New Contest Starting Now! This Target Haunts Me

[alexj-12]

Tell us about the one that got away, the flier that ruined your group, the zero that drifted, the shot you still see when you close your eyes.

We're also partnering with riflebarrelblanks.com for this contest, the winner will receive a free scope!

You may remember that we ran a similar contest with Rifle Barrel Blanks a couple months ago and we really appreciate everyone that participated! Unfortunately we had a few technical errors so we need to run the contest again, but if you participated last time, please PM me and I'll give you a special prize for the trouble

To enter:

• Tell us below about the one that got away
• Go to this page and enter your email

You're in! The contest runs until August 7th and then we'll announce the winner. Good luck everyone!

 

[roostercogburn98]

That effin fast freddy on the quail range

 

[BigDaddy0381]

Back when I bought my first rifle and wanted to get into loading, I received some wicked bad gun counter info. I already got the press and tools just was looking for the powder and bullets. I was very trusting at the time. Guy told me H1000 and some 115gr bullets. So I went with that and had a nice load worked out in my head. went to the range and zeroed off with some factory ammo. let the rifle cool off a little while and then tested this load., rocked the first one off, nice hole in the target.. rocked another off. DANG same hole.... so went with 2 more and made one hole. The fifth one hit high. I was kind of disappointed, so went down to get a close look. well.... I must say after seeing this I just stopped shooting and did tons more research. I needed a much faster twist barrel for the 115. The 1/12 in the old .243win just wasn't right and the bullets hit sideways.. so went back to the drawing board.


The 5 shot group.

 

[sloporsche]

Lying on a shed roof with a 243 redfield 3x9 widefield in the 80's knocking off woodchucks for a horse breeder . The spot gave me command of 3 fields and I could count on 4 or more every visit . Got a chuck in the cross hairs and i am squeezing the trigger when my scope goes black .....damn horse walked between the chuck and me....how that rifle didn't fire still gets me to-day

 

[mi650]

My 1st season deer hunting, I was 14. Opening morning, I was using my grandfather's Marlin 336 that my grandmother finally handed off to me the night before. He died when I was 3.

I watched a doe walk past about 60-70 yards away. Doe permits were pretty hard to come by back then, I didn't have one. Also, I was thinking about something an old timer had told me: does are stupid, so bucks let them walk in front in case there's hunters around.

Anyway, I let the doe walk and a minute or 2 later here came a buck following her!! 6, 8, 10 points, I wasn't sure and I'm still not. Pulled the gun up, pulled the hammer back, and buck fever hit me so bad I couldn't believe it!! I thought enough to bring the gun down and take a couple breaths. Pulled it back up and shot, probably 10' over his back!! He took off over a hill and out of sight. Then I heard 5 or 6 shots. An hour or so later, 2 guys came and asked if it was me who had shot at him. Yep, that was me, and they both missed him too.

I've had that rifle for almost 45 years now, and it took me 40 to kill a deer with it. I didn't use it all the time, had killed several with other guns and a pile with a bow/crossbow. But it was a damn nice feeling to finally kill a doe with that gun.

 

[Colt45guy]

Friendly competition at a rimfire shoot. I came THIS close to cleaning the target

25m, Bergara B14R with SK standard vel ammo, Razor 3-15 scope and a F1 can.

For reference, the diamonds are.155”

 

[StephenShivers]

Bow hunting in Colorado for Elk roughly 25 years ago. Last day of the hunt had a young bull sauntering out in an open field, the guide said to take him. Estimated the range at 40 yards, drew slowly on a broadside shot, easy release and the arrow stuck in the ground about 15 feet in front of it. Right in line with the vitals. The elk ran few yards farther away, I used my 50 yard pin top of the back, same result. I ended up flinging all 5 arrows at it in slightly increasing distances each time with the same results. Turns out an actual elk is GIANT compared to the small deer targets I'd been practicing on and with no trees or anything other than sage brush I underestimated the range by 25 yards. Actually 65 yards + first shot rather than 40. I never caught up. I did learn to do ground distance estimations after that though.

