Brush Shot Fail!

Ok, so took my third shot this season. I had a buck come at me from the other side of the draw on the absolute edge of my field of view 100 yards away. He was moving at a brisk pace and I get my rifle ready, but figured he'd turn and go away from me. Sucker comes up my side of the hill straight at me and has no clue I am there. Moderate 4 ft high brush surrounding my ground blind with great lanes looking across and down the draw up to 150 yards, but nah he is going to sneak up me by flanking me. I'm sitting right on his trail apparently.

I awkwardly move my rifle around to shoot toward the right while maintaining concealment behind a grove of trees. He gets within in 25 yards before he sees me and freezes. I can see his head above the brush and fire one where the boiler room should be. Takes off, no blood, no hair, I follow his path out down the draw 300 yards, but nothing. He gone.

I go back to try to figure it out and there's a dead stump about 4 ft tall just behind the brush where I aimed and just short enough I couldn't see over the brush. Start googling this and searching on YouTube, apparently, a brush shot ain't really no shot at all. Another lesson learned the hard way.

I shot an actual stump on semi-purpose once.

It was just past dawn and a group of does come run infront of me about 50yds away when flint lock hunting.
I shouldered the rifle and aimed at the one in middle. Fired the shot and when the smoke cleared, my doe was still standing strong.

Turns out they stopped right next to an old stump and the one thing I aimed at just happened to be that stump. I felt pretty dang dumb.

Tunnel vision happens for sure. I don't why but the adrenaline dumps seem to be bigger now than when I first started. A little success and I think I'm Fred Bear. I needed that humility and hope that buck realizes how lucky he is. Would have been my first buck.

I got taught not to shoot anything unless I could clearly see what I was shooting at.If you can’t see POI then you don’t have a shot and he wins.

If you shoot into brush, anything could happen. If you hit what youre aiming at, you were lucky, thats it, lucky

Yall are exactly right. A humbling lesson.

Sometimes you take the shot they give you

Sounds like a good story and lesson learned. Those are plentiful in the woods and part of what makes hunting so challenging (and addictive!). That’s also why it’s called hunting and not killing. When you finally get that buck it’ll be that much more rewarding. Keep after them, Tex!

Hard to believe but true story.

I shot at a buck at 10-12 ft and the second shot barely made a flesh wound. He was standing looking at me as I was sitting on a log smoking a cig. I put it out, raised my Ruger No1 with a fixed 12 power scope. All I saw was blurry hair. He stood there looking dead at me so I reloaded and fired again. He ran this time with a few chunks of meat in snow. 4 bullet fragmented holes in the snow. I was pretty tore up so I went a got a friend that happens to be a biologist. I needed help since there was very little blood and he ran up and over the ridge and never missed a beat.

Pretty sure he didn’t believe my story until he saw the scene. In between me and the buck was a twig about the size of a pencil. Two little nicks where the partition bullets hit it and blew up best we could tell. Kinda crazy but I got rid of that 12X scope the next week. Figured the 257 Wthby was pushing those partitions so fast at that close proximity caused the bullets to just blow up basically.

I killed a doe with an arrow once. Was headed towards the boiler room and took a quick detour and hit her behind the ear. She didn’t even twitch, just buckled.

Never liked shooting the brush but it happens

If you don’t have a clear shot, don’t take it. Pretty simple.

What N2TRKYS said.

Wear your orange. I’m sure more people shot at movement. (Not really a clear shot) Be careful out there.

That is one thing on my worst day I'd never do. On the bright side, I has head to waist in Orange as it was a new area and I think about that. Buck didn't notice anything until I raised my rifle 20 yards away and he was still trying to figure it out when I shot.

I used to serve court papers and got to where I'd where a bullet proof vest with "Process Server" on the front and back. I can't stop ya from shooting me, but I sure can make sure my corpse leaves little doubt you didn't know. I apply the same logic with my hunter orange.

A true brush shot is I heard a deer over in that brush and I shot over there. He at least saw a deer just tried to thread a needle.

Nope. If not a "good" shot just chalk it up to hunting and hope for better luck next time. You always have control of your trigger and the choice to fire or not.

This every time, was how I was taught. Be positive or let'em walk.

This needs to be moved to the “How bad are WMA gun hunt days” thread. 😁

Premature round ejection———its happened to the best of us……

Well, his handle is “shootemuptex” 😂

I don't mind the criticism, certainly isn't a shot I'd take today. However, if anyone wants to post the pictures for educational purposes I think it could be of some value. In my defense, I'll say the "brush" amounted to a singular or two 4ft tall bush with no leaves that I could see pretty well on the edge of draw I'd been watching for over 4 hours not 10 yards from my blind. Behind the shot was a draw that came back up providing a backstop for my shot. Again, I could see through and clearly over the bush 120 yards behind the buck and had been observing as that is the direction he came from. So I was positive I presented no danger to another hunter.

