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It took you years of hunting?
I did it as a rookie rifle deer hunter. About 5 years ago. (FYI: I was out of college, married, not quite 30.)
Borrowed remington 141 gamemaster in .35rem to hunt. (See if I like deer hunting, like there was a chance I wouldn't). Borrowed rifle is a twin to my FIL's rifle.
Opening morning, load rifle, sit in woods, wait.
About 10:30 AM I see deer, I had an either/or permit, (called hunters choice in WI) so I slowly raise rifle up, and when the deer stopped to look around I slipped safety off, squeeze trigger and , er, nothing.
No kaboom, no click, just a confused rookie looking at a flag waving in the distance....
Now what? borrowed rifle, (which I had shot and cleaned several times) so I figure I did something wrong. Open rifle, look to see if I reassembled rifle wrong after last cleaning. Apparently not, but now a small piece has fallen into the leaves at my feet...
What I did...
I looked for the part that fell. No luck, getting panicky now. Walk over to my FIL, explain what happened. He sent me back, with his gun, said he was going to track the deer he shot at then come by my stand.
I went back, the walk calmed me down, I carefully sifted the leaves and found part. reassembled rifle. Sat with FIL rifle, suddenly see (Maybe same?) deer. Deer walks to just about same position, I lift FIL's rifle, safety off BOOM!. Deer flopped like a frog and disappeared into swamp. I get excited and jump up, and see 100 yds away (North of my Eastward shot, and behind a tree from my seated vantage) my FIL walking towards me. We wait, try the reassembled rifle, determine that I had not correctly cocked the pump (apparently the gamemaster does not like being softly worked to load the chamber, and I failed to cock the action by soft shucking) when I loaded up in the AM, and went and tracked my first deer, we also determined that my FIL's rifle was shooting at least 4" low. (He missed his deer, tracked it for at least a mile and no blood.)
So I shot BOTH front legs off my deer, just below the chest. We waited about 45 min and then tracked him into the thick brush. A shot in the neck put him down for good.
Did I learn my lesson? You bet, I learned that anything can go wrong when hunting. Sometimes you just need to be prepared. Sometimes you just have to overcome.
I forgive you, as penance remind archery hunters that anyone can lose a release, and new equipment should always be tried before season. (I bow hunt now too.)
I think anyone who has hunted has had something go wrong. (Child leaves back tag 100 miles away at home. After his Father packed it, the boy had to take it out and play with it. What now?) This is why it is hunting. Enjoy, you have a story now.
Gfrey
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