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The Best Missed Shot

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    The Best Missed Shot

    is one where you have your act together, make calm, collected decisions in the heat of the moment, execute your shot properly... and get robbed by a vine because you tried to thread the needle .

    And I didn't miss entirely. That little piggy got a nick in the brisket, as evidenced by two drops of blood on my fletching, and a clean arrow shaft. Looks like I still know how to command the situation in crunch time . And by missing said piggy, after 3 whole minutes of hunting, I was able to spend the rest of the evening scouting some new ground instead of blood trailing through head high ragweed. Valuable information was gained and I'm looking forward to deer season.

    #2
    I had 3 does come in once and they were spooky as hell. They left and the spookiest one came back. I concentrated low by a foot knowing she would duck at the shot. She never moved and I shot low by a foot. I had a string tracker on and she was moving it along with her back legs as she fed. I tried to reload but she moved on off before I could. Just insulting.

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      #3
      Originally posted by Draco View Post
      I had 3 does come in once and they were spooky as hell. They left and the spookiest one came back. I concentrated low by a foot knowing she would duck at the shot. She never moved and I shot low by a foot. I had a string tracker on and she was moving it along with her back legs as she fed. I tried to reload but she moved on off before I could. Just insulting.
      Hahaha! That makes me feel better .

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        #4
        Three times in my life I’ve had chip shots ruined by unseen saplings, limbs, or vines. I can remember all three vividly (even though I cannot remember what I did yesterday). One was just a coyote but one was a pretty nice East Texas buck way back when they were as scarce as hen’s teeth. Back then, you might only get one opportunity in a season. That one hurt !

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          #5
          Had an elk escape that way.

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            #6
            It happens lol

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              #7
              My first bow shot at a deer, I was probably 15 at the time. I was walking one of the ranch roads on a 1500 ac. ranch we were hunting outside of Falfurrias. It was raining. I kept seeing deer running around. The area we were in, was sand and live oaks. Normally we saw very few deer during the day, but there were a lot of them there, they just had no reason to come out during the day and get shot at.

              So I am walking along, I see deer running around, then back and fourth. I get a little excited, but am sure they will take off before I get to where they are. I get to the area where they are and they are running past me back and fourth like I am not there. I think there were two young bucks, chasing some does. Never did really figure out what I walked into the middle of. So I walk up in the brush about 50 yards, deer running past me one, way then another. Then I see a small buck coming my way. I got down on my left knee. Drew my Ben Pearson compound, the buck curved around some trees and came straight at me. I was a full draw, then at about 15 yard, he planted his hooves and looked at me, like what the heck are you and what are you doing here?
              It could not have been more perfect for my first deer bow kill. I released the arrow, watching the Game Getter arrow with the Bear broadhead flying straight at his chest. I could not believe what I was seeing. I am going to kill my first buck with a bow. The arrow keeps going towards the bucks chest, then out of nowhere, the arrow makes a abrupt turn right into the ground. about 3 ft. short of the buck. I was stunned, the buck had no idea what had just happened. Then I saw a small oak tree, about 2 ft tall swinging back and forth and I could see one twig on the small oak was cut. That's all it took, was one little oak twig to make my arrow make about a 60 degree turn right into the ground.

              The buck turned around a took off, he and the rest of the deer, finished up their chasing each other and took off into the thick stuff.
              Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 09-22-2020, 10:48 PM.

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                #8
                Many years later, I was hunting the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. I was in my favorite area, which I won't give out that info. Just say you can't hunt there when the whooping cranes are in town. Basically you can't hunt that area, during rifle season.

                I was sitting on a tripod I had made for that place. With my new at the time bow, I think it was one of my Dartons. I had camo on, then camo mosquito netting on top of the camo. The place where I was you had to take a gator trail to get there. That's how we met about a 9' gator 5:00 one morning. He did not like us using his trail. We got around him and went to our tripods.

                So I am sitting on the tripod, with a mud hole in front of me, a little bit of water in it. Somewhere in the thick brush behind me is where the gator was hanging out, I was not worried about him. Sometime maybe about 7:30 that morning. A pig about 100 lbs. came strolling out of the brush and down to the little mud hole. I figured to get a drink. But nope, he wanted a mud bath. He waded off in the mud, sank down in the mud. His legs were completely buried in the mud, he was standing. So he sat his head on top of the mud and started to doze off. You can't miss on a shot like this. The pig is 15 yards away, basically dozed off. So this was just like target practice, no pressure, just shoot the bullseye. I drew, aimed and released. The arrow took a nice little left hand turn. Stuck in the mud right in front of the pig's nose. I could not believe I just missed, how? The pig picked up his head, looked around, sniffed my arrow for a bit and then decided, it was time to get out of the mud hole, not in a big hurry, but he decided it was time to leave. Not the typical black blur, the way pigs usually leave an area, after being shot at. So I went to try and get off a second shot quickly and figure out how I missed. When I reached for the string, I saw my left mosquito netting sleeve was wrapped in a big ball around the string. It was wrapped tight. There was not going to be any quick follow up shot. I knew right off why my arrow went way left. I had to take my mosquito netting jacket off, fed many mosquitos for about 20 minutes as I tried to get the mess of mosquito netting unwrapped from the string. Amazing how fast you can have such a big mess, when things go wrong. Never saw anything out of that spot the rest of the weekend.
                Last edited by RifleBowPistol; 09-22-2020, 10:51 PM.

