Tell us about one of your best shots.

Goldenmeister

A few years back I was hanging at a friends house out in Canby Oregon.

I lived in Portland at the time and had just bought a "Thunder five", its that 45.70 pistol and this one had a two inch barrel, the one made it Pitney Flats.

Anyway, went out to Canby to show off the new piece and knew that it was possible that I could get some shooting in out there so I took along my 2 screw 44 mag.

So, got there, was showing off the new gun when the phone rang. My buddies brother answered and listened for a minute then hung up and in a real hurry grabbed a little single shot 22 caliber rifle and ran out the door. I grabbed the 44 mag and was right behind him.

So I thought yeah, time to get some shooting in, I didnt know what he was running after and as we ran (dead sprint) up the hill it turned out that his neighbor has cows and had been having problems with coyotes. We got to the top of the hill and as you looked out in the pasture, I'd say between 195 to 225 yards there was a yote on the run.

He raised up his 22 and I kinda laughed to myself thinking that even if all the conditions were right, good ammo, clean gun, that it was still going to be a hard hunt. I hear this little ))pink(( as he touched it off and the yote ran unaffected. I said "Now watch this" not thinking or believing I was actually going to hit it one handed with a 44 8 3/4 inch barrel at 200+/- yards but I had done some range shooting with it and realized the rainbow I had to shoot to get it there. I aimed way high, ridiculously high, with a big lead, almost a 45 degree angle up and ahead of it and BOOM. Took a long time to get there, about two seconds but I hit the damn thing in the back leg. Knocked him down but it got up and ran off. We tried tracking it but that too is a skill I still need to sharpen up on.

LOKO383

two ground hogs off a 4-wheeler with a colt delta 10mm no one would have believed it but ihad a witness too mom and pup standing in mowed area on edge of my field when we rounded the corner of the field they stood up we were 20 yards max i stopped left 4-wheeler running they never moved until i drew and fired then cartwheels insued we laughed only wishin we had a video camera we didnt eat them though kinda felt bad.........nah i didnt either[}:)]

jonk

Nothing so fantastic. None that come to mind. Probably the one I remember was with my dad's Winchester 74 in .22 short. Out plinking in for what all intents was a local swamp. Some guys had thrown some beer bottles in and they were maybe 100 yards off, floating, about 1" sticking up. I only KNEW it was a beer bottle as I had walked past it earlier, you could hardly see it...brown mucky bottle more or less floating in the water. Offhand, one shot- tink! I hit it, it blew apart and sank.

Now I have a number of guns, .22s included, capable of hitting such a target at 100 yards on the first shot... from a bench. But the gun in question, while quite accurate at 25 yards, and quite respectable at 50, shoots about a 3 foot cloud at 100. That I hit it was a surprise to both me and my dad. I guess I was 12 or so. Pure dumb luck.

rg666

I've got 2 for you. One i witnessed was pretty amazing. I was out duck hunting with several friends. One of them had brought a along a friend that he told us was an Olypmic trap shooter. I had no idea what that actually meant (skill wise) till he called his shot. A Mallard was coming in fast from left to right about 45 feet out & it was his turn to shoot. He said he would shoot the beak off the duck. The bird came in & boom! When the dog brought it to us it was as he had told us. No beak & a pefect head shot.

My best shot story was at a huge farm my father & i would hunt to kill the ground hogs for his farmer friend. We were set up on the top of a small rise over looking a fallow field. At the far end of the field i saw some movement & glassed it with my scope. Sure enough it was a big ole fat ground hog. We didnt have any fancy range finders we just eyeballed it & took our best shot in those days. I took aim & pulled the trigger. I couldnt see if I had killed it or not so we took a walk & paced out the distance. The ground hog lay there with a hole in the top of its head. The distance was about 600 yards. The 220 swift was swift that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sandwarrior

My double coyote shots. I was given permission to shoot coyotes during calving season. I had talked to the rancher about shooting them and he said he wanted me to shoot coyotes during calving season but wasn't sure how we could do it safely. I assured him it could be done. Anyhow, I set up on a hill where they had a stackyard on a foothill overlooking the calving pasture. Just before dusk the pack of coyotes came out of the woodwork. At the edge of the pasture was a grove of ditchwillows. The first one cleared that on a slow walk and I fired and hit him. He was 605 yds. About five mnutes later his buddy came out just beyond him. I nailed him too...at 620 yds. It was somewhere between zero and -5 for a high that day. So, it was if I remembered right, about -15 or so when I shot them. Using my .257 Roberts with a 4-16x50 scope.

