The best shot you ever saw?

[Brad Johnson]

In my teen years I saw my Dad take a coyote on a lucky shot. He was trying to hit a running coyote at about 200 yards and kept hitting nothing but dirt. All of a sudden there was a big puff of dirt in front of the running critter from which the 'yote didn't emerge. When the dust cleared we could see the coyote laying on the ground.

Close inspection revealed a large head wound on the side opposite us, and we could find no entry wound. Best we could tell Dad had hit the ground in front of the coyote and the bullet ricocheted up, striking the coyote under his jaw.

Brad

 

[MolonLabe416]

I was at the range with a friend who was zeriong a 22/250. He had a 24x (?) Unertal scope on it. One of the old, long ones with the spring around the tube. He was shooting, I was spotting.

About the time he got her zeroed at 100 yards a bumble bee landed on the target board. Says he "See the bee?" "Yes, says I." "I'm going to shoot it says he." He fires. Bee disappears.

But did he hit it, bark it, or scare it? We walk down range. Bee parts. He hit the damn thing dead center.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

I've had some pretty good shots at "reactive" targets. (bottle caps, cans, trash lying about at 50 yds, the back of the outdoor pistol range I used to frequent) We would tell each other the approximate location of the item and try to make it dance if the range officer wasn't watching too closely. Bottle caps at 50 yds was the most fun.

My finest, though, was with a target bow. After sighting in on the upper left, I went for the center bull. My brother called out one perfect shot. On the second, the arrow made a strange thunking sound, and I saw a nock shatter in several pieces. I had split the first with the second. The range usually took these and mounted them on their wall with the name, date, etc. I said no. It sits on my own wall in my computer room, my one and only trophy in shooting.

 

[J Miller]

Some years ago a couple of friends and I went out to the desert to do some shooting. We were short on targets so they decided to shoot a horizontal limb off a tree. The range was around 25 yards. Both of them had Mini 14's and altho they were hitting the limb they couldn't shoot it off.
I had a S&W 25-2 and smarted off that a bigger bullet would do it.
Both friends stopped shooting and told me to put my money where mouth was. I raised up the Smith, thumbed the hammer back and fired one shot. Down came the limb.

Of course it was glote time for me.

 

[makdaddy03]

In my younger days I use to shoot Nickles,Dimes and Quarters.
Out to about 50-75yds using open sights, gun used was a Marlin 25N boltaction 22lr. Nowadays I have to use a 3x9x40mm scope.

 

[Correia]

I made a 200 yard shot on a mannaquin head with a .45 1911.

I fired one shot, watched the impact, adjusted, and hit it. Head went rolling.

Wouldn't believe it myself except I've got several witnesses including George Hill, PvtPyle, skyder, Porter Glockwell, and other TFLers and THRers.

 

[George Hill]

Yup. 200 yard head shot with a 1911.

Don't mess with Larry.

 

[cratz2]

Not that it is anything more than 1% experience and 99% dumb luck but I've probably shot 3 or 4 crows in flight just above the ground at range from 30 - 50 yards. I'm not much of the semi auto blaster type but shooting at flying crows, I'll take the AR over a bolt gun anyway.

I have a friend that I talk about quite often on this board. He's a benchrest competitor and some of his groups are so small it hurts me. I took a Savage in 223 out to a mutual friends place for sighting in. It hadn't been boresighted so first at 25 yards then out to 100 then I was just playing around. I'm not the best shooter in the world but I had put most of the shots into 2" or so thinking that wasn't shabby. He has a go with it and uses some handloads he'd worked up for a Savage 223. Three shots, all were touching... I wouldn't really call it a cloverleaf. I'd call it a 40 caliber hole. And it was not an exceptional group for him.

Two morals of the story... not all those former military snipers are BSing... and never let anyone tell you the Savage rifles can't shoot.

That guy makes me sick.

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

Back in the mid '70's my younger brother and I got matching .22 rifles for Christmas. Now he always was a better "plinker" than I and showed me up regular with our matching pellet rifles. We'd go walking in the woods and shoot whatever we could find or eat. There was an electrical sub-station near our ranch and on this particular wire was a 3" diameter washer that I could never hit, yet Chris would be "ding, ding" every shot. I had "had nuff"
and let lead fly at the washer. Apparently one or more shots cut the wire and ZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTT BOOM ! and a major lightshow commenced.......... You never seen two boys hightail it out of them woods so fast. I think we darkened half of Alvin, TX. that afternoon.

 

[Porter Glockwell]

Yup, witnessed the 200 yrd headshot too.

My personal best was a clay pigeon, 15 yards out, in flight, first try,.... with my AK-47


Porter

 

[Erik]

I watched a guy key hole a double tap.

Then I watched him do it again, when the instructor didn't believe him.

Then I watched him do it yet again, for the benefit of another instructor who commented that "if you're shooting that accurately, you're shooting too slow."

For the record, the man seemed to have shot just a tad slower than the famed Bob Munden, imo. Just a tad. (I use Mr. Munden as reference since so many have seen his demos.)

