Originally Posted by rem700man

This very question has been haunting me since this past early november,,when our ML season started here in Va. I had trail cam pics of a big buck coming to our foodplot and i knew that in order for me to get a shot @ him it was going to be 200 yds,,,The area im hunting is a wide open field that the deer enter from neighboring properties. A couple years ago i built a box blind that sits on the ground and from the bench inside the blind i am rock solid. So i start practicing taking shots @ a known 200 yds. and everything is spot on! Long story short,,,the buck enters the field,,,goes straight to the foodplot and starts eating,,,he's totally relaxed and standing broadside @ 196 yds. I get the gun out the window,,,the rest is as solid as i could ever have wanted it to be,,i mean everything is just perfect! At the snap of the trigger the gun recoils straight up in the air,,and as the smoke clears i see the buck walking off straight back to where he came from,,unharmed,,,and im thinkin wtf just happened????? I knew right away that something in the recoil of the gun was WRONG,,,but i had to get to where the buck was to make sure it was a miss. I came home,,disappointed to say the least,,,and i still could'nt figure out what went wrong,,,so i got up the next morning,,went back to the field and looked again,,found nothing so i walked back to the ground blind and as i opened the window i saw something white and after closer inspection it all came to me! When i got into the blind i took my sling off the gun,,,when i put the gun out the window to take the shot at the deer i remember moving the gun a little bit farther out the window so the sling stud was on the outside of the 2x4 it was resting on and @ the shot the gun could not recoil back into my shoulder because the sling stud caught the 2x4 causing it to jump up into the air throwing the shot, The white spot that i was seeing in the window was where the stud ripped a piece of the 2x4 apart,,I immediately knew that even though i thought that i had thought of everything,,,practiced my a$$ off at the range and had perfect conditions,,,i left one small equation out and had taken an unethical shot! And missed the biggest buck of my life,,im glad i missed and didnt wound him as i seen him 2 days later 1/4 mile down the street chasin a doe. (he was even bigger that i thought)