Am I the only one who has ever missed?

[dogcat1]

Even Tom Brady threw an interception…. We all miss….

 

[Puddle]

Ha! 1st Safari, 1st shot, some 30 years ago. I was so damn excited to actually seeing African game I forgot the cardinal rule - aim small, hit small.

Fortunately, (knock on wood) I've yet to lose wounded game, though I've gone on my fair share of long strolls through the bush.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Africa has seen me shooting at my best. I've made a couple of shots on animals there that I would not have thought I could do and killed the animals cleanly.

Africa has also seen me shooting at my worst. A few misses but worse a few poorly placed shots that required a fair amount of follow up. Something about zebra for me.....don't ask me to explain it.

 

[93marlin]

I flat missed the biggest whitetail buck I had ever seen! Very old with broken times.
I knew I missed instantly.
I'm still running that scenario in my mind every time I see a whitetail...

 

[NIGHTHAWK]

I missed a 100 yard shot on my last trip. Shot right over a Steenbok from an easy rest. Rushed the shot! I had just taken a Blesbok at 380 Yards and forgot to put my dial back to zero. Nightforce scope with a Zero stop. First time this has happened for that reason.

 

[K-man]

Nope. Never. Thats's my story and I'm sticking to it. That's also the reason I've never had my safaris filmed.
Now for the real answer, of course I have missed. Thankfully, all but one has been a clean miss. There was a duiker that ran off with his shoulder blown off we tracked all afternoon. Like others have posted, other than check your equipment, don't dwell on the miss, go back to the basics of shooting.

 

[Mekaniks]

I have missed and knew it right away...
I have missed when I thought it was a perfect shot....
I have made a perfect shot when I thought I missed...
I have made a perfect shot, and been surprised that I didn't miss....

Anyone that has never missed or made a bad shot has not hunted much..... It happens to all of us, and thats why it's called hunting....not called shooting and not called killing....

 

[coreydb]

Oh yeah.......several. I did re-adjust and get the kills. One, I mistook an animal I thought the PH was pointing at, killed it and had to pay a $350 penalty.....It was a true trophy though!

 

[Nyati]

Yes, it does happen, complete misses on supposedly easy shots you cannot explain, or hitting animals which just disappear !

 

[Throwback]

No, you are not alone.

 

[DieJager]

Everybody misses sometimes. With rifle hunting luckily never wounded an animal and lost it, only a couple of clean misses. Shotgun hunting small game it is much more common, also for example to wound a bird and never find it.
Always sucks.

Closest I came to losing an animal was a black wildebeest in SA. Only knicked the outer part of one lung and a long follow up ensured. Luckily in dying light took a second kill shot and the follow up ended. Never felt so bad as that time, knowing the animal was hurt and a painful and possibly slow death.

 

[JimP]

My first ever shot at a African animal. A impala at 250 yards while I was sitting down and using the sticks. A slight downhill shot but not enough to worry about. I shot clean over his back.

We got back onto him later with a 90 yard shot with him quartering towards me

 

[Ryan]

Around 20 years ago I was chatting with a guy about hunting Africa. He actually said to expect to wound and lose one animal a trip. He based that off of what others told him and is what he had done on his one and only trip to that point. I've managed to buck his stats, getting everything I hit. But things didn't all go perfectly. On my last hunt I was bowhunting in a tree stand and sent an arrow just over the back of a duiker. Clean miss, on video which we watched to make sure. No good excuse for that. I had the range, it was calm and didn't move. I also shot under a blesbok with my 375, it barely clipped it's leg just under the belly and made no signs of being hit. The herd took off, but we saw it again later and I got it with a good shot this time and noticed the first wound. The hunt before that I wounded a bushbuck and we had to track it with dogs before finishing it.
My most memorable miss and rebound was my Dall sheep. It surprised me by showing up almost directly above me, staring at me over the crest of the ridge I had come around at maybe 40 yards. The head and neck were all I had to shoot and I figured it was now or never, aimed low on the throat to spine it. I didn't take into account the bullet was on the rise at that point and hit the rock on the ridge. The sheep ended up running towards my partner (also behind the ridge), spooked from him, ran back and across the face of the ridge in front of me and I got him with a perfect quartering away shot, offhand at around 100 yards. So, if it first you don't succeed, try again.

 

[Hank2211]

We all miss. Some are just more honest about it than others.

i have a fair number of hunt reports on this site, and there's probably a miss or a wounding in most of them. Some end well (Mountain Nyala) while some don't.

A few things I've learned:

1. When you do miss, don't loudly beat yourself up about it, swear loudly, kick things, etc. The team doesn't like it and it doesn't help your trackers do their best in future.

2. Ask your PH if he could see what you might have done wrong. Often he can tell you where the shot went (better than you can, especially if you're using a heavier recoiling rifle), or if you flinched, or whatever. Be honest with yourself.

3. If you're worried, ask the PH to go back to the range and put a few rounds into the target. At least that will tell you if it was you and not the scope.

4. Commit yourself to being relaxed the next time you shoot (not always easy after a miss, especially an important one), and doing better.

 

[Longshot308]

I'm heading to Safari #2 next month.

Reflecting back on Safari # 1 a couple years ago. I missed two animals plain and clear. Right over the top of them. I killed 7 more. dead on the ground. Then I drew blood on an animal I never really wanted to shoot, I hit it high, drew blood and got charged the trophy fee. I knew the rules. I think this animal is still out there, probably book size by now....

Anyway. I am an ordinary hunter and as good as shot as any American going to Africa thinks he is.

I'm not bragging that I missed two shots cleanly or that I lost one animal. I'm only telling hunters here it may be common for a realistic hunter.

