How many " oops" shots?
 

I was watching a hunting show the other day and it was outtakes of both gun and bowhunters missing shots, falling down. One camera man even accidently dropped his camera out of a stand {probably got fired for it too}. The thing that stood out to me the most was actually a bowhunter who has been doing it for close to 30 years but for some reason when he was going to draw his bow he accidently hit the release and spooked the buck needless to say. I was curious of how many people in here have done something like that. I always like reading stories so be sure to include it behind you ' oops' shot :D

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I had a dream I did it last night.....drove me nuts.


Actually, I' ve done it once.

The deer was right at 30 yards. I have a 20, 30, and 40 yard pin. Put the thirty yard pin right on him, and bam. Hit a branch. HOW THE .....

Well, I put my bow up again and I was on, the thirty yard pin was right there, and so was the 20 yard pin...the 20 yard pin was right on that branch in front of me at (you guessed it) 20 yards.


J

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

First day last season, September 15th. The weather was about 75, but breezy and partly cloudy. I had done some super scouting and placed a few new stands. I knew this was a good funnel with a few good doe runs forming a travel hub.

About and hour before dark, I turn to my left and I see a nice doe meandering down one of the trails right for my stand. I lift my bow and notice that the quiver is bent at a 45 degree angle. The bracket that held the quiver onto the bow had cracked in two, had to let the doe walk.

Took the quiver off after I was done fuming. Thousands of practice shots last summer and everything was fine---1st day chaos.

Thirty minutes later here comes a doe and 2 fawns, entering into a perfect 15 yards broadside shot. When I had taken the quiver off, I had not re-strung my release. So I reach to put the release on, and I inadvertently stuck my mesh camo glove inbetween the string and release jaw.

I get the baby halfway pulled back and the arrow lauches off, travelling about 20 feet per second and about 10 yards out in front of my stand. The funny part was that it lodged into a small sapling, so the doe never noticed anything, she just jerked her head up and we had a stare down.

So now I' m stuck there holding my bow with my quiver laying on the stand, holding all the arrows. I manage somehow to get a shaft out of the quiver with the doe still in range.

I go to put the arrow on the string, my foot slips and I kick the quiver about 5 yards. If that wasn' t bad enough, I dropped the arrow trying to save the quiver!

Quiver bounces off a large boulder, sending the remaining arrows spewing forth like darts, while the lone arrow I dropped sinks into the muddy earth.

I don' t think those deer knew what the hell happened, but I also have never seen ' em run that fast before either!!!

Fixed the quiver and had multiple opportunities in that area the rest of the season, so now I can look back and laugh. But it took a whole season ;):D

S&R

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I " oopsed" on the first deer I ever shot at and sent the arrow over its back. Fortunately, I was redeemed fifteen minutes later when I killed my first deer that stopped to sniff the first arrow.

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I' ve spooked a couple deer when drawing my bow. In both cases it happened when my camo brushed against the bark of the tree.

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

My first " Oops" was when I was very new to shooting bows and practicing in my backyard with field tips. I took a giant tape measure and measured off 30 foot increments (10 yards at a time) across my lawn, from my metal storage shed, to my backporch stoop. The back fence and wood pile to the first step measured exactly on the dot - 30 yards.

My old PSE Edge 1000C bow has Tru-Glo 3 pin sites (the bow shop " guess-timated" they' d be 20-30-40, when they setup the bow for me). I took my target bag and decided I' d need a huge backstop, because I had no idea what I was getting myself into... I used my metal storage shed as a backstop! You guessed it... You know exactly what happend... I lifted the bow just as soon as I hit the release and sailed the XX75 #2315 arrow about 1 foot above the target bag! [:o] The arrow went right through the metal door of the shed, ripped the fletchings almost off, and went in between the spokes of my daughters bicycle, and stopped just short of the rubbermade container which holds the camping gear and tarps and stuff! My wife heard the CLANG noise as the arrow went through the shed. Man, she was hot... She was ready to kick my a** !!! [:o]

I have since gotten a lot better and practiced and practiced until I can get good groupings and put the arrow in the bullseye from 30 yards on a consistent basis.

