Bad miss

Deerspotter

I am interested in opinions on this one. I was out with a few buddies of mine deer stalking and we got in nice and close to a young stag. One of the guys lined up for the shot. This lad is a great shot; I have never seen him miss. He gets the long shots, the tricky shots, the running shots and the easy shots.
He fired his 6.5x5.5 and the stag pounced off about 10 meters and the lad says "mudder fooker, I missed!" he was stunned. He took another shot and says "I cannot fooking believe I missed AGAIN!" and the stag bounced another few meters. So he steadied down and took a third shot! His comment was "WHAT DE FOOK IS GOING ON!". My other buddy handed him his rifle and BANG, the stag goes down.
Later on, we set up a target and he drilled the bulls-eye at all distances. All from the same box of ammo. Norma Noslers balistic tip.
The stag had one hole in it, from the .270
Any ideas if it could be more than user error.
Like I said, this guy is a great shot and hit the bullseye at many different distances with the same gun and the same ammo later in the day.
It has him shook and doubting his most reliable long term rifle.
The rifle had a good clean out two weeks prior to the season starting & is consistently well maintained.

It wasn't me!

Sounds like he just shot like a tool, for once. Everyone has days like it and shots they have no idea how they missed. If the rifle was shooting right beforehand and afterwards, it seems unlikely it wasn't shooting right in the middle too. Take it out another day and have both he and someone else shoot it and see whether they're both still getting similar results. Personally, I'd put it down to one of those days you want to crawl back under the rock though.

dev110

You said the rifle was cleaned two weeks prior. Was there any shots taken out of it before ye went after deer?

Grizzly 45

What distance was he shooting at?Is his scope a varible power scope?
Somthing simmilar happened to me recently.An easy shot at appx 50 meters was a complete and utter miss!! Had the scope dialled up to 9X ..
Only other thing is he got a bit het up and flusterd after his first miss??
From what you describe on after if he is drilling the paper afterwards,it isnt equipment failure.

Deerspotter

There were no shots fired from it after the clean and before the first shot at the stag.

The scope is variable and was set at 3 the entire time.
I'd love to tell him he shot like a tool!!!

Just odd he hit first time with someone elses rifle - so it's like it's not user error.
Distance was 60m to start with and about 100m when it dropped.

dev110

Deerspotter wrote: »

There were no shots fired from it after the clean and before the first shot at the stag.

I'm guessing that's the problem. Some rifles need a few shots to settle down.

It wasn't me!

I dunno. If it's a rifle he's had and trusted for a long time I imagine he's pretty familiar with how it shoots in various conditions, and while I've certainly seen rifles that, as you say, take a couple of shots to settle down, the worst I've seen were shots a couple of inches out. Certainly nothing you'd miss a deer with!

dev110

Could have been going for a head shot.
If he was going for heart/lung then ye it wouldn't be that much off to miss the deer completely. If that was the case then he pulled 3 shots.

Vegeta

Any vegetation between him and the deer that the round could have clipped and tumbled it off target?

garv123

Was it head, neck or heart/lungs he was going for?

What is the rifle Zero'd at?

The bullet could have hit something and deflected off course like vegeta said if it wasnt a clear shot.

Did he have his hand on the barrel or anything that could chance the POI?
If shooting from a uncomfortable spot he might not of had a clean sight picture.

Gun been cleaned shouldn't effect the POI majorly at 60 yards

Or what everyone experiences..Buck Fever

Deerspotter

I don't know about the gun being cleaned - he probably would know if it had an effect on it by now...

No vedgetation between the shooter and deer, it was in mature pines and it was clear shot.
He swears by the neck shot and it's all he ever takes, as he says, if he hits it, it's stone dead and if he misses, there is no chance he injured it. This proved true.
I know the HCAP has a different guide-line and this is not the debate I want to have now. There are many advantages of the heart-lung (boiler-room) shot. I know people say you can injure the deer by a missed neck shot - but as stated before, I've yet to see proof of that.

Anyways, I just cannot believe he 'pulled' three shots. Is there such a thing as an bullet-proof force-field that deer can have, but it only works for three shots? JOKE!
If he was going to pull a shot, it'd have been with his buddies rifle that he is not used to at all!

garv123

3 bullets off target and bang on afterwards and before hands eliminates the gun as fault usually.

Neck shots work great for the reasons you mentioned. Any part of the neck will result in a clean kill or a miss is a miss.

Was it a standing shot or had he a decent rest? After the first miss doubt kicks in and its very easy to miss the following shots when all the different excuses for missing running through your mind and doubting the gun/ammo.. handed a new gun then and you have eliminated that doubt.

