Hunting Has a Bad Habit of Kicking Your Arse

Just wondering how often this happens, like as happened to me recently
So Labour weekend we decided on a road trip and ended up staying with some farming friends in sth canterbury., Their property backs on to a small river where Fallow deer are often seen wandering out onto the crop paddocks. So a road trip isn't a road trip without the trusty .222 in the back seat right!!.
Waited till about 7pm ish and off me and mother go for a look. About half an hour later, finally found 3 Fallow out in the middle of the creekbed having a nibble. Ranged the nearest one at 180 yds, settled the crosshairs on the side of the head and bang
- flop. Excellent I thought, and even mother was impressed. Good shot I thought again to myself.

Attachment 236555

So now fast forward to last weekend. Spent all weekend out at our hut, and spent a bit of that time shooting paper at various ranges. 222 was shooting real good, and the 6.5 06 was grouping real tight at 200 yds
Out we went and my mates grandson shot a hind just before dark. Because of lambing we were limited to hunting in the same area the next night. Back we went and sure enough, heres 2 spikers and a yearling. Attached the bipod and dialled up the scope to 380 yds. Very casual and a bit complacent because of recent results. Crosshairs on the shoulder and bang..........clean miss out to the right by a good metre or so
Im like WTF......mate looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, his grandy looked at me and rolled his eyes. Still wondering what the hell happened, I walked back to where I was shooting from, and set up again.
Through the scope I could see where the deer was standing clearly enough, although the bottom of the scope picture was slightly blurry........shifted my head from the scope to look at the muzzle and sure enough, it was pointing through the tussock. The bloody bullet had skimmed the top of the ground. Talk about a self initiated arse-kicking. What a rookie mistake, just to casual and to complacent about the whole thing. Still pissed off as Im typing this but, thats hunting for ya. Its a great leveller

Hard case, hunting keeps you honest. Sometimes I feel like I do all the right things (wind, time of day, out of sight, quiet stalk) and don't end up with an animal, other times I do all the wrong things and one just pops out asking to be shot. All part of the fun!

Haha so Im not the only one thats done that :)

thats why its called hunting not harvesting Bos...... and one thing forsure,you did GREAT job of educating the young fella about bullet strike in forground.....silver lining and all that.

Yea, f....ed I know Mick. Think I had embarrassment written all over my forehead. But you're right, I did point out that there was a lesson in all of that. It was about the only pretty cool thing I could think of to say.

Had one similar few years ago in urewera had a shot at a red stag around the left side of a tree at 30yds missed then saw scar on the tree shot that first. I am right handed. :P

I knew a dude that shot the end of a concrete water trough with a .270. Was using one end as a rest, and the line of the bore was just low enough for the bullet to hit the other. Reckoned he shat himself good and proper when he was showered with water and concrete!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bos

Just wondering how often this happens, like as happened to me recently
So Labour weekend we decided on a road trip and ended up staying with some farming friends in sth canterbury., Their property backs on to a small river where Fallow deer are often seen wandering out onto the crop paddocks. So a road trip isn't a road trip without the trusty .222 in the back seat right!!.
Waited till about 7pm ish and off me and mother go for a look. About half an hour later, finally found 3 Fallow out in the middle of the creekbed having a nibble. Ranged the nearest one at 180 yds, settled the crosshairs on the side of the head and bang
- flop. Excellent I thought, and even mother was impressed. Good shot I thought again to myself.

Attachment 236555

So now fast forward to last weekend. Spent all weekend out at our hut, and spent a bit of that time shooting paper at various ranges. 222 was shooting real good, and the 6.5 06 was grouping real tight at 200 yds
Out we went and my mates grandson shot a hind just before dark. Because of lambing we were limited to hunting in the same area the next night. Back we went and sure enough, heres 2 spikers and a yearling. Attached the bipod and dialled up the scope to 380 yds. Very casual and a bit complacent because of recent results. Crosshairs on the shoulder and bang..........clean miss out to the right by a good metre or so
Im like WTF......mate looked at me and shrugged his shoulders, his grandy looked at me and rolled his eyes. Still wondering what the hell happened, I walked back to where I was shooting from, and set up again.
Through the scope I could see where the deer was standing clearly enough, although the bottom of the scope picture was slightly blurry........shifted my head from the scope to look at the muzzle and sure enough, it was pointing through the tussock. The bloody bullet had skimmed the top of the ground. Talk about a self initiated arse-kicking. What a rookie mistake, just to casual and to complacent about the whole thing. Still pissed off as Im typing this but, thats hunting for ya. Its a great leveller

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unless I am mistaken a Vixen with a leupold on nice classic proper

Got my arse kicked by staff saergant hitting a piece of pine they set up shooting form a wilindowsill ,pine looked like the std sill but they added 3 inches . Not in scope view but full in bullet path at 0 m
Cost me a 4 bottles of rum
Cheap for the knowledge was about equivalent to 4 nz$ today 30 years ago

Hunting in Urewera few years ago.
7 day trip
First day I surprise myself and sneak onto a stag feeding in creek only 4m away with his head behind a bush and hadn’t seen me. Too close for scope so slowly put rifle up, point it at his chest and let rip.
Bullet went who knows where and he just put his head up and looked at me, then trotted across creek and stood there watching as I proceeded to jam my rifle and had to get knife out and flick the empty case out.
Soon as I reloaded he suddenly woke up and boosted up creek.
I just had to sit there and wonder how I was going to explain this to my mates back home.
Dog saved the day when he came down the creek and bumped into the stag coming the other way.
Epic bail up ensued and I didn’t stuff up the 2nd shot!

It happens!!

Out shooting bunnies alone in mate's truck. Saw bunny out the front passenger window side, wound it down some, lean over and line up little 15" barrel 22 on bunny and pulled trigger. Bang! Smash! glass everywhere - blew the window out. Buggered if I know what happened to rabbit..

Years later boy sitting behind me while I drive calls out "there's one in front dad". Says "STOP - and pull your arms in" .. Bang, smash - more glass bits and side mirror's got a hole in it!! How common is that..

Another story - not mine - guy gets out of truck to lean rifle forestock on bonnet for centrefire shot. Boom... and barrel flash across bonnet paintwork.. :) Gotta watch that scope-to-barrel gap up close..

Shooting a possum one time - high up in tree. Boom with shottie, got him, I look down smiling - and whack - the possum hits me by the head as he falls straight down out of tree. Solid little buggers..

Last one - out pighunting with old man and we're following a big boar on a dense bush hilltop. Dogs keep bailing, he keeps breaking, then we notice he's circling towards us. He breaks again and now he's 30 meters away crashing straight at us. Old man grabs me (7 years old) and pushes me up a rotten tree, boar comes crashing past... exactly as the tree crashes down!!! Boar misses me by a hair's breadth and helluva scrap breaks out 4-5 meters away as dogs get to him and bail again. This time old man gets there.. BOOM from the old jungle carbine. Quite some time before this little fella keen to go pighunting with dad again.... :( :)