"Best-Miss" Stories? Do tell about the ones that 'got away'...

[Skillet]

Ok, here’s my “Best Miss” story.

Even though I wasn’t actually present, I laughed ‘till I wet myself when I saw the video and followed-up in the aftermath that evening and next morning when we looked for the deer.

This was on our Lampasas County, Texas ranch and the video played something like this:

Camera-man Bob is filming:

A nice, fat whitetail doe is delicately picking her way through a clearing, under the lengthening shadows of the setting sun. The gentle woodland creature remains oblivious to the fact that two slope-browed rednecks are eyeballing her with evil intentions from the confines of a raised box stand some 70 yards away. One hillbilly is armed with a high-powered rifle, the other a video camera.

(Off-camera, there is the muffled sound of shifting and scuffling as Cousin Neal brings his scoped 30-06 on line, preparing for an easy shot. He’s already tasting fried backstrap and gravy as he squeezes the trigger.)

“Krack-A-Doom!!!”

Deer goes down hard… I mean we’re talking legs up in the air, as if the earth were just yanked out from under her like a rug…

(Camera pans to Cousin Neal’s puffy-cheeked face, split wide with an oily smile.)

Camera-man Bob speaks: “Well, whadduya think?”

Cousin Neal: “Oh, that’s one dead deer there, did you get the whole thing on film? Good, high-five buddy!”

High-fives are exchanged, toasts drank and cigars passed…

Camera pans back to clearing, “dead” deer is conspicuously absent.

“Whuuu? “Where’d she go?!!!”

Screen fades to black.

It would seem, that while congratulations and obligatory slaps on the back were exchanged, this apparently bullet- proof deer jumped up and wandered off.

We looked hard, both that evening after dark and after the next morning’s hunt but aside from a few drops of blood, never found another trace of that Kevlar-wearing doe.

But like I say, it made for a helluvan entertaining video!

Skillet

[Graybeard]

Wasn't a story of a miss just a misplaced shot. 

Once long years ago I was sitting in a treestand high up in a tree in the Hollins WMA here in Bama. I was fairly near a creek and lots of recent rains had all the low spots filled with water. One was off to my right with some decent size to it. Deer loved the area. I was taking life easy sitting and watching and listening.

Suddenly I heard a loud splash, looked to my right and noticed a nice buck swimming thru that pool of water. I quickly lined up and waited for him to exit as in Bama it's illegal to shoot a deer in water PERIOD. He exited and stopped in a clear shooting lane. I lined up fired and he ran. I figured I'd find him piled up a short distance away as it was after all perhaps a 60 yard shot at most. I walked over and began looking for blood sign but found none. I followd his tracks in the soft muddy area until he cross the creek way up the way and saw no blood. So I went back to the spot he stood to see what the heck happened. I found a limb the bullet had clipped that caused it to miss and even found the hole in the dirt where the bullet impacted after hitting the limb.

It was a clean miss of a deer standing broadside at perhaps 60 yards. I never saw that limb thru the scope for whatever reason but it was in just the right place to save that nice buck's life. He had a really nice rack on his head too. I didn't take time to count points but he was one for the wall. Now that's a "miss story".

[mjbgalt]

i have one the same as the first one, without the oily smile and video coverage. a doe and younger deer (i assume it was her fawn from that spring) crossed in front of me at MAYBE 40 yards...it was one of those "bounding but not going all that fast" trots deer use...i squeezed the trigger on my muzzleloader and watched her hit the dirt like a truck had slammed into her. she kicked herself in a circle, obviously not dead yet, so i tried like crazy with my freezing fingers to get a cap on the rifle in order to finish her off. what i saw as her last twitches were apparently exercise or something, because damned if i didn't look up from my cap-installing and that deer stood up and hopped over the creek nearby and into the woods. i found a huge patch of hair where she did the macarena on the ground and i found little chunks of hair and blood every so often as i tracked her through the woods several hundred yards. eventually the trail completely vanished and my brother and I had to give up. i had a sick feeling in my stomach for a long time about that one.

