I'll give you a strange input on this but I believe half of shooting is mental. Put simply, we shoot as good as we believe we can. Years ago as a young reloader with his first high powered rifle, I had this bizarre idea driven home and I've seen it operate in my life too many times not to believe in.
Several times I've gone out hunting the big western jackrabbits in the wilds of New Mexico and the first shot or two were difficult ones...either at long range or on tricky running shots. When I made these shots, I would turn to my hunting companions and tell them, "This gun is hot today!"
Over the course of the hunt I would make difficult shots and go home convinced I really had a great load. The next day I would take some of the ammo out to the range expecting to shoot a world record group. Instead what I discovered was my rifle was shooting four inches to the left and six inches low. [
]l I shouldn't have been hitting anything.[:@]
How do you explain such crazy things? Voodoo?
Maybe. But over and over again in my life, if I believed in the gun, whatever gun, I could shoot it good. If not.........well.
My point is you may have been missing because somewhere along the line you convinced yourself that you and this rifle weren't much of a match for deer. Sure you could shoot it good off the bench, but in the back of your head you told yourself you were going to miss the deer.
Sounds silly, but I'm convinced there is something to it.