Luckiest shot?

[Fabnosh]

Three Rock Dassies with one shot.

Three sitting in close proximity on a ledge that backed into a 'v' shape.

Targeted one on the edge and the .308 clearly went straight through and must have shattered the rock that then splattered the other two. Three dead Dassies tumbled out.

Of course it was perfectly planned that way.........

FN

 

[Philip Glass]

Two shots come to mind. One was a crow out of the air here at the ranch with my Winchester lever .22.
The other was more dramatic. My first Safari in 1997 was in South Africa and Barry Burchell was my PH. We were hunting mountain reedbuck in the hills. We located some across a valley on the next hill and I got set up best I could sitting down to take a shot when they came out of the brush. They bolted to the right but the buck was not with them. He bolted left and I had to take a running shot. He rolled at the shot but got up and kept going. This was about 300 yards away. He second shot was a miss. He was about to round the hill and go out of sight when my third shot rang out and down he went. I figured the first shot was a gut shot so I was not too excited. When the tracker brought the buck to the vehicle he was head shot! Wow a head shot. Wait a minute where was the other shot I said? The first shot went under his right horn from the back and out his eyeball. The second shot was square in the back of the head!
Two head shots on a little running goat at 300 yards. I’ll never top that and Barry has never forgotten that day either. I’ll be hunting with him and his family again this year.
Regards,
Philip

 

[Rare Breed]

With latest thread, of unusal occurances during your hunts, it came to me to ask and share with you, your best shot ever?
So, what is your best shot ever?
A best shot you ever made with your rifle? Never to be repeated?

So, mine is as follows. I have to wind the clock back, to early eighties, more then 30 years ago.

Lets remember the day, the day of November.

I was teenager, and shooting on occasion with my granpas rifle, 22lr, on my free days, or just before the school..
My house was on the seacoast and from balcony I can watch the sea horizon, some 15 miles distant to next island.

The day was cloudy, and no wind at all.
Just overcast sky.
The sea was calm.
The calm, clody day of early november.

I had my granpas 22, with me. And few cartridges in a pocket to spend.

The distance.
At sea just infront of the house, my old neighbour placed and anchored a fishing buoy, of stirofoam, many months earlier.
He used it to make fast, and tie up with his boat there, sometimes when he went fishing.
Not too often. Sometimes.
But the buoy, it was there. All the time.
And I knew the distance, from my balcony!

So, when he was not using it for fishing, I was using it for target practise, on a calm day.
If I set up the sights to 170 meters, the 22 bullet would drop to surface closer from the buoy.
If I set up the sights to 190 meters, the 22 bullet would pass over the target and drop to surface, farther from the buoy.
If I set up the sights to 180 meters, I would fire, and after few moments I would hear, a dull thud of 22 bullet hitting home. "Tup!"
And so, the distance was establIshed empirically to "ballistic" 180 meters, with whatever 22 ammo was available to me then.
(more then 30 years ago)

The shot.
So, the day was calm. Cloudy. No wind. Early november of that year.
At one moment I saw the duck flying low, just above the sea level.
Judging by ducks heading, it will fly over, exactly over the fishing marker buoy!
O, my!
180 meters?!

I worked the bolt, and placed a cartridge, in a a single shot, 22 rifle. (German Erma, made in 1934)
Rifle on rest over fence handrail.
Rear sight set at 180 meters.
Sights aligned, rifle positioned softly on my left hand, and I was now following the duck in the flight.

I estimated the lead, counted the seconds in my head, to get some reference of ducks velocity, and moved the sights to lead the target in the flight.
I estimated the lead then at few meters, and kept it like that.

With best possible lead estimated and established, and well maintained, I applied slight pressure on the trigger, and released the shot!
After a very loooong moment, dull thud came back,
"Tup",
and duck dropped!

I couldnt beleive!
My best shot ever, a duck in flight, 180 meters, with 22 sinlge shot rifle.
Beleive it or not. And I never repeated this shot ever.

Went to the boat, and collected the duck. Brought it proudly to my grandmother, to make lunch next day!
My best shot ever!
Many months and years ago. But I remember as vividly as it was yesterday.

And view from same balcony today (except is windy day today). The palms to the left, 30 years ago were below balcony level.

