found blood. Every aspect of the shot felt right, but I just flat missed somehow. I'm still boggled by it.

Question…..what bullet was used on the elk? memtb

 

[marksman1941]

Question…..what bullet was used on the elk? memtb

Federal 165 trophy bonded tip

 

[wvbearhunter]

I shot the biggest buck of my life at 10 yards with an osage self bow. It was a perfect double lung, he donkey kicked and ran across the river and bedded down. I kicked back in my blind, ate a sandwhich and waited. It started raining pretty heavily so I waited about an hour, I exited my blind and looked over for my buck...
gone! It was raining so hard that I could only see about 15 feet. I got back in the blind and took a nap figuring he moved to get out of the rain. I searched for 3 hours in the rain and dark and did not locate him. The next morning I brought my german shepherd down and we started tracking. My garmin had me covering 3 miles in a zig zag pattern. We exited into the state park that borders my land.....there he stood among a herd of doe. I could see the danged hole in him and it was a dead center double lung. He bolted and ran. That took him into another state (my farm in the border). I got him on camera 4 more times over the next 2 months but never during the day.

 

[Mark Warner]

I think I can see him flipping in the air.

Well he used enough gun to get the job done !

 

[mnoland30]

I bought a .22 semi-auto pistol when I was in college. My buddy and I put 5000 rounds through that gun the first year. One day, I shot at a dove at about 60 yards, and it flew away and landed about 150 yards away. I stalked after it, but couldn't see it. When I got up to where it landed, I found it dead with a shot through the center of its chest. Back then I had great eyesight. I spotted what I thought was a rabbit about 100 yards out. I asked my buddy if it was a rock or a rabbit. He said "shoot it and find out" I shot, and it fell over. He said "it must have been a rock". It was a rabbit. I wish I could shoot (and see) that well now.

 

[victor3ranger]

Mine was on a turkey many many years ago.
My cousin and I had been working a group of turkeys from daylight till almost 11am and they wouldn't come in and kept moving towards the river when I heard them starting to fly across so I jumped in the river and went to the other side then setup on a steep bank.
The first big swinger stepped out in the open at 100 yards. When he stopped I was already dead on him, I squeezed the trigger on the 30-30 and he hit the dirt flopping then I heard my cousin shoot.
I ran over grabbed the bird by the leg and crossed back over the river.
Found my cousin and we walked back to the house.
When we got there I noticed his bird was blown to pieces, we looked at mine and couldn't see anything at all, no hole no blood, nothing.
The only thing we could find was it's heart had split open

Heart attack

 

[memtb]

I thought that I'd revive this thread……with a miss that I still can't or don't want to believe!

It was October of '87, my second year of hunting in Wyoming after my job transfer landed me in Kemmerer, Wy.

I had made a few friends that were locals, one being a guy that worked for the Forest Service. He and I hit it off pretty good, when I went to him to register my bait location in the forest for my first bear hunting experience!

During one of our visits, we were talking deer hunting……when he gave me a tip that would ultimately haunt me the rest of my life.

He told me of a deer that some forest personnel had seen when they were doing a controlled burn, earlier in the summer. They had seen a deer that he referred to as "a dandy"! He told me exactly where the deer had been seen, and gave me a general layout of the area.

A few days into the deer season, found me at the little basin before daylight on my first day off from work.

The location was a small grassy, relatively flat basin/bowl of a few hundred arcres, with a pretty steep timbered ridge to the north and east. The timber started with a pretty open band of Aspen about 40 yards in depth just as the ridge started upward….with moderately thick conifer all the way to the ridge line overlooking the basin.

After daybreak I slowly started still hunting the ridge, working my way through up and down several times on a diagonal ……trying to cover as much country as possible.

Noon found me about 50 yards from the Aspens as I was walking west through the basin grasses, paralleled them on my right. Suddenly, from just inside the Aspens a deer bolted from it's bed, running to the west in the typical bouncing (like on a po-go stick) run that is typical of a spoked Mule Deer.

