What is your "best ever" shot?

[Hokkmike]

My "best ever" shot was taken on a groundhod at 400+ yards. he was a wiley old grandfather who had a hole in the downward sloping corner of a large field. His vantage point gave him first vision of anything approaching his hole before he could be seen. It happened that I was in the other end of a field adjoining when I decided to lay down, crank up my scope to 24X and survey his corner of the field way over there. I saw him crawling around, occasionally standing as groundhogs do. I held over him, shimmering heat waves visible in my scope through the haze, and follwed him around for a few minutes. He was in and out of view. Then, when he stood and I had a clear shot a fired. I was holding several inches over his head with my Swede. When I paced off the distance to where he lay, hit in the lower abdomen, it was 430 some odd yards. That was about 15 years ago.

 

[Duckster]

1,100 Meters

1,100 Meters as a Sniper with the 101st.

 

[gezzer]

829 yards laser finder readout, crow in a fresh mowed hay field. My nephew and I were setting up for the afternoon chuck shoot. After setting up my portable bench and seat he said try a shot at the crow furthest out.

I used his 243 HB 700 I had built for him, zapped the crow with the laser range finder, cranked the scope up and took the shot. The crow vaporized in a red and black mist. I put the gun away and said this isn’t fun anymore as it's too easy.

That was the biggest lie I have ever made. I was stunned I hit that crow but couldn't let him know!

 

[ZeSpectre]

An extremely aggressive copperhead coming toward me (you'd be amazed how fast they can be) and I can't back off nearly fast enough to get out of the little valley we were in. Smith & Wesson 686 drawn from a shoulder holster, fired, and hit it just behind the head in one smooth action.

I seriously doubt I could ever pull that shot off again and I never want to try it!

 

[Eyesac]

I was stunned I hit that crow but couldn't let him know

Ha!

It's not a hunting shot, but me and my dad had just about the same experience.
When I was around 7yrs old I was out shooting a Winchester 69A (.22) and my father was just watching. I walked out to somewhere around 100 yards and set up an old railroad spike, walked all the way back and sat down to take the shot. Right as I was about to pull the trigger, my dad said, "you know, you're not going to hit that" I aimed let it fly and Ping! He didn't tell me I couldn't hit anything after that.

 

[xd45gaper]

60+ yards Turtle in a pond with a ruger 10/22

 

[rantingredneck]

Rifle: 350 yd shot across a bean field with a Rem 700 .30-06. 10 pt buck.

Handgun: Walking back to my truck after a late season drive. Walking along a creek bed when a doe gets up right beside me and runs behind me. I turn, draw my Ruger SRH .454 from my shoulder holster and fire in one motion. Deer rolls in the dry creek bed.

Shotgun: Walking up an old logging trail after a deer drive. Something, probably a dog, on the other side of the property gets a 9 point buck up and it runs right toward me. I heard it coming and froze. I shot it at 10 feet with a Mossberg 835. It damn near ran over me.

Muzzleloader: Was sitting behind a haybale overlooking a clover field in muzzleloader season. Father in law was behind another hay bale about 200 yds away. Two does come out in the lower end of the field about 300 yds away from us. I got down on my belly and crawled hay bale to haybale until I got to about 200 yds out and the last hay bale. I rested the gun on the bale and held about six inches above her back and fired. She ran into the tree line like her rearend was on fire. My father in law came walking up and said, "you missed". I said, "I don't think so, she looked hit to me". He said, "the powder flash and smoke kept you from seeing what I saw. You missed." I said, "Let's go make sure". We walked down to the corner of the field where the deer ran into the pine thicket. I didn't see any blood in the field or at the treeline. It was getting dark at this point and my FIL was saying "Lets go, it's a long walk back to the truck" I kept going into the thicket and found blood about 10 yards in. 15 yards later I found the deer. Clean shot through both lungs. Needless to say I had a huge sh*t eating grin on my face when I walked out of the pines dragging that deer........... I counted 220 paces from where the deer were standing to the haybale I used as a rest.

 

[krimmie]

I was in a pine tree stand when I heard a deer crashing through the palmettos behind me. I had to shoot left handed, fired three shots.... two found home. It was only a 40 yard shot, not my longest but that deer was moving! Never had to shoot left handed again. It was a 6 point by the way.

