Ugh...Worst shot in the history of earth!

[kmrcstintn]

years ago...shortly after coming into the world...my father was hunting rabbits with a buddy from the service; his buddy's dog was a freshly trained beagle to point & retrieve the furry critters; at the time my dad didn't have much time with a shotty and accidentally bought some high brass loads (this comes into play later on in the story); dad's bud allows him to take the first rabbit;

the dog flushes it and dad missed since he didn't lead; a bit of laughing and technique correction was administered; dad gets another chance at another rabbit; this time he is focused and determined not to miss; the dog flushes and dad quickly swings onto the furball and shoots again...

the poor beagle goes to retrieve the rabbit and has a cunundrum...which half to pick up and take back...dad's high brass load blew the rabbit clean in half at 10 yards...to this day the story is told of the sad beagle that was denied the chance to proudly retrieve his first rabbit...we all get a chuckle

 

[K3]

I liquified a quail last year in Mississippi. Little fella flushed right in front of me, and I blasted him 2 feet of the end of the barrel. The guide said I should at least let them step off the end of the shotgun before I shoot. Everybody got a good laugh out of that one.

 

[Nevertoomanyguns]

It is probably a good thing that you missed last season I was hunting snow shoe hares and the beagles pushed this one suicidal hare almost between my legs I shot him at about 4 yards with my Remington 100 in .410 with number 6shot. luckily it was a head shot. The mess was horrible head totally gone and most of the front shoulders, my favorite part, were gone too. If you had hit those squirrels with that 12ga. at 2 yards you still would of gone home hungry

 

[EatBugs]

I had some interesting squirrel hunts this year. I hunt with a .22 and while eating a squirrel I bit into someone else's lead shot. # 4 I think.

Also, I've started to notice that shot squirrels behave differently then missed squirrels if they don't fall DRT. So, I shot a big ol fox squirrel and the thing does the old western style fall from the tree. I didn't see it hit the ground but I could hear it do the little bouncy dance and run a few feet. I go looking for it and find nothing. I look and look and look but still nothing of going in circles around the tree. And then.... I see a bushy tail sticking out from a hollow log. But it was a squirrel I shot and lost last week.(shot out of same tree too.) ugh how frustrating. so I go back and hunt some more but I still can't get over that fox squirrel, I was sure I got it, and I was encouraged by finding last weeks lost squirrel. So I pinpoint the tree it fell out of ( very productive tree, I wound up shooting alot of squirrels out of it) and search the ground untill I find itty bitty drops of blood and some fur. I eventually blood trailed that squirrel and found it. holy cow, do you know how hard it is to blood trail a squirrel!

A few weeks later I become a more bold shooter(first year with .22) and start aiming for the head. I never seen squirrels run so far with no brains.

 

[sammoh]

Hey don't feel bad. I had a couple of horrible shots my first time out deer hunting. It was with a bow but this gives you an idea how bad it was. My dad and I were sitting in a bush blind and a 2x2 walks past us. Its quartered away from us so we're looking at its right rear quarter with a clear shot into the chest cavity. My dad nods to me and I slowly stand, draw and loose, only to have the arrow sail way over its head. The thing didn't move. I nocked and drew again, this time the arrow hit the ground by its front feet. That set it running and it ran into my dad's arrow that he'd loosed after my second shot. That blew through the deer's chest cavity and dropped it where it hit the ground.

Now, let's talk distance. The bloody thing wasn't all that far from us, in fact, it was only 15 or so ft from us. That was when I was 14. Now I'm 31 and regularly put all my arrows in the yellow (bull's eye) from 30 yds with my long bow. My father still brings up that hunt now and then especially when I'm out shooting him.

Sam

 

[tinygnat219]

My advice, switch to ammo and leave the blanks at home.

 

[Pigspitter]

A bad moment in my hunting career happend while squirrel hunting. I had my mosin nagant m44 bayo extended when a squirrel pops out and hits the surrender position about five feet away. I'm out of ammo so I take my rifle and throw it javelin style right between its legs. Then it shames me by running up the stock of the rifle and sitting on my butt plate.

 

[theCZ]

Like Bitmap said, your shotgun is probably set to shoot high, I know all of mine except my O/U pattern high. Still, it's easy to think you can be sloppy because it's a shotgun...