Rifle with varmint scope
and bipod: $680.00 total
Warm coveys and Carhartt
Jackets & mitts: $170.00
Two handloaded bullets $0.40
freezing your butt off
to get two great shots Priceless!

BHAVIN

I have built a bunch or AR's and a few for myself but I decided Iwanted a 24" varmit rifle. So I built up my rifle all DPMS using a 24" stainless fluted bull barrel. I used a Jard AR15 trigger and as this was the first one that I had installed I needed to fine tune it where I could shoot it. I went out to one of my normal fields to shoot squeaks and loaded up my rifle. I saw one about 150yds out and took my shot. I did not have my trigger adjusted right as it allowed the hammer to fall twice. Full auto for two shots. I did hit the squeak and demolished it. I fooled around with the trigger a little more and set up for another shot. Two of the deceased squeaks buddies were about 2"-3" apart "visiting" their past pal and I sighted in on the left one and pulled the trigger. Once again it double tapped. I was not happy until I looked at the squeaks. Not only did I hit the one on the left but my second shot nailed the one on the right as well! I was duly impressed with myself (as there was obviously a ton of skill involved) and the rancher that was with me offered to buy my AR right there. I declined, fixed my trigger and wished I had had a movie camera.

bpost

I shot a flying duck out of a boat moving at 15 knots in Katachmek Bay Alaska in October in three foot seas using a High Standard Citation .22 cal pistol. We had the duck for dinner at the cabin that night.

mogley98

Haven't made it yet i HOPE!

Warbirds

'yote at 70+ yards with a Browning hi-power in .40, at night under moonlight. We were in the high Nevada desert. A campfire story that has been retold a number of times now, and a shot I wouldn't bet on making again.

11b6r

Hunting season had just opened. Son (age 10) and I were back up in the mountains, had come back to cabin for lunch. We decided to take Ruger 22 pistols out and pop some targets. On my first shot a grouse broke out of the brush beyond out targets- flying straight up. Reflex shot (knew I had missed) Bird dropped like a rock- thru the head. Approx 45 meters. Pure luck- but son will never believe that![:)]

fire for effect

I have had lots of great shots, lucky I guess. One I like is a 30 pound fire extinguisher at 1000 yards. What a big poof that made.

dtknowles

We were out on the Calif coast building a rocket launch pad and the Iron Workers were spending their pay at a local tavern. Got challenged to a number of games of 8 ball. After getting tired of taking their money and drinks, it was again my turn to shoot and I worked the table down to the 8 ball, the rules in play were you had to bank the eight. I called a bank shot that required the cue ball to travel the length of the table and back, lined up, and stroked the cue while looking my opponent in the eye not at the table. The look on his face when the 8 ball dropped, priceless!

I rarely shoot anything but targets so memorable shooting involves a string of good shots not a single incredible shot but the stories are interesting. I did see my brother shoot a running cottontail in cover at about 30 yards with my Ruger Blackhawk in .357 with a single shot.

