Best shot you ever made?

Nice fat WI doe at 125 yards with my Traditions .50 Hakwen. Actually the longest I've taken a deer at.

Winter, 1961. I’m 17 years old. Duck hunting with a cousin on the banks of the Arkansas River between Rocky Ford and La Junta, Colorado. Freezing cold. Huddled side by side in reeds overlooking a small set of 6 decoys floating just offshore at daybreak.

I was on Richard’s left, looking upriver, and spotted a wedge headed our way about two hundred yards out.

“Do you see them?”, I whispered. “Yeah!”, he replied. I knew nothing about shooting ducks. I had a borrowed Western Auto single shot 12 gauge, wallowing in envy at Richard’s 870 pump gun.

“When do we shoot?” I whispered. Richard and I had hunted rabbits and quail and doves for a couple of years in the southeastern Colorado Arkansas valley. “I trust your judgement” he replied.

My wedge flew parallel to the river and banked right, coming in to the decoys directly in front of us. They were not going to settle in the water but were coming in right over our heads. When they were 30 yards out I shouldered my gun and took the shot at the leading bird. Boom! Miss.

Richard said, “What are you doing? They are too far away!” Because he was watching a second wedge coming in to the decoys from our right, and they were still 100 yards out. He didn’t know my wedge existed.

As he said it, he spotted my wedge going overhead, threw a desperation shot at them directly overhead. We both missed. The ducks continued flying to Oklahoma, and we lay there on the frozen riverbank mud laughing uncontrollably.

We didn’t see anymore ducks that day. At 10 AM we quit, went back to Rocky Ford, and Grandma fed us breakfast.

It was the most hilarious miss I’ve ever had.

And I hate duck hunting to this day.

“

This was isn't about me...,

So I'm 20, and my brother is 16 and we are with my dad hunting geese and ducks. Well the place where we were hunting was a "guided hunt" but the fellow who owned it knew us very well so we didn't have a guide and he charged us less.., he could then take other parties out to other parts of the farm, and charge full price. Anyway, where we were there were two pit blinds that needed work. Previous customers had opened up the camouflage too much. My brother and I were in one pit blind and my dad was off to the side in a ground-blind (that was in OK shape). The geese I'm sure could see the dark rectangles of the pits from the sky, for they always went between the two pit blinds sorta toward the ground blind, between my dad and us..., and just out of range. Sorta like they knew and they were taunting us...., but I digress....

So we got the idea, since we had cammo ponchos with us in case it rained, we thought to walk half-way between my dad and the pit blinds. Since the Geese cut between my dad's location and the pits, if we lay on the ground covered, they might not see us and we could then stand up as they passed overhead and in range. Well it was cold, but it worked. My brother and I got a couple geese. But that's not the point of the story...

So at about 10 the geese have settled down, and my brother and I are thinking maybe we walk back over to the pit bind and get our packs, and open up the coffee thermos. Then we hear one BANG, from my dad's blind. We had been scanning the sky and we look over his way (about 60 yards from us) and nothing is flying. Nothing had been flying for about 20 minutes..., and dad isn't walking from the blind to pick up his bird.....
"You think he had an AD?", Mike asked me, "Those new gloves were kinda big on his hands".
"I don't think so, but I don't see him going out to get a bird, and there was only one shot, and if he missed I didn't see one flying. Gee I hope he didn't hurt himself."

So fearing the absolute worst, we walked over to the ground-blind. The wind was pretty brisk and at about 20 yards I yelled, "DAD"....no answer, "DAD!"
"WHAT?" came the reply. OK well he's talking and not yelling for a first aide kit, so...,
"What did you shoot at?"
"Ducks"
"Ducks?"
"Yes ducks."
"Did you get one? We didn't see you walk out and pick them up"
"Yeah, I got them both. They landed right next to the blind, so I didn't have to walk out."

BOTH?

Now my dad's vision was never great, but given enough time he can manage good shots. Sure enough, a hen and a drake mallard both lay next to the blind...WHICH was also the limit for ducks at that time of the season. He had also limited-out with one shot.

A brace of ducks with a single shot. Well, I've made some pretty good shots in the 45 or so years that I've been hunting, BUT I'VE NEVER gotten a brace of anything with a single shot, let alone having them them drop at the door to the blind!