-Matt

[DalesCarpentry]

I would say she just layed down and died somewhere.  Dale

[mjbgalt]

i'd like to think so but i do not recall my sight picture, and my instinct was that i had hit her too far back...i'm afraid i am probably right...if i had made a good solid hit i would remember lining her up in the sights, as such i only remember an instinctive, rushed shot so i could hit her before she got past the creek.

-Matt

[Graybeard]

I doubt it. Deer hit like that which go down as if struck by lightning and then get up and leave quickly are normally not mortally wounded at all and will recover. You shocked the CNS and put it down but did no serious damage to any vital organs and they normally recover from such hits. It was likely above the lungs and below the spine in that small never never region that has nothing vital to damage but lays a pretty good smack to the CNS from the nearness to the spine.

[mjbgalt]

hmm...the hairs i found with a piece of meat attached were white though...which made me think i anchored it by hitting it inside the hip or something...however it walked just fine when it got up. a 240 grain jacketed .44 bullet from a sabot, moving about 1400 fps would really have done some gruesome damage if i HAD hit a vital area however.

sorry for the thread hijack there...

-Matt

[charles p]

Last year I sent my hunting partner to a favorite woods stand.  He only shoots does.  His motto is let a kid shoot the bucks.  We are both meat hunters.  Well he sees a very nice 8-pt buck and watches it for many minutes.  The next afternoon I go to that stand and the buck reappears.  I watch it for 15 minutes.  It was standing broadside at 50 yds, and never budged.  Finally it began to feed and I got a better look at the rack.  I decided to shoot the buck.  He was a very nice deer.  My scope was turned to the highest power and the cross hairs were perfectly centered on the bucks chest  I was shooting from a rock solid rest.  He was quartering away slightly.  At the shot, the 25-06 bullet knocked it off its feet and it fell into a tree lap across the logging trail.  It staggered and regained its footing an ran back in the direction from which it came.  I knew I had the deer.

I never found the deer.  I never found a drop of blood.  I looked for two days.  Still confused.

[Graybeard]

Dang am I the ONLY one that's ever MISSED a deer? All you guys are wounding and losing not missing them.

[demented]

Here's one of mine.... I had sighted my 308 three inches high at 100 yards to be ready for the big buck I been seeing at around 300 yards.  I sat on my stand which is located at the top of a hill approx. 20 feet above the deer crossing.  Added to this, the stand is about 12 feet high.  When the buck came by, he wasn't at the 300 yards mark, more like 30 yards.  I took a bead, fired, the buck must have jumped 6 ft high and 15 ft forward at the shot.  Never found any hair or blood, guy put dogs on the trail, he ran completely out of the country.  I can only guess I overshot the deer due to the angle. Had to be, a PROFESSIONAL big time deer hunter like me couldn't have just missed!

[james]

I've lost a few deer with bad hits but won't admit it.  I do remember a muzzleloader hunt that didn't turn out the way I wanted.  I was in a tree stand and my eyes were dry and burning from looking for the "big buck". (or maybe playing cards until after midnight).  The Dr. had told me to use eye drops as I had natrually dry eyes. Well, I put the drops iin my eyes and immediately a deer appeared.  At thirty yards I could tell he was a legal buck but those open sights were a blur. Dead eye Dick pulled the trigger, the smoke billowed, and the deer ran right up under the stand.  It was obvious I missed so I started reloading as quietly as possible. While I was fumbling for caps, the deer looked up at me, twitched his tail and trotted off. I haveen't used eye drops while in a stand since.

[Zachary]

I'll tell you a true story that shows how life has a way of playing games with you.

I was hunting in Texas many years back.  I was in college, and a friend of mine invited me to his lease.  Keep in mind that in Texas, a lot of hunts on private land really are not that sporting (if it all) because all you have to do is sit in your heated well constructed steel blind and just wait for a corn feeder to go off, the deer come, and you pick out the deer that you want to shoot (anywhere between 50 to 100 yards).  Well, at my friend's lease, there was no nice blinds, and no corn feeders.   We had to hunt like the indians - find tracks, follow the weather, pay attention to the wind and terrain, etc. (i.e hard work with no guarantee of harvesting - or even seeing - a deer.)

