I watched my wife miss a hog of a 6X6 WT
We had been hunting all day and were on our way into our afternoon spot. The morning was uneventful except for a slip on the ice my wife took. After her fall I looked at her rifle and I could not see any marks where it hit the ground and she was adamant she it didn't let it touch the ground....
We were on the path in and the buck jumped out paused and ran into some immature pines. We both looked at each other and instant adrenalin. We quickly went to the edge of the tree line and I grunted twice and he was right back out on the path not 30 yards broadside.
I had already filled my tag and it was all on her, she raised her rifle and it felt like forever but she shot....BOOM... and the buck was back in the brush. I though for sure we were about to walk up on the biggest WT I have seen while hunting.
We waited a bit and went to look for blood...there was nothing, I could see his tracks clearly in the snow and not a drop. It was 30 yards and she was a ringer with her rifle. We went back out to the path and I grunted again. Couple more grunts over 10 mins and he was again out on the path only this time close to 150 yards out and facing away. He stayed there for another 15 sec and poof gone. I checked his tracks again and no sign of blood.
Took her rifle out the next day and I couldn't hit paper at 25 yards. Couldn't get the scope to rezero at all. Ended up ditching the cheapo scope and bought her a Leupold. Learned a hard lesson that day.