Sick to my stomach...

[xXLojackXx]

Hunted last weekend with a buddy in a spot we call "Bearadise". My buddy got a nice medium size bear, weighed 216 gutted and hung. Next morning I went up to my favorite spot that I've scouted for the past 3 months, every weekend. Sat around from about 5:30am to 8 when the BIG cinnamon showed up on the ridge top. Pulled out the RF and ranged him at 318 yrds with about 125 yrds in elevation gain. Got a nice rest, (my .300 WM is zeroed at 300 yrds), put the crosshairs on his upper shoulder and squeezed off a round only to watch my 180gr TSX go right over his shoulder by about 2 inches. SICKENING. I have several pictures of this bear and would estimate him at 300-350 lbs. Now i can only hope he'll be back in there in a week or two. Lots of berries and stumps to eat. I have revenge in my eyes!

 

[JohnVH]

shooting up or downhill changes your POI

[h20hunter]

Clean miss is better than a mild wound and a run off bear. Keep at it and maybe you will get him. Good luck.

[Goldeneye]

Clean miss is better than a mild wound and a run off bear. Keep at it and maybe you will get him. Good luck.

Agreed, clean miss is better than wounded and lost.  Your title made me think this was a wounded and lost story.  He's still in the area.  He'll probably stay in the thick stuff more now during daylight hours.

[NWBREW]

shooting up or downhill changes your POI

Really?

[D-Rock425]

Better miss than bad hit.  You're get over a missed bear wounded ones take a lot longer.  Trust me.

[BOWHUNTER45]

When you say your gun is on at 300yrds how high is it shooting at 100 yrds ... 3 INCHES 6 INCHES or what ... I never shoot any on my rifles in at no more than 1 1/2 high at 100yrds .. NONE of them .270 300 .243 or my kids 25-06 ... when shooting up hill or down hill shooting your gun in to high makes the difference of a hit or miss shooting up hill or down hill ... those cal. I mentioned above are pretty much on at 300 yrds ...just hold upper lungs and it is night night ...But it can be the shooter too ...a little flinch or jerking the trigger is almost a guarantee miss at 300 yrds ...What I used to do is fill up a bunch of empty 1gal milk jugs with water and find a clearcut or somewhere you can get 300 yrds or longer shots and place them a various ranges ...300 and over then practice shooting that far ...when you hit one there is no doubt about it when you hit them ....Just some of my 

[jackmaster]

sounds like your breathing may have been a bit high, as long as your gun is nuts on

[D-Rock425]

If it was that much up hill the true distance was much less then 300 yrd.

[shedkid]

had that happen to me but was a chocolate colored with blond back, it really sucks. Get em next time i guess.

[Bushcraft]

Sorry about your miss, but at least it was clean.  At that angle you should have held a little low.  If you are shooting uphill or downhill, you need to hold low.  I don't know what kind of velocity you are getting, altitude, or the exact look angle, but it seems like you maybe ought to have held a couple inches below where you wanted to hit.

I'd encourage you to do two things:

1. Buy a decent ballistics application like Shooter and play around with the inputs like velocity, look angle, WIND, baro pressure, altitude, etc.  This will help give you a better understanding of what your trajectory and windage will be like under different conditions.

2. Practice shooting in real world conditions.  I like to go out into some steep country and shoot at small fist sized rocks that are in the middle of dirt patchs that are a little damp.  Understanding what you need to do as a shooter under varying distances and look angles (and wind) will help you become a better, more confident and ethical hunter.

Once you combine the technical knowledge and real world practice, a 300 yard shot in all but the windiest conditions is a relatively easy poke with decent equipment and you won't run nearly as great a risk of wounding an animal.

EDIT: Maybe you already know how valuable this can be, and I don't mean to come across like I'm berating you or anything, but I thought I'd throw it out there for people that might be reading this and are new to the sometimes unintuitive aspects of shooting uphill or downhill.

Regards,

Allen

[xXLojackXx]

Ya after sitting there and thinking for a bit i was glad I missed cleanly and that i didnt hit it because it was 95 degrees out i was just excited with the shot and shot high. I'm an archery hunter for everything else and defaulted my thinking to holding high when shooting up hill. Wont happen again! I also shoot long distance with my .308 benchrest rifle so squeezing off the shot felt good, just didnt think about the shot enough and went high. Hopefully next weekend I'll have a picture of the one that got away.....the first time.

[buckfvr]

Time to upgrade to an angle compensating range finder.....................

