Virginia Muzzleloader Season upon us

[yoderjac]

I missed another deer last night, TWICE! I did not bother to make a video of this. The deer is standing 100 yards or so away. I had plenty of light, especially with a blanket of snow. I had about 15 minutes of legal shooting time. I put the crosshairs on the neck and squeezed the trigger. BOOM! The deer just stood there and kept feeding. It had absolutely no reaction! I reloaded the smokeless muzzleloader. The deer had not moved. It continued to feed in the same spot. It may have taken a step or two, but that was it. I really focused this time. This time, I put the crosshairs on the chest so I had even more room for error. I squeezed the trigger again. BOOM! The deer just stood there and continued feeding.
OK, something must be wrong with my SML. Maybe the shock finally broke the Eliminator 6 scope internals. I decided not to shoot a third time. I probably could have retrieved my .300 win mag, but I was so dismayed that I didn't bother. I just watched that deer continue to feed closer until the end of legal shooting time.

When I tried to remove the module from the SML, it got stuck. I just left it unloaded and called it a night. I tossed and turned all night.

This morning I got some tools and removed the stuck module. I decided that I was done with the SML for the year and got out my .300 win mag. I finally got the module out of the SML. I then noticed that my tractor battery was not plugged into the charger. I moved the shooting bench and went out and plugged in the tractor battery. On one of the posts that hold up the overhang to the barn, I had a synthetic lip for my tractor bucket hanging. It is used for snow removal from cement so you don't scratch up the cement with the bucket lip. I remembered that I was shooting over top of it at the deer. I took a close look at it:

Sure enough, while I had a clear sight picture in the scope, the scope is high enough above the barrel that I evidently did not have a clear path from the muzzle to the deer.

Now that I know, the issue was not my SML, I reloaded it and put the .300 Win Mag back in the gun cabinet!

 

[1100LT20]

What luck that you cut it twice!

 

[yoderjac]

What luck that you cut it twice!

Yep, the deer moved very little with respect to the firing path between those shots. I was lucky (or unlucky) to have cut it twice. I knew before I took the shot this could be an issue, but It seemed to me just looking at it visually that I had sufficient room. Of course when looking at it, my head was above the scope. I guess should have aligned my eye horizontally with the scope to see how close it actually was.

I would have been better off taking the gun off the shooting bags and just bracing my elbows on the table for a shot that short. I had enough room to hold the gun higher or even change the angle slightly to avoid the object.

It is funny that after many years of hunting, how we can make rookie mistakes. I remember back to my early bowhunting career when my mind was sharper than today, I had a mental checklist that I would follow before drawing and then another before arrow release. A thousand things need to go right for success and only one needs to go wrong for failure. Firearm hunting has fewer things, but my capacity to remember them has also diminished over time.

The good news is the deer was not wounded and will be there for future hunts!

...Perhaps I'll find another post to hang that implement from! It is funny that 98% of that implement hangs behind the post and only about 6" sticks out...and, of course, it is that piece that I hit.