Most UNimpessive shot you witnessed

Status
Not open for further replies.

EIB0879

Member
Joined
May 3, 2015
Messages
856
Location
North Texas
Now that we have talked about impressive shots what about the UNimpressive ones? You know, the ones you or someone else wishes they could take back.

One time my BIL and I were sighting in his M-1 carbine. I was spotting for him and he was shooting off the hood of my stepfather's truck. He was shooting at a target 25 yards away downhill. First shot was unobserved. He made a second shot and it wasn't on paper either.

He is fiddling with it when I walk over to him. Then I see two bullet holes in the hood of the truck. He ended up paying for a new hood.
 
There is a video I've seen online of an ISIS fighter attempting to launch an RPG at opposing forces using a 4' concrete wall as cover. He carefully checks the rocket, peeks over, checks the target, pops up and..........
launches the rocket directly into the wall in front of him.

When the smoke cleared, there was very little left of the wall, rocket or the shooter.:eek:

My personal worst fail was against a "Porg" target-one of those cute little birdlike critters in the last Star Wars movie. If youre not familiar, they are kinda like a penguin, about 9" high and 7" wide.
25YD, indoor range, with a Walther P38. My first shot winged 'em, so my buddy stepped up with his FEG HiPower. His shot hit the poor little bugger in the foot. Seeking to put the horribly maimed creature out of his misery, I took another shot- cleanly taking off his left "ear".

By this point, we felt so bad, about both our shooting and the targets imaginary pain, that we grabbed my .410 Enfield smoothbore and dispatched the little guy with some 000 buckshot. :)
 
Last edited:
My dad had a good one- with a torpedo.

Back in the late '70s he worked for Gould Corp. on the MK48 torpedo program as a guidance system engineer.
They had a test rig down in Key West (for the shallow water), consisting of a pontoon barge to carry and lower the torpedoes and its associated tug which was set up to recover them later.

Now, the old MK48s were wire guided for most of their travel- this allowed secure, real time guidance from the launching platform and data from the torp. But, if the wire got cut, they could be set for a variety of defaults, such as seek last target or self destruct.

This one, being a test unit, had a dummy warhead, so they told it to swim in circles if the wire got cut. Eventually, it would run out of fuel, sink to the shallow bottom, and they could go get it.

Unfortunately, this particular fish lost it's wire right after launching and started to circle- right back at the barge!
Realizing the danger, the engineers scrambled onto the tug which was moored alongside.

Even though the warhead was inert, we are still talking about several tons of angry torpedo doing 40+ MPH. It went clean through the first pontoon and stuck in the second. Bye bye barge and torpedo!

Nobody got hurt and they raised the rig without too much trouble. My Dad and his engineer buddies used to laugh so hard retelling that tale at the Xmas parties, their pocket protectors would fall out.;)
 
I barely recall it because I think I was 4 or 5. Big buck in the field at about 425. Well out of reasonable 30-30 range, but the 30-30 was enlisted to do the job. First round went through the hind legs and put the buck into a painful crawl. The next shot to finish him was from the same distance, and hit a doe well. 3rd and 4th shots were from”close enough” at about 200 and they were gut shots. 5th was a miss. 6th was point blank. 7th was to finish the doe who was still trying to get up and run.

It was not a great day for a little kid to tag along.
 
My dad had a good one- with a torpedo.

Back in the late '70s he worked for Gould Corp. on the MK48 torpedo program as a guidance system engineer.
They had a test rig down in Key West (for the shallow water), consisting of a pontoon barge to carry and lower the torpedoes and its associated tug which was set up to recover them later.

Now, the old MK48s were wire guided for most of their travel- this allowed secure, real time guidance from the launching platform and data from the torp. But, if the wire got cut, they could be set for a variety of defaults, such as seek last target or self destruct.

This one, being a test unit, had a dummy warhead, so they told it to swim in circles if the wire got cut. Eventually, it would run out of fuel, sink to the shallow bottom, and they could go get it.

Unfortunately, this particular fish lost it's wire right after launching and started to circle- right back at the barge!
Realizing the danger, the engineers scrambled onto the tug which was moored alongside.

Even though the warhead was inert, we are still talking about several tons of angry torpedo doing 40+ MPH. It went clean through the first pontoon and stuck in the second. Bye bye barge and torpedo!

Nobody got hurt and they raised the rig without too much trouble. My Dad and his engineer buddies used to laugh so hard retelling that tale at the Xmas parties, their pocket protectors would fall out.;)
First kill with the mk48. If you left the story there then you have some bragging rights.
 
