i know i am not the only one whose had some arrows take a wildly unpredicted path when practicing. here's my worst scenarios:

1) not long after i first started shooting, i was practicing in my yard and had the typical beginner's habit of raising the bow up pretty high when drawing back. well, my cheapy release was having some problems and came apart on me, sending my arrow over the tree tops and disappearing from site. i hopped on the 4 wheeler and went searching for it. it ended up about 300 yards away in my neighbors yard. luckily nobody was out in the yard, or even around to see it that i know of. thank god nobody got hurt. needless to say, that habit was quickly broken, and i'll never buy a cheap realease again.

2) since honing my skills way beyond the level of the above disaster, i will sometimes practice in my basement, if it's raining or dark outside. it's about a 20 yard shot, which is great. no worries though, i'm confident in my shooting abilities. the bad part this time was my backstop. i had my usual stop, and also a piece of plywood behind it, leaning against the block wall. but i guess my arrow found a weak spot in my stop, and went clean thru it. it also pierced right thru the plywood, but i never heard it hit the wall. when i went to retrieve my arrow, i wanted to tear my hair out, because i forgot to move my leather motorcycle jacket that was hanging on the wall, behind the plywood. needless to say my muzzy practice blades left a nice little 3 way hole in the padded waist level section of my $300 jacket. i still shoot in the basement, just a little more careful with my backstops and what's behind them, which is nothing now!

ok, i've shared my most embarassing moments, let's hear yours.

6 or so years ago I was practicing with a friend of mine in his yard, I felt myself jerk when I released and the arrow completely missed the target and hit the sandstone hill behind the stop and slid along the hill going up once it cleared the hill the arrow flew and stuck in the side of a trucks bed that was driving by. I never saw that arrow again nor the truck for that matter I kept anticipating they were gonna come back and chew me out but they never came back. I felt really bad for that poor sap when he got home I know he was thinkin WTF Indian drive by or something LOL.

lmao!! thanks bud, i don't feel so bad now. i wonder if he found it himself, or someone asked him about it first. lol.

I think it was about 1985 when a new archery store opened up near where I worked. I had been wanting to buy a bow and get into bowhunting so I went over there and got the whole setup. They threw in 20 or so hours on their indoor range. Now up until this time I had never shot a compound bow. I got over on the range and had been there about 10 min. when I dont know what happened, I punched the trigger, jerked, flinched and whatever else and my arrow went into the flourescent light fixture in the ceiling about 30 ft in front of me. SPARKS, SPARKS... and then the whole place went dark. OOPS. Now thats a bad shot!

I was shooting at my 3D target at our horse farm last spring. I had a crowd of kids and they were challenging me to shoot from different locations. My oldest son said "Dad see if you can hit the deer from behind the ski boat. It was a 40 yard quartering away shot. Sure no problem. I draw and release the arrow flew over the deer's back and the arrow went into the tire on my wife's best friend horse trailer. You should have heard the laughs from the tire guys at Walmart when I took her tire and wheel in to have a new tire put on. The bad thing is they could not save my Goldtip arrow.

I've stuck a couple into the ceiling of the archery range I practice at. Once was trying out a new release, I didn't buy that one, just a tad too touchy for my tastes. Also have two tips in the light pole that sits behind my target at home. One of them about 15 feet up. Still not really sure what happened there.

Like you TMCJ, i had a defective release, except as i was drawing back it let go and i BROKE my freaking nose = blood everywhere LOL[8D]
Arrow went flying into the wild blue yonder Geez, i felt like Gomer Pyle and the 3 Stooges rolled into 1.

I've gone through my fair share of arrows. When I was first starting off I kept on shooting my backstop.....? Dont know why

2 years ago I read a book by Bernie ________?...... anyway I tried to use his back tension methods and release techniques, and all else he preached.... WELL.... I was shooting in my back yard and realized I was flinching / target panicing and should have stopped because trying to shoot differant than I was used to wiped me out - I missed the target by 6 feet !! I had a brick wall as a backstop thankfully !! Needless to say I stopped reading the book !

I haven't had a bad miss experience however I had just purchased a target which was supposed to stop my broadheads and was practising in my landlords backyard here at university. I drew my first arrow and let'er fly. The arrow went through the target and through most of the nice wood fence behind the target. I was not the most popular person.