We threw out some salt and/or corn blocks (or something like that - I don't remember).  There was a long straight dirt road about 150 yards long that went uphill.  Not a huge hill, but a noticeable increase.  I would say that the top part of the road was probably about 25 feet or so from the bottom part of the road about 150 yards away.  At the top of the road - on the side - there was an older fallen tree.  Well, I found some extra brush and put it in front of the fallen tree.  No box blind here.  If a deer came behind me, he would get a clear shot at my butt.

It was very, very cold and drizzling (I think it was sleeting), and it was quite dark that morning.  It was also kinda foggy/hazy.  Boy was I cold! (and miserable).  Yea, I was spoiled with my dry, heated, well constructed box blinds.  Any how, it was morning, and all the sudden with my naked eye I saw a deer down the road about 100 or so yards away.  I mounted my Browning A-Bolt I Stainless Stalker in .270 Winchester with Federal Premium 130 grain Sierra Boat-tails with a Nikon (Pre-Monarch) 3.5x-10x-50mm scope and noticed that it was a buck.  (The weather was so bad that you couldn't tell if it was a buck 100 yards away.  In fact, the weather was so dark and gloomy, that I almost didn't notice with my naked eye that there was deer over there).

So I mounted my gun on top of some of the logs/branches (ie. flimsy and not steady).  Not only did I have some buck fever, but back then I still had a flinching problem (my biggest mistake was buying a 7mm Rem Mag as my first gun at 18 years of age).  To make matters worse, I was so cold that my body was shaking a bit.  I had to take off my gloves to shoot, and my yuppie hands got real cold quick.  I forget what magnification I set my scope, but the cross-hairs (if I remember correctly) were all over the place.  Truthfully, I was just miserable and wanted to leave, and really didn't care if I could have shot deerzilla.  Yet, I focused on the moment, put aside all the negatives, and tried to deal with the situation as best I could.  I do remember setting the cross-hairs right behind the shoulder and pulling the trigger.  Then, I remember that the deer took off.  I then walked down the road and couldn't find any blood anywhere.  It was a clean miss. (what a suprise).

Well, about half an hour later, my buddy and his other friends drove by and helped me look for the deer.  Boy did they make fun of me! (and for good reason).  That week, no one had even SEEN a deer, and I had a shot at a buck (six pointer, but still) and I blew it.

We went back to camp, ate and rested, and then we went off to hunt again that afternoon.

Well, I decided to hunt the exact same spot on top of the hill.  By this time, the weather cleared up that afternoon.  Well, I waited, and waited, and waited.  Nothing.  It got to the point where it got so dark, that I could barely see the road.  I forgot my flashlight at the camp, got bored, so I started picking up my gear and started walking down that road.  At this point, it was almost pitch black.  However, for whatever reason, I told myself to walk quietly "just in case."  Well, after walking about 50 yards or so down the road, I decided to stop and look through my brand new Nikon 50mm scope and see if I could see what all the hype was with Nikon scopes.  Well, I started looking through the scope in the almost pitch black night.  I couldn't see a dang thing with my naked eye - I mean nothing.  But, when I looked through my Nikon scope, I could see some things!  Don't get me wrong, it's not a night vision scope or anything like that, but I could definately see the outlines of trees, etc quite clearly.  Then, as I was sweeping my gun from left to right, all the sudden a deer popped in my cross-hairs!  I quietly sat down, put the bottom of the middle of my gun on one of my knees. placed the cross-hairs at what appeared to be right behind the shoulder, and pulled the trigger.  I think that the deer was probably 25 yards away.  At the shot, I could see the deer drop on the ground, then get up and I could see his white tail as he took off.

Now I know what some of you are probably thinking.  It was dangerous for me to shoot at something in such darkness.  Well, if I was using a crappy scope, then I would say you are right.  However, that scope is what made that shot.  The optics on that Nikon scope were amazing.  Trust me, if I could not have seen as well as I did through that scope, I would NOT have taken the shot.  As such, I was certain that it was deer that I was shooting, and I knew that there wasn't anyone behind the deer when I shot.

After the shot, I noticed that the deer took off at a 45 degree direction towards the left.  How God gave me immediate instinct to do what I subsequently did, I don't know, but I went to place where the deer was shot, and I grabbed whatever rocks and sticks I could find and mound it all up.  That way, I would know that I shot the deer right here, and it went in that direction.

