Your best "Lucky Shot"

[Fun2Shoot]

We've all had 'em. You decide to "go for it" and take the shot..........and low and behold.........you HIT the mark!

Back in the day, I was out varmint hunting with some buddies from High school out in the open desert. We had only bagged a jack rabbit and a dove after several hours of aimless wandering and shootin' and decided to sit down for a lunch break.

One guy had just finished eating an apple and was about to toss the core to the ground. I was sitting on a big rock with a semi-auto .22 rifle by my side and I said to him, just before he dropped the core to the ground: Hey John, heave that apple core into the air and I will blow it out of the sky with a "hip shot"............... Yeah Right!

Well, he hurled that apple core way up high, into the desert air. I put my hand on the stock of the .22 by my side, released the safety and from a seated position, raised the muzzle skyward at hip level and fired one shot!.................You guessed it. That apple core, that was about twenty feet above and one hundred feet beyond me, exploded as my .22 slug "nailed it" dead center!

I was stunned that I had hit it, but just as quickly, acted like it was "no big surprise" so that I would not let on that I had just been incredibly lucky.

One buddy said: If that wasn't luck...let's see it again! I told him that I didn't want to show off with a repeat exhibition.........like I could !

Got a "Luck Shot" story from your shootin' past? Tell us

 

[Jeeper]

When I was 14 I hit a bird out of the sky with a BB gun at like 50 yards. The thing spiraled to the ground and landed in my neighbors pool.

 

[jtward01]

Hitting that apple core wasn't luck, it was instinct. Most of us let our intellect get in the way of our instinct. We try too hard, thus we miss. The old west gun fighters developed their instincts to the point where they could "point n shoot" and still hit their target. Watch Bob Munden sometime.


My lucky shot came during a bowling pin shoot. The timer beeped, I fired my first shot at the pin on the far left, it kicked out to the right and took all four remaining pins with it. Five pins, one shot. 0.2 seconds to clear the table. Yep, I had the low time of the night.

 

[jsalcedo]

We had been shooting at stuff all day and we were walking back to the house. After a while I turned around and saw the glint of a bottle I had left standing on a crate where we were shooting.

I had been shooting with my 1899 vintage M91 Mosin Nagant so I moved the ladder sight to approx distance and fired one shot. the only way I can tell I hit the bottle was the glint off the glass got really bright for a moment then ceased. I paced the distance and found it was approximately 250 yards.

 

[GoBrush]

before reading your whole story I was going to say no shooting is luck its all skill and practice but your story had to be luck

I was out with my buddies one day and we had a new Guy with us that had not seen me shoot before. We had been shooting awhile and found some of those little army guys we played with when we were 3. Any way I wedged 3 or 4 of them into a piece of plywood and stepped back to about 15 yards. He laughed at me and said how in the heck (I am in utah now ) are you going to hit that. I said like this raised and blew the little plastic guys head off. He thought it was luck and I proceeded to elemenate the remaining figures. GREAT GUN AND PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

 

[enfield]

Sitting on the back porch with my younger brother and a Sheridan air rifle. Brother asked if I could hit anything with it, so I aimed at a small green apple on the tree about 30-40 ft from the porch and pinwheeled it, offhand. Brother said "Betcha can't do that again". I told him I would not only hit the same apple, but hit the stem and cut it from the tree. I did. No more shooting required!!

 

[ZenMasterJG]

jtward01:
Dude, thats insane. I do pinshoots too, but i've only gotten 2 with one shot, not all 5!

 

[Spoonman]

About 25 yrs ago, my brother and I were sighting in his new .30-06 at some bluffs overlooking the Flint river. While he was reloading and fiddling w/ his scope, I was looking around at the river w/ my binoculars and saw a big glass jar floating down the river. I pointed it out to my brother, who emptied his rifle at it and missed every time. The jar was about 200 yards downriver (I could only see it by the reflection of the sun) when I drew my Beretta 950B Minx (.22 short) and broke it with a single shot. Total luck but I never let him forget the day I outshot his scoped rifle with a .22 short pistol.

