I'm a little bored, so I wonder...
What is the worst shot you have ever taken on an animal, and why was it a bad shot?
For me, pretty easy. My worst shot and my luckiest shot was the same.
First time I ever went deer hunting by myself, I was maybe 16 (if I recall correctly). I walk out to the back 40 on my grandmothers land around 1130L, and climbed a tree that had grown in the middle of an old corn silo (in the field where my family has farmed since the 1800s). I had climbed the tree countless times growing up, so it was second nature to scurry up and just sit on a pair of branches that forked off, with a nice branch conveniently placed right below to conveniently rest my feet. Ive had treestands that were less comfortable than that ole tree. The tree was on a small hill overlooking a corn field that had a very nice pie shaped drainage going out about 90 yards (give or take a few yards). Soon as I climb that tree I pull out my binoculars and look around. Bam, already looking at me was a doe. I've never been more than a "if its brown it's down and in the freezer" kind of hunter so I grabbed my Mossberg 500 slugster as fast as I could and sent a 12ga sabot downrange maybe 20min after I left the house. If only all hunting was that easy...
Now the longest shot I ever practiced was maybe 50 yards, and I never practiced much with that 12ga/Sabot combination as the recoil was a bit much for a scrawny kid such as myself, and $2 a pop was insanely expensive for me. But I distinctly remember thinking, this deer is pretty far away, I should probably hold over. So I held over what I thought was a decent amount and touched the trigger. When I get the scope back down to look I can't see anything, my initial reaction was that it was a clean miss. I recalled the shot and clearly recalled seeing corn stalks, so I figured I pulled it high. I scamper out of the tree hoping to find either good blood to start railing or no blood, and to my surprise I found my deer dead as a doornail, crumpled up right where I shot her, with a 12ga sabot size chunk missing from her spine. I stepped it off at 150 yards from tree to deer. Dressed out she was a solid 180lbs! (I love corn fed whitetails!)
I see this as my worst shot since I didn't call it (I was trying for a lung shot and completely missed that). I clearly had not practiced enough. I was completely guessing the range, on land I had basically grown up on, so I should have paced it off earlier in the spring or summer. I had no clue what the actual ballistics of my round was at that range or how much to hold over to have. It was completely dumb luck that I hit the dang thing, yet alone actually had a clean kill. Biggest lesson I learned was that luck is awesome when you are looking for a deer, but luck doesn't belong anywhere in the play book when it's time to take the shot. I was a fool for having taken that shot, and I knew it.
I learned my lesson and started practicing with my shotgun more and have never had a deer run more than 50 yards on me. But I've never actually crumpled one up in its tracks like that before either... so...
What is the worst shot you have ever taken on an animal, and why was it a bad shot?
For me, pretty easy. My worst shot and my luckiest shot was the same.
First time I ever went deer hunting by myself, I was maybe 16 (if I recall correctly). I walk out to the back 40 on my grandmothers land around 1130L, and climbed a tree that had grown in the middle of an old corn silo (in the field where my family has farmed since the 1800s). I had climbed the tree countless times growing up, so it was second nature to scurry up and just sit on a pair of branches that forked off, with a nice branch conveniently placed right below to conveniently rest my feet. Ive had treestands that were less comfortable than that ole tree. The tree was on a small hill overlooking a corn field that had a very nice pie shaped drainage going out about 90 yards (give or take a few yards). Soon as I climb that tree I pull out my binoculars and look around. Bam, already looking at me was a doe. I've never been more than a "if its brown it's down and in the freezer" kind of hunter so I grabbed my Mossberg 500 slugster as fast as I could and sent a 12ga sabot downrange maybe 20min after I left the house. If only all hunting was that easy...
Now the longest shot I ever practiced was maybe 50 yards, and I never practiced much with that 12ga/Sabot combination as the recoil was a bit much for a scrawny kid such as myself, and $2 a pop was insanely expensive for me. But I distinctly remember thinking, this deer is pretty far away, I should probably hold over. So I held over what I thought was a decent amount and touched the trigger. When I get the scope back down to look I can't see anything, my initial reaction was that it was a clean miss. I recalled the shot and clearly recalled seeing corn stalks, so I figured I pulled it high. I scamper out of the tree hoping to find either good blood to start railing or no blood, and to my surprise I found my deer dead as a doornail, crumpled up right where I shot her, with a 12ga sabot size chunk missing from her spine. I stepped it off at 150 yards from tree to deer. Dressed out she was a solid 180lbs! (I love corn fed whitetails!)
I see this as my worst shot since I didn't call it (I was trying for a lung shot and completely missed that). I clearly had not practiced enough. I was completely guessing the range, on land I had basically grown up on, so I should have paced it off earlier in the spring or summer. I had no clue what the actual ballistics of my round was at that range or how much to hold over to have. It was completely dumb luck that I hit the dang thing, yet alone actually had a clean kill. Biggest lesson I learned was that luck is awesome when you are looking for a deer, but luck doesn't belong anywhere in the play book when it's time to take the shot. I was a fool for having taken that shot, and I knew it.
I learned my lesson and started practicing with my shotgun more and have never had a deer run more than 50 yards on me. But I've never actually crumpled one up in its tracks like that before either... so...