About 20 to 30 minutes later, my buddy drove by with his friend again.  We looked for the deer, but we found no blood.  We went back to camp, and everyone was making fun of me for missing another shot.   A wise and elderly gentleman who was there told me that I DID hit that buck.  After we ate, about 4 of us, with flashlights, went back to my spot.  I showed them the mount of rocks where the deer was hit.  The elderly gentleman said that we probably would not find blood for at least 25 to 50 yards.  Well, even though I know what I saw with my scope, and I was 100% sure in my mind that I did shoot that deer, I started second guessing myself.  We were looking for about 15 minutes, and I  almost gave up.  Then, all the sudden, I saw this leaf on the ground with a big blotch of bright red blood!  I got so exited!  I started yelling "I found blood!"  Then, within seconds, one of our friends, about 15 yards away shouted that he found the deer!!!!  It was that same 6-7 point buck!  And the bullet went exactly where I placed it! Right behind the shoulder!

I honestly owe that shot to Nikon.

Zachary

[Qaz]

 I don't have anything to compete with the deer stories, but here goes. Last year while hunting groundhogs I missed two of them, or more accurately one twice. I usually keep it in the 200-300yd range, but we had been having unusually high winds one week so I cut the distance down to 100yds or less. I am sure you guys out west will be able to relate to this.
 I went out on a Monday evening to see if I could find any ground hogs, I spotted one about 350yds off and when I looked through the binoculars he had his back to me. The wind was blowing hard and then would gust. I couldn't hold the scope on him long enough to get a shot off, so I started walking towards him and stopping every so often to see if he still had his back to me. As I creeped up on him, I thought he would turn around at any time and catch me. No, something had caught his attention and was holding it. When I was about 30yds away I stopped again to try to make the shot but the contender pistol was moving too much in the wind. I continued to walk towards him and at 10ft I stopped, raised the gun, pulled the hammer back and bang!! A clean miss! He went down that hole at mach2.
 If that was not bad enough, I went back out to the same place that following Thursday saw him up in the field and repeated the stalk in  the wind and at 15ft raised my rifle this time and missed again. I had a rimfire this time and he did not move. I put the cross hairs back on his head 1/4" down from the top and pulled the trigger. He just dropped on the spot. Man after the second miss, I thought hitting him with the barrel was going to be the only way I would kill him. To this day I honestly believe that ground hog was almost blind and deaf!!

Qaz

[Graybeard]

And then there was the time I was on a muzzle loader hunt for deer in the Barbour WMA in south Bama. I was set up right on the border between the WMA and private land. I fully expected the deer to be going from the WMA to the private land so set up for the shot from that direction. Well wouldn't you know it one came running from the private land to the WMA right by me not ten yards away but hauling ass pretty good. I fired and when I did noticed a young sapling less than 2" in diameter topple over. Grrr.

OK so I move a wee bit to get set up for shots for deer coming from the private land to WMA. Not 30 minutes later one comes along and wouldn't you know it from the WMA to the private land. It too ran rat by me less than ten yards out and again I fired and again I cut a sapling down and it was not 10' from the first one I cut down. So I missed twice in one day and both times cut down a sapling and they were at most 10' apart. Not exactly my day ya might say.

Hey I've got LOTS of miss stories. REAL MISS stories. I'm a professional at it. Just wait until I start on my archery misses. I can write a book on them.

[beemanbeme]

Mine wasn't exactly a miss but it was one that got away.  I was walking the bank of a dry wash in Wyoming.  The draw was about 20-25' deep with straight down sides.  A nice mulie buck jumped out of some brush directly under me -- Dang, where'd he come from-- and sprinted down the draw. I wasn't gonna try any THS but the draw ran about 100 yards and made a sharp turn to the right so I figured if the deer followed it around or came out on top either way he would stop for a look back.  I planned on being in a rock solid sitting position waiting for him when he did.  I plopped my rather ample rear end down right into a big patch of prickly pear. The gun went off along with my mouth and the deer decided he was late for a appointment in Montana.
Looking back, it had to be funny.  There I stood. In the middle of 50,000 acres of buffalo grass with my pants and drawers around my ankles, whilst my buddy used two nickles as tweezers to pluck catus spines out of my butt and make disparaging remarks about my equipage.
He didn't get them all.

