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Amazing shots...

5K views 43 replies 38 participants last post by  tokavi 
#1 · (Edited)
In the vein of the stupidest mistake etc I decided to start a thread with a more positive note. The most amazing shots you've made (I am sure some of them could also qualify as mistakes).

I'll start:

14 years old duck hunting on the Old Los Patos (Now Trinity Wildlife Refuge) we have a group of ducks fly over about 60 yards up. My dad keeps yelling at me that they are way too high (I am hunting with a 20 Ga, 3 In. mag 4s). Being 14 and full of vinegar I take a bead on the lead duck anyhow and fire, the duck folds like a book and drops right in front of us. Later when cleaning the largest mallard I have ever shot, even to this day, we find a single pellet went through the breast.

20 years old duck hunting in Washington at the Dewatto river mouth on Hood canal we (My ex wife and I, her first hunt) were walking out to the blind and I was telling her we could be there for a while. It was a very cold morning and she was complaining already. Just as I turned to talk to her I saw three ducks come over the trees straight for us, standing right in the open. I drop the decoy bag and draw a bead, fire, one down and they are still coming right at me, so I take the second and then the thrid... hunt over. She just smirked at me and said "I am going back to the car".

At a party while stationed in Washington a Navy buddy is bragging about his new paintball gun. We're pretty drunk and he asks if I want to shoot it. Sure, why not? First he shoots a tree about 20 yards off the porch then hands me the marker and says "See how close you can get to that". I raise it, fire, and perfectly cover his mark. Knowing I could never repeat it and not wanting to embarrass myself trying I just hand him back the gun and walk away. He was too shocked for words!
 
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#2 ·
"Too high" dove

I was dove hunting in college with a bunch of buddies and were were all gathered in the field after the hunt and a lone dove flying as high as any I have ever seen comes over us. Just to get a laugh out of everyone for my sillyness, I lead the dove by about 10' and shoot almost straight up with my old Winchester Model 12, 30' barrel, full choke.

I hit it, and took about 3 steps and waited about 7 seconds for it to swirl down where I caught it...the crowd went wild! I guess I earned that after the many I missed that day at point blank range. :dance:
 
#3 ·
Fun stuff ... ok I'll play:

I've got the same story on the 60 yard duck shot ... only it was a widgeon. Same hunt club in fact. I used to hunt with Los Patos in the late 90's ... Forest and his son have taken us on some fabulous marsh and prarie duck hunts.

Also in my claim of fame was a 490 some-odd yard shot on a Blesbok in So. Africa ...

And my favorite target practice of all time ... shooting red paper wasps hunting spiders and catapillers at 15 - 20 yards in the back yard with my air gun.
 
#4 ·
I think 1989, I was 17yrs old, Goose hunting in the KATY area with two buddies. We have monster spread of rags, full bodieds. Game Wardens are seen walking over to us from a field over. High wind, Partly cloudy and clearing, a group comes in real high and starts to spook from the GW's. I took a pop shot at the lead goose and drops near the Wardens walking over. He walked up with the goose and said nice shot Tex give me your lic.
 
#5 ·
Amazing

A goose hunt outside of Eagle Lake when I am taking a leak and a snow goose is hauling with the 25 mph wind about 60+ yds overhead. I shoulder the gun, lead him a mile, and hope for the best. Even the guide admired it.

I shot a 40# javalina with a 22 pistol at over 108 steps. I quick drew on it, hit it in the shoulder, and it fell in its tracks. My buddies and I still laugh about that.
 
#6 ·
My first rifle hunt. I was 32. That morning I shot a great gobbler with a shotgun. That afternoon my buddy suggested we sit in his blind to see if any hogs showed up. My boss lent me his .270. He jokingly told me he had fired it once in the field and shot a deer, so his gun had a kill ratio of 100%. (Important statistic to him.)

Just as the sun went down my buddy pulls the bullets out of his gun. I'm about to when a group of hogs comes in at 100 yards. I put my cross hairs on the biggest one ... and pulled the trigger. Had a clean pass through on the big boar and it killed a nice size eating hog behind him. All with one shot at 100 yards.

I returned the rifle to my boss told him it was not at 150% kill rate ...
 
