What is the best shot you have ever made?

[Hokkmike]

I was out groundhog hunting in the hills of NE, PA. There was an old timer groundhog who had a position of real advantage in the corner of a field where you could not approach or get close without him seeing you.

I was at the opposite corner of an adjoining field about 500 yards away when I saw him sitting up. I was apparently too far away to be of concern to him. I went prone with my Winchester Model 70 Sporter in 6.5 X 55 and found him in my Tasco Mag IV 6X24X40 scope. I tracked him for some time. Heat waves and high grass were playing havoc with my spotting. As is typical, he would crawl, stand up, go down quickly, wait - and repeat. Finally, I placed the reticle a half a body over his and fired.

Pacing off the distance, some 490 yards, I found him dead just outside his hole. It probably has been my best, longest range, most deliberate shot (that is a actually a true story) that I can remember.

So, what was your best ever shot?

 

[hoji]

Head shot on a crow at about 50 yards with a Mark II .22 pistol with factory sights.

 

[M2 Carbine]

100 yards, EAA Witness Compact 45ACP, first shot dead center in the X.

My friend said, You going to shoot again?
I said, Why?

 

[oneshooter]

One shot kill on a Tom Turkey,,,,,,,,,at 150yds (paced)........with a .50cal flint longrifle loaded with prb.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas

 

[Atticus]

I don't know about "best", but my luckiest shot was on a crow at about 300 yards with a friend's .222 Remington that I had never fired before.

 

[duck_god1982]

Best shot

My best shot was the primer out of a spent 12 gauge shell. The shot was made at 50 yards with iron sights on my marlin 22 mag.

 

[Steelharp]

Well... my luckiest shot was a Skoal can at 50 yds with a Kimber 1911... I'd never do that again!

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Another lucky one here would probably be my best. A sage rat (ground squirrel) at about 200yards with a 22lr. I walked them in and on the 3rd shot hit it.

 

[Hoppy590]

one handed, single shot. SW1911 on a moving target, or rather the closepin holding the target to the cardboard at the S&W indoor range. one lane over, moving from station 2 to 3 (20-25 yards maybe? i cant remember havnt been in a long time, shooting the closepin off my friends target causing it to fall. and i was totaly aware of where the round would end up. still well within the trap.) 100% luck
100 yards, bullseye, .22 youth rifle. sitting at a bench not trying

 

[hobbeeman]

My luckiest was breaking an unbroken clay pigeon at 35 yards with a .22 Derringer. My kid said "Cool dad, you're a really good shot"

 

[bigun15]

Was squirrel hunting in New Mexico. One was running down a tree at about 35yards. I was using a bolt .22 (translationne shot) and got it as it was on its way running down. My friend who was with me (who had never shot or hunted before and it was the first time I was shooting with him) was amazed that I hit it.

 

[mljdeckard]

I was out in the desert with my dad and my brother, and there were two jackrabbits in the middle of the road, 50 yards away. My brother was mostly joking, but he said, "You should plug those." My dad stopped, I quick-drew my Kimber and shot the lead rabbit. It disintegrated, like it was hit with a 230 grain hydra-shok or something (which it was) and the other rabbit froze, wondering what to do, and I squeezed off the second shot and plugged it too. Little tufts of fur were blowing away.

When I was about 8, I went with my dad in winter out on one of the desert plateus to get firewood, and as a reward, we pulled out the .22 when we were leavinf as the sun was going down. He threw a soda can out on a frozen pond, and I laid accross the hood of the chevy truck with his 10/22, and tried to hit it. (I have no idea how far away it was, it seemed like a mile or so.) He was messing with me, jiggling the truck, and yelling things to distract me, so I concentrated and tried to remember word for word the instructions to shoot. I held the front sight on the can shaking back and forth and squeezed. It felt like it took an hour for the trigger to break, and I saw the can spin sideways. My dad laughed at me and we went home.

When I was in basic training at Fort Knox, I made the mistake of complaining that my beat-up rattling, daylight between the upper and lower receiver M-16 was unsafe to use, and I wanted a different one. (Yeah, I know.) My drill sergeant had to give me HIS rifle, and as I eased into the prone, he said to me, "I don't know why it matters, it's not like you can hit anything with it anyway." I was so pissed, I just froze and became a statue except for my trigger finger, and I forgot everything except the front sight, and I was barely aware of the rifle firing. When I retrieved the zero target from 100 yards, there was a triangle just over 1". My drill sergeant looked at it, and we just kind of walked away from each other.

 

[bogie]

Best group...

Went through several iterations of wind inside of 10 minutes, but ended up with a .356 group for 10 shots in unlimited competition.

 

[Wastemore]

672 +/- 3 yards on a ground squirrel with a 700 VLS .223.

816 yards on a ground squirrel with a 700VS 22-250.

209 yards on a running ground squirrel with a tricked out 10/22.

Average logged shot to date is 351 yards with the .223 and 417 with the 22-250.

I do too much varminting.

 

[k_semler]

I shot a blackbird at the end of my driveway, (it was crapping on my car). It sat on the post, (about 170M away), and I lined up the iron sights on the .22 and shot. Dead center right on the chest. I haven't had **** on my car since. When I got to it, it was still alive, so I clubbed it to death with the butt of my rifle. I hope it likes hell, because that's where I sent it to. **** on my car, you're gonna pay for it with your life! Damn birds. I wouldn't care if they crapped somewhere else, (like off of my property).