[RicMic]

I was watching over a field that I had measured at 270 yards across.  Nearing the last few shooting minutes I noticed a few does wander out into the field on the far side.  I quickly grabbed my WAY over powered 12x50 binoculars and began looking deep into the corner and after a few moments a huge buck with tall horns became visible.  I watched him for a short while as I knew the legal shooting minute was fast approaching.  I decided that I could take him as I have shot does in that corner before.  I pulled the binoculars down and deer were everywhere in the field!  Whoa!  60 yards to the near right was a 6 point and in the field about 14 or 15 does.  The big buck remained facing to me, frozen in the corner.  Then I noticed the 6 point moved forward a bit but in a lurching motion.  I glassed him carefully and saw that his right rear hoof was missing.  The big buck remained but, there was a post in the blind that blocked being able to shoot one then the other.  I would have to pull the gun back into the blind and out again.  Should I shoot the buck of a lifetime and try to get the 6 point before he got out of the field?  I shot the 6 point and looked for the big one down in the corner, but of course he was long gone.  The does remained unfazed and 2 fell to successive shots.  3 deer in 15 seconds!  Great!  But the big one got away.

[The Sodbuster]

I'd set up on a west facing hillside to shoot a deer across the bottom on the opposite east facing hillside.  It was 335 yards across and I'd shot my .308 at 300 and 400 yards at the range to see what my bullet drop was.  Had my rifle sitting beside me on a harris bipod waiting for deer to show themselves on the opposite hill.  I heard something nearby and a good looking buck comes out into the open about 40 yards below me, slowly walking in my direction.  My rifle isn't even in my lap.  He's getting nearer and every time he looks down or away I move my rifle a little closer until I've got it in my lap and am slowly raising it to shooting position.  I slid the safety off but didn't ease it off real smoothly.  It made a light "click" sound and he was gone in an instant.  He was only about 20 yards away when he disappeared.  Not really a miss, but I was so focused on trying to take a deer at what I considered pretty long range, I wasn't close to prepared for one showing up near me.  After 4 hours I did see a few deer on the opposite hillside (does and fawns), but they were moving at a pretty good clip and I never had a chance at a shot.

[30-06man]

i was on a island me and my brother had leased... and i was in the tree stand early in the morning and the deer activity was much so i got ready for a short day expecting that big one that showed up the day before to be out.. so here is this very old buck who needs to be taken out he has chocolate antlers and he has mass and his points are very sharp.. he is right directly under my stand so i lean over and i can't get the gun on my shoulder and i am almost at him so i take a shot i hit his spine he dies on the spot. its still early so i decided to stay.. and about 2pm the big buck comes out and i had my Remington 7400 with Bushnell sport view and weaver Bushnell see though mounts. so he is out at 50 yards i take a shot it misses hes running i shoot again miss i shoot again miss and my last shot i miss. i reach to reload and he was gone. well after that i got out kicked the buck i killed earlier and left with him. i get to the house and my brother asked me why i was shooting so many times since he was also hunting farther from me, i told him what happened and we take it to my range and see whats going on. well we both miss our shots and i said about the first buck and thought a little and i seen a small dent on the eyepiece were the scope had hit the rail of my tree stand when i shot the first time. and i didn't even think about using my open sites since i had see through mounts. a week later one of my friends killed him and it showed mine was a clean miss every time. i learned to use steel Leupold mounts and not use see though also. i was using a .308 i forgot to say

[deltecs]