#7 ·
I went on a dove hunt a few years ago with friends, mainly to take Kristin on her first bird hunt. I brought my 12 gauge Remington but I wasnt hunting due to a flair up of optical nueritus (due to MS) in my right eye which basically makes me lose sight in it. We were sitting around waiting for the afternoon hunt when the ranch owner broke out some clays and the throwers and everyone started shooting, well I couldnt stand it so I went and got my Rem 1100 and there I stood holding the gun with my right hand against my left shoulder sighting with my left eye. After I got used to it I was doing pretty good at busting clays, after I quite the ranch owner came up and said "young man we could make alot of money together during dove season, cause nobody would believe what you just did":biggrin:
 
#9 ·
:)

KK - seems like fun. I'm old enough that I've been lucky many times in my life when shooting. At times pure luck came into play.

In Africa my longest shot was on a Blesbuck at about 490 yards with a 30-06. It was standing slightly angled from head on with no wind; my hold was about a foot over the tip of it's left horn. The bullet dropped in 1 1/2" above the sternum. My best shot in Africa was on a large male baboon running full speed away through scrub at about 380 yrds. It's still a high point remembering my PH yell, "Wow, what a shot."

Two high shooting points in Texas both involved feral dogs on a large East Texas lease with severe wild dog troubles. The mandate was to drop all of them we could. Shooting a 300 H&H at just under 100 yrds., I dropped 3 from a running pack in less then 2 seconds, with the third skidding out of site just around the bend they were trying to make.

With the same H&H, I drove out of an S curve that led into a 2 mile staight road to the end of the lease. Pulling out of the curve, I saw 3 dogs trotting away down the middle of the road. I stopped the truck, jumped out and sighted over the open door. At well over a mile away, I asked myself who I was kiddin' and jumped back in the truck, flooring it to a cross road another 1/2 mile up. This time when I stopped and jumped out, one dog looked back, then they casually continued trotting down the road. After touching off, I rode the recoil, then gave a silent several beat count before the largest dog rolled. The other two stopped dead, stared at him, then hauled @@#%. I don't know how far that shot was, but it was the longest I've ever made (or attempted) on any animal. My sight in was on at 280 yrds.,and my hold was 6-7' over the top of the dog's head. The dog looked like a pit-rottie cross, about 90 lbs., and the shot went high through the left hind leg, split the abdomen, and broke the right front leg above the knee

___________________________________

Some lucky wing shots, but the one I won't forget is when I guided a friend out on the Katy prarie. I always wanted a greenhead for the wall, but everything from a 50 yrd. plummet head first into black gunbo mud (a small patch in an otherwise dry field), to a great retriever suddenly deciding he had to eat one wing of that duck seemed to conspire against me having a suitable mount.

We'd dropped our specks, a couple teal, and 8-9 snows when two drakes and a hen mallard came in. I gave my friend first shot, and he missed once coming in, then twice going away. I was viewing it as a salute when I shot, but at almost 70 yards, the last drake gently rolled over and dropped about 3' into the 5-6" water. After picking him up, I found that one one pellet hit him high in the back of the skull (didn't exit). :mpd: He looks great on the den wall.
 
#10 ·
When I was in high school, I would help a neighbor on the weekends for some extra cash. He was a framing contractor for some home builders out off hwy 6 near Bear creek. This was many years ago when Deerfield Village was little more than a prairie. It was a cold, cold foggy morning and we were nailing down the plywood roof decking with nailguns. To speed things up I had the guard wired back so that the nailgun would shoot anytime the trigger was pulled. We were taking a break, sitting there and we heard whistling wings right over our heads. About 30ft. above us, some snows had just spotted us and were flaring away. I picked up the nailgun and fired about 5 in their direction and 1 fell stone dead on the roof about 20ft away, with an 8penny nail in his neck. My neighbor just shook his head in disbelief. Me too.
 
#13 ·
When I was in high school, I would help a neighbor on the weekends for some extra cash. He was a framing contractor for some home builders out off hwy 6 near Bear creek. This was many years ago when Deerfield Village was little more than a prairie. It was a cold, cold foggy morning and we were nailing down the plywood roof decking with nailguns. To speed things up I had the guard wired back so that the nailgun would shoot anytime the trigger was pulled. We were taking a break, sitting there and we heard whistling wings right over our heads. About 30ft. above us, some snows had just spotted us and were flaring away. I picked up the nailgun and fired about 5 in their direction and 1 fell stone dead on the roof about 20ft away, with an 8penny nail in his neck. My neighbor just shook his head in disbelief. Me too.
Thats cheating............lol....I guess you nailed her

