Best Miss Story

[Bill Hall]

I had been walking around the mountains with a terrible cold and was ready to call it a day. I was just dragging my feet down a mountain road on my way back to camp when two giant bucks got up from their beds, just off the side of the road. They were only about 10 yards away, the first being an eight point and the second was a bigger ten point. They started to bound off when I took a quick shot at the bigger buck's chest. As the rifle went off, I could see something flipping through the air and the sound of the ball was making a long winded BZZZEEEEERRRRR noise going sideways. I thought to myself "Now that wasn't right".

Well, as it turns out, there was just one little juniper sapling in the area and it just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was about the same width of a .54 rb and I shot it right in two. Turned that ball 90 degress to the side. What are the chances? Bill

 

[Skillet]

Begging y'alls pardon, 'cause this aren't a muzzle loader tale... but I feel compelled to tell it on account of the way it still makes me grin after all these years...

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 grin.)

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!

Simply,
Skillet

 

[LFC]

Whats a miss?

An unmarried woman?

 

[JohnM]

My first hunt on my farm here in Tennessee! I walked into the woods at first light. A nice doe walks in front of me just a hundred yards in. I raise my muzzleloader, take careful aim for a double lung shot at 30 yards! I squeeze the shot off and pow instead of kaboom is heard, not much recoil and about half the smoke!! The doe just looks at me and walks away!! I am thinking I could not possibly have missed. I took a ready load out of my pouch and loaded up, then continued to my stand. I kept thinking about what was wrong...and decided to go ahead and reload my clear ready tube while things settle down. I measured 80 gr. of powder and poured it into the tube. But I saw what looked like less than half a load. So I dumped the powder out of the ready tube back into the flask and poured another load of 80 gr. into the powder measure. Got the same less than half looking load. I Looked down the throat of my powder measure and couldn't believe my eyes...A mud dauber wasp had made a nest in my powder measure taking up a lot of room!! Bet that doe still has a roundball sticking in it's hide. I also do not store my possible's bag in the garage cabinet anymore.

 

[blacksan]

I had my fill of homemade Buckwheat pancakes and maple syrup before the sun came up. When I walked out to the edge of the field to take my position against a natural curved tree (kind of like a lazy Boy recliner) it started to gently snow big puffy flakes. The next thing I knew there was a horn blowing and it startled me AWAKE!I shook off the sleep and noticed tracks all around me. It looked like a whole herd came over for a sniff while I was snoozing. :snore: :shocked2: :grin:

 

[Pork Chop]

Well, I had just gotten to the bar and I spotted this really hot girl all by herself...

Oh wait, you mean missing a DEER! :blah:

I was in college and went hunting with a buddy. He had a stand set up and took me too it in the pitch black of pre dawn hours. He left me and went on to his other stand a while away. I sat there and really enjoyed the world coming to life around me. I listened to "superbirds" (small birds that sound like a herd of buffalo swarming through the leaves) and squirrels cutting nuts. It was a captivating almost magical morning. I was cold but didn't care - it was a beautiful place to be. Then my serenity was broken by the sound of a leaf crunch directly below me. A buck had quietly walked directly below my tree without my noticing! I was using shotgun (sorry, before I started with front stuffers) and some ancient ammo that my dad had. (starving student - why buy ammo when my dad had some that was free - even if it is over 20 years old..) I lined up on the deer and let him walk so that he was about 5 yards away. Now keep in mind that I was on the rifle team and could shoot a smiley face on a 50 yard target with a 22 with iron sights at this point in my life. I let go and the shotgun boomed! I am sure that I got my first deer. WRONG! The deer jumped about 5 feet straight up and took off. I saw the shot hit the leaves below him! I could not figure out how I missed that badly, and I was furious. Of course, nothing came close for hours after that. On the way out, I shot another slug at a tree from about 25 yards and the slug hit about 2 1/2 feet below the point of aim. Needless to say, fresh ammo for me from that point on...