 

[koja48]

Starling on-the-wing with a rubber blunt out of a longbow at around 30 yards . . . I'll never duplicate that one . . . to this day, I don't rightly know which of us was more surprised . . .

 

[rustymaggot]

one of my best was a ground squirrel at somehwre between 100 and 150 yards( no range finder, its our collective guess that it was at least 100 but not more than 150) the gun was a remington 721 in 30-06. a group of us were sneaking up a creek bed tward a dam made of earth on the ranch we were on. the little guy was at the mouth of a burrow in the dam. i motioned to the group to stay back behind me and then i took a knee and shot. hit him in the neck and popped his head almost off. we dug the bullet out of the dam and i still have it.

i hit a squirrel at 400+ once. took us 20 minutes to hike out to the body. the other squirrels drug him down a hole by then.

my friends best shooting was when he shot a sparrow out of the air with a singe shot bolt action 22 shooting from the hip. ive seen him do it twice.

 

[ballisticbill]

400 yards on a prairie dog

http://www.ballisticbill.com/400_yard_shot_on_a_prairie_dog.htm

 

[jrfoxx]

Hit (and killed) a rabbit running top speed in the woods,with an old, bolt action, .410 mossberg.Got him with the 3rd shot.Never knew I could work a bolt that fast (and likely couldn't ever repeat it)

 

[jeepmor]

Hit a crow on the fly at 50yards or so with my Crossman BB gun as a kid. Did not kill it, but it barrel rolled in mid air, dropped 5 feet of elevation and kept going.

Smoked plenty of starling type birds off of power wires, but they were never that far away. Neat to just see feathers poof with the hollowpoints.

 

[NateG]

Last weekend, high power rifle clinic. I had zeroed my AR at 100 yards with my 600 slow-fire loads then used Joe Huffman's program to calculate the drop and windage/mph at 600 yards. Put the come-up on my sights, and the coach gave me the windage: zilch. Shot. Target disappears. Comes up X at 3:00. Screw up the second sighter. First shot for record: X at 3:00. I was rather pleased with myself on that one. I didn't do so well after that... only ended up with a 172-4X in almost no wind, but my first ever shot beyond 300, and first shot for record were Xs.

 

[Grumulkin]

When I was young and stupid, I hit a mud hen (aka coot) swimming peacefully in a lake with the first shot from a Marlin semi auto in 22 LR from around 200 yards. My friend was impressed; I sure I would have to try many times to duplicate that feat.

My longest big game shot that I made with something other than dumb luck was a deer at 425 yards.

 

[Geno]

My best shot, was not my longest shot. I chose to present this incident, because it is the best qualified per the combination of being crafty and placing a good shot.

Back about 8 years, we were having a groundhog infestation on the family farm. One of the sports stores in the area was selling armor plate swinging steel targets, in the shape of various varmints. I bought a swinging type, in-life-sized shape of a groundhog that was standing on hind-legs.

I placed the steel target about 30 yards away from the ground hog’s cluster of holes in the field. Then, laying in wait in my camouflage, I hunkered down at about 150 yards away (sun to the groundhog’s face and behind me) with my Ruger 10/22 BH, with a 4X scope with ultra-fine crosshairs and target turrets. This rifle was MOA accurate to 225 yards, so getting a headshot was no problem. I pinged the steel target 3 times with shots from the .22LR. I can tell you for fact, groundhogs are curious. When they hear these pings, they have to come out and look. When it did, pop. One less groundhog. I cleaned out the family farm in 2 days. The third day was boring. No more groundhogs.

 

[trueblue1776]

another ex-mil guy here; 50 rounds from the M9 Beretta at 25 yds, all in the ten ring (perfect score), it only happened once but it still makes me feel good.

 

[GardDog223]

287 yards (witnessed and laser ranged) on my personal best buck with a Mod 70 in 300 WSM. Buck was head down, at a trot, lookin for love.

 

[hagar]

Dove in a tree at 40 yards with a slingshot. Impressed my little cousin to no end!

Out hunting coyotes, and while my buddy is opening a gate, I see a crow far off, just a little black speck, so far it thought it was safe. Ask friend if I could borrow his 22/250 in the front seat, take a bead, aim about 3 feet above crow, and whackkk, it explodes in a ball of feathers. Rifle shoots good, I casually explain to him. Paced it off at about 550 yards.

