Check your line of sight!!!

Devon County Shooter

Well-Known Member
This morning I fired a very stable shot from quad sticks at a range of about 80 yards and missed a fallow Doe completely. Alarms bells stated to ring as I didn't get that standard audible thump as the round slammed into flesh and bone. After a quick check around of the local area to see if the beast was clipped, we back tracked along the line of sight and there was a clear strike mark on a branch no bigger than your forearm! The branch was around 50 yards down range and I didn't even see it in the morning gloom!

So lesson learnt - Although you can check most of the distance to the target you may not see all obstacles on the bullet arc. This was a first for me, lets hope it doesn't happen again.

Regards

Carl.
 
Did similar when taking a shot at a young buck, the 50g 224 bullet struck a nettle stalk and blew up. Couldn't understand it until I got down on the hands and knees and found the broken stalk in front of where the buck was standing. . It doesn't take much.
 
Have done it twice, once a hazel branch with a lovely hole in it, and the rubber foot of a 18 inch bi pod, folded it away and forgot to retract the legs :doh:
 
I think we all must have done this.
lesson learnt(for about the next 20 years that is)
then shot a rock five yards in front of me.
 
Once shot my wing mirror with an air rifle, leaning out the side doing this.
a long time ago mind.....young and stupid!
 
Had one exactly like the second pic above, on John Archers ground, found pins but no blood, searched for most of the rest of the day to make sure it was clean away.
 
I've done variations of this once or twice...

Most memorable was shooting over (or, as it turned out, through) late summer grass.

Very still, hot day in August. Failed to take into account the fact that the barrel is a couple inches lower than the sight, so the bullet hissed through the pollen loaded tips of the grass. Very clear 'wake' of pollen kicked up as it passed, and the bullet quickly diverged from true and headed well clear of the roe buck. Was fascinating to clearly see what it was doing - it seemed to quite gracefully curve off to the right.
 
I did have a round that seemed to behave a little strangely when zeroing, so after checking there wasn't a problem at the rifle end I walked down range to check the target. About half way there was a load of feathers. That was one unlucky sparrow to be flying across at precisely that moment!
 
Along similar lines, I remember seeing a factual program from the US where a police sniper was shooting at a hostage taker who If I recall was outside a bank. The sniper was situated on a rooftop opposite, his rifle was on a bipod on a makeshift rest a few feet from a low wall he was firing over, looking through the scope he had a clear shot at the hostage taker. He took several shoots and failed to connect.

It turned out that his shots were striking the wall in front of him, even though his scope gave him a clear picture of the target. His barrel was pointing at the wall but his scope was looking over the top of it.
 
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2 clients with "clean misses" last year

Just to be clear, each shot was followed up properly hence the photos. Whenever the result is not what is expected I make a point of marking the shooting point and checking the ground thoroughly. Particularly the second photo which was at a muntjac 40 yards away and the shooter swore blind his shot was true. I was watching the deer and there was no sign of a strike, just a startled munty! Even so we spent ages checking the ground, finding the tree strike, the slot marks and most importantly no signs of a strike or blood.
 
i remeber leaning over a dry stone wall to tke a shot with my old 10/22 i let the shot off and imediatly a huge plume of white chalky dust and bits of stone were flying every where as i had managed to hit a loose stone ontop of the wall only inches from the muzzel
 
Along similar lines, I remember seeing a factual program from the US where a police sniper was shooting at a hostage taker who If I recall was outside a bank. The sniper was situated on a rooftop opposite, his rifle was on a bipod on a makeshift rest a few feet from a low wall he was firing over, looking through the scope he had a clear shot at the hostage taker. He took several shoots and failed to connect.

It turned out that his shots were striking the wall in front of him, even though his scope gave him a clear picture of the target. His barrel was pointing at the wall but his scope was looking over the top of it.




I have done this shooting rabbits through a gate, only to find the 22 bullet hit the gate and cover me with lead splatter.
 
I have done this shooting rabbits through a gate, only to find the 22 bullet hit the gate and cover me with lead splatter.

I was out one night foxing with a pal. From his Land Rover we were lamping down a farm track (I was the driver) when we spotted a fox. I squeaked it in whilst stopped in a gateway (gate shut, one of those tubular galvenised jobbbies) my pal had his 22/250 across my front resting on the door. Fox stood lookin' at us just thru' the gate only a yard or so away.........what a racket that round made when it hit the top frame of the gate square-on!! That was 20 odd years ago and we still smile when we drive past that gate with the hole in it!! At the time it startled both us and the fox, which was last seen goin' helter skelter towards Southport!
 
I think everyone who has stalked has done this at least once.

My most memorable event was 2 years ago stalking a wooded hillside, and there 3/4 of the way up the bank was a doe working through the cover at about 70 yds. I quickly mounted my rifle on the quad sticks and tracked what I could see of her passing through brush. I kept tracking till she came to a clearing and momentarily stopped. Usual quick check of surroundings backstop, all O.k, saw a rotten branch 1/2 way up so nudged my position, all clear, took the chest shot, to see a puff of white debris flare up from the branch and in the confusion I neither heard or saw the strike. She was gone, Oh darn, I thought, lights fading fast, what to do, must wait a bit so if hit she hopefully will pass quickly. Slowly made my way through the thick intervening bramble etc, so no visual at all. When I got to the strike area, nothing, so I searched using the thermal as now dark, and there she was 15 yds on in thick cover.

The icing on the cake was somehow I had such a deflection, it was a clean well placed neck shot just below the skull, never figured how she ran at all.

I was extremely lucky to get away with that and still recount it every time I sight an animal!
 
A couple of years ago I was hunting with a couple of mates and one of them shot a sambar calf on the run after the bullet had nicked a small tree. The 180 gr hydrostats don't seem to be easily put off by a little bit of wood.
Grant.View attachment 664354 082.jpg
 
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