Bearpaw Season - Fall 2013

[quadrafire]

Some nice critters there.

I'm just curious about all the missed shots. Do you get alot of new hunters? Do you have a pre-hunt shooting session to make sure rifles/bows are sighted in?
Just seems like a lot of whiffs for as many opportunities you get them. 

[Duffer]

I'm not speaking for anyone but my own experience having hunted with Dale and the crew, but here's my experience.

There were 5 people hunting at the same time I was. Everyone of us was advised to have our rifles sighted in 2" high at 100 yards and in my case, Dale & I talked about which rifle caliber was best to hunt with as I was hunting black bear.

Every one showed up early and Dale's crew took the time for us to shoot a couple of times at 100 yards just to check. Now as it ended up one rifle in our group was way off. Dale's crew took the time to break out the tools, remounted the scope plus tightened the loosened stock! And it was sighted in then. 

A couple of these folks had driven all the way across the country with their rifles. Some of the folks in the group after mine came all the way from Europe!

I can imagine a couple of possibilities. One would be that folks arriving late may not have the time to verify sight in. Everyone is expected to be sight in before they arrive tho!

2nd and more likely is that using an outfitter is not an uncommon method for folks to start hunting. Beginners or, like myself, someone who had not hunted for 25 years and was 'restarting'. So you've got some inexperience and the added buck fever and shizz can happen.

One thing I can guarantee is that Dale is sick about it. Unsuccessful hunts create bad statistics for his business. Unfortunately it's out of his control.

again, this is all just my opinion

[RadSav]

I'm just curious about all the missed shots. Do you get alot of new hunters? Do you have a pre-hunt shooting session to make sure rifles/bows are sighted in?
Just seems like a lot of whiffs for as many opportunities you get them. 

I'm not speaking for Dale, but my hunters usually shot about 50% inside 100 yards, about 30% between 100 & 200 yards, and about 10% or less on shots over 200 yards.  I think the average guy with nerves of steel and sniper quality guns and accuracy live mainly on the internet.  In the real world they tend to be a bit more human.  Even when sight-in steps are taken before a hunt starts.  People just get excited!  Only cure for that I know of is experience.

[actionshooter]

Keeping an eye on this, I want to start seeing some cats hit the ground!

[bearpaw]

Thanks duffer and Radsav for pretty much summing up misses. They just happen sometimes regardless of how well guns are sighted in and if a gun has gotten knocked off.... well you know the story!

I can think of a recent coyote I missed, I used to be proficient on yotes out to 400-500 yards, but I missed one not long ago at only 328... 

I better do some shooting before coyote madness! 

[bearpaw]

Oh yes, I played the giraffe game... so my avatar will be different for a few days...

[JJB11B]

I killed a yote at 400 on the nose then missed one at 75 yards broadside about 20 minutes later last year....Epic failure. 

[bearpaw]

I killed a yote at 400 on the nose then missed one at 75 yards broadside about 20 minutes later last year....Epic failure. 

I know the feeling, I remember a whitetail at 30 yards that I watched run away as I waited for him to drop. Got to looking and I hit a deadfall that was right in front of the chest that I hadn't seen in my excitement of watching the 4 bucks come from 100 to about 30 yards. 

When I was a kid I shot 3 boxes of 30/30 shells at bucks before I ever hit one. Standing, laying, it didn't matter, I got buck fever so bad I couldn't hit anything for those first few years. 

[JJB11B]

I turned my first buck into swiss cheese with an 06. Didnt realize they didnt just flop over dead like in the movies. Shot that deer 4 times starting at about 5 yards and last shot finally anchored it at about 100. All four shots were kill shots. but I was runnin that ol' ruger like I was fending off the zombie apocolypse

[RadSav]

When I was a kid I shot 3 boxes of 30/30 shells at bucks before I ever hit one. Standing, laying, it didn't matter, I got buck fever so bad I couldn't hit anything for those first few years. 

I had to teach myself to shoot well because I absolutely HATE missing!  I missed my spot on the bear I killed with Dale this year by about 3.5" at 200 yards.  I could not sleep for a week trying to figure out how I could have missed my spot so badly.  Even though the shot dropped him like a sack of potatoes I still could not relax until I had a good idea of what I had done wrong.  I think Dale thought I was a complete nut case with all the PMs and emails trying to figure it out. Hit the range and found out it was the scope.  I knew the wind was blowing hard the day I sighted in, but I thought I had made appropriate adjustments for that.  Now I think I must have made the adjustments the wrong direction - Dumb Arse! I've never been so happy to have my scope off by 1.5" in my life. Even though it took a couple weeks to finish kicking myself in the buttocks.  Makes me physically sick to miss my spot.  I sometimes think that people who shoot, miss and move on are luckier than I am.  I bet they sleep just fine after a day or two.

I missed a 200 class muledeer in 1994 with my bow.  I still have nightmares about that shot at least three times a month.   I reached for my rangefinder and decided not to use it because I was worried about the extra movement.  They (two over 180 together) were looking my direction trying to figure out what made that noise.  My pin stopped at the top of his back.  I had to force the pin down to the spot like I had a tree branch stuck to the upper limb even though nothing was there.  When I finally settled and took the shot the arrow went just beneath the monsters chest.  My mind knew what the yardage was and I chose to ignore it and went with my conscious calculation.  There was absolutely no excuse for that miss and it will probably haunt me on my death bed.