He died two weeks ago of a heart attack at 49 yrs old. I can't wait to see him again. I already have lots of stuff to tell him.


Clif

 

[M2 Carbine]

It was getting late and a friend and I were sighting in his father's 30/30 on my 100 yard range.
It only took a few shots so I told him I'll see what my new EAA Witness Compact 45 pistol would do with the 6 inch Bullseye at 100 yards.
I fired, looked in the spotting scope and started smiling.

My friend said, "No way. No way. Don't tell me you hit that bull, first shot at 100 yards".
As he looked in the scope I started laughing. The bullet hit dead center in the X.

He said, Are you going to shoot anymore?

I said, Why?

 

[M2 Carbine]

A friend dared tell me this only because he had witnesses. Very vocal witnesses.

In 1966 a friend asked me if I'd loan him a rifle to go hunting. I didn't know anything about hunting so I loaned him a totally military Springfield 03A3 and asked him how much ammo he wanted. He said, it only holds 5 rounds so that's enough.

He told me when they were fixing to go into the woods his buddies were kidding him about his "hunting rifle", didn't even have a scope and who only takes five rounds hunting.

He said they had just gone a short way into the woods when a Buck jumped up on his side, not far away. He said he didn't have time to do anything but half turn and shoot from the hip as the Buck jumped over a downed tree. He dropped the Deer in mid air.

The other hunters went crazy.
As he was emptying his rifle my friend said, " Aw heck, I brought four rounds too many".

 

[Scarface]

My yoougest son and I were shooting on some family land. We paced off 100 yards abd pinned an * 1/2 X 11 inch sheet of paper to a tree.
We backed off back to his truck and I unlimbered my trusty Remington 511A .22.
I had recently added a sling and a cheap telescopic sight to the then 30 year old, many thousands of rounds shot, worn out .22. After slinging like they taught us in the USMC, and sighting over the hood of my son's truck, I fired off 3 rounds to zero the scope in. I didn't have much hope as we were using bulk pac ammo and I was out of practice.
We couldn't see the hits form that far off, so we walked up the target. All three hits were in the black dot we drew on the paper and close enough together to be covered by a nickle.

I handed my trusty old .22 to my son, and said "It's yours now, I could never do that again".

Be Well

Scarface

 

[mbs357]

I blew up a building just by staring it down once.
=X

 

[shooting time]

me and 2 friends were deer hunting Phil was glassint this huge pasture when he spots a big buck out more than 1000yds .he says I am going to shoot him I say not with that 30-06 you ain't going to hit him .So he says ok at the count of 3 we will both shoot at him I was using my 300 WbY mag Phil was standing I chose to rest the rifle on top of the fence post which was too low to stand up and too high to neel down I set my canjar double set trigger and the rifle was rocking and i lost him in the scope phil is counting and gets to 3 fires and the deer runs about 10 yards and i spot him for a second raise the elevation and hit the trigger by accident as i was raising the rifle the next thing i know the scope wacks me in the eye and send me sitting on my butt. Joe and phil yell you got him I look thru the binoculars and he is down.

 

[f4t9r]

When I was 14 I hit a bird out of the sky with a BB gun at like 50 yards. The thing spiraled to the ground and landed in my neighbors pool.

My lucky shot was just like that (no pool)

 

[P95Carry]

Two instances!!

Way way back - when all I shot with was air weapons as a mid teen - I had a Webley MkII tap loader rifle in 22 cal. Staying with a buddy's folks over a weekend and we were out back ''potting'' at stuff - saw a crow flying over about perhaps 100 feet up - so let go a shot with some lead (that is lead as in aim off!!) and - zap - darned thing fell outa the sky - 99.9% luck - 0.1% skill

Other was in early 80's - helping a buddy on a chimney rebuild out in the sticks - had my suppressed 22 rifle along ... so shooting sub sonics! Big field out back, very wet - and had already plinked a few shots into the area to get splashes of mud. Along comes a crow (yep - another crow) - about 150 yards off we reckoned. ''Take a pot shot'' he said - I did but like often it was a double tap (semi-auto rifle - Rem IIRC) - as recoil was all but non-existent. Lots of ''allowance'' made in elevation.