 

[Riphalman]

Whoa, semler!..........

Remind me never to crap on your car!

 

[Dionysusigma]

Sparrow in mid-flight with a Yugo M48 Mauser.

Also my worst shot.

I gave what was left a proper, respectful burial. Never going to do it again (doubt I could, anyway).

 

[XDKingslayer]

My best shot was with my pellet gun. I had a Crossman .357 6 which is a Smith and Wesson .357 magnum look-alike with a 6" barrel. I ordered an 8" barrel and a scope from Crossman and mounted it on there.

I was at my aunts house in Arizona and down at the end of the driveway was a desert hare. It was about a 50 yard shot which is a pretty good shot with a pellet gun good for only about 360 fps. I figured the shot had to be right in the neck because it probably wouldn't penetrate his ribs. I took the shot and down he went, right there where he sat.

Then her cat beat me to him and drag him off...

 

[Arkie]

The best shot I ever had was without a gun.

A few co-workers and I were having lunch in the park and I was telling them that I used to play baseball when I was a kid and I was a pitcher.

There was a squirrel on the ground about 20 yards from us and one of them wanted to know if I could get close to him with a rock.

I didn't have a rock but I did have a piece of ice from my pop. I cocked back and threw the ice and it curved right into the squirrels head. POW! Knocked him right over and then it jumped back up and right up the tree it went.

My co-workers talked about that one for weeks.

 

[Mongo the Mutterer]

Wascally Wabbit

Was rabbit hunting on the right side of a skirmish line, when one blew out of the snow, to my left. No shot there, buddies, you know.

The next one took off dead away from me, and as I started to aim at it, I looked down and off my left foot, about 5 yards away, was a bunny shaking in fear. I stomped my foot and he took off, to the right.

I was a big fan of the series "Combat", and what happened next reminded me of that show. Think of the rabbit running and snow popping up as I fired at him with my .22 autoloader.

He was at a dead run, and I had a feeling that he would break into a woodline to his right, I lined up accordingly, and when he was about two feet from the woods, he broke, and I shot him through the heart at about 45 yards.

Young kid with me, who had come over at the sound of the firing, said "you missed" (the rabbit had carried into the woods). I said "just go down and pick him up". He did, and I let him ride back in the Jeep to the cabin holding it between his legs, and then had him clean it.

 

[Geno]

One-shot Kill (Neck Spinal) on Woodchuck at 225 Yards w/ .22LR

Back about 6 years, I used to do extended outings to rid the family farm of pesky woodchucks. I had purchased a Ruger 10/22 Heavy Barrel (blued), a Harris bipod, and topped it with Millet rings, and a 4-power scope with target turrets. The crosshairs covered exactly 2" at 225 yards. I had an armored steel swinging target in the silhouette of a woodchuck. I used to place that about 50 feet from their hole and plink it as I sat at the picnic table, under the tree in the back yard. The sandbag under the rear of the stock really helped a lot for stability. The woodchucks become curious as to what that ting sound was. When they rear up to look, pop.

A one-shot Kill (neck spinal) on woodchuck at 225 yards is not so impressive with say a 6MM Remington, or a .22-250 Remington, but with a .22LR, well, that's a pretty good shot. That week I harvested (I think) 6 woodchucks. The next year I harvested zero. I didn't even see one the next year. Either I took-out all of them, or they moved on to safer turf. I was using two different types of ammo: Remington Thunder Bolt and Remington Blue Tab Target. They were accurate. That set-up was capable of sustaining sub-MOA groups all day long, so long as I cleaned every 10 rounds. Why so fanatic about cleaning? I wasn't. If I tried to exceed 10 rounds, the rifle would not function. The chamber was that tight.

Doc2005

 

[Hokkmike]

Doc2005. when I was younger (20 something) I nailed 42 groundhogs out of one field over a summer. It hasn't been the same anywhere since. Consensus in these parts is that the coyotes, which are enjoying a drastic increase in population, are munching on them big time.

 

[shooting time]

I have 2 witness to this shot i shot a deer at over 1000 yds with my 300 WBY mag .it was more like a lucky shot using no rest.

 

[carterbeauford]

I do some of my groundhog hunting sitting in on the second floor of my barn with the 5x8 door open. I usually use an SKS with open sights for shots at 200 yards or less, but I saw one in the spotting scope at about 350 yards. Ran and grabbed my Mossberg .30-06, adjusted the scope and put one mil-dot under the crosshairs on him and squeezed. All I had were 146 grain tracers, but one was all it took! I am not a great shot with a rifle, was quite proud of myself.

Groundhog 490 yards is impressive. Those little guys didn't know what was coming. Once I get a more suitable groundhog rifle I'll try some longer shots.

 

[PX15]

Don't know if a "b/b" gun shot counts, but it was my finest moment at the time.

I was 8 yrs old and thought I was pretty good with my bb gun. My Uncle took a quarter and stuck it on a rafter on the outside of the old car shed (this was 1952) and told me if I could hit it with one shot I could have it.

He backed me off some distance and I hit it (probably by accident) on the first shot. He was amazed, I was amazed, but the quarter was mine.

By the way, a quarter went a lot further in 1952 than it does now. My uncle has been deceased for years, but it always makes me smile when I remember the occasion.

I'll probably wind up spending time in hades for the zillion innocent birds I killed with that sucker...

But it was sooo sweet..

JP