LD

I'm sorry, I thought this was the Blackpowder subforum. My best shot with a non- BP gun was a flying grouse with a .38 wadcutter from my Colt Trooper, as mentioned in this thread, which is not in the BP subforum:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...dgun-intentional-or-not.875130/#post-11643440

Since we're on the subject of best wingshot with a non-BP shotgun, I have two I'm rather proud of, even though I missed the bird I was aiming at in the first. A flock of bills buzzed the decoys on the point, and Rich, the best wingshot I ever knew, did not fire. I heard them before I saw them (Bills sound like jets coming in) , and had the SxS up when they cleared the point. (Rich and I were on opposite sides of it.) I put the bead on the lead bird's bill, fired, and the four behind it dropped tumbling from the sky. That woke Rich up from whatever he was doing, and we both commenced to water-swatting them. After we got them in, he said, "You fired both barrels at once didn't you?" It was a 12ga. Stevens 311 with a Tenite stock, there is no way I would have done that. I said I didn't, but he insisted I had. I didn't quite limit out with that shot though, 6 was the limit on non-mallards at the time. My Dad did drop a mallard with one shot, and it hit me. Didn't have to pull the boat out to get that one.

The other was a green-winged teal I shot while getting out of a canoe- I was in the process of handing my 1100 to the friend I was hunting with, and had one foot in the canoe and one on the bank. the teal got up, and I swung the gun around and shot it from a crouched-over position, upper body contorted back (wouldn't even attempt that now!) and dropped it at 30 yards. He was duly impressed, and I even more so, but I didn't tell him that part.

Thanks LD, reminds me of hunting quail in southern Arizona. I was acting as guide for my brother and a friend. We jumped a covey of birds and everyone shot, I was carrying my percussion double barrel 12 gauge, I only fired one barrel, dropped my bird, when I went pick it up I found another one about 10 yards farther in the same line as the first one.

I shot the antenna off a flying grasshopper at 100 yards with my Colt Walker. I didn’t want to kill it.

I haven't been black powder shooting long enough to have a truly epic shot, I've made some nice targets though.

Best shot to me was more about the experience than technically a "great shot". I was about 10 or 11 years old, my dad and I were at his hunting buddy's house. Dad had an old Stevens single shot 20 gauge that we took sometimes when we went fishing. This was used for targets of opportunity, mostly snakes! Never actually had to use it much.

Dad, his friend and I were about to head to the back pond. He got this shotgun off his 4 wheeler, popped the bird-shot round out of it and handed me 2 slugs. Pointed at a stump near the edge of the small pond we were standing by and said "see if you can hit it". I put the bead on it and squeezed, hit the base of it right at the water. Handed the other slug to him and he nailed it, better than I did.

From memory that stump was about 40 yards away and a little over a foot of it visible above water. This was the first time I had ever shot something with that much recoil, my shoulder stung a little later after the adrenaline wore off and I somehow cut my finger on something when I shot. Never figured that part out. I didn't make a big deal about my finger bleeding, was just glad that dad was proud of me when telling his buddy that I only needed one of those shotshell slugs. Got a few good memories like that, this is one of the more vivid ones detail-wise.

My uncle taught me how to stick a double edged axe into a standing piece of firewood then put a lit candle on either side. If you hit the axe just above the wicks of the candles the axe cuts the ball in two and the wind from the halves snuff out the candle flame. I used a 54 cal rifled musket @ 50 meters the only time I was able to get it to work.

J-Bar said:

My wedge flew parallel to the river and banked right, . . . , he spotted my wedge going overhead,

“

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If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times!! The wedge should be Driven in and Driven out!! Lol

(Couldn't resist J-Bar !!)

Mike

entropy said:

I'm sorry, I thought this was the Blackpowder subforum

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Did I specify what propellant was used in my father's or my shotgun ?

LD

That was more directed at JBar. But no, you didn't. His story was good regardless of the propellant, as was yours.

Luckiest shot with a muzzleloader was the sow on the left. Sow was leading the pack of running hogs, i assumed a good sitting position, gave about ten foot lead, held about 18 inches high and fired. Lased the sow after the shot, just over 230 yards.



Rifle: CVA Mag Hunter
Bullet: 250 grain SST
Sabot: i don't remember
Powder: 150 grains of Pyrodex

alsaqr said:

Luckiest shot with a muzzleloader was the sow on the left. Sow was leading the pack of running hogs, i assumed a good sitting position, gave about ten foot lead, held about 18 inches high and fired. Lased the sow after the shot, just over 230 yards.

View attachment 944484

Rifle: CVA Mag Hunter
Bullet: 250 grain SST
Sabot: i don't remember
Powder: 150 grains of Pyrodex

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Do you eat those things. I read in the Missouri conservationist magazine that they have diseases, don’t eat them?

sspierce8 said:

Do you eat those things. I read in the Missouri conservationist magazine that they have diseases, don’t eat them?

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There's a possibility of Brucillosis among other diseases, also found in other wildlife, as long as cooked well done, required for pork anyway, they are fine, lower fat than domestic pigs actually a better flavor, fantastic bacon from them too.

robhof said:

There's a possibility of Brucillosis among other diseases, also found in other wildlife, as long as cooked well done, required for pork anyway, they are fine, lower fat than domestic pigs actually a better flavor, fantastic bacon from them too.