One of those shots connected - instant crow demise . A totally unrepeatable shot I'd say but - one for the memory journal.

 

[jtward01]

He said they had just gone a short way into the woods when a Buck jumped up on his side, not far away. He said he didn't have time to do anything but half turn and shoot from the hip as the Buck jumped over a downed tree. He dropped the Deer in mid air.

I'm sorry, but this doesn't impress me. A snapshot like this is a very poor idea when hunting. First, he had no time to check the area behind the deer to see where the bullet would go if he missed. That's basic to all shooting. Second, he took a chance of just wounding the animal, dooming it to a lingering and painful death. This is not something ethical hunters do.

I'm sure your friend is a nice guy, he just was a bit unthinking in this case. Maybe you can have a chat with him about it.

 

[larryf1952]

First time was a crow sitting on the top of a utility pole about 100 yards away. I was only about 12 years old, carrying my Dad's Marlin 39A .22 lever action. This is a big, heavy gun for a .22, and I'd already been out with it for a while, so it was getting even heavier. I was on the way back, walking along the top of a flood control dike when I spied the crow. I slung the rifle up to my shoulder and held it just above the crow, knowing that it was far enough away that I'd have to allow for bullet drop. My arms were tired, and the gun was weaving around as I tried to hold it steady. Finally, I just squeezed the trigger off, and I saw the crow fall over and off the pole! I couldn't believe I'd actually hit it.

2nd time, my new wife and I were on a sandbar in the middle of the river, shooting my Mauser P08 9mm. This was 1973. There was a flock of gulls on another bar, probably again about 100 yards distant. I pointed the P08 over there and fired. I was probably an idiot for doing it at all, but at the sound of the shot, the birds jumped up and took off. All of a sudden, I saw feathers fly and one of them rolled over and plowed into the sandbar.

There was one other time...it wasn't with a gun, but it was a lucky shot just the same. I was out in my grandma's front yard, throwing a tennis ball around. I threw it at a robin, and the robin did the same thing as the gull...jumped up and flew right into the ball. I would've missed it by a good 2 feet if it had just stayed on the ground. Feathers flew, and it rolled a couple of times, but it got back up and took off again.

 

[chopinbloc]

i love these threads

i was out shooting with my buddy in the desert. he was having trouble getting the cheap scope zeroed that he had mounted on his 10/22 w/ heavy barrel. he thought he finally got the thing zeroed (we discovered later that the reticle was actually moving a little with each shot) and tried to hit one of those little exploding targets. now my buddy's shooting prone over a backpack rest at about 25 yards and he can't hit the inch and a half or so circle on this exploding target. i'd been ribbing him about it for a little while, when finally to be a smartass, i draw my ruger p90 and tell him "dude, it's not like it's hard," i thumb cocked the hammer, squeezed and hit the sucker. naturally, i played it off like i was just that good. i'm pretty confident that pistol could have done that again but i know i can't - probably not even from a rest.

 

[Berek]

Last fall during Archery season. I had scouted a specific deer's route & routine for a week wnd finally got in the woods in front of him. On that day, he decided to wander down a trail just inside the dividing line between the pines and hardwoods, putting sparse scrub between us. It was just enough to throw off a shot. I looked in front of him and found a gap that was the height of his body, but only about a foot in diameter. The gap was about 15 yards from me and he was 5 yards farher in.

When he passed the gap, I hesitated, but took the shot. The arrow entered at the right flank. I though "Damn! I shouldn't have taken that shot. Now he'll be gone and limping." Basically, an unethical shot.

He reacted as if nothing more happened than his butt fell over. No snort, no noise at all. He began hopping down the trail, but not as if he were fleeing. It was very slow and odd to watch.

Following my experience and training, I waited an hour and went to find the trail. Might as well make an effort. I went to where I thought he was when I hit him and found nothing. I decided to try a few yards down in the direction he travelled when I found a red path that was 3 feet wide and about 15 yards long.

I found that the arrow entered his flank, severed his femoral artery, "changed his religion", entered his left flank, severed that femoral artery and just barely punched out the other side. He bled out rather quickly.

