Most UNimpessive shot you witnessed

[bender01]

One afternoon as a teen with permission to use the car. We dipped into the gun cabinet to fire the pre-64 300 win mag! We bought a box of shells from the hardware store so Dad wouldnt notice any missing. Went to a long field on the CT river between impressive granite ledges on both sides of the river and shot the box off at a tree! Surely echoed quite a bit. on the way back to the rd we saw the Vol Fire dept chief and he waved. We were shooting off a quilt over the roof of a subaru wagon. Later that evening at dinner Dad asked what we were shooting down by the river? you know 22s and a 30/30 because I knew my game was up. Out in the garage we went and asked me how the roof of the passenger side had all those muzzle burns... Dad was surely un impressed

 

[hps1]

Dad was surely un impressed

Funny how "un impressed" dads can make such a lasting impression, isn't it?

Regards,
hps

 

[Demi-human]

How do they know so much?

 

[792mauser]

Unfortunately to this point it's been mine.
Loaded up a normally reasonably accurate pedersoli brown bess musket. The target was at 50 yards. Everything worked perfectly.

Waited for a moment for the smoke to clear and to see where I had put the 3/4" ball on target.
The smoke clears and I can tell immediately that something isn't right. My target is a piece of paper with a 8" orange circle.
Not a mark on the target. But the target is now leaning at a crazy angle to the left. Range officer who was admiring the flintlock is on his knees rolling with laughter.
I had vaporized a good 3 inches of wood from the left leg holding up the target about a foot from the ground.

Then after recovering the RO tells me to "try it again and see if you can't even it out a bit".
Years later and I still laugh when I think about it.

 

[troy fairweather]

i got a good one any of u guys ever see a deer killed with a bp ramrod did not think so. about 1o years ago me my dad and are very good friend went out in the morning black powder deer hunting. we split up and sate about 100 yards from each other on a rock wall. my dads friend went over the wall see look over the next field. he slipped on one of the rocks and banged the muzzle on tree when falling. he gave the im ok wave i see him checking the gun over one more ok wave when he got over the wall he checked his round ball to make sheer the ball was not moved up the bore. about 45 50 mins later we here him fire and seconds later him yelling about the recoil. we all walk up and 20 yard from the wall the deer was dead. past the deer by some round bales of hay i find his ramrod covered in blood. the deer was quartering away and the arrow when right behind the shoulder and tro the hart. i bet i will never see anything like that ever again the ramrod was i think delren or something like that. next time im at his house ill get a pic of it.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

At 5 or 6 years old I shot my BB gun in the basement during winter. A cardboard box would catch the BBs so I could reuse them.
One day when I was about to put the gun back in the rack I pulled the trigger and put a BB in the dining room ceiling. I had cocked out of habit after my last shot. When Dad got home I lost my BB gun privileges for a week or two.
The best part was a few weeks or months later one of my well used BBs got jammed in the gun. When Dad was working on it he shot a BB into the living room ceiling. I ask if he wouldn't be able to shoot for a couple weeks but I didn't push the issue.
Those are two ND's that I like to think about.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

When Dad was working on it he shot a BB into the living room ceiling. I ask if he wouldn't be able to shoot for a couple weeks but I didn't push the issue.

LOL! Not pushing the issue was probably a good choice.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Wow some great true tales of the gun!

 

[hps1]

Not a mark on the target. But the target is now leaning at a crazy angle to the left.

This post brings back some fond memories of a misspent youth. Way back in the dark ages, as a teenager, long before the internet was invented by Al Gore, I acquired an original .58 cal. rifled musket.

Unfortunately if there was any loading data available at the time I did not know about it, but had read somewhere that, "in the old days", it was common practice to put a rifle ball in your palm and pour a cone of powder over it to completely cover the ball as a field expedient measure, so did so and determined a full 45-70 case of ffg was the appropriate charge, so I used this as a powder measure.