Everyone paying attention was rather impressed.

 

[Jeff Timm]

Best shots I've ever seen were made by a young lady about 12, with a .22 Ruger Target pistol.

Back in the 1980's a half dozen Police from a large city, which shall remain nameless (It's home to the Cleveland Browns) so as not to embarass the officers, were working with their new S&W 9mms at a local gun club. (Two of the officer's were new members) I had just explained the new markings on the 4 x 8 sheet of steel we were using for bowling pin shoots. Five marks a foot from the front for most shooting, five marks a foot from the back for .22 and nine marks a foot from the back for 9mm hi-cap (those were the days) pistols. They were having a great old time with the case of ammo the tax payer had bought them (and I salute the Police Chief for encouraging practice with the new guns though the training program over all still needs work) when an innocent young girl approached and asked if she could try.

Much smirking followed. The young lady drew her Ruger Target pistol, inserted a 9 round magazine and knocked nine pins off the table with 9 rounds. Something none of the officers had accomplished. Much blushing followed.

Geoff
Who has gone 5 for 5 on pins...but not when I needed it to finish in the money.

 

[tz99]

As a kid I shot a bird a bird in flight with a bb gun. I know it was a one in a million. At my grandfathers house starlings were fair game. A cousin shot at a starling overhead on the power line. The shot set the bird into flight and it flew on the far side of a tall bush 10 to 15 ft tall and about 8 or 9 feet wide at the top. I took aim and fired on the other side of the bush and the two collided. The bird fell into the garden to completely asthonish the two of us.

 

[Crimper-D]

Most remarkable shooting I've seen -

I was shooting offhand with one of my single shot .22's at clay birds I'd clothspinned to the 50yd chickenwire... along come a couple of members I'd seen around but not met before - asked if I minded if they tried to hit a few with their handguns = "Sure - have a go at em!"
One guy hauls out a Ruger Blackhawk and empties the cylinder with no damage done.
Then his buddy...Hauls out a Stainless Steel 'Made in the USA' Walther PPK .380! fired offhand, modified Weaver stance, no benchrest, - BROKE 5 OUT OF 5 at 50 yds!
I asked his buddy - "He do this sort of thing often???"
= "Usually!"

Obviously someone you want on your side!

 

[Baba Louie]

Back in 93 my Dad came out for a little visit. He was then 61 years old, had cataracts, his right eye had a detached retina and he wears those "Coke bottle" type of lenses to see out of his left eye.
My BIL and I were going to shoot in a hi-power match that weekend so we invited the old timer along. I had a garand and the Ar-15 with me, BIL had his garand. Space was available so we cajoled the old man into joining us. I invited him to shoot the garand (he has a couple back home), but he said due to the retina being kinda loose and all he'd pass, but he'd never shot a Colt before (he never got over the military going to those "Mattel toys"). He decides since his right eye is basically blind, he'd shoot left handed. With a rifle he's never shot before. He's right handed.
He had no spotting scope.
During the match, the gentleman next to us, who'd been watching thru his scope, commented to me, "He shoot much?"
"His whole life", I replied.
Dad gets done with his shooting, standing, sitting and prone and comes back to the bench and the guy next to us tells him, "Nice group".
Dad replied, "Kinda rusty. Old eye. Shooting left handed feels a bit weird."
We walked out to retrieve his target with my BIL (who was shooting in the lane next to Dad).
2"+ group with a couple of "flyers" to open it up to maybe 3".
Bring the target back to the scorer who commented on the group, (but it was kinda high and to the right, no X's). Dad's reply was, "I guess for a plastic rifle it'll do. Recoil was kinda weak."
My BIL and I laughed about that for years.

Adios

 

[DF357]

My best was....

in the Army in 1967 using an M14. In basic we had to qualify by shooting randomly popping up man size silouettes at various distances up tp 1000 meters ! I don't know how I ever hit those 1000m jobbies because at 3325 feet (3/5 of a mile) I could barely see it. But I did ! I qualified expert.

Today? Forget it.

 

[Gewehr98]

Got published for this one...

And I kept the proof, for posterity...

 

[TheActor]

My dad shot a whitetail running flat out, broadside at ~ 60 yds with two from a 30.06. First shot kicked the dirt behind. He adjusted and put the next through it's heart. The darn thing slid nearly 20ft in the wet grass. This happened really fast as it was about to drop over a rise in a harvested field. I could not believe it. It was dead before it stopped sliding. Oh yeah, iron sights as well. The rifle is a auto I think it's called woodsmaster made by remington. Freehand shot not even a tree to rest on. Also saw one of his hunting buddies disintegrate a quail. It kicked up at his feet and he was on it so fast he blew the darn thing to pieces. Talk about reaction time.

 

[CWatson]

It was several shots actually.I was in my early teens and my family and I lived in the High Desert in CA.We lived way out in the boonies.It was dusk and there was a loud ruckus comming from outside.