I was hunting Sitka black tailed deer in Prince William Sound, Alaska with a couple of hunting buddies.  I'd just bought a new Ruger #1 International in 30-06 and had a Williams Foolproof receiver sight mounted to the side.  I did not have a chance to really sight in the rifle, but did put a paper plate out about 100 yds and sighted in on the center with 5 rds.  The spread was 4" around the center, so thought this would be good enough for open sight shooting. 
I'd just crested the top of a 1500' mountain and was leaning on a rock outcropping getting my breath, when I looked down on an 8 point buck lying just below me about 75' away.   As I was already leaning over the rock, I thought no way am I going to shoot this deer in the boiler room.  So I aimed my front sight on the neck and squeezed off.  The deer bounced up like a rubber ball and I immediately reflexed to bolt action the rifle, but it wasnt' there.  By the time I'd realized I was using the single shot, my partner who is over 300 pounds, crested the hill and saw the deer.  He didn't see me above the deer and let loose with a 165 gr from his .300 Win Mag offhand.  The deer took off and fell 30yds away in some dense underbrush.  I saw the deer go down, but my partner diid not.  I yelled at him it was down and he came lumbering over toward me.  He was so winded he couldn't talk and I was amazed he could even shoulder the rifle, much less hit this deer at 225 yds offhand.  When we inspected the deer, there was only one bullet hole in the boiler room and it was obvious that I didn't put it there.  That was the only time this friend has ever out shot me.  Needless to say, for the rest of the trip all he did was to rib me about my shooting ability.  Most humiliating and embarassing.  Further range testing proved I had cleanly missed this deer.  Must have been buck fever. 

[Tackleberry]

I was hunting Vandenburg AFB in 1993, in one of the shotgun only areas they have. I was in an area where there were parallel ravines than ran consecutively four in a row, They were connected by a ridge at 90 degrees to the ravines. Sagebrush, probably 2-3 foot high, so thick you could not walk through easily, filled the ridge and the camel backs between the ravines.. The ravines dropped in elevation quickly from the ridge so that you could see most of the ravine from the ridge but not the final 100 yards or so unless you crossed the camel back separating the ridges, and went down into the ravine a little, which meant wading through the sage brush. 

As I crossed the end of the second ravine, I looked out in the distance and saw 5 deer, one obviously a antlered buck, running towards me along the sides of the ravine, but on the opposite side. I could see that they would come out below me, out of my sight. I determined that i needed to cross the camel back down into the ravine so as to ambush them when they got to me. One of the deer had very large horns. We are talking coastal Mule deer/Black tail deer here with at least a 4 x 5 rack.

I waded across the sage brush, literally having to swim across it, as it was so thick I could not get in between the bushes. After 30 feet of struggling, I finally got to the other side where I could see the bottom of the ravine, and there he was, coming down the hill, exactly where I thought he might. My heart was pounding, I was breathing hard, gasping for breathe after all the struggle with the sage. The buck was, 25 yards in front of me, making his way down the hill on a game trail.  I raised my Remington 1100 shotgun (slug barrel, rifle sights). I took aim and fired.  "CLICK", was the only sound I heard. I had forgotten to snap off the safety. I glanced down only briefly taking my eyes off of the deer (how stupid) and snapped off the safety. When I looked back up, the deer was gone, or was he really? I looked up and down the hill for the deer, and could not see it. The deer had been just a few yards in front of me, but now, I could not see him at all!!! I held still, searching the hillside, up and down , right and left, looking for movement. No Joy. My heart sank, even as it pounded out of my chest.  I knew that in order to see this deer, I was going to have to move enough for the deer to see me. I moved the gun right and left and then, there he was, 30-40 feet LOWER in the ravine than where I had been looking. He was looking right at me. He wheeled around and started back up the hill in serious 4-legged drive. I fired three times and missed all three. I saw his tail as he cleared the top of the camel back. Gone forever.
 When I first saw the deer, he was running down the hill. When I looked down to snap off the safety, he continued down the hill much further than I had thought , had stopped and froze when he heard the safety click. He had never seen me up on the ridge at all as he made his way down the hill.  My perfect plan and ambush. Ruined. I had blown it.

I sat dejected and lit a cigarette. It didn't matter now, he was gone, my perfect buck. As I sat there contemplating  the biggest hunting screw up possible, I heard a noise off to my right, down in the ravine. There, attempting to tip toe away from me, was a humongous DOE. Methodically, I raised the shotgun, fired, and hit her right below the spine, just above her right shoulder. She went down hard.  She turned out to be a 115 pound doe, and fine tasting too. Apparently the buck had been chasing does, which is why he was so oblivious to me. Lucky day for him due to a classic case of human Cranial - rectal inversion.  My either sex tag did get filled that day though, so all in all it was a great day, not as great as it would have been.