 

[deltawiskey]

Almost a perfect 5 shot group with my McMillan M40A1... last shot had to mess it up!

 

[AMG04]

Not a flyer so to speak but a comical learning experience...

As a new precision shooter I had read everything I could on load development. Ladder, OCW, Satterlee, etc. I thought I was an expert on all things load development.

When using a new to me cartridge, I like to pick a few powders for the bullet I want to shoot and load a quick 10-12 rnd pressure test. Basically a ladder test shot at 100yds to see where I hit pressure. Sometimes the combo works and all rnds are under 1.5 MOA across the spread, other times it's all over the place and clear that it's not a good combo.

Time for the humble pie...

The first time I tried the pressure ladder I was shooting a 224 Valkyrie. I shot the rounds at 100 yards and had what looked like a perfect ladder test! Thought to myself why on earth is everyone doing this at 500, 600 or 1000 yards... it works at 100...

Full of excitement and some great "nodes" in hand i started packing up my gear. When I picked up the rifle from the bench, the scope nearly fell off! Scope Mounts were completely loose. What looked like a nice ladder (confirmation bias) was actually the mount shifting and working loose!

Always check and recheck screws, mounts, etc on gear.

 

[Baron23]

Its says 400 yards but actually was 400 meters (437 yards). I thought I was going to set a record with this group, pulled the one on the right, and chickened out and stopped. lol Hey, I wanted the picture for posterity.

 

[Farmerhunter]

My brother in law bought a used bencherest rifle in 6br. He let everyone take one shot at a new 100 yard target. Three shots by three different shooters all in the same hole. Then he sits down at the bench and proceeds to pull the shot about an inch off. Funniest thing ever, got shit for quite a long time after that one.

 

[akmike47]

5th shot fliers are my specialty, and there’s been many more

 

[Buttersdad]

In 2019 I had my first chance at a monster 12 point whitetail. I had just got into custom rifles and long range shooting. Practiced shooting out to 800yds, made a dope card, practiced reading wind, etc… finally saw this monster 12 pointer pop out with a perfect 200yd shot, couldn’t have been easier. I set up & my heart is pounding and I’m breathing heavy. I pull the trigger and see an antler fly up in the air! Well, I forgot to reset my elevation turret to zero after my last 800yd practice session and ended up shooting off an antler from a smaller buck that was about 20yds behind it. I cry myself to sleep to this day thinking about that moment, I have yet to see or harvest another whitetail buck that big.

 

[Maggot]

How about one I wish I could take back.

Circa 1978 I was renting a room over a motorcycle shop and I had just bought my first brand spankin new Colt 1911 in 45 ACP. Had never handled a semi auto before. The shop was in a 100 year old solid brick building, even the inside walls were old orange Virginia Red Clay brick, 3 layers thick with an interlocking pattern. Im up in my room, loaded the pistol up, chambered a round. As I was letting the hammer down it slipped and the pistol went off shooting a hole through the wooden dresser, all my clothes, and dug into the old dried brick wall about an inch. Mike Kennedy, a Nam vet and owner of the shop yells up "Shoot yourself?" Comes up, looks at the wall, shakes his head, laughs, and goes back to work.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

A half scale turkey silhouette is 10 inches tall at the tallest point and 9 inches wide at the widest point.

This is the turkey silhouette

Shot with a handgun at 150 meters, he isn’t very large.

This is what he looks like when he is looking straight at you

Imagine this from 160 yards.

In the middle of a match, I was shooting half scale. First shot at the turkeys, silhouette down. Wife who is spotting htis and misses; “No it’s not”. Husband (me) who is shooting; “YES it IS! It’s Down!” Wife: “go on to next target, you’re on the clock.”