This shot was lucky for me, but luckier for the deer as it was a quick death. "Blessed be the beast and all he provides." (Ted Nugent)

 

[TimboKhan]

My two luckiest shots weren't even with a firearm!

Lucky Shot #1. Hit a pigeon, in the head with an arrow from about 50 yards. Not that impressive until you consider he was in flight.

Lucky Shot #2. In high school, I was at this party and a bunch of my buddies were trying to flick a cigarette butt into a beer bottle. They worked at it for like an hour, at which point my girl and I were bored and gettiing ready to leave. On the way out, I said something to the effect of "Let me show you how its done" and flicked a cigarette butt, while walking away, about 15-20 feet across the room and sank it. I had just enough of a poker face to act as if thats what I intended to do, and made it out of the party looking like a ninja. Luckiest thing I have ever seen in my life, actually...

 

[trooper]

I once shot a drill on our department's indoor range that involved running all the way through the basement to the other side of the station house, opening numerous heavy doors in the process, picking up some item, running back to the range and shooting a stage that started at over 20 yards.

I sprinted through the basement, arrived on the range heavily panting, drew my gun, fired the instant when it came up to eye level and hit the pie plate sized target precisely in the middle. Never came close to that again.


Trooper

 

[Double Naught Spy]

My best lucky shot was a ND. We had been night shooting at a private range and it had come time to pack up. We were at 100 yards and the impact area of the range was still illuminated by work lights and a generator. I dropped out the partially spent mag from my AR15 and worked the bolt back and forth to make sure the chamber was clear. I reached in (but not far enough, apparently) to see if there was a shell still in the gun as it was too dark where we were to visually determine if the chamber was clear. I pointed in the general direction of the berm and pulled the trigger.

Of course there was the startling BOOM associated with firing a gun thought to be unloaded. However, 100 yards away, I had managed to knock off one of the two 9" plates still remaining on a whirlygig target. My buddy was really impressed, after his ears stopped ringing, that I was able to point shoot the target from that distance. I had to tell him that I missed my intended target, if I was expecting the gun to discharge. My intended target was the berm, the great big giant berm and I missed it.

Come to find out, the extractor spring was broken. This was the first of several problems of extraction to occur before I determined the cause. I now check the chamber with a much smaller finger that will allow me to probe more deeply so as to accurately determine whether the chamber is clear or not.

 

[ryoushi]

I hit a ground squirrel right in the head at approx. 100 yds. Pistol was an open sighted T/C Contender in .22 LR. I thought I'd missed but paced up to the little guys hole and there he was, shot dead right in the face.

 

[Smoke]

Coyote crosses the road in front of me, right to left. I slide the pickup to a stop while grabbing the WIn 94 thutty-thutty out of the window rack.

Jam it out the window as the dust settles and the coyote is running and jumping over the grass and broomweeds. He was moving straight away from me so I sighted down the line and was timing his jumps. I pulled the trigger at what I thought would be the top of his next jump. Sure enough, I caught him right at the base of the skull and he was DRT.

Other time, my brother, granddad and I were out dove hunting. There were no birds to be found. WE fiinally saw 3 birds on a road that crossed a tank dam. Birds were just sitting. We climbed out of the pickup and eased up on them, but they never flew. My brother commented about taking the skillet shot but Granddad advised against it as being "unsporting". So I volunteer to throw a rock to spook them, then they can shoot. My rock killed one of the birds and the other two flew away with no shots fired as my brother and granddad couldn't even shoulder their guns with their jaws on the ground.

Smoke

 

[M2 Carbine]

I'm sorry, but this doesn't impress me. A snapshot like this is a very poor idea when hunting. First, he had no time to check the area behind the deer to see where the bullet would go if he missed. That's basic to all shooting. Second, he took a chance of just wounding the animal, dooming it to a lingering and painful death. This is not something ethical hunters do.

I'm sure your friend is a nice guy, he just was a bit unthinking in this case. Maybe you can have a chat with him about it.

I didn't say it was correct, just lucky.