 

[jmorris]

I was 13 driving around our farm on a Honda 70. Running along in 3rd or 4th gear, one shot from a Ruger mark II out of a shoulder holster, hits a turtle sunning on the bank 30 yards away.

 

[sharkhunter2018]

this was not me, but i was a witness. couple years ago me and a friend were out on my property looking for tree rats. saw one run up to the top of a tree that was about 75 feet tall. the tree rat jumped to another tree and as it did that, my friend took a shot with a single shot 12 ga. and caught him mid air between trees. was pretty cool.

 

[MrDig]

Lucky as all get out, but Off handed with only the pistol grip I hit a running rabbit with an old .410 single shot shotgun maybe 20 yards out. My hunting buddy swore I missed but sure enough we found that evil petunia thief, wounded about 15 feet from where I aimed.
I have yet to duplicate it ever on any other type of game.

 

[MCgunner]

Lord, I don't know, Coyote at 350+ was my longest than I can think of. As far as "best", I've shot a lot of deer on a dead run jumping 'em, rabbits, too. I love to hunt that way where I can like out in West Texas, still hunting and walk and stalk from ridge lines. I remember one rabbit on a dead run at 40 yards with my .22 that I impressed myself with. That there bunny was MOVIN'. But, I guess it'd have to be a snake I shot once. I was fishing this little lake in the hunting/fishing club I was in at the time. It was infested with water snakes of the genus Natrix such that they HAD to be hurting the fish population, though there were a lot of crappie in that lake as well as black bass. I had a Phoenix Arms HP22 in my pocket. Now, you might think this little pot metal gun is a POS, but the thing is 3" accurate at 25 yards with it's SHORT barrel, amazing little gun, why I like it. Fits in a pocket and I can take it anywhere with that sort of accuracy. Amazing. Anyhow, I saw a BIG snake on a log, just could see the body, was about 25 yards. I shot it center mass, it rolled off that log, came up and saw me in the boat and started after me front half of its body out of the water. These things are aggressive if not poisonous. I started shooting at its head as it occelated back and fourth and hit it square on about the fifth shot about 20 feet from the boat. I was getting ready to go hand to hand, but concentrating hard on that front sight. ROFL! What they call close quarters combat. I also hit one swimming that day about 25-30 yards out. That was a lot of fun, caught a few fish and killed a dozen or so snakes that weekend. I don't think I've ever seen a lake so over-run with snakes. I didn't put a dent in the population, there. I don't know how they could get rid of that many snakes, but they sure needed to. I sure wasn't going to go for a swim, there, can tell ya that! I KNOW they're not poisonous, but hey, they're mean little critters and I didn't know that there might not be a moccasin in there with 'em somewhere.

 

[Caimlas]

The best shot I've made wasn't with a firearm, but with a bow and arrow. When I was about 10, I shot a garter snake from about 7 paces with a compound bow and target arrow through the midsection.

I can't think of any notable shots I've made with firearms, other than a couple times last summer/fall when I was able to hit several soda bottle caps from about 40 paces with my AR and iron sights from a standing position - not that great, but pretty good for me considering there were a lot of close hits when I didn't actually hit the cap.

Also stunned quite a few squirrels and chipmunks in my misspent youth with a slingshot, but who's countin'.

Best story I've ever heard was actually my grandfather's, corroborated by my mother. They were out walking in the woods, and my grandfather had his Colt Woodsman on his hip in a leather holster. Rattlesnake starts doing its rattle in the middle of the path directly in front of them - they'd almost stepped on her. They start backing away when it decides to strike - and my grandfather whips the Woodsman from the holster to drill it once through the head. Even at 80-years-old (how old he is now), he's got some of the most fantastic reflexes and shooting abilities I've ever heard of or seen.

 

[Caimlas]

McGunner, you can fashion snake traps out of fine chicken wire and/or porch screen material and wire, or you can use crawdad traps. Just bait them and they'll catch snakes; put them under the water and I imagine you'd be able to catch quite a few as well.

Something like: http://www.dunnsfishfarm.com/live_snake_trap_303_prd1.htm