I saw that deer several times that season but never got another shot at him.

Dave

[MSP Ret]

RE: charles p's following post:

"Last year I sent my hunting partner to a favorite woods stand.  He only shoots does.  His motto is let a kid shoot the bucks.  We are both meat hunters.  Well he sees a very nice 8-pt buck and watches it for many minutes.  The next afternoon I go to that stand and the buck reappears.  I watch it for 15 minutes.  It was standing broadside at 50 yds, and never budged.  Finally it began to feed and I got a better look at the rack.  I decided to shoot the buck.  He was a very nice deer.  My scope was turned to the highest power and the cross hairs were perfectly centered on the bucks chest  I was shooting from a rock solid rest.  He was quartering away slightly.  At the shot, the 25-06 bullet knocked it off its feet and it fell into a tree lap across the logging trail.  It staggered and regained its footing an ran back in the direction from which it came.  I knew I had the deer.

I never found the deer.  I never found a drop of blood.  I looked for two days.  Still confused."

charles p, I have seen this before in Maine, a straight on shot into the chest (brisket) did not bleed much, if at all, from a 30-06 about 40-50 yards, the shot was thought to hit the deer squarely in the chest walking directly at the hunter and it ran away with no blood trail. An experienced hunter said the thick brisket fat closes up the wound and prevents much bleeding. That's what was relayed to us that time many years ago for what it's worth. I have avoided straight on chest shots ever since and still try for neck shots, never lost a deer after hitting it in the neck....<><.... 

[41 mag]

Ok here is mine.

Years ago my best friend and I hunted all over the place together. Most of his time was spent on the road working all around the country but he always managed to make it home for opening weekend and a few there after. As such I generally loaded all the bullets and shot in the rifles, having them ready just in case we had to meet up at the lease. As it turned out this particular year my bud made it back a few days before opening weekend. We headed out to the range for him to bust a few rounds and check out the new scope I had gotten him for an early Christmas present. Now his rifle was one danged accurat 06' easily shooting 1" groups form the bench at 100yds and with me even further. Wel my bud sat down behind it and ran several rounds through. After letting it cool down some and adjusting the eye piece, he ran a few more downrange. At this point I noticed him looking sort of bewildered about his "pattern", after me telling him how well it was shooting. About this time I see him starting to unscrew his scope caps, at which point I had to intervein. Now I know that folks shoot differently, but I also know that if the load shoots it will hit one area of the target and I had no problems putting 10 plus rounds through the bull with it only a few days before. So I said, let me shoot three before we go screwing things around here. I repeated the grouping as before, but when I finished I only put two round into the magazine and closed the bolt on an empty chamber. Problem solved, filnch noted. After this his groups dramatically improved along with the ton of ribbing I was giving him.

Fast forward three weeks later. We were coming back to the truck after the morning hunt and low and behold a very nice doe is standing broadside about 30 yds from the far side of the truck. We eased up through the cedars and stooped over until we got right up to the truck bed. At this point I told him to go for it, as I had more time to hunt and could get one later on. He raised up behind the cab, and took aim across the near side bed rail. I thought to myself I hope he don't hit anything wrong and ruin a bunch of meat at this range. Well I guess I shouldn't have thought that as he fired three consecutive rounds at this deer standing completely still and never kicked a hair. I watched the last shot as he yanked the trigger and pulled the muzzle up around 2" over the deer. I was laughing so hard I thought he was going to shoot me next, but somehow I wasn't scared. LOL

Two weeks later I was walking back from my stand trying to make it in before some approaching weather hit. It was already in the mid 30's and the wind could have bit through an anchor chain. I was just about to top a small rise in the road and saw ears, so I stopped and looked a little harder. There were three does laying in the road behind a cedar break catching the last warming rays of sun as the clouds rolled in. I figured heck, might as well take the easy one and not have to drag it so I settled the cross hair just below the biggest ones ears. At the shot the wind was such that it more or less muffled the blast, and they just laid there ears working like radars and being very still. I couldn't figure out what the deal was so I slowly chambered another round and repeated. Well I hit the deer in the same place twice, as on the second shot they stood up, and really started to look around. At this point I felt the first drops of rain and as I looked her over I saw the two tiny holes through both her ears. I figured that it just wasn't her time and went on my way. Back home I set up a taret out about 40 yds and found that I was just over 2" high with that rifle, which was exactly about where I hit the deer.

