What a disaster
This is a fess up I hope will help someone , as I have noticed we have a lot of young members asking questions. For a little background for those who don’t know me I am 54 and have 40 or 50 deer under my belt most in the last 10 years. In all those deer I have only had 2 or 3 bad shots that weren’t placed in the vitals. Here’s yesterdays disaster. Went to my ladder stand in a fairly thick area of the woods. I haven’t finished really good shooting lanes here, mistake 1. As you know or will find out in a ladder stand especially when sitting it is difficult to rotate to the right and shoot. A nice doe approaches from about 12 o’clock position walking at me in some pretty thick stuff 50 yards out and turns right and will hit an opening to shoot her in 10 yards or so at the 1 o’clock position. I didn’t stand up while I could preferring to use the right front corner of the rest bar to prop the BP. She blew right through the small opening in the brush and I set up on the next opening at 3 o’clock. Now I am twisted to the right gun at the shoulder with no rest point. She pauses and I take the shot. With all the gyrations I am going through I don’t remember exhaling breath. Mistake 2 I am pretty sure my next mistake 3 was aiming at the vitals without picking a precise point to aim at, kind of how you point and shoot a shotgun. I also think I pulled the trigger instead of squeezing mistake 4. As you have guessed I missed plain and simple. I watched the doe trot off tail high and circle back. She stopped out 80 yards or so ( much to thick to try another shot, I did get reloaded while watching her) next to another doe and they hung out for a bit and walked off over a rise. I got down and circled but my circle was a bit short mistake 5 and I busted them again. They looked very healthy and trotted off.. I carefully retraced their paths of travel and found no signs of a hit, So at least I feel confident I didn’t wound the lady. Live and learn