Two that come to mind occurred within the last few years and both involve whitetail does, the only difference being one time I was all by myself and the other time I had several witnesses. In each case I was walking a cattail slough when I flushed a doe only to have it run dead, straight away from me. I can remember thinking, "Crap, no shot here" only to realize that a headshot wouldn't ruin any meat. One shot each time and no meat wrecked. The first time I did it I thought I got pretty lucky and would never be able to pull off such a shot again but a few years later I learned that lightning can strike twice.

A similar thing took place on a coyote while hunting with my cousin. We surprised the pup while walking into a location we were going to call and both of us proceeded to snap off a shot just as the coyote was disappearing into a tree filled drainage. A followup showed a bit of blood so the tracking began. That bugger took us through a good half mile long heavy, snowfilled draw before the tracks turned uphill and out of the trees. Just as we exited the trees I saw the coyote about 180 yards away making quick work of trying to disappear over a hilltop. I threw up my gun, tracked it for a split second, and pulled the trigger. I told my cousin before we ever started up the hill that I might have missed but that I was shooting for his head. He was the first one to the critter and was laughing when I got there as I had hit it just as I said.

Lord knows I have missed plenty of shots but as I always say, when it comes to hunting "It is better to be lucky then good," and so far my luck has been holding out. Or at least it usually does.