Your worst miss ever!

[Tookeymonster]

I missed on a big 74" prong horn with my bow. My Popup was placed inside a fence made of gates. Everyone told me for sure I should be able to shoot through there, just after i stuck a Prairie Dog at 45 yds with wind. So feeling full of my self I say sure why not. The next morning I get in my pop up with bow in hand. Around 2pm a heard comes within 300 yds (what the rang finder says), and I wait and wait and wait. Finally they come in for water I think I have the perfect opportunity so I draw back and this is where I realize I may be in trouble but after siting in a popup for 12 hrs I'm a little delirious and take the shot and Ding!!!!! One of the Bladed just barley nicks the rail and it just fly's over its back by an inch or so. I had just made the decision to switch to fixed blade heads and I 100% sure my arrow would have cleared if I would have knocked the arrow with a Rage. I did move spots and ended up getting a nice 73 1/2" prong horn, my dad ended up shooting the one I missed with his rifle. So it all ends in a good story that taught me a valuable lesson, never listen to other people and know your limits.

 

[shanevg]

I have to admit that my worse miss ever was this year on Christmas Eve on a late season blacktail. I was out hunting a spot that holds a lot of does and planning to shoot the first deer I saw with only a week left in season. I came up over this little rise and spot a deer bedded and watching me. I was still 125 yards away but there was no cover between me and the deer so I just slowly shuffled straight towards it. I was trying to minimize movements so I didn't pull up my binoculars to see if it was a doe or buck and it was really low light so I couldn't tell with the naked eye. The deer just watched me shuffle towards it and after about 4 minutes I was as close as I could get. As I was moving towards the deer I could see what looked like branches in the bush behind him and I kept thinking they looked kind of like antlers, but having never seen a buck there this late season I just wouldn't let myself believe it was a buck. When I pulled up my rangefinder to range him I saw that they were in fact antlers. About 3-4 inches outside each ear and about 12 inches above the ears. I took the 50 yard shot and shot just low on the deer and watched him hop into the timber untouched. I never saw him again that season. Maybe I'll get lucky next year.

 

[Jared Bloomgren]

Hmmmmm....

A 360" class bull elk in WY, spot and stalk, 65 yards, through timber, right over his back, I rushed the shot.......
A 190" class muley in ND, spot and stalk, 30 yards extreme angle shot, no range finder at the time, shaved a few hairs off his back....
A 160" class rutting whitetail in ND, treestand, 30 yards, before using a rangefinder, shaved hair off his brisket.....

A rangefinder has really become a crutch....I'll admit it.

 

[Curtis C]

Several years back I was stand hunting an SWA in eastern CO the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was freezing my butt off and I decided I was going to shoot the first legal deer that gave me a shot. It took forever but finally a doe showed and started walking toward me, she stopped right in a lane that I had ranged at 30yds. I shot right under her. Had to be a bad shot, I know she stood 30yds. As she ran away I heard crunching coming down the same trail she came in on. Here comes a small buck and stops in the same spot as the doe. OK I spent all my buck-fever on the doe, I settled the 30 pin and let it fly. THWACK. That was my first archery kill, he turned out to be a 10 point WT. He hangs on the wall, so I wont ever forget the missed chip shot on the doe he was trailing.

C

 

[huntinfool84]

december 16th 2003, yup I remember the day. snuck up over a little hill that we knew the deer (20-30) were on the other side of, stood up found horns (not a trophy hunter) drew back, settled the 30 yard pin a little high guessing he was 35 or so yards when I seen in perifial vision what looked like a bush come up attached to the top of the big guys head. spun over to him dont really remeber what pin or if i picked one but I seen the arrow sail over his back by a couple inches. my uncle who watched from about 40 yards to my left said he was well over a 30" main frame with a double drop on the left side and kickers off of both sides. I was guessing him at 35" as he trotted off. a couple days later another guy missed him at 15 yards when he seen the buck got in a hurry and took off after him leaving his release in the truck. the buck never got killed that year but we have never seen him again either. some day i will get his son though!!

 

[muleyman]

I spent the entire summer of 2007 on the desert, patterning the biggest bull I've ever had the oppotunity to hunt. When the general rifle season opened on August 1st I walked in to where I needed to be to intercept the bulls. As it got closer to shooting light there were more and more headlights from from peoples vehicles showing up in the area where the elk would come from, about a mile away. Then it happened all hell broke loose!! People were chasing elk in their trucks, shooting at them while they were running, people piled in the backs of trucks using the cabs as rests. I was sure my hunt was over. Luckily F&G must have had about as good of vantage point as I did because it didn't take them long to start handing out citations. I went back out a week later and wasn't expecting to see anything so it caught me off guard when at first light I spotted the bull I had watched all summer making his way right to me. I got all set up and just waited and watched and watched. That's where it all went bad for me, by the time that bull got there I was so worked up I could't stop shaking. He stopped broadside at 178 yards, I was lying prone with a bipod and my pack as a rest, doesn't get much better. Well, I emptied my gun (bolt action) faster than most semi autos, and watched him run for miles. Never to be seen again.

 

[Pond]

I hate to keep this thread going......

But how many guys have done this?

Behind this tree stood a really nice velvet 3x3. Perfect stalk to 30 yards while he was beded looking downhill away from me. I ranged him at 30 and came to full draw. He stood on que with that small tree in line with his vitals. I thought I'd shoot an inch or two to the side and still get a double lung. A swear that tree moved.LOL. I hit it square.

 

[JG358]

A-HOLE!

I think I heard you laughing from a half mile away when I missed!

Nope, that was the deer laughing at you

 

[Hoytnut]

My second real year of bowhunting I missed two 160ish bucks within 45 minutes of each other. Very discouraging day. However, the miss that haunts me the most is a miss on a 185ish buck at forty yards. I took the shot off me knees at a totally unaware broadside buck, but unfortunately the arrow deflected off a snow berry bush branch. That was a pig of a deer and all I could do it watch him waddle away as my arrow clanked through the quakies. That one made me sick, but I learned a valuable lesson that day about paying attention to little details.

 

[Jbirdhunter]

Last year a doe at 20 and then a buck at 15.

 

[JDC]

Feel free to pick any of the three....My first year bowhunting back home in SC. It was a beautiful September morning, and i was on the edge of a thicket in a pine tree overlooking the fire break. I get settled in watch the sun rise and hit the grunt call a couple of times. In no less than five minutes, there is a nice, but not huge, 8 pt standing in the middle of the fire break standing broadside at twenty-five yards, looking for that other buck ..

I draw back settle my pin and let the arrow loose just to watch it sail over his back. He jumps into the pines and starts walking off, so i hit the grunt call again and he stops in his tracks. He looks back, starts walking and in no time he is standing exactly where he was at the first shot. I draw back again, loose the arrow and watch is as it goes right under his front shoulder. Repeat the prior scene except he stays in the pines this time and yes i shoot another arrow that lands right in front of him. In his hurry to leave, (why I have no idea, inside twenty five yards with me shooting at him was pretty much the safest place to be) he jumps up, stomps on the arrow and breaks it in half...

If many more/any more bow hunts had turned out like that i would have picked the rifle back up.