Most UNimpessive shot you witnessed

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So so so many for me.

I missed a whitetail from about 25 yards away with a Mauser K98. I'm still bothered by why it happened to this day.

On Saturday I dusted maybe 10 clays for a warm up because my uncle was planning to scare some pigeons out of the barn for me. Missed both pigeons.

My second (I believe) time ever deer hunting I unloaded my 30-30 at a whitetail at about 200 yards finally hitting him on the last shot. (Before anyone says that was unethical of me, I was 13 or 14 and dumb and learned a valuable lesson) My favorite part on that one was before we went out my dad said "why are you loading it full, you only need 2 or 3 in there".

Those are just to name a few. To this date, the most unimpressive shot I've seen was by an idiot neighbor. We had finished hunting and were having brewskis by the fire. He goes in to his hunting shack and gets his 12 ga and starts shooting his real nice doe he had strung up. I took his 870 and went home. The next day when he sobered up I went back to return his 870 and he couldn't figure out why I was so pissed off. In his words it was his deer to do what he wanted with. Zero respect for guns, zero respect for game.
 
i have a smith enterprises suppressor (sucks) that slides over a flash hider and then wings fold into the groove and are covered by a nut that's screwed over the wings in lieu of thread mounting the can.

i was at an outdoor public range once, and forgot to screw it down. first shot felt funny. i finally located my suppressor about 30 yards downrange.
 
Demi-human said:
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! :)
Click to expand...

I did something similar a while back . My brother, one buddy and i were at a friend's checking the zero on our deer rifles because the season was just around the bend. I also brought my dad AK to sight in because he had just bought a cheap scope for it ( I made him take it off when we got home it was like looking through a straw). Anyways,We had a cheap white table fold up table, a chair a few blocks and a hot seat to rest the guns on. Got done with the hunting rifles and decided to move on to the AK. Had move the target in to 25 yards and make some adjustments to our "rest" to conform to the AK. Put the scope on target, pulled the trigger and there is hot seat filling raining all over. Guess the AK barrel is shorter than I thought.
 
The most unimpressive ones I have ever seen were AD’s.

Edit, I take that back, double charged loads are quite unimpressive as are squibs followed by a regular load.

All three are bad, and I have seen folks hurt from each of them.
 
Just about any Dragon antitank missile firing I've seen would would qualify.

I was shooting zero while in the Army. Lanes are fairly close together with targets a few yards apart, they are numbered because its easy to lose orientation and shoot someoneelse's target. So I shoot a group, everyone goes down range to check their target and I have no holes and the guy to my right has twice as many as he should. I apologize. We do it again and I check the number before shooting. Same thing happens. We check the M16 and the barrel is bent to the right. About then I remember a rough parachute landing a few weeks before.
 
I have two that stick in my mind. One was we were shooting at a friends abandon farm. So we could stupidly, as 20 somethings, shoot all over. I took a shot at the vent pipe which was very hard. My lead .22 bullet came wizzzing back at me just to the side of my head. I saw it too. Other was we went to sight in our deer rifles. There was a "new" guy that hadn't been with us. We did the 100yd sight in and stopped shooting.. One guy wanted to try his .44Mag revolver standing in front of the bench leaning back for support. We called a cease fire to allow him to fire from the position. I went forward with him to spot. After he shot a couple rounds I heard and felt a huge bang on my left butt. The "new" guy decided to fire his old 8x57mm sporter while I was a foot or so from the muzzle. I spun around, took the gun and cleared it tossing the bolt into the weeds. I was stopped before I used it as a club. I never saw that guy again. I think a 8x57 through my left butt, hip and pelvis would have been fatal from blood loss. Closets hospital was at least 40 minutes away. DO NOT ACCEPT CARELESS SHOOTERS. Call them out.
 
I'm going through SRT tryouts for work with several others and one of the qualifications is to shoot a 400 point course that involves shooter movement, gas mask shooting, transitions, reloads on the move and lots of other fun stuff with both a pistol and rifle while maintaining a relatively level firing line. It's July in east Tennessee, so it's HOT and HUMID. After the "all clear" command is given and we can remove our gas masks, the sweat pours out like emptying a half full Coke bottle on the ground.

Anyway, there's a female in the class who didn't think SRT was all that difficult since she had been on the opposing force team during some of their training and successfully "killed" several of them. Nevermind the training is rigged for them to lose on purpose to learn something. Anyway, to qualify for the class, the shooter has to score 90% or better.

The ground for this outdoor training range is concrete during the known distances that are used most often like 25, 15 and 10 yards with gravel in between those distances. It's solid concrete from 10 yards and in. At some point during the shooting, this female (who thought SRT is no big deal) manages to shoot the concrete 3 feet in front of her with an M4 rifle. She failed the qualification and earned the nickname "concrete".
 
