The ones that got away
It happens to even the best of us. We asked 10 prominent Canadian hunters to share the story of their most memorable missed shot—and what they learned from it
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If there are more agonizing words uttered while hunting than “I missed,” I surely don’t know what they are. That there’s a stigma associated with missing an animal can’t be denied, and too many hunters assume a burden of shame when it happens.
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To some extent, I get it. As a rule, hunters are very careful about the shots they take. They are equipped with rifles, scopes and bullets of the highest quality, and want every shot to result in a clean kill. When they miss, they’re embarrassed, and they beat themselves up trying to explain to their hunting partners how and why their bullet went astray. It shouldn’t be that way.
If you hunt long enough, the fact is you’re going to occasionally miss. Everybody misses at some point, typically more than once. And there’s no reason to be embarrassed or ashamed when it happens. Just be sure to learn from the experience and put those teachings to work on future hunts. To demonstrate that even the best of us miss on occasion, I reached out to some of Canada’s most accomplished and highly regarded hunters, and asked them to share their most memorable tales of the ones that got away…