View attachment 396705

I was hunting with Game 4 Africa with what felt like a very windy day. A Spring buck was at 378 yards out in the heavy wind. My PH Colin told me to hold two animals in front and half an animal high. On my shot the animal dropped dead in his tracks. It was not luck on my PHs recommendation but it was luck on my execution

 

[Ike85123]

I killed a hog last year with a 220yard running freehand shot. That has to be right up there with the best shots I have ever made.

Thays a fantastic shot !

 

[Ike85123]

Two shots come to mind. One was a crow out of the air here at the ranch with my Winchester lever .22.
The other was more dramatic. My first Safari in 1997 was in South Africa and Barry Burchell was my PH. We were hunting mountain reedbuck in the hills. We located some across a valley on the next hill and I got set up best I could sitting down to take a shot when they came out of the brush. They bolted to the right but the buck was not with them. He bolted left and I had to take a running shot. He rolled at the shot but got up and kept going. This was about 300 yards away. He second shot was a miss. He was about to round the hill and go out of sight when my third shot rang out and down he went. I figured the first shot was a gut shot so I was not too excited. When the tracker brought the buck to the vehicle he was head shot! Wow a head shot. Wait a minute where was the other shot I said? The first shot went under his right horn from the back and out his eyeball. The second shot was square in the back of the head!
Two head shots on a little running goat at 300 yards. I’ll never top that and Barry has never forgotten that day either. I’ll be hunting with him and his family again this year.
Regards,
Philip

Incredible shots ! Sounds like some sniper training involved here. Haha

 

[Longwalker]

I was 18 years old, working my first summer job away from home on my uncle Jerome's tree farm at Fort Saskatchewan Alberta, Canada. A co-worker from Ontario with a very superior attitude, and who I kinda admired for his superior age, experience, and rifle, and girlfriend, invited me to come hunting for the woodchucks that were killing our carefully transplanted birch trees in the nursery.
I agreed and met him with my lowly Remington Nylon .22 semi auto. Equipped with crude iron sights. He carried an exquisite Anschutz sporter with beautiful figured walnut and topped with an excellent Leupold scope. He asked me what ammunition my ( extremely plebeian and imprecise) rifle shot the best. I said I'd never tested that theory, but I generally did OK with whatever was cheapest.
He smiled in a condescending way, and we proceeded to stalk the wily woodchuck. No luck after a hour of sneaky creeping and peering down the rows.
He suggested we take a break near the railway berm, and as we stood on the grade between the tracks, admiring the view, a redwing blackbird ( declared a pest species in these parts) started singing from his perch on a cattail reed about two hundred and fifty meters from us.
I'd had enough of his superior attitude by this point and just threw up my rifle, calmed my breathing and aim, took a wild guess at elevation and let fly. Offhand. The blackbird did a little backflip and dropped.
I couldn't repeat that shot now in a million tries. Can't see that good and can't use iron sights any more. And I don't shoot a thousand or so .22 cartridges from offhand every summer, and besides, I'm not that lucky any more. And lately, I don't regard Red Winged blackbirds as pests.
It was very quiet on the way back to the farm yard where his big Diesel 3/4 ton 4 wheel drive pickup with low range transmission and mud tires, and my Ford Cortina shitbox car was parked. He invited me to go fishing the next weekend. And asked my advice on how to catch walleye in the Pembina river. ;-)

 

[Philip Glass]

Incredible shots ! Sounds like some sniper training involved here. Haha

Funny. When I was a kid sometimes when we were at the ranch during deer season my dad would just stop the truck and I’d have to get out and take a quick, usually running shot. At one stage I had shot more deer running than standing still!

 

[Opposite Pole]

Head shot a fox at a measured 264m with my 308, standing, off hand, using sling. There were two guys with me who told me no way I could do it. I was certain they were right and agreed with them, but figured one round of hand loaded ammo wasn’t too much of a risk to take. Saved the skin as only the head was damaged.

