I've won plenty of matches in, centerfire, rimfire, and airgun, both holding over and dialing, but we all goof up including me, sometimes at great cost. Doubtful that anybody has not made the same mistake you have. What screws me up is using a SFP scope for holdovers when most of the rest of my scopes are FFP. I'm supposed to put it on 10x where mils are correct but I shoot on 16x because I forget and think to myself, darn why I am missing, lol. Then it hits me - OH, no wonder.
I also pick the wrong holdover point sometimes in my FFP scopes, OH darn I hit a mil high,
Edit, I've dialed the wrong solution too.
A friend of a friend missed a deer at 90Y a few months ago because he was a rev high.
And I've dialed but at the same time held over the same amount, lol. Guess what, I was twice as far off, almost out of the FOV, lol.
Basically you have to think about it, if you get lazy you'll regret it. Easier said than done.
Most of us have heldover the old way with a basic, crosshair, or duplex reticle. All the reason more why there are superior reticle solutions nowadays. The further away you aim from center the more likely you would be prone to miss, and then exacerbating error the smaller the target is. Then if for example you used a FFP scope with a .2 mil hash reticle, and used any magnification "that suited the situation", you can literally "SEE" where one click is in the reticle for a holdover, heck less than a click if you really wanted to.
It's happen to me and when it does I remind myself to be more mindful, but keep forgetting.
I dial and/or use holdovers depending on how far the critters are in actual practice.