A second-hand one from a college classmate that served as an army sapper. Excuse me for not knowing their protocol.
He was at the range when they were training with a grenade launcher. Someone loaded up, forgot their trigger discipline, and launched a training round pointed downward.
Directly onto their boot.
Dude was not happy.
Nor was the officer, who apparently followed the stretcher off the range at full volume.
 
Now that we have talked about impressive shots what about the UNimpressive ones? You know, the ones you or someone else wishes they could take back.

One time my BIL and I were sighting in his M-1 carbine. I was spotting for him and he was shooting off the hood of my stepfather's truck. He was shooting at a target 25 yards away downhill. First shot was unobserved. He made a second shot and it wasn't on paper either.

He is fiddling with it when I walk over to him. Then I see two bullet holes in the hood of the truck. He ended up paying for a new hood.

Something like this, except the rifle was a M4 and the vehicle was a HUMVEE, and it was during a gunfight. The sling loops that stick up out of a humvee hood? They will stop 5.56 from about 2 feet, in case anyone is wondering. And ricochet it back into the ballistic windshield and create a nice spiderweb pattern in the glass.
 
A class of rookies were on the range for the first time shooting brand new S&W Model 64 stainless steel 4" barrel 38 Special revolvers.

Class fires first 5 rounds from 3 yard line. A shooter raises his hand signaling that he has a problem. RO goes down to see what the problem is and the shooter has totally missed a large B-27 target with all 5 rounds. RO thinks "OMG what a challenge training this rookie is going to be" until he looks at the shooters gun. The entire barrel had fallen off and was laying on the ground!

Then he checked the other guns and on another one the barrel was cracked where it screws into the frame and was about ready to fall off.

The Department had purchased six new revolvers and this was the first time they had been shot. As the supervisor I told the RO send all six of them back to the factory for replacement.
 
Nightlord's father's experience reminds me of one of mine.

I was at Ft.Benning in 1981 going through the Dragon Antitank Missile Trainer's course. We had SF, Marine, and SEALs mostly in that class with a few grunts NCOs and Officers like me.

In the second week we were taken out to the range and they had an M113 APC with a missile mount in the commander's hatch. There were some folks from McDonnell Douglas there and they explained that they had ten missiles with inert warheads that they wanted us to fire as part of a test. They had the APC hooked up with cameras inside and outside.

They called out the names of ten of us and I was eight in the order. All the SEALs, SF and Marines ahead of me grounded out their missiles within 200 meters of firing. As I walk up for my turn one of the McD guys pulls me to the side and tells me to pull back on the handle of the mount just before firing.

I get in position and press the trigger bar. I almost forgot to pull back on the handle because I got distracted by the sound of the missile preparing to launch next to my head. I see the missile in my sight dip so I pulled back and brought the missile on target. It was the first hit of the afternoon. The SF guy after me got a hit also but not the guy after that (SEAL).

But it was priceless the look on all of those operator types as I walked back to the stands.
 
Buddy inherits a m1911.

We go shooting, I bring a .270.

I shoot engine block at ~100 yards, .270 shoots through it.

Buddy shoots at engine block at 100 yards with .45 and misses.

Buddy gets 20 yards closer and misses again.

He precedes to get closer and closer and misses every time using up all but one round in pistol when he is 3 yards away from engine block.

Looks back at me (still 100 yards back) and says " ah... the coup de gras", and shoots engine block from 3 yards away finally hitting it.

Buddy drops pistol, bleeding profusely from being shot in the forearm by "Rick O'Shay".

His excuse? The .270 shot through, he thought the .45 would also.

30 years later, and I still greet him with " ah... the coup de gras".
 
Last edited:
There's been a few but this one involved me.....

Think it was two years ago?... during deer season,I'm sitting on the back porch having a cup of coffee. It's before work,just sitting there thinking about the day.There's a young buck down at the edge of the woods,100 yes or so.Thinking it's pretty cool,having my jo,enjoying nature thing.

Get to watching him and something ain't right? He's limping or? So I step inside and grab the binos....... dang it,somebody shot him basically under his fr leg at the shoulder joint.I watch him for a few and can tell he isn't gonna do well.Grab a loaded TC muzzle loader and blew his heart out.Then the work started,processing a deer that some dumbarse poked a hole in.Sort of pi$$ed me off.
 
Actually there were quite a few at the same time. Basic training range qualification with the M16 (original not A1). If I remember correctly the course of fire was 100 rds. Several shooters ended up with considerably more rounds in the target and some with pretty much none. One excellent shooter had well over two hundred rounds in his target.

They made all of them shoot the course over but spaced them out quite a bit.
 