Tim

Smitty500mag

I was duck hunting on the French Broad River in East Tennessee one time and had miserable luck all day. Didn't see anything that wasn't flying a mile high. When we got back to the truck several of us guys were standing around shooting the breeze and looking at each others guns before we left. I had some old antique full brass 00 shotgun shells that belonged to my Great Grandpa that I found in his attic many years before and had them with me that I was showing them to the guys. Somebody asked if I thought they'd still shoot. I said I don't know but we can find out so I took one out and shucked it into my Winchester Model 12 and about that same time there was a couple of ducks flying over like they had all day almost out of sight they were so high. So I just threw the gun up to my shoulder and fired and the next thing I knew one of those ducks folded up dead as a door nail and did took a header plumb across the river from where we were standing. I couldn't believe it! I'm glad there were witnesses or no one would have ever believed me. I'm still not sure the duck didn't just die of old age and it just happen to happen at that very moment.[:D]

Smitty

deadeye46

my longest shot was a West Virginia ground hog at 460 steps,(back before I had a rangefinder)I'd like to think I was a good shot but it took three shots from my 22-250 to get it,couldn't believe it was that far away,lol.

1911a1-fan

if i told you i would have to kill you, and there are to many reading this[:)]

muss

I watched a kid ( about 12 or 13 years old ) using a single shot 20 gauge shotgun, open sights with a lead slug hit a running buck at well over 170 yards. he squeezed the trigger and the deer fell over.

I still can not believe he did it, and I was standing there and saw him do it.

gotstolefrom

I hope LUCKY counts for BEST.
It's been 40+ years and I've not topped these shotgun kills.
I was a normal 16 year old boy, and had arranged for some time with a promising gal on friday night (Oh the late 60's for young lads). I had forgotten that I also promised to drive some friends for a short a woodcock hunt that evening (woodcock - the bird - just a coincedence). Hunts were about 30 minutes at dusk, and woodcock fly such a zig-zag a lead is a guess at zig or zag.
Well, I'm in my strutting clothes so I said I would stay at the truck on the highway to shoot at any that got by them in the fields. I hear 5 shots, 2 cusses, then a yell " TWO COMING ". My 12 ga pump hung up on my 'dress shirt', so I popped off two from the hip. Both woodcock dropped and so did my jaw. I put the gun in the truck and said I was done. I drove my pals home and gave them the birds. It was quite a bit of luck, and my buds repeated the story for years. I remember my gun, my truck, my pals, the shoot, but I can't remember the gal's name.

luv_the_huskers

My best shot was when I was doing my yearly elk hunting in Wyoming. We had been out all morning and came up dry so we were sitting on the cabin porch shooting guns at various targets. I had been pretty well cleaning up and one of the guys took an arrow and stuck it in a stump vertically out there a ways. Another fellow took a rangefinder and ranged it at 164 yards. The guys bet me that I could not shoot the arrow in half with one shot. Money was collected and I took aim. BOOM! No more arrow! I had cut a .250 diameter arrow in half with a .270! Not only cut it clean, but dead center, the remaining arrow looked like a half moon. Collected my money and bragged it up. They were in awe LOL! It was out and out pure luck!

civiliansoldier

My longest shot was in Missouri on my Father-in-laws farm. It was my last day out there and hadn't seen anything worth shooting. I had used all my tags except for one buck tag so I was hoping for a monster. It was around lunchtime and we decided to go back to the house and come back around three. I was standing by the truck unloading my gear and noticed some movement along a hedgerow on the far end of the field next to the one we had been hunting on which made the deer three fields away. My Father-in-law said we would come back to that area in the evening and try to get on that deer because there was no way I could make that shot with a .270. I told him that I could make the shot. We bickered back and forth for a few seconds and he gave in and let me take the shot. We were slightly elevated which helped, but I aimed for the neck because I wanted to maximize the chance that if I hit the deer it would be mortal and quick instead of risking a body shot and missing vitals. My Uncle spent three years as an Army Scout Sniper and he is the one who taught me to shoot. He taught me how to read the wind and figure range as well as technique. I remember everthing he taught me flashing through my mind in a blurr as I got ready to take my shot from the prone position.(I have a bipod on my hunting rifle[8D]) I took the shot and I remember having enough time to think I had missed when I saw the deer's front legs buckle through my scope and it fell right where it had stood! I remember just looking at it through my scope because I couldn't believe I had actually dropped the deer. Of course my Father-in-law was jumping around like a fool and hoot'n and holler'n! We stepped off the distance and came up with the neighborhood of 780 yards! Never had a chance to take a shot like that since. When we got to the deer I could see that I had taken out the spine. The Nosler Ballistic Silvertips I had loaded for this trip did thier job well, the other side of the deer's neck had a hole the size of a softball! Impressive expansion through such a small amount of flesh. I will never forget that trip. My Father-in-law still brags on his son-in-law to his fellow hunting buddies after all these years.