[quadrafire]

Thanks for the replys guys. I know we all miss, I was just surprised to see so many documented in one season.
I'm sure there are many of the internet prowlers that just don't mention the missed, only about the one shot that was perfect that connected.

My first deer at 11 yrs old, was perfect broadside chest shot at about 30 yrds. Funny thing was I hit her in the head and not the chest. I just told everyone I was aiming for a head shot as I didn't want to ruin any meat. LOL
I missed an archery buck broadside  only to have him sniff the arrow underneath him giving me a chance for that second perfect heart shot.

[bearpaw]

First Montana Deer Hunt
Tim is one heck of a standup fellow and has been hunting with us for several years, he books the first hunt every year in Montana in hopes that the deer are unhunted and calmer so he can see them. Tim has vision issues and he only sees about 20% of the deer the rest of us see. He does his best when the deer are in an open area and against a different color background. Tim has had a tough time the last few years, a motorist hit him on his bike when cycling and he missed one year, then another year he caught Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and missed his hunt. Over the years Tim has had some shooting issues due to his eyesight problems, let's say "there's been a few misses", but Tim always manages to fill all his tags, he usually gets one buck and two doe tags as he really enjoys deer meat.

First hunt day we saw 20 bucks but no big mule deer as he preferred. We also saw some doe and Tim got his first doe with his first shot. Awesome, his 2013 hunt was off to a great start.

Second hunt day we saw 31 bucks plus about the same number of doe deer. A 4x5 mule deer that needed another year and 3 or 4 shooter whitetail bucks that we passed, but we held out for a bigger mule deer buck. We missed a couple of doe mid day so the second day wasn't as good of day.

Third day we figured we better get the second doe out of the way. It stormed all day and we only saw about 15 bucks and maybe 30 doe. We finally saw some doe that were feeding and Tim had time to find them in his scope, BOOM, he hit her in the hind leg, she ran down the canyon and jumped in the reservoir and swam across, when she reached the other side she couldn't get out so she swam back across and got in a thicket. I said "let's give her some time to settle down and then we'll go after her". We left the area for about an hour and I checked his gun to be sure it was sighted and found it to be a couple inches off so we corrected that and I offered a couple shooting tips.  "When you pull the trigger squeeze it slowly, don't jerk it, and keep your head down, try to see the bullet hit the deer and you will shoot better." So we went back to the reservoir and went to the thicket, the deer jumped in and swam across again, I kept saying "don't shoot her out there, wait for her to get to the bank". When she got to the other side Tim dropped her as she stepped out of the water, but she had a few kicks in her and ended up 20 feet out. We tied a hatchet to a nylon parachute cord and pulling her in with that. We drug her to the truck and loaded her, I was in a hurry since we had about an hour of prime time left, Tim said I field dressed her in 3 minutes. We hunted till dark but was unable to get Tim on a mule buck.

Fourth and last day. The storm broke and deer were out in force, we headed for where a good mule buck had been seen by the landowner but couldn't find that buck. Next, I headed for high ground and started glassing ground.  Right off I spotted two whitetails and one was a dandy, Tim said "let's go after him!" They were about a mile away, so we drove over near where I watched them enter a brushy draw and did a little hunt. We snuck along the draw watching in the brush but couldn't see the bucks. Next, we headed up a side draw as we walked slowly we watched closely. Suddenly I spotted a bedded mule deer buck at 250 yards, he's a good buck, mature big body, heavy high rack, but dang it, he's 20 yards on the wrong side of the fence on the neighbor's property. I hated to say it but we had to leave the buck, we backed off hoping he might cross the fence after he got up later. We decided to go back to the area again by the reservoir as we had seen bucks every time we went there. Sure enough we spotted three whitetail deer, a doe, a small 4x4, and a decent shooter 17 to 18 inch buck. Tim was on a rest with his gun as the small buck walked through an opening, I said "He's the small buck, don't shoot him!" I could see the bigger buck working toward the opening, "Get ready, the big buck is going to step out! A few minutes passed, "He just stepped out, take him!" BOOM, the big buck never budged, "Reload and shoot again, you missed!"  Tim said "I'm sure I hit him!" So I dropped the binoculars and saw the small buck get up on the other side of the opening get up and try to run out of sight. He stumbled and then tipped over backwards and was done. I hated to say it but "You're right you hit him, but you shot the small buck!" Tim made a short comment about that and then we walked over to his buck. "Well he's a young one, he'll be really good eating!" Then we had a few laughs about how the small buck had come back out and the misinterpretation, we took a few photos, I cleaned the buck and we headed for the skinning barn.

We took the deer to the processor and then we went to dinner. Tim said "I enjoyed the hunt and will be back the first week next year, lord willing."

After passing some really nice whitetails and a couple mule deer we ended up with this buck, oh well, it happens! The doe is the first doe, I didn't get pics of the second doe.

[quadrafire]

Great story 

[Killmore]

Good story, Why don't you take pictures of the nice bucks so I can start to get rutted up. Any sign of the rut starting?

[RadSav]

Unfortunately we know all too well the struggles of the guide and hunter when eyesight is an issue.  Great job to the both of you.  Sounds like a great time even with the smaller buck taken.  I personally prefer eating those whitetail anyway