[deleted BGS]

it shouldnt have made much difference. I zero my guns the same way, 3 inches on a bear will still hit. If you hold on the shoulder at 100 with a 300 zero it will make no difference, i think it was just a miss.

[jaymark6655]

Did the math with that range and that elevation change it would be like taking a shot at 292 yards.  So if he aimed a little high, thinking about possible drop then bullet could have went right over bears back.  If he aimed at the normal kill zone, probably would of had a dead bear.

Hope you get another shot.

[Cap.Silver]

Hope you get your bear  .I feel your pain , I should shoot too more often than hold fishing reel  .You'll get him next weekend ,GUARANTEED ...... too bad I'll be out fishing for tuna ,otherwise I could help to pack 

[saylean]

Clean misses are awesome. They make for good stories....I know Ive been humbled one or twice. Better luck next time bud.

[xXLojackXx]

Did the math with that range and that elevation change it would be like taking a shot at 292 yards.  So if he aimed a little high, thinking about possible drop then bullet could have went right over bears back.  If he aimed at the normal kill zone, probably would of had a dead bear.

Hope you get another shot.

I aimed about 3 inches below his back thinking it would have dropped into his lungs. Next time I'll aim for lungs

[ribka]

Clean misses are awesome. They make for good stories....I know Ive been humbled one or twice. Better luck next time bud.

[Helix]

True balistic range was 272.718  point of impact difference was negligible unless the slope was more extreme.

Sorry my calc was for 300 yd laser range 125 yd rise. Went back and saw 318 laser range so it was just a bit longer. Bottom line is you always will aim lower than your laser range shooting either up or down hill. A squared + B squared =c squared.

[Bushcraft]

Right, but wouldn't 318 and 125 come out to be 292ish yds?  How did you get 272?

[Helix]

Right, but wouldn't 318 and 125 come out to be 292ish yds?  How did you get 272?

Used 300

[xXLojackXx]

I need to get rid of the Leica i borrowed from a buddy and snag my dads Leupold TBR range finder. I hate trying to get an educated guess on true ballistic yardage when shooting at animals..

[BULLBLASTER]

I need to get rid of the Leica i borrowed from a buddy and snag my dads Leupold TBR range finder. I hate trying to get an educated guess on true ballistic yardage when shooting at animals..

that's like going from a ferarri to a ford Taurus... if its a very steep shot at reasonable ranges I have found that cutting 10% will be very close. Cut less the closer to horizontal it is. Besides there is not that much difference in drops from 290 to 320 yards... maybe 2-3 inches Max.
it sucks that you missed but that is a good learning experience.  Keep after it and get that bear!

[jaymark6655]

Drop from 290 to 320 is 4.5 inches (assuming I guess MV right).  The difference between 300 and 290 is even less.  Aim point 3 inches from the top of the back was way too high.

[jackmaster]

probably get some butt hairs up with this one but, 300yds isnt that far, maybe your over thinkn it instead of just trusting god given shootn talent, i have killed a couple animals at 300 yrds and all i did was get a good rest and shoot them, i aint some crack shot i shoot a ruger #1 single shot 30-06 165gr, so maybe just go to the range without the range finder and just relax have fun and shoot, the biggest thing at that distance is breating and trigger squezze 

[xXLojackXx]

Thats what chaps my ass about the whole situation. I reload my own ammo and consistantly get 1/2"-3/4" groups at 200 yards from a bench (which is MUCH different from hunting), but i had a chest high stump, rested on my hunting pack and I still pulled it high haha. My problem was i didnt think enough about the shot and just assumed it would drop. I was thinking about what kind of mount I was gonna have made instead of killing the bear first. Now I've never wanted to shoot a bear more, but more importantly THAT bear.

[h20hunter]

Hate to say it Lojack but it sounds like to you simply muffed the shot. Got to thinking about that pretty rug hanging on the wall. Next time you will be more focused and have a different story to tell.

[atc250r18]

You guys got me thinking, I ranged the bear I shot last week at 288 yards.  I didn't even think about it much, I used my known BDC rectical holdover circle and let her fly (I carry a custom printout and shot out to 600 yards to verify my Nikon BDC retical is in check).  I've got a Nikon Rifle hunter 550 range finder and always leave it on the angle comp setting. 

I just calculated the actual distance guesstimating a 45 degree slope (it was pretty steep), it calculated out at 407 yards, I would have missed completely if I would have held for 400.  I'm gunna take a trip over and actually range it without the angle compensation turned on to get an idea of how much I would have been off.