 

[Chickenfarmers]

A few years ago I was bowhunting a ridge in a military installation. I was facing the swamp at the bottom waiting for the deer to come out and feed in the oaks I was in. I heard some noise up behind me to my right. I turned to see what it was. It was a 6 pointer heading down the ridge. His path would put him by my stand at 23 yards. I got into position and waited. He made is way along the spine of the ridge and into my shooting lane. I stopped him and settled my pin on him and let it go. I watched as the arrow sailed right under his belly. He jumped up and over the ridge away from my. I couldn't believe I missed him. I listened and didn't hear him run off so I figured he just jumped over the side and was walking awy.I waited for a while and finally couldn't take it anymore. I have to see what happened and why I missed him. I got down and got my arrow and there was only a couple of white belly hairs on it. I thought "How did I miss that shot". I decided to go down the finger and up the gut in the creek and see if I can get up on him. As I was walking up the creek I was scanning the slopes of the ridge on both sides. I looked up the ridge towards where my stand was and saw something white in the trees. I eased my way up the ridge and when I got close enough I could see the under belly of a deer in a dead fall. I ease up to see what it was. As I got closer I noticed it wasn't moving. I whistled and tried to get it up but nothing happened. I moved up to the dead fall and it was the buck I shot at laying dead in the tree. apparently when the buck jumped over the spine of the ridge it jumped right into the dead fall and broke it's neck. His head was facing in the opposite direction of his feet. Strangest thing I ever saw, a miss that resulted in a kill.

 

[Randy F]

My luckiest unlucky shot.
Back in my bowfishing days, I was wading the edge of a small river shooting buffalo carp. I had spied a really big one and he was outsmarting me. There was an old tree trunk that had broken off and fallen into the river years earlier. The first few feet were above the water so it created cover for the fish. I saw him head there and had him trapped between me and the bank and under the log. I could see his back and tailfins but couldn't get a shot because as I straddled the log and would lean one way, he would lazily move to the other side keeping the log between us. With my bow drawn, we played this game forever when he apparently tired of it and made a run for it to my right.
Or so I thought.
I had seen the flash of the fish zipping out to my right and let the arrow go. I was pretty happy with myself for making the shot until as I was reeling in the line and stepping to him I saw that it was not the carp I was after.
In fact not a carp at all.
My arrow had found it's way into the center of the back of a 32" Musky and he was not happy with my decision to shoot.
There were a couple of people fishing on the bank 50 yards or so upstream so not wanting to draw any more attention to the situation than I already had, I worked it over to the bank and got it up behind the bushes to finish the deed. What a commotion.
Not in my plan. But I'm not about to waste it either. I got it and myself out of there as quick as I could and had a couple of very good meals.

 

[Jörg Krüger]

My luckiest unlucky shot.
Back in my bowfishing days, I was wading the edge of a small river shooting buffalo carp. I had spied a really big one and he was outsmarting me. There was an old tree trunk that had broken off and fallen into the river years earlier. The first few feet were above the water so it created cover for the fish. I saw him head there and had him trapped between me and the bank and under the log. I could see his back and tailfins but couldn't get a shot because as I straddled the log and would lean one way, he would lazily move to the other side keeping the log between us. With my bow drawn, we played this game forever when he apparently tired of it and made a run for it to my right.
Or so I thought.
I had seen the flash of the fish zipping out to my right and let the arrow go. I was pretty happy with myself for making the shot until as I was reeling in the line and stepping to him I saw that it was not the carp I was after.
In fact not a carp at all.
My arrow had found it's way into the center of the back of a 32" Musky and he was not happy with my decision to shoot.
There were a couple of people fishing on the bank 50 yards or so upstream so not wanting to draw any more attention to the situation than I already had, I worked it over to the bank and got it up behind the bushes to finish the deed. What a commotion.
Not in my plan. But I'm not about to waste it either. I got it and myself out of there as quick as I could and had a couple of very good meals.

Hi Randy. What is a Musky?

 

[Randy F]

Hi Randy. What is a Musky?

It’s a large game fish like this

 

[Jörg Krüger]

Wow, that "gold fish" is nice. And you shot that thing with a toothpick. Respect brother

 

[Whitworth375]

Best shot for me would be on a blackbird at about 220yd with an open sighted 22lr. My friend and I were out messing around and saw this bird land in a fenceline, i said to my friend " watch this" with no intent of actually hitting the bird. I quick pulled the gun up and settled the sights, pulled the trigger and the bird dropped.

 

[mark-hunter]

@Whitworth375
What 22lr rifle was that?

 

[Whitworth375]

@Whitworth375
What 22lr rifle was that?

Henry Pump with factory Marbles semi-buckhorn sights