Unfortunately, try as I might, the rifle was extremely inaccurate. Then, one day I had a friend at the range observing target through a pair of binoculars as I fired. There was enough breeze to clear the smoke quickly and I saw the ball strike the backstop (about 20-30 yards behind target) directly behind the target. Miraculously, no hole in target. Reloaded & repeated with friend looking over my shoulder. At the shot, he said, "You're not going to believe this! I saw the ball and it is traveling a large corkscrew path around the target." Sure enough, reloaded, let him shoot, and you can see the ball and it was prescribing about an 18-24" circular path, explaining how the ball could strike directly behind the target and not print on the target.

Unfortunately I finally sold the old gun before learning that the normal charge used in those old muskets was about 40 grains. Figure I was shooting just south of a triple charge!

i got a good one any of u guys ever see a deer killed with a bp ramrod did not think so.

Not a deer, but I was given an old Belgian double barrel (approx .12 ga) percussion shotgun in fair condition as a high school graduation present from my boss and a gunsmith friend/mentor. With lots of help from my gunsmith friend, we carefully restored the old gun, proof fired it and I've enjoyed hunting dove and whitewing with it for a lot of years. When I have it in my hands, I can almost smell the ever present cigar smoke which always punctuated my friend's shop. RIP Werth!



Early on, I learned that if I missed w/first shot, odds were, I would almost certainly miss w/2nd barrel, also, almost invariably, while reloading a floater would drift by and all I could to was watch. Therefore, I made it a practice to hold 2nd barrel in reserve while reloading the fired barrel ((After removing the percussion cap from un-fired barrel!))

On one occasion, after a miss, I was tamping powder charge down in the fired barrel when a floater drifted by. I left rod in the barrel, replaced the cap and fired at this "gimme". Yep, sure enough, wrong barrel! Missed the bird, but the rod, tumbling end over end, passed inches in front of the bird. Talk about aerial acrobatics, he would have made any stunt pilot proud.

Regards,
hps

 

[troy fairweather]

On one occasion, after a miss, I was tamping powder charge down in the fired barrel when a floater drifted by. I left rod in the barrel, replaced the cap and fired at this "gimme". Yep, sure enough, wrong barrel! Missed the bird, but the rod, tumbling end over end, passed inches in front of the bird. Talk about aerial acrobatics, he would have made any stunt pilot proud.

its amazing the rods dont explode when shot like that thanks for the story. o and she is a great looking gun

 

[Robbins290]

Hunting with a long time shooting partner. He has always been about accuracy and sighting in rifle with every lot of ammo. And me, i sighted in my rifle once 10 years ago and i still get deer every year with one shot. And he always gives me crap for it. Said friend decides he wants to hunt. Spend 2 days dialing is rifle and finally gets happy with it. I see a deer, i let him take the shot. Shoots at the deer 20 feet in front of him and completely misses. Lucky i had never taken my aim off him and i bring the deer down. I still never let it down.

 

[entropy]

i got a good one any of u guys ever see a deer killed with a bp ramrod did not think so. about 1o years ago me my dad and are very good friend went out in the morning black powder deer hunting. we split up and sate about 100 yards from each other on a rock wall. my dads friend went over the wall see look over the next field. he slipped on one of the rocks and banged the muzzle on tree when falling. he gave the im ok wave i see him checking the gun over one more ok wave when he got over the wall he checked his round ball to make sheer the ball was not moved up the bore. about 45 50 mins later we here him fire and seconds later him yelling about the recoil. we all walk up and 20 yard from the wall the deer was dead. past the deer by some round bales of hay i find his ramrod covered in blood. the deer was quartering away and the arrow when right behind the shoulder and tro the hart. i bet i will never see anything like that ever again the ramrod was i think delren or something like that. next time im at his house ill get a pic of it.

No, but I killed a squirrel with a section of cleaning rod and a 5.56 blank on an FTX. Cooked and ate it in the foxhole, too.

 

[FROGO207]

^^^Free range gourmet dining at its finest. Never let a good opportunity go to waste.

 

[FROGO207]

Thinking back some, my personal worst thing was Missing a deer on the last minute of the last day of hunting season!!

