But you can't necessarily teach a hunter to shoot.

I've been on this forum a long time, and I've seen dozens of posts about dudes shooting at a deer, and either injuring the deer,( never ro be seen again) or my favorite: a "clean miss."

My wife's cousin cleanly missed 3 deer last year. Other family members shot a few deer " right in the brisket". And yet more of my dip$h!+ friends and family shot at deer that were never recovered. Now, almost all of those folks have more hunting experience than me. Some of them have decades more experience. I'd bet $10,000 that I wouldn't miss a shot on a whole entire fu@!€×g deer at the ranges they shoot at, though.

So I may not be the "hunter" that they are, but my shooting equipment, skills, and training will ensure that I won't miss a whole entire giant deer at the ranges they shoot at.

Also, the guys that say "if you haven't missed a deer, then you haven't been hunting long enough", are full of $#!+. There's no excuse for missing a huge deer.

And I never heard anyone say that until I started reading this forum.

Had the same box of 20 Core Lockts for about 5 years.

Don't need to practice, just always seem to be able to kill what I want.

Checked zero last year and it was fine.

I missed one but cleanly killed the mesquite sapling I didn't see.

Well ya got my attention with the 10,000 dollar wager, this might get interesting. Since your attack is on deer hunters then I guess we're talking hunting conditions and situations, am I correct? Would a person calling that bet be allowed to set up the shooting scenario?

It cuts both ways. There are those that like to shoot and there are those that don’t. That is whether they like to hunt or not. This topic runs the whole gamut. An accomplished hunter takes pride in his prowess with his weapon of choice, his woodsmanship, has a deep understanding of his quarry and its environment and population dynamics. Today I see a lot of urban gun owners who have adequately developed their skills with their weapon of choice but are piss poor hunters.

And there are those who can both shoot and hunt.

Do bows fall into this statement as well??

My old man missed a deer once. The bullet hit a cross fence and the doe ran off unscathed.

Yes Sir there are. Some of those are the fellows I hunt with.

A miss on a deer happens

Now to miss several deer in a year is one thing but to miss one every 5 or 10 is another

For example, a good friend of mine is a good shooter and hunter. He had been after a booner, which only came in at dark. He had one look at 300 and said his window was just a few seconds and about the size of a basketball. He took it and clipped a limb. At the time he was sure he could do it and I have no reason to doubt him

He rarely ever misses and is a good hunter.

If you have hunted enough, you will miss.

It’s not off sandbags and taking your time most of the time

Buck fever can sneak up on anyone. At times, shooting at game can be a lot more stressful than shooting at a target with no pressure.

exactly. i get that this place is for discussion and difference of opinions, but i just don't get why people care so much about other imperfect human beings' weaknesses especially when we have no control over it. do you get road rage too. be happy you're not THAT person!

just because i don't understand the reason for a problem doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. count your own blessings. they're there if you will look for them.

I've always found great humor in how some people believe practice is important in every sport other than shooting.

If you truly practice until you can't miss, chances are you never will.

I agree with that to a point. Shooting is simple hand to eye coordination once you learn the basics. Some have way more coordination than others and their talent is obvious. Others lack the coordination and steadiness to truly master field shooting and are thus cursed with a much lower ceiling with a like amount of practice. Unlike most sports, in hunting there are no cuts... in retrospect there is some truth to the original post.

It’s been many years since I just flat missed a deer, but I missed a few when I was a kid. Coyotes are what I have missed the most, though it was just a few. If they would just hold still for one second...

I don’t criticize a person for missing. It happens. There will be some kidding though...

Practice will mitigate a lot. If you get really good at holding steady and trigger control through practice, you will be much better under stress. You compound things if you don't practice and get all jacked up when a big buck comes out.

IMO, the act of shouldering a rifle that only gets touched once a year can easily worsen a case of buck fever, while frequent use can have the opposite effect. When you view a a firearm as being nothing more than a tool, this makes complete sense. There's usually a big difference in the comfort factor you feel when using a power tool you seldom pick up as opposed to one you use quite often.

Some might say that if you have to think about making a good shot, you're probably one of those who doesn't practice enough. Good shots should come as naturally and with as little thought as it takes for a carpenter to hit a nail with a hammer.

practice is important but you can't always mimick real life field scenarios....and you have to factor in the adrenaline factor. I practice very little nowadays but I do shoot animals all through the year and

I know guys who suck at shooting game that can shoot pretty good at the range....my 14 year old son is one of them. Put brown hair in front of him he is spraying bullets all over the place. Can't control his buck fever.


Practice is important, but like I tell the kids, the only way to get really good at killing game is to kill a lot of game.



That being said, you need to be proficient with your weapon. Being the best hunter in the world is a moot point if you can't close the deal by making a vital shot

I agree, thats the problem.

But i have to add, everyone does eventually wound and lose a game animal. Maybe not a deer though.,. But if you hunt long enough you'll wound and lose something

I mostly agree with what everyone is saying. Practice helps tremendously when it comes time to pull the trigger on a deer. I haven't missed a deer in years, EXCEPT, for two occasions. One was a shot I tried from a contorted position and the other was a running shot. And guess what, both are things I don't practice at. On the contorted shot, I really should have pulled the rifle back in the blind and opened the back door (no windows on the back of the blind) to take the shot instead of shooting from my off side while leaning out of the window. And I really need to build a moving target to practice running shots. The one I missed was the biggest 8 point I've ever seen and the shot was less than a hundred yards.

^^Agreed

You can practice with an elevated heart beat. After someone is good at shooting, all positions, and fairly quickly, bump up the difficulty by elevating the heart beat. I've seen PD Snipers at my place rep out a bunch of pushups, and jumping jacks, then get behind their rifles and shoot. Shooting matches, they've got our heart rate up and then had us shoot. Everyone misses animals at some point. I have not in a long time, because of lessons I learned from very experienced shooters, and applied those to when it is time to shoot an animal. Hunters often think they have blown 10 seocnds on an animal, when it was actually only two. Biggest thing I see people needing to do is slow down. Exhale, squeeze, follow through. I've said those words in that order ten thousand times of I've said it once.

At the hunter's rifle challenge most people never time out. They rush their shots, they miss and they had a ton of time to spare. People watching you, jitters, and not wanting to screw up makes people screw up same as a nice buck. Even worse for some people.

It goes back to don't practice until you get it right, practice until you can't get it wrong. Good shooting at ANYTHING is earned.

Shooting under stress is an individual experience. I've killed a lot of deer and don't really care that much if what I shoot is a monster buck or a doe or even If I shoot one. A lot of guys who are always dreaming of shooting the big buck of a lifetime, can have their OODA Loop completely frazzled at the sight of a trophy buck, and all shooting fundamentals go right out of the window. I see it at work when I conduct stress scenarios for applicants in my unit. I've had to go physically tap on people's shoulder, snap them out their white noise haze and tell them the scenario is over because they stopped hearing commands.

I've met a few men that say they never miss. Liars all.

or inexperienced.