Kevin, I just went back and there was someone else that posted about missing twice this weekend. That is who is was referring to when I said ' in your other thread" .

3 years and nothing to show for it here other than 3 clean misses and a ton of great memories. Been busted a few times passed on a few opportunities. Missed 2 shots on does I made hundreds of times in 3-d and the other miss was plain old buck fever and a bit long by my range. (30 yards)

I say this as much as advice to you as it is preaching it to myself. Patience, patience, patience. I lost patience and blew the it on a great deer (buck fever miss) I watched him travel over 150 yards to within 30 of my stand, That was the closest he was going to get to me on the route was travelling. Had I came back a week later and repositioned my stand I might have him hanging on my wall. After shooting and missing I didn' t see him the rest of the year. In retrospect it was a shot I praticed and knew was the outermost shot of my ability and confidnce. But had I been patient I might have been able to harvest him. In my defense it was a clean miss and would never take a shot that I couldn' t realistically make. I did pass on many does before him within 10 yards so it isn' t a complete lack of patience. my other 2 misses were because of nerves.

While ground hunting I had one come up 10 yards in front of me then realized another had snuck in 5 yards in back of me. After seeing which one was bigger I missed because of looking at wrong pin. The ability to remain calm and patient would have given me the reward.

Patience and remain calm!!!

I got the first two I shot at. It took three shots at my third before I got him. I missed my next time and killed forth one.

Actually I hit my first deer in the foot. It jumped straight up about 3 ft in the air.
After that i probally missed 3 or so per year for the next 3 years until it finally dawned on me to be more patient and wait for the best shot. After that I averaged
killing 3 deer per season and missing 1.

First two years ended with two shots and two deer. I really thought I had it all figured out. First was a nice doe, second a little buck. Then it began the big 10 point that grunted all the way in, missed him cleanly twice at under 15 yards. We were both on the ground so I cant even use that as an excuse. Got it figured out again, bought new bow (it had to be the bows fault) shot another doe, another buck, then had a decent buck (nothing to be real excited about) walk right under the stand and bam clean miss again. It happens to everyone, practice is the key the more confidence you have in your equipment and shot placement the easier it is to remain calm and pick a hair.

Bowhunting is a different world than gun hunting.......I think I missed 2 deer before I connected. And just like Rob, it was 5 years before it happened. There was a survey once, and it concluded that the average bowhunter had to spend 5 seasons bowhunting before scoring on a deer. It was right for me........after than it gets better.

I' ve been actively bow hunting for about 10 years now. I can honestly state I cleanly missed a few deer my first few years thru my own errors. You feel pissed at first, but take those mistakes back home with you and practice, practice, practice. After making maybe 1-2 clean misses, I returned home to re-inact the hunt and tried to figure out what went wrong...making sure not to make the next mistake on my next hunt.

I then graduated clean misses and moved right up to shots that were not clean kills. But, this is yet another learning experience on how to track game and when and how to perform that tracking. I am happy to say I have only not recovered a deer once. This was disappointing, but again a good learning experience. Now, the past 5-7 years I make sure of my shot and my shot placement and have a 100% success rate.

Lesson to be learned: don' t get depressed, just learn from your mistakes and work on fixing those mistakes. Don' t also be embarrassed to consult other hunters or some pros at your local sporting shop for advice.