This probably falls under negligent discharge. I was line coach for an NRA Basic Pistol Class. Student had a brand new, very tight custom 1911. Upon the command to lock and load, he turns the pistol directly at me to rack the slide. I was very blunt about the safety rules, which he shrugged off. A couple of shots into his first magazine, the slide does not go all the way into battery. He smacks the back of the slide with his support hand, and the slide goes into battery. When he's fired 7 shots, I tell him his procedure was correct for that malfunction, but he must take his finger out of the trigger guard. Another shrug. Same story on the next magazine. On the third failure, he smacks the back of the slide and launches 230 grain FMJ through the roof of the range in the general direction of downtown. Despite my protests, the chief instructor passed him and gave him the certificate.
 
A witnessed one at the range: guy must have just gotten the pistol (a Steyr, I believe) and a younger man was coaching him. I made sure there was space between us. Younger guy got the guy's stance squared up, he fired one shot, coach nodded and ducked to his own lane.
Before he got back, the older guy immediately forgot the coaching: half-crouched stance, bent legs, fired another shot--slammed the gun down with a yell and started jumping around splashing blood.
For some genius reason he had crossed his thumbs behind the slide. And I don't think either shot was on target.
 
I had just completed chronographing some rounds from my target rifle and thought I would get some through from my AR as well.
My target rifle has a nice Sinclair F-class bi-pod, the AR, none. So I used the rear bag from my target rifle. It was too tall. So slid it out of the way and I grabbed the front bag. Too short. After much fiddling a note book and board under the rest were just the right height.
Settling down, I fire one through the screens. Nothing. Darn sun. I fire again. Still nothing, but something scurries by the log stack next to me. I checked the chrono, it's on, scope set back from six hundred to one hundred, check.

I fire again. This time dust kicks up twenty feet in front and slightly left of me. As this happens something is sprayed up onto the soffit and rains down upon me and everwhere. The cronoghraph lists lazily leftward and falls. Small beads come to a rest all about.

I sit, befuddled.

I check my hands and rifle, still in thier proper shape. I stood up and realized what happened as I gazed upon an exploded and shredded rear bag, pellets of grey and white plastic pouring out and covering the porch.

I checked the chronograph. Still good! Though with a bit more character. Three rounds from the AR tore one whole ear off the bag. One piece of shrapnel went to the side of the screen on the chrono. The "mouse" must have been pellets from round two.

I decided to call it a day, even though, technically I shot two things with one bullet.

I was alone and havent told anyone, so y'all have to promise not to tell anybody else. That would be embarrassing! :)
 
When I did the shooting portion of my CCW course a girl doing hers at the same time managed to miss her target entirely with what I would guess to be at least half of her shots. I was in the stall to her right and when I looked at my target after shooting I found four .22 caliber holes in my target (I was shooting a 9mm). Amazingly the instructor still gave her a passing grade. When I asked him about it he said that the only person he had ever failed was a guy that shot himself in the leg while unholstering his pistol.
 
Back when LAPF first authorized their officers to carry semi autos the officers had to purchase approved models and qualify with them. I watched as a female officer drew her nice new Berretta and emptied the entire magazine. The only safe place on that range was the target.
 
Back in 1968 or so my uncle purchased a brand new Armalite AR15 and took it deer hunting. He was set up in an orchard before daylight and waited for a whitetail to show. He could see a big buck under an apple tree and the deer was standing on hind legs with his head in the tree apparently eating apples. It comes time to shoot (1/2 hr before sunrise) and my uncle shoots at the deer. It stays in the tree so my uncle fires the other four rounds at it, reloads and shoots five more in rapid succession. Then he goes up and finds the horns caugt in the branches and the neck almost shot in half just below the head. We still to this day refer to his "tough to kill deer".:D
I can only claim to have shot a CRONY or two as my worst:fire:.
 
Outdoor range pistol bay, double wire system for holding targets. I have been shooting alone for a while when a second shooter arrives. Range goes cold so he can set up his targets. We chit chat during his setup, he says he is shooting a .357 sig, me a 9mm. Range goes hot, I resume my shooting, he starts his. He goes through his first magazine, then reloads. I am about to pull the trigger when all of a sudden the targets fall. Second shooter shot the wire causing the targets to fall effectively ending my range session while he had to go let the office know.
 
Some guy at a indoor range actually shoot my target using his crazy laser. God only knows how many other targets, ceiling, etc. he shot. Some times you can see those things bouncing all over one side of the range to the other. God, I hate those things.

I was shooting on an indoor rifle range one time and a laser dot appeared on the wall less than a foot to my right. I looked over to my left a couple of bays and some idiot had his laser sighted AR sitting across the bench pointed at me while he was fiddling with something else. I wasn't happy.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top