Q:

Just missed a shot and am not happy

So, I was shooting some squirrels today and wasn’t paying much attention to the light drawing in, and about 3.00 I went to take a headshot on a Squirrel that was just sitting there and promptly missed. Now, I’m frustrated that I missed, but I’m trying to figure out why. The shot was at about 20 Yards and I can group ragged holes at that distance all day long, so it wasn’t a tough shot or anything. The two things that were different were that it was overcast, and everything through the scope looked hazy brown and no matter how I adjusted the scope I couldn’t get a sharp sight picture. The other thing was that I’m sure that I saw the pellet in flight, which I’ve never seen before. I’m guessing that these two things are related? Oh, the pellet is a JSB Exact at circa 950fps.

So any idea what went on? The squirrel was dead on at my sighted in range, and whilst I’m hardly Golgo 13 I’m not that bad of a shot either! The only thing that I can think of was the light as I’ve never shot when everything is getting dark, but how does that correlate to the miss and “seeing” the pellet in flight?

Optics/Nightvision

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Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

was it cold out ?

my talons sometime do soft shotss when it gets cold, its the orings that stiffen up and takes hold on the barrel.

It was probably a flier from low/high weight
or unbalanced projectile weight.

CW

Thanks guys, that makes me feel better. I think that it was a combination of things, now that I have had 20 hours to think it over. The squirrel was against a brownish tree and in shadow, he was bobbing up and down whilst collecting nuts, it was getting dark, and I think that Bodi is right in that I yanked the trigger as he wouldn’t sit still and I was trying to time the shot to match his movements. As for seeing the pellet in flight, I think that it’s down to the lighting conditions of the sun being low in the sky and me shooting at a downward angle.

Thank you everyone. 🙂

EDIT: I just looked at my scope more carefully and it seems that it was twisted slightly to the left, which would explain why I saw the pellet corkscrewing somewhat.

When that happens to me its sbecause i’ve grown cocky and rushed the shot. Didn’t follow proper protocal and treat it like the shot meant super or going hungry. You know shooting as well as anyone here, maybe you canted a bit, grip the fig to hard??? It happens, the odd thing is seeeing the pellet because it means you were still on target and hadn’t moved, which is my mistake when i miss. I’ve read on other forums, under certain lighting conditions seeing the pellet in the scope is common, sounds like the right conditions, cool. Could have been a bad pellet as well.

Sounds like you should have bought a Rapid instead…. 😆

Dont feel bad dude, missing is what makes it interesting. You probably spent more time investigating what may have gone wrong because you missed.

If you had made the shot, you might not even be thinking about what went right at all.

Its possible you just had a bum pellet. At least thats what I like to think when I miss. 😉

As far as viewing the pellet in flight goes, I actually saw bullets in flight from my .22-250 @ 200 yards one day. The sun was high and to the right, and for about 10 shots I could see every round as a little black dot. I had a vid camera on a tripod behind me, and it captured the same effect on 2 of the shots.

Teflon; There are two types of riflemen. Those that never miss…we call these folks liars. And those that every now and again blow a shot and admit it. Good on ya for admitting that ‘something’ went wrong.

As far as the lighting it sounds like the worst conditions for actually seeing a bullet or pellet in flight next to total darkness. Then again, the pellet may have been unusually slow for your rifle. That happens sometimes too.

Or it might have been a magic, mutant squirrel with the ability to live forever and deflect pellets. Llama tells me that these things exist. The answer is in there somewhere! AKULA

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