I had a doe runing from us that we spooked on the way to the truck.....I picked up my .270 and just figured WTH and pulled down on her at about 125yrds....running full out...she came to a fence and never slowed down with a majestic hurtle over the fence, tail up in full display...I fired and she piled up in a big heap....upon examination of we found out it was a perfect shot placement at the back of the skull......totally luck but I was strutting like a banie rooster for a week

lol
 
#11 ·
Shots

Bluebird day goose hunting back in the 70's with Larry Goddard in Winnie. Slow day, lone goose at about 60 yds incoming. My buddy says "no way" when I raise my shotgun, just wanting to fire a shot. Put he bead about 4' in front of him, roll him up one shot. My buddy had to roll out of the way to keep from getting smashed with the stone dead snow.

My wife missed a deer with her model 7 Rem 7mm-08. We went to the range at the lease to make sure the gun was still on. We had it customized for her, cut the stock down, toed in the stock for a woman shooter, and put on a kick pad. When we get there, I get out and walk toward the bench. There is a 6pt and a doe standing just over a rise behind the target area. I have to stand on my tip-toes to try to shoot the doe in the neck. I fire, they both dissapear over the ridge. Not knowing if I hit her or not, I run up the ridge to see them both going flat out over 250 yds away. I swing past her nose and touch one off. She rolls head over heels. Lands in the middle of a road. When we get there, I had hit her in the back of the head, stepped it off at 297 yds. That short stock got me too, cut my nose pretty bad, had blood all over me. My wife was in the truck, she thought I had shot myself.
BB
 
#14 ·
One of the guys on the thread Need Goose Hunters that hunted with us in Garwood on Jan 9th shot a goose from at least 75yds away. He was using high brass, 3 1/2 inch T's. I have never seen a shot from that far in my life and it sounded like thunder when that goose landed.
 
#15 ·
My lucky shots.
Running javelina @ 400yds with a 250 savage The rifle was sighted at 100yds I had to aim about 8-10ft high about the same in fornt. the bullet hit the head.

A big tom in Mexico with an old 30-30 across a canyon int he sierra madre 300-500yds; don't excactly, but it was a long steep hike to get him. The rifle has a ladder rear sight which I moved 3/4 up. I put my backpack on a rock, took aimand sqeezed off. The bird flew to the ridge we were and then it turned back. While it was flying, we saw it was dropping something. When the bird landed, it did not move.

When we retrived the turkey, we saw that the bullet blew off the *** and that was being dropped while flying were his guts. We now call that 30-30 the field dresser.
 
#16 ·
Two shots...

First when I was in high school we'd go shoot Starlings out of my mom's Purple Martin house with my air gun. Me and some buddies were doing this one evening after school and a rat ran out of our barn. I just shouldered my Sheridan and drilled the rat on the run. My buddies couldn't believe it. I said, "All the time". Yeah right...

Second I had a Smith and Wesson 686 357 loaded with shot capsules for snakes while dove hunting in s. texas. I shot a dove that went into the brush, and left my o/u at my chair while going to retrieve it. On the way back my buddies all missed a group of doves. I pulled my 357 and fired one time, one dove rolled out. They couldn't believe it. I never told them it wasn't the bird I was aiming for...
 
#17 ·
My grandpa use to tell me a story about spooking two turkeys while deer hunting they flew up he shouldered the open sight 25-35 and shot one right threw the eyes while it was flying. He was feeling so lucky that he ran up to a fence line where he knew the other would cross sure enough 2 min later out it walked he got a good rest off a fence post and squeezed off a shot and missed.
He said he should have known he had used all his luck for that day.
 
#19 ·
I am a poor judge at distances on Geese when they are flying...I just know what they look like when they are in range. Anyhow a buddy and I had gone goose hunting on a blue bird day and we hadn't killed anything since everything was flying in the nose bleed section. We get back to the truck and start changing out of our rubber boots when a group of snows start coming from the back of the property. If I were to guess they had to be 85-100 yards. Normally I wouldn't even think to shoot but I had my gun laying on the front seat still loaded with some 3" T's or BBB's and I figure why not. I couldn't even pick an individual out of the group so I lead out crazy far and shot. To our surprise one of the snows folded up with a wingshot right next to the body and down she came. Dead from the impact of the ground! My buddy came walking around the side of the truck and shook my hand and said holy $hit nice shot. When I cleaned that goose the breast bones were all broken up and the breasts were all purple. I told my dad about it and he said he used to kill geese all the time at that kind of range with # 4 buck back when you could shoot lead shot.