Paw in law don't hunt as much as he used to due to his years. A few seasons back he was really pumped up about the buck he had been seeing behind their house. Openeing weekend found him out in the stand well before first light in anticipation of getting his buck. Well he sat there until about 10 or so and due to things he had to get done in town was just about to leave the stand when he notice movement. He waited and low and behold out walks a dandy of a 10 point. Well he raised the rifle and as he touched the trigger his heart sank as all it did was click. Now being he hunts with a auto loader, it is hard for him to quietly slip one in the chamber. So he covered it with his jacket and managed to chamber a round, without alarming the now feeding deer. (at this point his nerves are starting to work overtime) Again he raised the rifle and as he settled the scope, he slipped the trigger a bit soon and missed, the deer bounded away some 20 or 30 yds. As it stopped and looked back and he fired again, and hit it in the same place as the first shot. The big buck at this point headed for cover. Needless to say he was pretty messed up by this, and went ahead and unloaded his rifle and got out of the stand. As he turned to start to the house however, he looked up and there not 50 yds behind him was an 8 point which had been standing there the whole time, and now there he was with an unloaded gun. As the deer stood and watched him cuss and walk to the house, he looked back several time only to see it still there intently watching or possibly laughing. 

[mityhuf]

hello all,

  my first post here.
  i slipped up on a small buck one rain day.  had 3 inch 00 buckshot.  20-25 yds. raised my gun on this sure kill.  boom!!  damn thing ran off as if unhurt.  walked over there.  dadgum buckshot hit a small iron wood tree.  small tree with many branches.  the branches were all shot up.  never found blood, hair or the deer. i guess  i got so nervous that i didn't see the tree.
rick

[30-06man]

welcome to gbo. sounds like a classic case of buck fever.

[DDelle338]

 Not mine but.... 
I have a cousin in the Navy who was coming home during deer season and wanted to hunt with me. So I took him to a spot that I was sure he'd see deer in the morning. It was still dark when I left him and went on up the hill to where I'd planned on hunting. I left him in the "Good Spot".  Around 7:30 I heard shooting from his direction, 3 shots rather close together. I waited till about 9:30 before I went to help him with the dragging since I know darned well he can't drag a 90lb. doe by himself. I get to him and he is just sitting there with no deer in sight. I ask where it is and he starts cussing me, my rifle and my reloads. Telling me about the nice (his words, HUGE) 8 point that walked up a trail 40 yd. in front of him. He sat there, aimed carefully and pulled the trigger only to have the deer look the other way. He said he fired the next two shots with the deer looking right at him. All broadside shots. Then the deer just bounded back down the trail it came up. Knowing his limited hunting knowledge, I asked if he went looking for blood. He said he had been looking the last two hours. I went over and looked, just for my own piece of mind while he started getting out all his stuff for lunch. I didn't find anything either, so I went to sit with him while we ate and discussed the afternoon hunt plans. It was the second sip of my coke when I figured out what went wrong. I asked him where exactly he was when he shot. He told me he was right where I was sitting with my back against the deadfall. I just reached out and pointed at the two huge craters that where blown out of the deadfall in front of me. Sitting there looking through the scope at where the deer was, the rifle barrel was lined up perfectly with that log. He was more than a little P.O'd. He even started to blame me for putting him in this spot but then he got real quiet for a while and then said "just don't tell my dad about it, ok?"

[woodchukhntr]

Had a coyote dead-to-rights at 200 yd. in an open field from a bipod.  He stops broadside to me, I shoot, he runs off, I can't understand how I could miss with the flat-shooting .17 Rem. that I am using.  Then, and only then do I realize that I had the .17 and didn't have to hold-over!  I held 1" over his back and hit right where I aimed.

[DalesCarpentry]

Well I remember this little miss I met in north Florida. I married her and later devorcied her. I still kind of miss her sometimes. Dale