Our post AMU was practicing with Garands @ 200 yds. Half the team members were pulling targets, the other half on the firing line. Our team CO (a 1st Lt), an E5 and an E4 were very evenly matched and always competing for a spot on one of our three teams & bet a beer on each shot during every offhand practice. They were so evenly matched that no one ever got hurt too badly financially.

The E5 had gotten hold of the LT's ammo box and worried a bullet out, dumping about half the powder, pushed the bullet back in the case and replaced it in his box. The whole team (other than Lt) knew what was happening and those on the line were watching every shot carefully.

It couldn't have worked out better. After firing several shots, LT finally fired a round, called it a 3 @ 6 o'clock and the (old 5V) target disappeared into the pits. When the target reappeared, it was followed by Maggie's drawers, which slowly traveled up the right side of target, then waved back and forth across top of target frame for what seemed like 5 minutes (to us; I'm sure it was a lot longer for the LT). LT said, D**N, I knew it was low, but I didn 't think it was THAT low! The black spotter marking his shot was barely visible, resembling a rising sun, over the top of the berm in front of the pits.

Finally, with the red flag still swinging back and forth, LT picked up the field phone, called the pits, and in no uncertain terms told them "that was enough". It was several days before the E5 finally got up enough nerve to tell LT what had occurred (He had the $$ in hand as he fessed up). :) That was the only Maggie's drawers I ever saw on a team range.

Regards,
hps
 
A very entertaining thread. Lots of chuckles and "I know the feeling" -moments.

Mine's somewhat less extreme but equally embarrassing.

Walking somewhere in the wilderness of Lapland, grouse hunting, I walked straight into a capercaillie mating area. Now, seeing a capercaillie is pretty rare. Getting within a shooting distance of one is a lucky break. Having SEVEN of them take off just a few yards from you is nothing short of a miracle. Some people hunt grouse all their lives and never get to shoot one. My dog had followed air scent, circled to the other side and distracted them just enough for them not noticing me approaching from the opposite direction.

I had a pump shotgun, extended mag tube of 7+1, and before I knew it I had emptied it in the general direction of what constitutes a dense flock of capercaillie. Missed every single one of them. Not even a feather on the ground. I had the dog scour the area for wounded birds (they fall like a rock if they're hit by even a single #6 pellet) - nothing.

I really wish I had a camera but that happened long before GoPro hit the market. I really wouldn't have needed to down any, I've shot quite a few over the years, but I would've given my left one to have that episode (and myself screwing up the opportunity) on video.
 
When the Ruger LCR first came out I decided it was worthwhile to try one before buying. They looked hideous but reviews were coming out pretty well and I didn't have a snubby yet. The local range only sold 2 varieties of .357 magnum ammo to shoot in their rental gun. Remington 125gr jhp (not golden saber) and Geco 158gr fmj. Considering the role for which the gun was being considered I quickly decided on the standard load of self defense and purchased the Remington. I stepped up the the firing line and proceeded to miss every single shot at 5 yards for the next 25 rounds on my usual pistol target, which is actually the Champion 25 yard rifle sight-in target. Normally I aim for 10 round groups at each of the 5 diamonds but this time I never even hit paper. Poor choice bringing my girlfriend to the range that day which made ME the most unimpressive shot she had ever witnessed! It caused me to flinch so bad that my range day was ruined.
 
Quite a few years ago I watched two guys shoot at a wounded doe that was caught in a netting fence. Each of them fire five rounds from about 30 yards and never hit the doe. They did apparently hit the fence and the doe ran another half mile before it died. It was a huge doe. They took it to the local locker and it was skinned before anyone thought to weigh it. The carcass weighed more than any other deer at the locker that year.
 
Watched my Dad do the following:

1. shooting a Browning BAR in 270 from the hood of his truck. Missed a doe at 75 yards. Doe trots off not knowing what the noise was. Dad raises up and shoots the doe off-hand. Driving to the doe the truck over heated. Seems he'd shot through a hump in the hood. Scratch the battery, radiator, radiator hose and the hood.
2. Putting up his 700 ADL he decides to 'drop the hammer'. Bullet goes through the rear window of his truck, the 'C' pillar and the windshield of a motor home my uncle (a retired 2-star) had rented. (as an aside, when my uncle returned the motor home, the staff sergeant doing the inspection simply stated "looks like you hit something there, General)

Watch a friend of my cousin that was a lousy shot, aim at a doe in the middle of a group of seven. On his shot, the doe on the far left dropped as did the doe on the far right. Both required finishing shots. Seems the guy jerked the trigger enough and hit the deer on the left in the front leg. Bullet then ricocheted passed by all of the other deer (including the one he was aiming at) and struck the deer on the other side. He was rather happy as he'd been hunting a few times and never killed a deer.
 
