My missed black bear.....

[.338 mag.]

My wife and me took our 8 year old grandson out to camp, fish and grouse hunt. Had a bunch of fun. I spot a small black bear close to the road and my grandson is excited and I decide I will shoot it and make his trip even more memorable. I grab the peep sighted 45-70 Marlin and get to about 40 yards from the black bear and I'm pretty sure he is aware something is up. He is in the bushes on a steep incline and I have a broad side view of the top half of his body. I have to stand there and take the shot which I know I can do. The hammer drops and the front post is still where it belongs when the dread "click" happens and I have a misfire, no problem and I chamber another round and recompose my self and bang, bear disappears. I go to where he was and after an hour or so of grid searching thick brush and dark timber I find no blood, no bear, nothing. I missed what I think should of been and easy shot. My poor grandson was so excited and I explained to him that it was a good thing the bear was not wounded and lost. So back to the range to try and determine why that 400 grain Kodiak bullet did not find it's mark. I really hope my sights are off!

[Steven_JR]

Too bad on this miss, but good job explaining to your grandson about how it's good the bear wasn't wounded and lost.

I missed the one and only bear I've ever shot at about eight years ago back in Pennsylvania at under 50 yards. I still shake my head when I think about that one. Cause of my miss....a screw backed itself out of the trigger assembly causing a hang fire of sorts.

[limon32]

Sorry to hear it, I missed a nice coyote this spring that still haunts me!


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[dvarmit]

My wife and me took our 8 year old grandson out to camp, fish and grouse hunt. Had a bunch of fun. I spot a small black bear close to the road and my grandson is excited and I decide I will shoot it and make his trip even more memorable. I grab the peep sighted 45-70 Marlin and get to about 40 yards from the black bear and I'm pretty sure he is aware something is up. He is in the bushes on a steep incline and I have a broad side view of the top half of his body. I have to stand there and take the shot which I know I can do. The hammer drops and the front post is still where it belongs when the dread "click" happens and I have a misfire, no problem and I chamber another round and recompose my self and bang, bear disappears. I go to where he was and after an hour or so of grid searching thick brush and dark timber I find no blood, no bear, nothing. I missed what I think should of been and easy shot. My poor grandson was so excited and I explained to him that it was a good thing the bear was not wounded and lost. So back to the range to try and determine why that 400 grain Kodiak bullet did not find it's mark. I really hope my sights are off!

Don't feel bad.. I had that ol' "click" last spring on a big blackie down on Prince of Wales.. My issue was I didn't have a round in the chamber! :topjob:Needless to say, he didn't give me the chance to actually chamber one. They called me Click for the rest of the trip.

[MarineHawk]

.338 mag:

I'm sorry you didn't connect, especially since your grandson was there. I hope you still had a good time camping, fishing, and grouse hunting. Please don't feel bad, as I'm sure you are a hero for taking your grandson out and teaching him all the things you are doing and giving him that type of awesome attention. You are doing something great for him.

As to the shot, note that it's possible that the bear simply dove after some little critter as you shot. My back-of-the-envelope math says that a an animal at 50yds who drops his body at a mere 10mph could move more than 10 inches before your .400 gr bullet reached the animal. It's possible that he did something (dove after a mouse) when you pulled the trigger, and no one can do anything about that. Not a bad idea, as you said, to double-check your rifle's sights, but you may have had just a bad bit of luck.

But you are, and should be, a hero to your grandson, for doing what you're doing with him. Congrats on being an awesome grandfather.

[Amigo Will]

I have missed a blackbear at about 35 yards with perfect broad side shot useing my 44mag. This was about twenty five years ago and I learned I had one heck of a flinch with my super hot loads when not shooting from a bench.Have not used a bench sence.

[HFT_AK]

That happened to me 2 years ago. Three days till the end of the season finally had a blackie come into my bait. Got the cross hairs on him and squeezed the trigger...................."click". Misfire. Fortunately for me it was to busy chowing down and I was able to chamber another round and put him in the freezer.