next time when you begin to draw back on your deer close your eyes and go by feel,,, once you feel your anchor is solid then  open your eyes and pick the spot,,, this whole process takes a second but if you shot low at 15yds you short drew the bow or dropped your hand to see the arrow fly who knows..

as far as the miss itself, its no biggie if it was a clean miss you just laugh about it and store it in that part of your brain where you remember it forever,,,,,,, the bad misses AKA the wounds they really hurt and take more thought.

Nock another arrow, quick!!! Take what ya learn from it, and move on. Seriously, take a second shot if you can.

I treat it the same as a wound - pure luck that it wasn't.
I don't shoot at an animal again until I'm confident in understanding why I missed and have addressed it. I would never laugh or shrug it of as just part of hunting - there was a reason I missed and I want to know it.

throwing my bow out of the tree works for me....RC

QuoteOriginally posted by SteveB:
I treat it the same as a wound - pure luck that it wasn't.
I don't shoot at an animal again until I'm confident in understanding why I missed and have addressed it. I would never laugh or shrug it of as just part of hunting - there was a reason I missed and I want to know it.

okay if you want to put it that way but you will always have misses, and I'm sure you'll know exactly where you screwed it or what went wrong unless theres not enough experience or its  a mulitude of things who would really know,,,   missing is part of hunting by the way and always and forever will be. show me just one person who ever lived on this planet who has never missed using any style weapon.

I shot over the back of a perfectly broadside 8 pointer last season from the ground using my selfbow at about 12yards,, ha ha I "laughed out loud" and then wished him luck to the end of the season,,, I then shrugged it off knowing I must of got caught watching horns and went home to be back out in the same spot the next morning to shoot a doe .

Turn the page all things happen...keep your head up and brush it off!!CANT KILL EM ALL

Keep trucking, keep your head up.

QuoteOriginally posted by dragonheart:
Acceptance.

X2

I find tear drops into an adult beverage makes me feel better.

Then after that I practice..practice..practice! It happens, not a big deal. It is part of the game. Try to learn from it and move on.

Count a miss a  a blessing !!!
A lot better than a poor hit.Nobody got hurt and you learned something.
   

First everybody misses!! Don't beat yourself up over it. Heard Roger Rothar shed light on it once and it was VERY enlightening. Also, always try to learn something from it.  BILL

Simple. Bitch and moan like we all do from time to time, and then get back in the stand and hunt some more.

LMAO @ Sam!!!    

Here's how I handled my miss last week.  I missed a broadside doe at 10 yards after hitting a limb which sent the arrow over her back.  I shot a few arrows at the practice target to remind me that I can actually hit something with this thing.  Then I went back out and hunted some more.  On Friday evening I got my next chance and sent one through the heart of a doe at 20 yards.

QuoteOriginally posted by Tajue17:
 

QuoteOriginally posted by SteveB:
I treat it the same as a wound - pure luck that it wasn't.
I don't shoot at an animal again until I'm confident in understanding why I missed and have addressed it. I would never laugh or shrug it of as just part of hunting - there was a reason I missed and I want to know it.

okay if you want to put it that way but you will always have misses, and I'm sure you'll know exactly where you screwed it or what went wrong unless theres not enough experience or its  a mulitude of things who would really know,,,   missing is part of hunting by the way and always and forever will be. show me just one person who ever lived on this planet who has never missed using any style weapon.

I shot over the back of a perfectly broadside 8 pointer last season from the ground using my selfbow at about 12yards,, ha ha I "laughed out loud" and then wished him luck to the end of the season,,, I then shrugged it off knowing I must of got caught watching horns and went home to be back out in the same spot the next morning to shoot a doe . [/b]

If I laughed at a miss, I would laugh at a wound. I don't laugh at a wound, so I will never laugh at or shrug off a miss. Like I said, pure luck a miss isn't a wound - never should be taken lightly.

Don't let it shake your confidence . Shoot some single arrow shots at extremely varying distances like 10yds then 35yds then 15yds and 5yds . keep doing this until you don't think of the miss . It worked for me . Took about an hour . Don't shoot more than one arrow per distance , that will make your brain work harder to correct the shot .

if you are shooting at a level where you know you can physically hit your target, then the problem is in your mind so you have to fix it in your mind.

I lost an animal a year ago. at the time i thought it was a full penetration shot that missed everything on its way through and left not one drop of blood. on reflection i think it was a clean miss. its been bothering me for a year.

Next shot i took was a year later and under 8 yards. pass through double lung. I put in a second arrow, another pass through and got the heart. The goat was on the deck in 10 seconds, and i got my confdence back. the next shot that day was through a small tunnel of scrub, closer to 20 yards, wet feathers. I never concentrated so hard as i did on that shot and got both lungs, no follow up required, goat on the deck in 10 yards.

so my advice is go in to the woods and get yourself really close, then get another 5 yards closer, then take your shot

Once, when hog hunting I missed the same hog 3 times. All shots were within 20 yds and one was a 'gimmie'. When it came to the 4th shot I said 'screw it' and left a lonely and disappointed hog out in the woods. I guess that was 'peace with honor' as Nixon once said?
Anyway back to the drawing board-more practice and focus. This is not a new problem! LOL

Think about why...then shake it off...forget about it, and usually center punch the next deer I see.

I say a bunch of bad words and keep on hunting.