A friend of mine took his 12 or 13 year old boy deer hunting for the first time.
He put him in a good spot and pushed a timber. A young and dumb doe walked out 15-20 yards away.
The kid shot at it 20 times with a single shot 20 gauge and never touched it, or even scared it away. The boy wasn't a bad shot normally just a case of buck (doe) fever.
 
I'm a range rat. I've seen the slide cuts, muzzle covers and folks miss a b27 at 3yrds. What really scares me is when I'm in my shooting position and look up seeing several holes a foot and a half in front of the firing line. Then there is the guy so miserably bad he shoot the range target system shutting down a lane. Folks is folks!
 
About 10+ years ago I took my first certification class for CCW (I think it was about 2 or 3 months before Arizona went to Constitutional carry.) Anyway, the practical qualifying test was two 5 shot groups. I think it was one at 3 or 4 yards and one 7 yards, or something like that with at least 8 of the 10 shots in a 10” square center mass of a life-size silhouette. The firing line had only 6 positions that the 20 people in the class had to cycle through. I was in the last group to qualify. One guy in the first group was still “trying” to qualify and had used up the 50 rounds that we were told to bring to the class and he was out in the store buying another box of ammo. As I walked past his shooting position, I looked at his target and couldn’t see a single hole in it.

I don’t know if he ever actually passed (this was a “guaranteed” to pass class), but the thought of him carrying a firearm still gives me nightmares.
 
Not so much unimpressive shooting, so much as poor planing coupled with poor...er...execution.
My target stand is metal, and uses 2 long forming pegs with 1x12s attached as target backers. I rebuilt it recently as it was getting pretty shot up. For some reason it didnt occur to me that the spacing i was using puts the pegs directly behind the center of an 8x11 piece of paper like i usually print targets on...
To solve this astronomical problem I simply have to only put 2 targets on my stand at a time (instead of 3). I have YET to remember to do this till after i shoot one of the pegs off the stand....

Poorest shot ive seen lately was my own, I shot a sheep square in the middle last time we were out hunting.
Not missed, or anything else of the sort, for some reason I lined up the shot with the crosshair dead center the middle of the sheep and pulled the trigger. As soon as i broke the shot my brain kicked back in and went "WTH??".
I followed tracks for a 1/4 mile but never saw any of the herd again. Never saw signs of blood or anything else, Im HOPING I missed, but its not real likely.
I still have no clue what made me line up the shot the way I did.
 
I've got another one...

How about the worst shot NEVER taken?

I was turkey hunting and still a VERY new turkey "hunter". So new, I hadn't even learned how to do any real turkey calling. Anyway, I was sitting on the ground in a hollowed out round bale of hay overlooking a field where I had seen a flock of 15 turkeys or more. Of course the excitement was so great, I fell asleep for a short time. When I awoke, I looked up and saw a turkey coming right at me from across the field. In my sleep induced haze, I decided to promptly STAND UP.

I think that turkey is still running to this day.
 
Deer were scarce here in 1977. I was 13 yo.
I had planned a wonderful hike through the riverbottoms and back home to my parents house. Probably would be 4 or five miles. I had my lunch, canteen, slugs, and deer permit. It wad going to be just like the stories i had read in "Field&Stream".
My dad dropped me off at the road that lead to the river. I walked about 40 yards ehen a doe and fawn crossed the road in front of me. I took aim at the doe...and killed the fawn.
My first deer.
 
Ed4032 said:
I am sure that the most UNimpressive shot was the one that I negligently put thru the couch. It was a 45-70.
Click to expand...
A 45-70 thru a couch?!? I've heard of couch "potatoes." I didn't know there were couch "guns," let alone couch "hunters. " But I'm thinking a 45-70 would be plenty of gun for any couch a couch hunter is likely to run across.:D
 
I watched a friend's friend set up his chronograph on a table and try to shoot into a berm with his AR.
First shot was dead center through the screen.
He was in less than 3 feet from the chronograph.
This was right after he told me about loading 50 rounds of 223 without putting powder in them.
Now I have other things to do when they want to shoot.
 
I bought a Ruger No 1 in S&W 460 magnum. Being a revolver cartridge fired from a much heavier rifle, I figure recoil would be some what more mild.

I had not sighted in the gun yet. I just wanted to shoot it. I decided I wanted more stability than standing so I could at least get it on paper, so I went down on one knee. Ummm, no. Incorrect. I had placed a target at 50 yards. Line up the sights, BOOM! I apparently didn't have a good shoulder weld, and I vastly underestimated the recoil force. It knocked me back hard enough that I was suddenly staggering backwards, trying not to fall. I probably stumbled 6-8 feet, and nearly smashed the barrel into the grill of my truck.

Didn't hit the target either. 460 mag is a different beast in a rifle, and I had pretty much no experience shooting large caliber rifles at the time.
 
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