Two minutes expire, four or five turkeys down. (Depending on who says what.). Wife, (Brenda) says, you did not knock down the first turkey, it’s still on the rail. Husband (me) “Where? I don’t see it “(looking though the 7X handgun scope). Wife: “get up and look through the spotting scope, you turned it sideways.” Husband (me) gets up, looks through the spotting scope

Turkey, hit perfectly, turning it 90 degrees and its still on the stand. Wife 1 Husband 0.

4 down, ONE TARGET NOT Down .

I think that turkey is still laughing at me.

 

[Ronws]

I hunt on public land that is managed by the USFS. During gun season, you have to win a doe permit through the state parks and wildlife department. The season before, I had one and saw no does.

This last season I did not have one. But I went to one of my favorite creek beds and saw through the trees, a doe just about to cross over the barbed wire separating the property (it is low right there.)

I would not be able to shoot her legally. She was about 30 yards from me and got spooked and ran about another 30 yards back on to the private property.

I could not go on private property. I surmised I should wait a while. If she did cross again, she might bring a buck with her and a buck is one I could shoot if he is a spike or has 13 inches between the antlers.

No luck. I could hear her rustle now and then but she got away and stayed away.

 

[TJH1]

2011 South Africa We had been following a Cape Buffalo Bull and could never get a good shot. Every time we would get close to him in the bush he would whirl and run off. Finally he stood facing us at about 70 yards. I had been on the sticks for about 20 minuets waiting for him to turn broadside, PH did not want me to shoot him in the chest. There was a white spot in the middle of his forehead that I told my PH I could hit. He said to go ahead. I will never forget bull turning his head just as the shot broke. It wasn't a miss as I hit him in the front of the left shoulder and lung. We tracked down and finished him about 20 minuets later 250 yds away. Still see that view through the scope of his head turning every time I look at him on the wall.

 

[pangris]

The center gate at our property is named Don't Shoot because I decided to bring out a 556 with Barnes bullets as we had seen a bunch of pigs and no bucks. My buddy objected. I did it anyway. I promptly saw the best buck I've ever seen on our property 187 yards away while holding a 14.5" 556 with an old 51T mount/M42K I didn't fully trust to hold true. I didn't shoot. I should have brought anything else.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Competing at Gastonia... doing really well with my partner on the movers stage.

Line up the target... get the right lead. Perfect break. I knew I had nailed it right on.

And I did.

Except I shot my partner's target... Which had two nice holes in it. I'd picked up the wrong mover in my scope and that was all she wrote.

So much for that stage...

Situational awareness. It matters.

Sirhr

 

[Slambert008]

Worth the read.

Back when I was a Sniper team leader in the 82nd ABN DIV (best job in the world), I along with my shooter and our section leader got the chance to attend the Vermont National Guard’s Mountain Rifleman school at the Mountain Warfare school house in Camp Ethan Allen (Jericho, VT). If you’ve ever shot on the high angle range, you’ll know that it looks like a hand almost with 4 fingers to the right and a long “thumb” on range right. In the webbing of the thumb (treeline) is roughly 620 meters. Each day during the course is a new task or mission. That day, we were to scale the mountain side up the cliffs to reach the high angle range, but hadn’t been briefed our course of fire. Upon arrival, we were told to “setup” in our shooter spotter teams but not to get behind glass. Our first task was to find the hidden “sniper” or 2/3 IPSC painted camouflage in the wood line. First team to find it or individual to find it was to communicate to his partner the location of the target, then engage with a single round. The moment the single round is fired, all other shooters and spotters are to come off glass. And that team gets a chance to engage the target until it’s defeated. 1 round is all it took. (Or should have taken). We were confident, all teams were. Each team was comprised of two B4 qualified snipers and my section leader at the time being the odd man out, paired up with a W3 (Special Forces Sniper Course) qualified sniper from the guard. Skill was not lacking on that mountain side, but a single impact on this target was. I have always been particularly good with the field craft aspect of being a sniper (not too shabby at shooting either) but I was first to find the target after finding some target indicators and walked my shooter on. He took his first shot, our elevation was perfect. Miss. Wind call correction incoming as soon as I saw trace. This was years ago, so I can’t remember the exact call, but it was easily a left 3 mils. We were shooting in layered wind, from a mountain top. Sustaining 18-20mph all day and gusting at nearly 30. No wind indicators. All we could do is make follow up shots based off of impact and trace. 10 rounds fired. No impacts. Next it was my turn to shoot. Same story. Neither of us hit the target. We were stunned. We had been leading the entire group in firing events all week trying to earn our “atta boy” at the end of the 10 days. But nothing. 20 rounds fired and we were told to get off the gun and the other teams to continue where we left off. They did, one by one. And one by one, they missed. 625 meters. The target simply didn’t want to die that day. I’m beginning to thing the instructors built a 2/3 IPSC out of cardboard and it was peppered with impacts, just none that we could see. 8 men, 10rds each (80rds total) out of M110 or M110a1 rifles. No impacts. The week leading up to this, we had been getting impacts on a 950m full size IPSC consistently with 5-6 mil left or right wind calls