My dad flew out of his bedroom carring his P38.Seeing the gun me and my brothers were right behind him.As we got on the front porch my dad was stepping off and started shooting at a mass of fur,dirt,and tumbleweeds about 30-40 yards away from him.

Three fast shots,bbblam! Never stopped as he walked towards the little twister.Three large dogs dropped dead,a big mutt and two large german shepards.Hopping out from under one of the sheps was our lab,shaken and stuned.

Dad's arm didn't look like it came all the way up to his eye level.CW

 

[Hazwaste]

Best Shot

The best shot I've ever seen was one I did when I was 12. I used a Crossman 761XL pellet gun with a cheap 4x scope at 30 yards to shoot the abdomen off of a wasp right at the little thin part that holds it onto the thorax. It only took 1 shot and I was shooting from standing.

 

[TRIDENT]

1) Tumbled an antelope running full speed with one shot through the back of the neck at 200 yards my senior year of high school with a .308 in Montanna. My senior trip!
2) Wasted a squirrel running/jumping through the top of a huge red oak tree (40+ feet) in Mississippi with a head shot from my Ruger MKII on the first try.
Both very lucky shots. I am a decent shot, but not that decent!

 

[MLH]

Two shots

First one my cousin and I were driving along a country road when he spots a crow land in a 40 to 50 foot tree about a 1/4 mile away. Fair wind as the tree was swaying pretty good. Grabs his rifle (don't know the caliber), sticks it out the window and "BANG." Crow drops like a rock as did my jaw.

Second was a cop that was Capt. of the Louisville Police Pistol Team (Back when they had one). He took a 1911 Upside down using his pinky finger to fire it and at 25 yds. made a can dance downrange to at least 50 yds. and never missed once. Kind of guy you want to back you up. He even taught me to do it (I hit it once )

 

[clange]

Best i've done was my first deer, i was probably 13 or so. I had gotten up to go up the hill and relieve myself. I'm about 40-45 yards from where i was sitting when i hear loud crashing. I had my SKS ready so i flew around taking it off safe and bringing it up at the same time. Sight came right up on the lead deer of a pair running through. Fired one quick shot right away and it kept going over a rise, the one in the back stopped. I thought long and hard about shooting at that one but decided not to. Glad i didnt cause i found the first deer like 30 ft from where i shot it. Hit it right through the heart. Good thing to cause i had loaded up the SKS with FMJ (didnt know anything about that stuff). My dad saw the exit wound the same size as the entry wound and asked 'what do you got in that gun?'

 

[Erich]

It wasn't with a gun.

The most amazing shot I ever saw was from my little brother's slingshot.

You know how a kid will get a slingshot and then proceed to just wander around shooting things with it? After a while, it just becomes second nature, and the kid stops thinking about it (I suppose this is where we'd all like to be with our guns) and just does it. It's not super-important whether the kid hits anything, so he's mellow about it.

Anyway, Mike had gotten pretty good just plinking with pebbles, good enough that I was pretty darn impressed. He didn't realize it was any big deal, though. I gave him some 5-gram weights to shoot (Dad was throwing them out from his lab) and was showing off his accuracy to some neighborhood kids ("All right, now hit that rock.") when a sparrow flew by. I told Mike, "Shoot that!"

He didn't even think, he just swiftly drew back and shot the bird out of the air. Dropped like a stone. Blew its head off, actually, although that was a fluke - he would never claim that he'd aimed for the head.

Years later I did something similar (but not nearly as impressive to me) with a throw. Walking back and forth from my dorm's cafeteria (in another building), I'd throw my keys at birds congregating in the path. My big leather keyring would catch enough air to slow down the keys enough to where the birds would be able to fly out of the way by the time the keys got there, but I got pretty accurate with the throws. After months of this, I nonchalantly hucked a giant bolt I'd found at a squirrel - and broke its neck. Felt really bad (hadn't really intended to hit it), and had to kill the convulsing thing with my boot.

(Some great stories here, btw.)

 

[jdkelly]

The "best" shot I ever witnessed...

The "best" shot I ever witnessed was an off hand shot with an iron sighted Glenfield model 60 22lr. A buddy and I had been walking the pits sharing my rifle and shooting what ever we happen to see.

My buddy had been telling me what a great shot he was when I spotted a bird sitting on a branch about 125 yards away. I brought up my binoculars and said "All right Daniel Boone, lets see you shoot.". I wanted to shut him up about how good he was.

He mounted the rifle and shot while I watched through my field glasses. The bird didn't move at first, then as if in a cartoon it swung backwards, with it's feet still on the branch, to an upside down position and then released it's grip, falling head first to the ground. My buddy was busy clearing the FTE ,that happened so often with the cheap ammo we were shooting (ammo that would latter save my life, but thats another story), and didn't see the result of his shot.

When finished clearing the jam he looked at me for a report on his shot. I just smiled and said, "It flew away, hey let's call it a day". I felt his ego didn't need any building as it was.


jdkelly