I may be the first on this forum to tell everyone. I had 7 one shot kills, two clean misses and one that drew blood and likely got away.

Has anyone else here ever missed ?

No doubt. I handgun hunt so I apparently like making things difficult for myself. Also a gun dork and put too much pressure on making perfect shots. On my first trip last year, I was 140 yards. I flipped my table in my head and aimed and inch or 2 high on a springbok after about a 30 minute walk. Should have aimed an inch low (Or no adjustment really) and went a pinch over his back. We were way behind schedule on my goal animals so it hurt. Lost confidence in my gun but got a perfect impala shot the next AM. Everything worked out because I ended up getting 2 bigger springboks 2 days later and it's an epic story I can't tell yet.

That morning I had a chip shot on a jackal at 85 yards. I stayed up all night watching half of a football game and was just not focused. My PH laughed at me and said I'll never see a jackal that big ever again. On the plus side, it just makes want to go back again even more.

 

[RR 314]

I missed an impala at 160 yards with a great rest a couple years ago. I went with a couple friends and wasn’t really planning on shooting plains game so I just brought a DGR rifle. I killed a red lechwe the day before with my friend’s rifle. First shot was around 300 yards and hit him low and broke his shoulder. Second shot around 450 as he was running (I waited thinking he was going to fall). In any event, I was relatively comfortable with the rifle. Long story abbreviated, came across a couple huge impala and I took my buddy’s rifle and finally got into position. Put pack on a boulder, took a breath, and shot waaay over him! He ran 50 yards or so and same result! I was so miffed I didn’t shoot again. After I shot my lechwe, we ended up bouncing around at high speed chasing a massive golden wildebeest that my friend ended up putting a ton of holes in. He missed the final shot or two and ended up finally running him into the ground and grabbed the PHs .375 and finished him on the ground.

Bouncing all around in the bakkie somehow his rifle got knocked off and was shooting well over a foot high! We got a cardboard box flat from a case of water and put it in some brush. I shot and we immediately saw a branch well above the box struck. Screwed with it and finally got it down on cardboard, but ended up shooting the PH’s .300 WM the rest of the trip. I can tell you this, it is downright unnerving to miss an animal standing there. . It happens and even though I knew the equipment was off, I was somewhat anxious finally getting on the impala again a couple days later. Finally got the big one killed, but I will never not bring multiple rifles with me again.

I have great video of the lechwe hunt (but don’t know how to post it), but wish there was video of the impala fail. That would have been priceless!

 

[ActionBob]

Has anyone else here ever missed ?

Well before reading the responses to this thread I would have said YES! You are absolutely the only one

Seriously everyone does sooner or later.

 

[Hunt27]

If you want to talk missing shots i can talk all-day.
I typically shoot well on trips, but put a white tail doe in front of me with the easiest chip shot in the world and ill screw that shot up. Just something about that 1st whitetail in bow range that gets me everytime.
I went 3-3 on roe deer and wild boar in Czech and 4-5 in Africa but found that zebra and made the 200yd shot just fine.
On a chamois hunt in Spain last fall, i missed the first shot, by inches as the rifle hanging over the edge and myself laying along side the edge. it was a stable shooting spot but mentally i was scared being that close to the edge with a rifle. later that same day i missed a 500yd shot in a very stable spot and felt really good about the shot. The guide was filling with the spotter and you could see the bullet path, all looked good tell the bullet crossed a valley and you could see the wind start to take it. The guide gave me a pass for that one, the first one not so much. At last light made a 400 yd shot.

 

[Flbt]

I'm heading to Safari #2 next month.

Reflecting back on Safari # 1 a couple years ago. I missed two animals plain and clear. Right over the top of them. I killed 7 more. dead on the ground. Then I drew blood on an animal I never really wanted to shoot, I hit it high, drew blood and got charged the trophy fee. I knew the rules. I think this animal is still out there, probably book size by now....

Anyway. I am an ordinary hunter and as good as shot as any American going to Africa thinks he is.

I'm not bragging that I missed two shots cleanly or that I lost one animal. I'm only telling hunters here it may be common for a realistic hunter.

I may be the first on this forum to tell everyone. I had 7 one shot kills, two clean misses and one that drew blood and likely got away.

Has anyone else here ever missed ?

I hate to admit it but yes I have missed and wound a lot of game
I have some in my later years but not anything like when I was a kid. And I mean kid (5)
Looking back it was the culture. Dog hunting with shotguns and buckshot I remember like yesterday me and 2 cousin were check to see if we shot good enough to start hunting
The adults walked out in a field with 3 1 gallon milk jugs I would say some where around 50 yds and if we hit it with any pellets we were deamed good to go.
Well when you miss or wound with dogs they stay after the game.
Well when you stop dog hunting finding the game shot up is a lot harder
I figured that out started using rifles and practice a lot
Bought a 22 rifle and hand gun at around 13-14 and ran a brick of 22 every 2 weeks
Got hunting rifles started with marlin 357 where I could buy enough to practice regularly with and went up from there
One of the reasons a sporting mark 4 303 Brit was my favorite rifle the old man I bought it from understands what’s I was trying to do so gave me 2 big crates of surplus ammo told me how to clean the rifle for 50$
My dad thought I was just wasting ammo.


The kids I have brought into hunting
We’re brought into being shooters first
Then hunters
On my place there been no shotgun buckshot deer hunters since my dad passed

There are a few wma that don’t allow rifles
It’s shotgun. Primitive or handgun
I use a handgun there

Shotguns are grate for birds

 

[DLSJR]

Stormy,

Yup, you are. Nobody else ever misses!!!