Soft targets not welcome. OSOK

 

[PainfromLongRange]

First time hunting, saw a deer about 10 yards from me. I was sighted in at 100 yards so I figured I’d compensate for scope over bore. I pulled the trigger and the deer looked at me and slowly walked off behind some trees. I couldn’t get another clean shot so I let her go. The look of shame and disgust from the deer was the worst part.

 

[ArmedGinger]

Target was a simple 1 mile away, human sized torso target. 6.5 Creedmoor. Had just finished hitting the 1200 yard target and my spotter (an Ex Canadian Forces Sniper) told me to try for the target at a mile. I dialed my scope and first round hit, second, third, and fourth round hits, all in the head. Everyone was watching. He told me there was $500 in it for me if I could make the fifth shot. Either I choked or the wind changed as I send the fifth shot over the left shoulder. No money in it for me and although that was the best shooting I've done in my life, I felt like I let him down for some reason.

 

[Milf Dots]

Back in the mid 90s I bought a new Rem 700BDL Custom Deluxe in 7mmRM. Local trusted shop installed & bore sighted a new 4.5-14x40 Leupold Vari-X III with basic Mil-Dot reticle- matte black from the factory. The scope itself came from a shop called "Rocky Mount" that often advertised in one of the gun "newspapers". Put on some Butler Creek flip open scope covers, swivel muffs, and padded sling. I was SET!

Bought 4 boxes of Federal Premium 150gr and 165gr BTSP. Went to the range numerous times and could never get the rifle dialed in. Turns out it was an MOA scope with Mil reticle and I didn't know it, so that was part of the issue. The other problem after a box of ammo was the barrel cleaner I was advised to use- Sweet's. Apparently the guy didn't know that's only for copper and not carbon fouling, and neither did I, so the barrel was filthy with carbon and fought every shot I made. I was new to rifles then and naive as hell.

Because I could never get that rifle to shoot, I don't consider it my first precision rifle- she put bullets all over the paper!

 

[Ghost29]

I took my first class last year and I thought I was a decent shooter. Then this happened.

 

[Shootin25]

Happens often and more than once.
Missing the second to last target on a straight skeet round, be it for a 25 straight or 200 straight.

If you’ve shot skeet long enough, you’ve had this situation. Step into station 8 Low House with 2 to go…. And … wifff…

 

[Baseballandhunting]

My entire adult life, I have wanted a wolf. While on a hunt for a brown bear (that I won in a raffle), I had a broadside shot at a wolf at 600 yards. I was able to watch the footage and watch the trail go right in front of his nose. I just flat-out read the wind wrong. I will forever see that missed shot!

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Worth the read.