1KYDSTR

Best shot I ever pulled off? Was out bunny bumping with my best friend at about age 13 on their 400 acres in SW Michigan using his Dad's Browning 22 autoloader (really prett grade IV) and Jon had a 16 Ga. At a distance of 350 yards (walked off after the shot) there was a Dove sitting about 30 feet up an old Oak that had a dead section perfectly silhouetting him. I had about 2 miles of clear backstop with the adjoining property, and said, "hey, watch this" and took "aim" at the little black spec and pulled one off. We were both laughing as it was a luducrous attempt and we both knew it. Imagine our surprise when tha Damn thing started spiralling to earth about 3 full seconds after I shot. After saying it must have had a heat attack, we walked off the distance and found it in the leaves under the Oak, and Lo and Behold, a hole right through the lower neck! This was using open sights (Ah...the benefit of young eyes!) and CCI Stingers as I recall! With my eyes these days I wouldn't even attempt it, as I was using about 25 feet of holdover, and I'm a little more concerned about what might be behind the target, but it is the one good true shooting story I had for years!

jaytee

My best one to date happened back in '85 while I was in the Air Force and stationed at FE Warren AFB in Cheyenne. Me and a buddy were out shootin' jackrabbits along the RR right of way out in the middle of nowhere. There was just enough snow on the ground that you could see your shots when you missed. Well this jackrabbit gets up out there at about 150 yards or so and is haulin' the mail. I pull up the Rem 700 ADL and send a .222 bullet his way. First shot was a little behind, second was a little high, third shot we couldn't tell cause the bunny disappeared in a low spot. Oh well, we walk it out and sure enough, there lays the jackrabbit. We stepped it off backwards and it was right at 250 yards. Pretty much luck but having the snow on the ground sure did help! That little 222 is the best shooting gun I've ever owned!!

n4571c

Lots of memorable shots, particualr those a friend and I select for each other when out squirrelling! But, the "best" was several years ago ... after mule deer on a misty, cold, brezzy morning. Moving slowly across a wet scale slide when movement caught my eye and there was a muley buck about 50 yards directly up the slide crossing the opposite direction. I turned to get a shot, slipped and fell, just as I pulled the trigger. Instead of the heart shot I like, I hit him in the eye. Dead! Slid down past me on the scale slide to make it easier to get him out!!

DEG305

The shot that I'll always remember making was actually a miss! I was about 18 and hunting deer with a 7.7Jap rifle, equipted with standard issue jap iron sights. Showing off to two of my hunting buddies I pulled down on a grey squrrel sitting on a branch in a tree about 50yds out pulled the trigger and the squrrel ran to the trunk of the tree, down to the next branch, out on it]]] now these two guys were bustin on me for missing but just then the squrrel stood up and fell out of the tree dead!! There were no marks on it and we all decided that the 7.7 scarred it to death![:D]

bassassassin007

I'll give you two stories real quick.

The first was hunting, a 292 yard shot resting on a young sapling with a 25 mph wind. That remains the heaviest and best racked buck of my life.

The second was a police shooting simulation with a hostage negotiation. The bad guy was holding up a hostage in front of himself exposing only about a 1 inch target(his head)at 25 yards. Under normal circumstances I would never take the shot, but since I was using a simulator all bets were off. With a DAO (double action only) Smith and Wesson I ended the standoff.

Dave

Laredo Lefty

Years ago I shot a dove out of the air with a Smith & Wesson K-38 revolver.

Recently I have practiced shooting empty 12ga shells in the air with a .22 revolver. I can hit them about 70% of the time.