I strongly disapprove of shooting into thick brush on movement not knowing what is in the brush, what's behind it, etc... That is not what we are talking about here. Still a brush shot and a bad shot now in hindsight only taken because I didn't realize a singular twig could deflect a 270 win bullet. It seems to still be a matter of dispute according to Youtube. I've been convinced it just isn't a shot worth taking in the future.

Anyone that wants to post the pictures, text me at 214-450-2910. I'd be happy to send them so you can post.

Live and learn brother. That’s what life is all about. Learning from mistakes is always a positive thing in life.

I’ve killed 2 trees in the past trying to thread the needle. It happens if you hunt thick stuff on a regular basis.

Have to admit I have tried a few brush shots before in the past, but usually nothing good comes from the try....I have learned to let them walk and hope to get another shot another day.......

Never saw this tree was about a 130 class right behind it I was sick. This was a few years ago.

“Taking the shot they give you” is probably why we have so many posts on the Tracking Dog thread. I would love to kill a really nice buck but unless he gives me the right shot he wins that round. I am lucky enough to be able to hunt as much as I can stand and on a place where there is very little pressure in surrounding area so they have a pretty good chance of not getting shot by the neighbors, so it is probably a lot easier for me to let one walk than most and even then it’s hard.In the last two years I have been in this exact same situation with bucks substantially larger than my best. And one really tempted me. I was hunting an open hardwood flat surrounded by thick brush when I caught a flicker of white about 150 yards out at the edge of thick. Get the binocs up and see nothing but lots of rack and a head.That joker stood there perfectly still for over 20 minutes just slowly moving its head scanning that open area. He was barely in a patch of mostly sage and I had a pretty good idea of his body orientation but never sure enough.He finally decided better of coming into the open and turned around and left through the thick. That’s why he had that rack

I once shot at a stump with a 9mm handgun, turned out it was a fatwood stump, hard as rock, and flat on the side facing me. Bullet bounced off and flew past my head. That would have been a stupid way to lose an eye or die.

25 yards you can pick an eyeball or earhole.

I always wait until there is lane that appears to be free of any obstacle before taking a shot. There are some calibers that are considered to be better "brush guns" than others.

My dumbass cousin almost caught a .30-06 when we were about 16. Were hunting 2 different stands and he decided to sneak up on me one morning. He was wearing a brown Stetson that looked exactly like doe ears in the bush he was in.
I was 90% sure it was a deer but decided to wait until I was 100. Thank God.

No orange?

Nope, not ever......Well, i take that back. If im hunting in the woods, i generally wear a toboggan i have thats orange on the inside. That way if greenjeans comes slipping up, i can turn it inside out and be legal. Ive also used it to mark where thedeer is laying several times. But other than that, im just not a fan of orange, seems counterintuitive

You willingly walk around the woods in Alabama during rifle season without Orange on?

I dont hunt the same woods you do. Theres nobody else out there where i hunt, ever. I have never ran into anyone in 35yrs of hunting. If i hunted where other people are, i guess i would. If i was to run into another hunter out there, theyre tresspassing. Never seen greenjeans out there either. I guess anything is possible though.

Man it ain’t worth the risk to not wear orange. Throw on an orange hat walking to and from stand. If you think it bothers the deer(which I personally don’t) take it off once you are settled

That's what I do.....i just take off my orange hat once I get in stand, when I get out, I put it back on.....I trust no one at anytime and I know I am the only one hunting the woods that I hunt......

They call those sound shots, right.

As in "I didn't see any, but i did get a couple of sound shots".

Makes you want to have an AM/FM radio on blaring while walking to your stand.

If you could see his head above the brush you probably should have just throat patched him.

Yep.

At 25 yards, if all I could see was head and neck, then that's where I aim. Dont aim at something you cant see. I shot a buck in the neck at 200 yards, with a good prop, because that's all I could see.

do. not. shoot. through. brush.
sure, every now and then a hunter - myself included - manages to hit a solitary big or limb that simple couldn't be see through the scope.
but. do. not. shoot. through. brush. ever.

I appreciate the reading here. For some reason it's one topic that has kind of not gotten enough of my attention, couple that with all the talk about "brush guns" on the internet and it's easy to think it's more of SOP than a bad idea that shouldn't be attempted. I honestly figured a 270 win would just cut through a twig or two. I got some more real world feed back yesterday when I took a deer yesterday with my 270 win. First kill with a rifle (previous have been muzzle loader on clear cuts). This time I waited for a clear shot, broad side at 130 yards. I could see how a twig would "explode" and frag the bullet. I had to look in the fur the entrance hole, was about the size of pencil going in, came out the other side about the size of quarter and fragments the size of turkey shot through the wound. I hit the bottom of spine and top of the lung shredding both lungs. Dropped the deer instantly and had blood out of the mouth. Made for an easy drag.

I can definitely see the problem and why that buck didn't hit. I'm with the "exploding" bullet line of thinking as soon as it hits the first solid object, twig, branch or bone.