The deer was very large bodied deer with the largest rack that to this day absolutely dwarfs my little 27" buck and anything I've seen to this day!

This would be an easy shot of 50 yards or so, on the deer bouncing at a slight angle away from me…..almost a broadside shot! I felt very confident with this shot, as throughout the summer I had shot many Jack Rabbits on the run at similar distances….probably having about a 40+% kill rate.

I quickly brought my rifle to my shoulder, told myself to aim at the last rib…..with the bullets path taking out the offside shoulder!

At the shot I brought the rifle down from my shoulder, rolled the rifle into a position as to eject the fired brass into my left hand…..Never leave a brass behind!

As I was catching my brass, the deer now went into a true run, it was at this time I realized that ……I had missed! As I quickly chambered a fresh round, the deer now running near straight away, running of of a drop-off, now out of sight …..obscured by the edge of the drop-off.

I ran toward the drop-off, finally seeing the deer again…..running straight-away, probably 200+ yards away and putting more distance between us with each passing second! I fired two more shots at the fleeing deer before he entered some timber on the far side of the opening.

I spent about an hour retracing his path from the time I first fired, to where he disappeared into the timber! This is when I faced the realization that I had missed! Missed the biggest Mule Deer I'll likely ever see, with perhaps the easiest running shot I'll ever have again! For years I said that I think he had a 40" outside spread. I've since convinced myself that he probably was only 36"……only 36" !

To this day, that miss haunts me! memtb

 

[Calvin45]

Older friend of mine shot a whitetail at a steep downhill angle roughly 80 yards away. Just brushed the brisket. Knocked the hair off but never went through the skin. Died in seven steps. I'm still perplexed....

The fright must have gave that poor deer a heart attack!

What projectile? Be a heck of a sales pitch…

"So deadly you don't even have to hit the target"

Like how shotguns are depicted in movies…

 

[marksman1941]

The fright must have gave that poor deer a heart attack!

What projectile? Be a heck of a sales pitch…

"So deadly you don't even have to hit the target"

Like how shotguns are depicted in movies…

Or how .50's are depicted from wannabe ex snipers. "So powerful it'll rip your arm off just from the concussion of passing by you!"

 

[patross79]

My biggest buck I ever killed was full of wth.
Day before rifle season I was bow hunting and he came crashing through the trees on some doe, at 28 yards, broadside I let an arrow fly, and never touched a hair on his body. I was beyond disgusted with myself.
Next day was rifle opener and I was sitting on the opposite side of the shelter belt. Weather was terribly windy and cold as ****. The same buck popped into an opening in the shelter belt so I brought the crosshairs on him, went to squeeze the trigger and my pack I was resting on shifted at the time I squeezed the trigger. The buck appeared to be gone once again. I was sure I messed up once again but walked to the clearing and the Berger dropped him without taking a step right through the boiler room. Killed him within 30 yards of where I missed the day before. Thank God rutting whitetail make more mistakes than they should.

 

[memtb]

My biggest buck I ever killed was full of wth.
Day before rifle season I was bow hunting and he came crashing through the trees on some doe, at 28 yards, broadside I let an arrow fly, and never touched a hair on his body. I was beyond disgusted with myself.
Next day was rifle opener and I was sitting on the opposite side of the shelter belt. Weather was terribly windy and cold as ****. The same buck popped into an opening in the shelter belt so I brought the crosshairs on him, went to squeeze the trigger and my pack I was resting on shifted at the time I squeezed the trigger. The buck appeared to be gone once again. I was sure I messed up once again but walked to the clearing and the Berger dropped him without taking a step right through the boiler room. Killed him within 30 yards of where I missed the day before. Thank God rutting whitetail make more mistakes than they should.

Good story ……great buck! memtb

 

[ARlife4me]

Bank shots don't count if you don't call it