Back when I was a Sniper team leader in the 82nd ABN DIV (best job in the world), I along with my shooter and our section leader got the chance to attend the Vermont National Guard’s Mountain Rifleman school at the Mountain Warfare school house in Camp Ethan Allen (Jericho, VT). If you’ve ever shot on the high angle range, you’ll know that it looks like a hand almost with 4 fingers to the right and a long “thumb” on range right. In the webbing of the thumb (treeline) is roughly 620 meters. Each day during the course is a new task or mission. That day, we were to scale the mountain side up the cliffs to reach the high angle range, but hadn’t been briefed our course of fire. Upon arrival, we were told to “setup” in our shooter spotter teams but not to get behind glass. Our first task was to find the hidden “sniper” or 2/3 IPSC painted camouflage in the wood line. First team to find it or individual to find it was to communicate to his partner the location of the target, then engage with a single round. The moment the single round is fired, all other shooters and spotters are to come off glass. And that team gets a chance to engage the target until it’s defeated. 1 round is all it took. (Or should have taken). We were confident, all teams were. Each team was comprised of two B4 qualified snipers and my section leader at the time being the odd man out, paired up with a W3 (Special Forces Sniper Course) qualified sniper from the guard. Skill was not lacking on that mountain side, but a single impact on this target was. I have always been particularly good with the field craft aspect of being a sniper (not too shabby at shooting either) but I was first to find the target after finding some target indicators and walked my shooter on. He took his first shot, our elevation was perfect. Miss. Wind call correction incoming as soon as I saw trace. This was years ago, so I can’t remember the exact call, but it was easily a left 3 mils. We were shooting in layered wind, from a mountain top. Sustaining 18-20mph all day and gusting at nearly 30. No wind indicators. All we could do is make follow up shots based off of impact and trace. 10 rounds fired. No impacts. Next it was my turn to shoot. Same story. Neither of us hit the target. We were stunned. We had been leading the entire group in firing events all week trying to earn our “atta boy” at the end of the 10 days. But nothing. 20 rounds fired and we were told to get off the gun and the other teams to continue where we left off. They did, one by one. And one by one, they missed. 625 meters. The target simply didn’t want to die that day. I’m beginning to thing the instructors built a 2/3 IPSC out of cardboard and it was peppered with impacts, just none that we could see. 8 men, 10rds each (80rds total) out of M110 or M110a1 rifles. No impacts. The week leading up to this, we had been getting impacts on a 950m full size IPSC consistently with 5-6 mil left or right wind calls

Soft targets not welcome. OSOK
View attachment 8734279View attachment 8734280View attachment 8734281View attachment 8734282

Camp Ethan Allen is about 11,000 acres. But if you measure it vertically, it's about 35,000 acres. They put on some tough courses up there, too! The Green Mountain Boys got their reputation over a lot of generations!

 

[sirhrmechanic]

In 2019 I had my first chance at a monster 12 point whitetail. I had just got into custom rifles and long range shooting. Practiced shooting out to 800yds, made a dope card, practiced reading wind, etc… finally saw this monster 12 pointer pop out with a perfect 200yd shot, couldn’t have been easier. I set up & my heart is pounding and I’m breathing heavy. I pull the trigger and see an antler fly up in the air! Well, I forgot to reset my elevation turret to zero after my last 800yd practice session and ended up shooting off an antler from a smaller buck that was about 20yds behind it. I cry myself to sleep to this day thinking about that moment, I have yet to see or harvest another whitetail buck that big.

View attachment 8734132

Buck fever is a bitch, ain’t it? First shot right on, second shot right on. Then he jumped and I fired a wild third shot… clipping a beautiful rack.

Sirhr

 

[Slambert008]

Camp Ethan Allen is about 11,000 acres. But if you measure it vertically, it's about 35,000 acres. They put on some tough courses up there, too! The Green Mountain Boys got their reputation over a lot of generations!

That place had me wanting to ETS and move to VT and join the national guard. They told me I should come instruct there. Still haven’t totally given up on the idea.

 

[WTF-2-EDC]

My buddy couldn't hit the center of the target if his life depended on it...so I helped him out and put four rounds downrange on his target proving I'm an asshole with a sense of humor.

