By Justin McDaniel
.jpg "Photo by Justin McDaniel")
Mike flat-out missed the deer. He had been walking along the edge of a hayfield behind his grandmother’s farmhouse when he jumped the buck from a briar patch, at which point the deer revealed his hiding place and bolted for safety. As they often do, the buck looked back before slipping over the ridge, giving Mike a window for a safe shot. He took it, but, unless the deer suddenly died from fright, Mike had no hope of filling his tag.
Only later – after another miss – did we learn that Mike’s .30-06 was barely hitting paper at 100 yards. The gun must have been inadvertently bumped, or perhaps dropped, to knock it off line that badly. If Mike had practiced his shooting prior to the start of hunting season, he would have known that his rifle was incapable of hitting the broad side of a barn.
But Mike does not belong to a shooting club, and there’s no convenient public range where he can practice.
In other words, Mike is in the same boat as a lot of hunters.