The front fell off middle fell out





Evidently I whacked my scope and didn't remember to verify zero.  Unfortunately that mistake cost me a monster buck yesterday at 150yds  (miss, unable to follow-up due to hemlock tree)  and it almost cost me a deer this morning, too.  Shoulder hold = belly button buster at 120yds.  It skimmed the lower edge of the ribcage and he was still walking around an hour and a half later while I was watching from my stand.  After 3 hours I decided enough was enough and went to send him off, only to have him bound headfirst into a tree, hit the ground, thrash, flip over, and end as above.


I did take the time to re-zero my scope this afternoon, it was off 9" left and 4" down at a measured 100yds.  Awful.   I guess I do need buy a membership for Andover this year!

You shoulda called the CSP to pump a few .40's into it's gut, or whatever is left of it.

Damn man, give me a call and we can go zero your fudd-guns at ando.  You unzipped that fucker good

You let it walk around like that for three hours before following it up?WTF?

That's what I was thinking.  

It wasn't my first choice, believe me.   After the first shot he crossed a stone wall onto neighboring property that is posted no hunting/trespassing and bedded down.  I could barely see his head and knowing he was gut shot I let him be in the hopes of a good bleed out.  Every so often I would see him move a few yards then bed down again, but with the tree interference, heavy brush cover, and being over the property line follow-up shots were out of the question.

Would you rather I said I emptied 4 more rounds in his general direction onto someone other persons property not knowing if I was hitting him  (or Joe Schmoe out for a walk) because of a jacked-up scope??

Or perhaps I should have gotten out of the tree stand and affixed my bayonet for a charge, then spooked him further off the property and not recovered the carcass at all??


EDIT for pic insert.  Red is my hunting area bounded by stone wall, yellow is bedding area that is part of a 1,200+ acre portion of land belonging to XYZ which borders all but the far right edge of my hunting area.  Posted "no trespassing no hunting"

Wind was right - left (North to South) so I was in a stand at the left corner of the field just inside and facing the woods.   Deer was on my hunting property and using trail at lower right corner of bedding area heading towards bed.  I shot he and continued left on the opposite side of stone wall (red and yellow) then bedded down.  Recovered at the far left stone wall (yellow) where the first angled trail crosses the yellow stone wall.

I'm glad you got the deer.

My 11 yo son gut shot one opening day. We tracked it for literally a mile and a half, bleeding nicely most of the time. Every time we got within sight of a house I went up and knocked on the door to tell the property owners what was going on. They were all very appreciative. We finally jumped it after it had bedded down and my brother got a couple of running shots at it. No more blood and no deer after an hour of circling until dark. We found the bed with blood in it so we know it was the same deer. But it had stopped bleeding after it got up- I'm guessing intestine plugged the hole.

We know it was a gut shot because there was omentum on trees but we never saw any belly contents from a torn intestine. What a sick feeling but if you hunt long enough you will lose a deer. I'm sure the yotes got it

That's Why you always verify Zero!

No need to be lazy and as a result allow an animal to suffer....

People Like you bother me... Sorry had to say it...

Shit happens, err body fucks up and makes mistakes

I think every hunter has a shitty kill here or there if they are willing to admit it or not..  The fact that the OP was open And honest about it, and not gloating, shows good-will to correct, and that he understood the mistake and will likely learn from it.    Maybe the OP needs some criticism, but outright hostility is wrong.  I'm assuming he doesn't want to see the game suffer, or sit in a deer stand for 4 hours doing nothing.   No hunter has a picture perfect record, and there are many that are certainly MUCH worse in their behavior than the OP.

My advice, get over yourself.

Andrapos.  Welcome to zero at my club. 100 yards rifle.. Maybe I get some venison out of the deal.

Maybe OP just missed or misjudged range ?

Maybe OP wasn't familiar with POA/POI changes with shooting downhill or uphill?

Maybe OP just flinched and missed, and scope zero is fine?  You ever shoot an ultralight .308 out of a Treestand?

The comment was directed at Wyatt

Still just a bit judgmental if we're all being honest!
Err body fucks up, err body makes a mistake

Totally.

First time I ever hunted with my 12 gauge over under, I flat out missed a squirrel from about 12-15 yards away- something that should sound impossible. My gun has double triggers and in haste, I not only erred on my aim (I didn't flush the bead, as I knew I was supposed to, causing the shot charge to go over the squirrel) and I managed to fire the wrong barrel. My gun is fixed choke, full over modified. Even though I knew which trigger corresponds with which barrel, just like I knew that I was supposed to flush the bead, I hurried the shot and the squirrel ran away without any injury. [Had I correctly fired the modified barrel, there is a decent chance that the shot would have been 'good.']

Firefoxammo-

I'm sure when you were eleven you one shot killed every deer you shot at, dude. You probably had racked up 20 by then. All 8 pointers at 300 yards running.
Yes, we verified the zero of the 20 gauge 870 with the vent rib and the bead sight.
My son shoots all the time and feels terrible about it. He was like a dog on the trail for a mile and a half and his young eyes found blood spots on leaves the adults walked past.
There was a good deal of learning had that day.

Get a clue.