 

[mtnbikerfred]

"Stunt doubles".... I know you've all encountered them. There are also "ghosts" and zombies sometimes.

That bird, (mine were usually quail) that you ABSOLUTELY DID NOT MISS who chucks a handful of feathers and flies away like nothing happened. I've seen pheasant drop out of the air (I swear the practice flopping) and then disappear, or just wait till our dog gets close and take off again knowing we're not going to shoot our dog. Yeah, they're professional pratfalls, mines, clowns, anything but on my table. And they know it. We hear them laughing at us.

Then there's the buck that makes you want to get your eyes checked again... We hunt in and adjacent to the woods. We hear them before we see them. I've even smelled them around, but never made contact (is your heart racing yet?). So all "tuned up", we watch for movement, and bring up our rifle and squint. And there, he is plain as day. Squeeze, BOOM! yeah, I just took a piece of deer-shaped/colored wood... Again. I have a antler-shaped branch professionally mounted... And I can hear them. Laughing this time. It's like your friends moving a mount in front of the game cameras, only worse...

Finally, that While E. Coyote that I've shot at a dozen times. It's like all the skills l, and good equipment are reduced to the odds of David and Goliath. I have, and should killed the emereffer 10x over. And I swear I've hit them. I know I have because I see them tumble and die right in front of me. Only it's usually dark, or nearly. And it's a hundred yards away. So like in the most realistic video games, he was instantly re-spawned at the last checkpoint. Laughing at me...

I do have to follow these stories up with something about firearms safety rules and ethical hunting. Because we all miss. And the worst thing would be knowing a animal suffered and dies without being harvested correctly. Every time we shoot, we search. I don't hunt late in the day, because I hate searching at night. And yeah, I know people that stayed out all night, the hunted the next day, which is also a bad idea. No laws were broken. We find more than we miss, and I teach people that the tag is attached to the bullet, not the bull. I know people that have harvested an elk that was already shot. And yes, we let the game wardens know if we can't find them. On rare occasion the first hunter has been able to claim the one that got away, and the 2nd hunter got to use their tag again. Hunting teaches us and our children about respect and honor.

We all miss sometimes. It's what we do next that matters.

 

[Baron23]

Competing at Gastonia... doing really well with my partner on the movers stage.

Line up the target... get the right lead. Perfect break. I knew I had nailed it right on.

And I did.

Except I shot my partner's target... Which had two nice holes in it. I'd picked up the wrong mover in my scope and that was all she wrote.

So much for that stage...

Situational awareness. It matters.

Sirhr

lol.

I’ve been a shotgunner for clays and bird hunting for decades but never got into rifles or deer hunting until late in life (eh, about 63 and I’m real close to 73 now).

I’m in Albany, GA quail hunting with a very old friend of mine who was a poor Volusia county redneck when I met him when 20 y.o. but who is now quite wealthy (if he starts giving you that dumb cracker routine, put you hand on your wallet lol).

My friend has 700 acre deer camp about an hour north of the quail plantation and he suggested I stop in for a couple of days on my way home and he’d show me about deer hunting.

So, we are in this elevated box blind, and there is a very mature doe with a yearling at 150 yards in a cleared shooting lane. He throws me behind his rifle and says take a neck shot on the old grey one.

I’m in the scope, I see clearly the old doe and yearling, increased the mag on the scope to get in real tight on the neck, and I’m super confident as I pull the trigger…..on the wrong doe! I’m looking at this tiny dead doe and you could have knocked me over with a feather. I zoomed in on the wrong animal!

Well, that started me down the path of spending a boat load of money on rifles, optics, reloading, clinics, etc.

My friend and I have been doing the annual quail and deer hunt ever since (with far better results)

 

[Ordsgt]

Interservice Championship Match. 1000yard 20 shot. I had 19 shots fired. X-10, 10-8, 9-1. The 20th shot I waited till all the wind flags were blowing as previous shots and squeezed the trigger and got a 7. total was 196 10X and I will always remember the 7 but not the 10s