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                  #9
                  My best missed shot ended up being my first bow kill. I bought my Mission Ballistic from Santa Fe Archery and practiced all summer. I went to the bayou next to my house and practiced 20, 30 and 40 yard shots daily. All summer long I got good grouping for having never shot a bow before. Went to my buddies place where they needed some does taken off for MLD. Needless to say I was happy to oblige. Went to the tripod stand one evening and had a group of 3 doe come in. I picked the most mature which happened to be a cool 30 yards away. No problem right? Been practicing all summer, I got this. One thing I quickly found out is the BLOCK target doesnt duck down when it hears the arrow fling. She ducked it entirely and ran away. Not half an hour later she comes back to the exact same spot. The lumenock was still lit. She sniffs the arrow shaft and I draw back, breathe deeply, account for the "arrow duck" and drill my first bow kill with a double lung shot at the same 30 yards. She ran a couple yards and was down. Best missed shot in my life so far!!

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                    #10
                    I witnessed (on video) a great left handed archer from Mckinney skip an arrow of the back of the closest of 4 side by side pigs and hit the 4th right in the heart. It didn't go out of camera range before collapsing.

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                      #11
                      I was hunting antelope in NM one September. I snuck into a corner pasture before light by a train track where we saw a goat pinning his ladies down the night before. I waited for a train to pass to make my way across the fence and into position. When light came, he was right there. I was ready to send one when my buddy came barreling down the road with arms waving. He said “jump in the truck NOW!”. He had found a really nice goat 500 yards down the road pacing the fence. I jumped out of the bed while he gave me the distance with his range finder. You know that little shadow on the white belly of a pronghorn behind the shoulder? My arrow didn’t. Man, those things are fast!

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                        #12
                        Glad to see I'm not alone here, hahaha!

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                          #13
                          Told this one to the crew at LOR last weekend, so they will have to suffer through it again if they are reading this...

                          I missed multiple(3!) shots at a P&Y moose, after a week of tromping around in frozen muck, and right before writing a 6k check for what resulted in being an expensive camping trip.

                          The moose never moved, perfectly broadside, and to add insult to injury, my Indian guard keep whispering "aim higher”...

                          As it turns out, That was the best missed shot(s), because I left Canada knowing that I was going to figure out an aiming system and a complete overhaul on my hunting equipment.

                          I am 100 percent convinced had I been shooting the equipment I shoot now, with the aiming system I now use, (instead of being hung up on a form of archery romanticism,)I would have a record book moose on the wall.

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                            #14
                            I was in a blind at a waterhole, in the Limpopo Province, near Thabazimbi. At about 4:50pm a really nice bushbuck came into the far side of the waterhole. Finally he committed to drink. He was at about 18 yards and perfectly broadside. I picked a spot, came to a solid anchor and let the string slide off my fingers. Thunk…. I felt my upper limb make contact with the metal roof of the blind. With a sinking heart I watched my arrow dive low into the bushbuck’s shoulder. It looked like the arrow centered the knuckle joint and I got almost no penetration. I got on the Radio and called Antonie. I told him what the hit looked like. We agreed that there was little likelihood we would recover him but we spent hours that evening and next morning searching. An interesting sidenote is that the Bushbuck is one of the antelopes that can be aggressive when pushed, so Antonie was prepared with his rifle when we were tracking. Since, in Africa, if you draw blood you have to pay the trophy fee, that bad hit had just cost me $900.

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                              #15
                              I have two best missed shot’s:
                              #1 is the shot I didn’t take on a big 8 at H last year in split second decision to try and thread the needle through a small hole in some brush with a vine dangling in the way.(no regrets cause I would have hated to wound him)
                              #2 was several years ago on a cold morning, my bottom cam got hung up in my coat when I shot, but the top cam flipped, and the arrow shot out as if at had been flung out of a sling shot and hit the doe right in the neck with a Jak Hammer broadhead. There wasn’t even enough force to expand the head, but I nicked the juggler, and the doe bedded down in sight and bled out. It was wild. Like 1 in of penetration.

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