I had the 30-30 and five rounds of ammo with me. Had still hunted all day with no luck. So I look at my watch and it is time to unload the rifle and walk home. There was a large pile of scrap metal in the back of the field behind the family homestead and big as life there was an old dryer that had not even been shot at yet in the front. So deciding that any excuse to shoot was a good one I emptied the rifle into the center of the door. Just as the echos were fading away a good sized buck trots leisurely out from behind the metal pile and passes by me heading for the woods. I swear that he got within 20 feet of me going by! Lesson one is ALWAYS have spare ammo. I just know he was laughing at me. Don't tell on me.

 

[troy fairweather]

Thinking back some, my personal worst thing was Missing a deer on the last minute of the last day of hunting season!!

I had the 30-30 and five rounds of ammo with me. Had still hunted all day with no luck. So I look at my watch and it is time to unload the rifle and walk home. There was a large pile of scrap metal in the back of the field behind the family homestead and big as life there was an old dryer that had not even been shot at yet in the front. So deciding that any excuse to shoot was a good one I emptied the rifle into the center of the door. Just as the echos were fading away a good sized buck trots leisurely out from behind the metal pile and passes by me heading for the woods. I swear that he got within 20 feet of me going by! Lesson one is ALWAYS have spare ammo. I just know he was laughing at me. Don't tell on me.

lol cant resist old home appliances at the junk pile good story.

 

[EIB0879]

I have thought about my own personal worst shot. I have missed a few deer in the past fifty years but not many. A few years ago I drew thew the sole tag to hunt a new wildlife management area for the first time. I had a game biologist as a guide for the entire time. He had explicit instructions from his boss on what I could and couldn't shoot.

Over the next several days I passed on several buck waiting on a trophy. I wasn't allowed to shoot at one that was a beast.

We got to the last day and the hunt ended at noon. We were riding around and I spotted a buck walking the ridgeline. He wasn't a giant but a good deer. We were able to get in front of it and I set up the sticks. I was shooting my 300 Wby which was always on at 200 yds. The biologist ranged the deer at 200 yards and it was broadside so it should have been a chip shot.

I squeezed the trigger and the deer ran down the ridge unscathed. I cycled another round into chamber. I followed the deer until it stopped again. About to squeeze the trigger and the sun comes out. The scope goes white and the deer runs down the other side of the ridge. Hunt over and going home empty handed.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Hmmm, there is this certain unnamed idiot that shall remain my brother that decided he was going to show me how to hit the target with my new to me black powder handgun. I had already loaded the weapon and primed the pan but didn't have the chance to "tap" barrel (flintlock) UI takes the weapon, gives me instructions in mind numbing detail then pulls the trigger. When the pan charge went off he flinched so when the main charge went off the barrel was at about a 20 degree angle and the bullet popped up the dust nearly 50 meters beyond the target.

Don't think it was easy for me to just let him walk away without me making any kind of comment... I didn't even snicker...

 

[Swifty Morgan]

I used to use Trail Glades, a range near Miami. They built new podiums with a new canopy over them. Not long after the work was done, I saw bullet holes in the canopy, and I don't mean just one or two. You would have to fire upward at maybe 50 degrees to do that.

Then there were the many interesting targets I saw when cops showed up to shoot. If you're more than ten feet from your typical LEO, you are probably safe. Unless he's shooting at someone else.

Here's a real beauty. Probably the worst shot in history. An autistic man armed with a toy truck was sitting in the street yelling. Next to him was his black caregiver. The black man was on his back with both hands in the air, screaming at the cops, telling them what was going on and not to shoot.

A SWAT cop using a RIFLE--not a handgun, mind you--fired anyway, missing the autistic man and nailing the black caregiver. I could have hit the autistic guy with a rock from that distance, not that I would have tried, because I am not a complete moron.

Officer Aledda, the shooter, supposedly could not see what was going on well enough to aim correctly. So he fired anyway?

Not sure how a 150-MOA shooter ends up on the SWAT team.



I shot my house once. Hope no one ever finds out about that. Also, I killed a bass with a .30-30. And when I was younger, I used to shoot gun range pistol frames deliberately.