2 yrs ago I was in the stand waiting with my .45 CVA Elkhorn. I had used this gun the yr before and taken 3 deer with it. Had a Redfield 3-9 x 40 scope on it and was cloverleafing shots out to 75 yards only days before. Using same combo as always 90 grains (by volume) pyro and a 250 grain shockwave using 777 209's.

So I am in the stand sitting and had a six pointer walk out at 25 yards perfect broadside. I lined up the crosshairs right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger.. "clunk" the 209 failed to fire... The buck looked up and was wondering what he heard. After about 20 seconds he lowered his head again. My hunting pack with my extra shots and caps was sitting next to me and knew there was no way to get another with the buck only 25 yards away. I eased my hand up and lifted the bolt and reset it. Buck still there feeding on acorns, placed the crosshairs there in the boiler room and squeezed again.. This time I got a "boom". The deer ran off about 30 yards and stopped and just looked around for a minute and then took off again. I reloaded and waited, got down and found the plastic, the hole in the ground from the bullet, push off marks from the buck and no blood. Looked for over an hour at the shot area nothing. Went to where he stood and nothing, walked all over and nothing.

Shot the gun the following day after cleaning it and at 25 yards I couldn't hit a pizza box size target. Got a huge piece of cardboard and found out the gun was shooting 3ft to the right and about 2ft high. Was so mad I could have wrapped the gun around a tree. The gun sat in the cabinet till this past season. I got a wild hair in the middle of the season and pulled it out. Took off the scope and put on another scope, same powder and bullet setup and dialed it in. Did manage to shoot 2 does with it this yr and both were right back into the boiler room.

Still aggrevates me to no end...