Back before that when I was probably 16 or 17 I was sitting on a deer stand and I had a coyote step out at 225 yards. By the time i grabbed my .243 he had started running straight down the sendero away from me. I put the crosshars about 8" above his arse and squeezed. He rolled forward and started biting at the bullet hole. My buddy picked it up and said I had hit it almose right in the poop shoot. I am not sure what the range was but we were guessing it was a little over 250.
 
#20 ·
While walking back to the farmhouse in southern Michigain on my cousin's farm after hunting rabbits, a flock of crows set down in the cornfield behind a small midfield rise. We both had Ruger single sixes on our belts, mine with the 22mag cylinder loaded. We bellied up the plowed furrows to the top of the rise and there were 6 crows on the ground about 150 yards away. I rested the Ruger on a dirt clod, held a couple of feet above a crow in the center of the group, and pulled the trigger. 5 out of the six took off. We paced off 145 yards and found a neck shot crow with his head barely haning on. I never told my cousin I'd been aiming for the one to the left of the one I hit.

When I used to camp on the Nueces down around Crystal city, we often loaded the same pistols with 22 shot shells and would shoot big dragonflys, and even bats in the evenings when they would buzz our campfire.

Best rifle shot was a three-fer on hogs with a Marlin 45-70 lever action. Distance was about 65 yards and I new I could get two at once if I lined them up. I did not realize the thirdone was back there at all until we walked up on them. First one was through the neck breaking the spine, second through the top of the head and through the lungs of the third. The exit hole on the third one was fist size and it dropped right there. Never found the bullet. This was with handloads shooting 400grn home cast keith style bullets.
 
#36 ·
While walking back to the farmhouse in southern Michigain on my cousin's farm after hunting rabbits, a flock of crows set down in the cornfield behind a small midfield rise. We both had Ruger single sixes on our belts, mine with the 22mag cylinder loaded. We bellied up the plowed furrows to the top of the rise and there were 6 crows on the ground about 150 yards away. I rested the Ruger on a dirt clod, held a couple of feet above a crow in the center of the group, and pulled the trigger. 5 out of the six took off. We paced off 145 yards and found a neck shot crow with his head barely haning on. I never told my cousin I'd been aiming for the one to the left of the one I hit.

When I used to camp on the Nueces down around Crystal city, we often loaded the same pistols with 22 shot shells and would shoot big dragonflys, and even bats in the evenings when they would buzz our campfire.

Best rifle shot was a three-fer on hogs with a Marlin 45-70 lever action. Distance was about 65 yards and I new I could get two at once if I lined them up. I did not realize the thirdone was back there at all until we walked up on them. First one was through the neck breaking the spine, second through the top of the head and through the lungs of the third. The exit hole on the third one was fist size and it dropped right there. Never found the bullet. This was with handloads shooting 400grn home cast keith style bullets.
that 3-fer is incredible!
 
#21 ·
Remembered two more where I was a little too fast on the trigger...

Duck hunting in Los Patos again, our favorite little cut, my little brother and I were hunkered down on opposite sides of a big blowdown rootball. Idon't know why he didn't shoot but he called out to me "Incoming, my side", so I got my gun up and just as the duck came into view I touched off. The duck was only 8-10 feet from the muzzle and the entire front end, everything ahead of the wings, was vaporized.

Quail hunting outside of Thornton, Tx with my dad we were walking along hunting down singles after breaking up a covey and I happened to look down as I was stepping over a clump of bunchgrass and see a bird running as if in slow motion, he takes wing and I raise my 20 Ga at the same time BOOM... My dad said it looked like I blew the bird right out of the barrel, feathers everywhere.

Lastly, just home from the Navy, hadn't quail hunted in more than 6 years, we noticed a covey light behind the house so we walked out and they broke before we could get close. We walked towards the creek branch where one of the singles lit and flushed him but he flushed behind a tree and was flying through thick brush, I dropped to one knee and leaned down to shoot just as he passed through a samll opening. I couldn't see if I hit or not but I heard something fall. My dad said i was wishful thinking, but I walked in anyway. Sure enough, the bird was lying right on top of a bunch of blackberry brambles.

