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.