Vegeta

Rifle moderated?

Maybe loose when trying the deer and tight when he checked his zero?

ianoo

simple !!!.....he's human .....we all miss that sitter of a shot sometimes...some more than others :D:D

ian...

cookimonster

Vegeta wrote: »

Rifle moderated?

Maybe loose when trying the deer and tight when he checked his zero?

My thoughts exactly. Seen this with lose baffles or crocked sitting, will deflect round ever so slightly at muzzel but way off at POW.

(Some one will now tell me there are no free moving baffles in modern suppressors)

It wasn't me!

garv123 wrote: »

3 bullets off target and bang on afterwards and before hands eliminates the gun as fault usually.

Neck shots work great for the reasons you mentioned. Any part of the neck will result in a clean kill or a miss is a miss.

Was it a standing shot or had he a decent rest? After the first miss doubt kicks in and its very easy to miss the following shots when all the different excuses for missing running through your mind and doubting the gun/ammo.. handed a new gun then and you have eliminated that doubt.

Not seen it myself first hand, but that theory that any part of the neck will score a clean kill is not true, and I've got the experience of some very good stalkers with an awful lot of deer behind them to back that up. If you miss the spinal column and don't do sufficient damage to the major blood vessels, you might still wreck the oesophagus or windpipe, which will both ultimately kill the deer, but certainly not there and then. Neck shots are for facing on or away, in my book, and close range, with a steady position. Any strong angle and it's got to be a body shot, because so much more of the visible portion of the neck is potentially non-fatal. Neck shots are great if you're in a position to take them, but for me, most of the time, there's no good reason not to whack it in the lungs or through the shoulders. The shot is just much more forgiving and has much less potential to go wrong for the animal.

djflawless

cookimonster wrote: »

Vegeta wrote: »

Rifle moderated?

Maybe loose when trying the deer and tight when he checked his zero?

My thoughts exactly. Seen this with lose baffles or crocked sitting, will deflect round ever so slightly at muzzel but way off at POW.

(Some one will now tell me there are no free moving baffles in modern suppressors)

Ive that problem with mine on the 22
cant for the life of me get it set with moderator on.i reckon someone opened the mod and a couple of the baffles went AWOL.but no matter what i try, ive no hope of getting near a zero or even 1 clean kill shot.feels like im shooting an air rifle at 1 of them dodgy carnival games

Deerspotter

No moderator, and he was standing and leaning on a mature pine tree and there was no breeze.
All conditions were perfect.
I guess he just choked it THREE TIMES... I cannot wait to hear his excuses next week!!!
Thanks for all the responses.

It wasn't me!

It happens to everyone sooner or later. And it's funny. It never seems to be the hard shots either. It'll be the sort of bread and butter shot where you're already thinking about recipes before the animal's hit the ground. I've had them with rabbits too.

Deerspotter

It wasn't me! wrote: »

It happens to everyone sooner or later. And it's funny. It never seems to be the hard shots either. It'll be the sort of bread and butter shot where you're already thinking about recipes before the animal's hit the ground. I've had them with rabbits too.

Were you aiming for the neck or the boiler room on the rabbits?? JOKE

It wasn't me!

Deerspotter wrote: »

Were you aiming for the neck or the boiler room on the rabbits?? JOKE

It was with a feckin' shotgun, too!

Deerspotter

It wasn't me! wrote: »

It was with a feckin' shotgun, too!

Brilliant - laughing my ass off!

It wasn't me!

Deerspotter wrote: »

Brilliant - laughing my ass off!

In my (limited) defence, I'm a rifle shooter, but yeah, there wasn't a rock big enough for me to crawl back under that day. Everyone has them!

owelfisherman

Deerspotter wrote: »

There were no shots fired from it after the clean and before the first shot at the stag.

The scope is variable and was set at 3 the entire time.
I'd love to tell him he shot like a tool!!!

Just odd he hit first time with someone elses rifle - so it's like it's not user error.
Distance was 60m to start with and about 100m when it dropped.

thatd

thats the reason.most stalkers will fire 2-4 shots after cleaning before going out
Ofm

Kat1170

It wasn't me! wrote: »

It happens to everyone sooner or later. And it's funny. It never seems to be the hard shots either. It'll be the sort of bread and butter shot where you're already thinking about recipes before the animal's hit the ground. I've had them with rabbits too.

I remember taking a magpie out at 160yds once and half an hour later missing a deer with THREE shots from about 70yds. Still haven't lived it down. 5hit happens :o