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I’ve never seen any in the wild here in the part of Missouri I’m located, but they’re probably around.

Never made any spectacular shots with a muzzle loader . One was pretty spectacular I guess when at a friends ranch one new years eve after a long evening drinking I brought out my 16 guage rifled double C&B Manton cased pistol I had bought for $2500 . I pre loaded with a goodly charge of 3f powder(100 grains as I remember for the .69 bore) and a well tamped wad of aluminum foil . At the appropriate moment with a hollering audience I cocked it and holding it up over a valley I toched it off, with a tremendous roar and 10 feet of flame and a tower of sparking aluminum. For some reason both barrel went off and even with the aluminum the couple hundred grains of powder kicked like a hot .44 magnum, at least ! In the morning the hangover really was even worse to find the stock badly cracked at the wrist. I had to sell the gun at a loss, figure $500 a shot

I had a 2" bored cannon on a naval type wooded wheeled short mount in my living room near the fire place for about 5 years in a prior marriage, The barrel had a heavysteel tube inside an aluminum cast old style barrel housing so it weighed maybe 200 pounds and could be moved rather easily. I was talked into firing it for the fourth of july celebration which ended in a large mall parking lot with building at least 200 yards away and bleachers set up with fences for crowd controll. I once again measured a couple hundred grains of FG into some brown paper packets as I had read and packed in some wadded newprint on top and fired it away from the crowd toward a row of buildings probably 600 feet away . It let out the largest boom and a suitable red orange flame that echoed to the crowds delight !. I promptly removed the gun and took it home to avoid incidents ect. and drank beer with my friends at my bar b que. .
The next day I was contacted by my friend the mayor of the small town telling me the report had cracked two large plate glass windows on the opposite end of the mall. There were complaints by property owners who decided not to make a stink of it and just submit insurance claims, thank goodness ! Near the end of the marriage I sold that cannon for a decent amount , much more than I paid for it, it had become somewhat famous and pointed out the front door around holloween and such was quite the talk of that small town.

Patocazador said:

Best shot was an offhand 114 yard straight-on shot on a big 7 point with my .50 cal. sidelock. It entered just to the right of the lower half of his trachea and went into the right lung. He went about 60 yards.

View attachment 944048

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Where I'm from thats called a small to medium 2×3. A 7 point buck in Idaho means 7 points on both sides not counting eye tines (unless they are at least an inch I believe). If you told someone you shot a 7 point buck where I live....they would freak out until they seen a 3 point. With that said...id be very happy with a nice buck like the one ya have there. Thats good meat and a nice rack. I hope I'm as least as lucky this year. Good damn job.

The best shot I've ever witnessed wasn't from a gun. I winged a teal in Mexico and it fell about 25 yards from the pirogue we were in. I was about to shoot it again when Margaro, my Mexican guide, told me to hold off. He pulled a slingshot from his coat and shot that teal in the head with a marble.
I was flabbergasted.

Reminds me of the best shot I never took. I was hunting up in Maine for grouse. I flushed a bird under some tall hemlocks, I raised the double to shoot and noticed that the bird had stopped in mid flight. Upon further scrutiny, I saw that the grouse had skewered himself on a dead branch on a hemlock trunk. I was able to retrieve the bird, and as it turns out, it was the only bird I got that day.

N-SSA competition-
50yds, "junkyard" event ie all kinds of stuff hanging on strings or wires. Target was a twist off bottle cap from a 2 liter soda. Hit it from standing offhand position. Gun is my Parker Hale 58cal, iron sights.

178 yards. Quartering away.
Shot hit at left paunch and exited right side of windpipe.
Whitetail doe.
Offhand, iron sights. TC Renegade .50 cal.
.495 Hornady ball, thick patch and 100gr FFg.
Itd cloverleaf off the bench.

Bought cheap because the gun was iffy..
The tang not seating right. Other screws run (drunk at TC on a Monday put it together?).
Had to not kidding, glass bed the bbl and epoxy the holes for other.

Man it shot after that!

Sold it to a very happy coworker. As I ended up going with a Hawken Silver Elite .50 cal.
And of course it has been the worst shooting, worst kicking most temperamental MZ I've ever had.
Only stainless MZ I've had, and only one w QLA.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh, on the 178 yard poke. I stepped over and lined her up w a dead tree in the background, and there was a fork on that tree that sure looked like an aiming point for a 175 yard shot.

Pinwheeled it.

I aimed at her 3 times, to make sure she hadn't moved since aiming over (blocking view of her).
On the 3rd I touched it off (always use the set trigger, even up close and fast).

Took a few w scoped inline .50 cal, 4x scope.
150 yarders were yawners.

On a bet at the range, apple on a post at 100yds. Parker Hale got it done again. Won $20.