My best friend shot a grouse in Washington with a bow from about 40 yards, the judo point slashed it's neck clean through the spione and the bird just dropped and started flapping like a chicken with it's head chopped off.

Same friend, during elk season we decided to go into town to the bar one night. after drinking a LOT one of the locals started giving us **** about not being able to hit anything so my buddy says tell you what, pick anything and I'll take the shot, so the guy buys a pickled egg and they head out to the parking lot where my buddy proceeds to nail the egg. Still don't know how he did it when he could barely walk to begin with!
 
#22 ·
When I was a kid, 11 or 12, I shot a bird in flight with my pellet gun...no lie. My dad and sisters still tell the story.....they were my eye witness.

When I was 16 I shot my first good buck at 350 yards with a 6mm.... Total luck but it dropped in his tracks. I still use that gun today at age 32 and have yet to miss with it....
 
#23 ·
Back pasture of Brother In Laws ranch in Frio County, we were wayyyyy back in the back on a klein grass Flat over 2 miles back to the ranch house... cold cold cold, the other BIL was in from California also, there I was a running my mouth as I usually do, just rubbing it in on my Brother in Law for missing a nice buck, I was going on and on and on, you could't hit tis or that and I could tell he was getting all riled up, finally slammed the brakes on the jeep and jumped told me to get my ***** out, he then said see em, see em ou tin the field , there was about 30 Turkeys... he said take the TOM, I looked and we pointed out the one furtherest in front was a TOM , people these birds were every bit of 400 yards away, he goes IF YOU HIT IT WE WALK BACK TO THE HOUSE - IF YOU MISS YOU WALK YOUR FAT ($*^&#$((@&$*(% back by yourself.....I said sure, put down the binocs grab the 30-06 and right before I squeezed I called head shot.... well that was the single most luckiest shot I have ever made, I just new I was walking back to the house, but that bird dropped like a sack of bricks, popped his head right off, I followed them back all the way to the house, just a ruinning my mouth, they were ******, I did not sleep for the next 2 nights fearing revenge. not skill here just pure luck....
 
#24 ·
Back when I had good eyesite and could hold a gun still I was an expert marksman on the police department. Still have the badge. Anyhow was hunting in Junction cold as heck season about over. I see a turkey over 400 yards away high upon top of a bluff just standing there looking out over the bluff. I figure what the heck, give it a try. I take my time and aim my browning 270 and pull the trigger. Move my head and see the turkey fall down on a bluff below the one he was standing on. Ok, dummy now go get that dang turkey down. I had got lucky and hit him in the neck. Pure luck is all I can say. When ny son was about 12 we walked up on a pond loaded with ducks and came over the tank dam. He was to my left. We counted to three and topped the dam. bam, bam, bam, I put all three ducks down and my son missed all his shots. I would have loved to have a picture of his face when he looked over at me. I never said a word. We where dove hunting late season, my son and I setting under a tree. Here comes three, I tell him son you shot first and I will peal off back behind the tree and take what you miss. He fires 3 times and the doves just pass him. I fire 3 times and all three doves bite the ground. My son thought i was the best shot ever.
 
#25 ·
Lots of good lies here ... ! (kidding)

I forgot the best of them all ... when my ole man was pint sized ... he snuck a couple of scaup from behind a levee and took the lead bird out as it was taking flight at 30 yards with an oyster shell skipped like a rock across the water ...

Wide eyes around the campfire that night.
 
#26 ·
Me and a buddy of mine were dove hunting when we were in highschool. We were walking along the edge of an old milo field when he pulled me back and just shot his shotgun like a pistol. I was kinda freaked/****** at first, and was like what are you doing. He pointed down at a 5ft rattle snake I was about to step on. It was missing its head. The best part about the shot is that it was one handed and he didn't shoulder his gold hunter. Just stuck it out there while pulling me back and poped that snakes head off. Needless to say I owed him bigtime.
 
#27 ·
The end of the season last year I took a friend out to hunt for a spike and or hogs. I set up on the opposite side of the property just messing around in an area we dont hunt. To my suprise two bobcats came out at a little over 400 yards. I took careful aim and fired from a sitting position. The cat disappeared in the blast from the 300 win mag. and I saw one run off. I walked over after the end of the hunt with by friend calling me a liar. There sat the cat.
 
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