That’s a great story. I almost thought you were talking about me, except that I never miss. ? The true story is my partner who I will refer to as Wauteewidgewunner had been whining about his freezer being empty and he was so desperate that he was going to put down that pathetic little stick and string that he normally hunts with and actually pick up a rifle. Literally the second I sat back in my saddle I noticed a deer slipping through the Laurel and it had horns. I got my gun up but it was just too thick for a clear shot. As he started angling down the far side of the hill I quickly grabbed my grunt tube and scared him straight to widgewunner. Probably less than 10 minutes later I heard him shoot.
Seriously, that was a great day on the mountain and a fine mountain buck. We are never too old to learn, and the lesson I learned yesterday was to be familiar with your weapon. I was hunting with a fairly new rifle I purchased last year. I had changed out the trigger myself, and the new one was set a good bit lighter than what I was used to. I had shot the rifle a handful of times, but never with gloves on, and not recently. I saw the bear down the ridge at about 100 yards obscured my brush. It was feeding away from me, but towards a small opening. As I tried to find the clearing in my scope I touched off a warning round without even having the bear in the site picture. Looking back I now realize I just did not have the familiarity with this new rifle that I needed to. My old model 70 that I hunted with exclusively for 25 years fit like a glove, and I think I may have become a little complacent and did not spend enough time getting used to this new one. Anyhow, lesson learned. All I know is somebody promised me a backstrap, so I’ve got that going for me.