Butch

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I was hunting on a very windy morning during the rut two years ago. A doe came by with a buck hot on her tail. I grabbed my bow off of the hook and proceeded to draw on the buck that was dirctly downwind from me. The wind had bounced my bow around and loosened the nock from the string. When I drew the arrow fell off the string and the broadhead was resting on my hand. I very carefully let the bow down and put the arrow back on the string. By this time both deer had moved off to my left and were crosswind to me at 30 yards. The wind was blowing so hard that I aimed 8 inches left of where I wanted to hit and let it go. The wind pushed that arrow 10 inches right and made a near perfect shot out of my mess. That buck didn' t make it 25 yards before he went down.

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I did it last week....[:' (] I had a decent 7 possibly 8 point walk right by me. Since he came from behind me I wasn' t prepared. I held my breath and waited while he walked by - didn' t even give me a second glance. Once he passed I stood up and got ready to shoot. Then I noticed there was a branch in the way. I decided to back up a step and as I did I accidentally let go. The arrow went right over the bucks head. He looked around and then slowly walked away like nothing happened. I found it stuck in a tree. Thank goodness it missed him. Kinda makes you feel like a dope.....[&:]

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

Don' t tell anybody but two years ago I had a chance at a doe,a doe I tell you and was drawing back and I guess I got overly excited as I was drawing and whak[X(] my finger hit the release and left a nice black mark on the side of my face from my release.A hard lesson learned there.[:o]

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I did the " OPS" with the release last year on a coyote in NY at 21 yards. I had the bow out in front and started to draw. I got maybe half way back and it went off. It was in the snow and with my heavy gloves on I had a piece of string from the cut off trigger finger get wound around the trigger. I had my finger behind the trigger but wasn' t pushing on it. The thing went off and the arrow landed half way to the coyote.

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I feel your pain bubba7, last year i had a decent 6 in my sights. i really don' t know what happened, but as i was drawing i accidently released the arrow in half draw. that isn' t what hurt me. it was the release hitting me square in my tooth. if the arrow didn' t scare off the deer, the words out of my mouth that i scream surely did. i thought it just hurt and didn' t think it was that bad until i took a deep breathe, and whoowhee, did that sting. i had broke my tooth. thankfully the doc fixed that!! i looked kinda funny for a few days. oh well.

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I had a buck come in on me straight on, waited for him to pass me for a better shot. He passed to my right and didn’t have a lane to shoot in until he was almost behind my tree when I released the shot it sounded like someone had hit the tree I was in with a baseball bat. I had followed the deer at full draw and didn’t realize that I had the bottom limb of my bow against the seat of my stand. My arrow went up in the air and must have hit a branch came down stuck the deer right in the rump. He never reacted any more than to shake his coat like he had a fly bighting him he walked off with arrow sticking out of his butt nose still to the ground found my arrow about 70 yards down the trail

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

I had one occasion last season when I was totally flustered by a nice buck at 15 yards. I was so into making the shot that I forgot to look through the peep and actually shot a good 3 feet over the deer back...not even realizing what was wrong until after the deer was out of sight. :)

RE: How many " oops" shots?
 

Strut&Rut so far has the best one of all!!! Strut I LMAO!!!!

I have had 2 OOOPS in my 4 years of bow hunting (I will leave out the oops from 40 years of gun), my first shot at a deer with a bow ever, a doe at 20 yards broadside, the second I released I realized I had missed my anchor point and sailed it right over her back!!!

#2 was the same season, a beautiful basket 8 came in from behind me, as I drew my riser hit a branch with dry leaves on it and the buck stared dead square at me, finally he went back to feeding, I took a step back figuring I would not hit the branch again, well I did hit it again and away went the buck, 15 yards broadside!!!!