Best shot you ever made

I've had several experiences out hunting where I've pulled off many good shots. Lots of snap shots where my rifle became an extension of my arm and dropping black bears and deer instantly, had witnesses to many of these shots and it keeps them marveled up to this day, only difference between those hunters and I is that I spend a lot of time at the range and shoot several hundred rounds a year, from target shooting, rapid aimed fire, and run and gun type of scenarios. Practice makes perfect as they say.

Some of the ones that really stand out to me is when i take game on the move.
A few years back shot a nice black bear just shy of 6 foot on the run at 200 yards in an open clearing. My hunting partner was the one who took the first shot and seeing he missed i pulled the shot with a lead, bear dropped but then tried getting up. Rapidly reloaded the moment my first shot went off and connected again with a neck shot. All of this happened off hand in mere seconds.

Another one was a big mulie buck i have pictured in my avatar which was taken on the move as well. This one was about 50 yards, put a lead on the trotting buck and let one fly. Buck dropped, bullet landed square on the shoulder and my hunting partner was amazed, only down side was i had a bullet failure as it disintegrated, so i needed a finishing shot.
 
Hitting a Fig 11 standing enemy target at 800 yds with a 15 km crosswind
with a C3 Sniper rifle 7.62 mm Nato M118 match ammo and a 6 x kahles scope
prone with a spotter .in 1978
wind chart for that ammo taped to stock of rifle helped
haven't done it since haha
 
It was my cousin, but we were shooting pop cans with a BB gun about 10 years ago. He hit the can, it did a 180 degree flip, and landed on its top on the rock. He looked at me, handed me the BB gun, and said he'd never shoot it again because he wouldn't be able to one up that shot lol.
 
I was called to dispatch a deer that had been struck by a motorist on a main highway into the city during morning rush-hour traffic. Police and DOT were on scene and waiting for me to arrive, 15 Minutes. Upon arrival a lady police officer was sitting in her car crying her eyes out. Her Sergeant was there directing traffic and had one lane blocked off. I jump out of my patrol vehicle and he says, "some glad you're here", "the deer is next to the guardrail, just tell me what you need me to do." I told him to bring his vehicle up in front of the deer and angle it inwards towards the guardrail and I'll bring mine up and angle it the opposite way, thus corralling the deer against the guardrail. I jumped out and told him to stop traffic. When he had all lanes stopped, I pulled out my sidearm and took a bead on the eye of the injured deer and squeezed off one shot. The deer instantly fell over dead! I grabbed the carcass and loaded into the back of my truck. Total time on scene was under 2 minutes. 1 shot, one dead deer, and one happy police sergeant. Funny thing is, I did almost the same thing a couple years later on my way to a staff meeting with four of my colleagues watching. I'm no expert shot with a handgun, but nobody knew it on those two days LMAO!
 
The shots I remember best were when I was in my early teens...

I shot several gophers on the run with a very used .22 Trombone... and one with my older cousin a big old rabbit took off from some brush and I nailed it on the run. My cousin was very surprised.

A magpie flying over 100 yards away... with my old 16 gauge... I fired, it looked like it must have been close as it kind of dipped and changed course slightly and then a second later dropped dead. One pellet must have made it into the chest I think.

A nice #### pheasant in the head with a little 22 Short Beretta pistol. The fellow who was with me couldn't believe it...

And in later years hunting coyotes with Eddie Mech out NW of Calgary a little ways... we hunted them a lot and Eddie was deadly...I saw him nail running coyotes at 300 yards regularly and some out to 450 yards... we had a system, If the coyote was on Eddies side of the car he shot out the window and if I wanted to shoot, I had to get out and not touch the car... and if the coyote was on my side, I shot out the window and Eddie had to get out and not touch the car... that meant the outside shooter could not disturb the steady rest the inside shooter enjoyed...

Well one day we pulled up to two coyotes on my side... one at 300 yards, one at 350 yards... Eddie jumped out and went back a ways and went to the fence for a rest. I dropped the coyote at 350 and Eddie was cussing as the fence he was going to rest on was bouncing from his contact with it... I quickly shot the other one at 300 yards at it stood looking at the dead coyote 50 yards beyond. Eddie cussed and I laughed... I sure miss those days.
 
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rral22 said:
So, having read this thread, it appears to me that what some people think is their "best" shot is actually their "luckiest" shot. I have several memories of successful shots that, in hind sight, I really should never have taken, but they are not my best. I have made several that were carefully aimed, after a well planned effort to get into position as close as I dared, to a buck we watched bed down from a distance in early morning light. I think those are my best shots, but none of them involved any real difficulty in terms of making the shot itself.
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Yeah I guess that is true.
I have yet to shoot a deer further than 150 yards. So I count all those as great shots but not challenging...although I wouldn't attempt a challenging shot on a deer type animal. I could care less if I wound a coyote. I've seen way too many kills where I hunt to have much sympathy, that's why my furthest most difficult shots have been at coyotes or gophers.
 
Buckmastr said:
You ask the question but don’t tell us yours...
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Okay. I'm not sure it was my best shot, but I do have a favorite shot:

I was up in a tree stand that I built a few yards back into the bush from the edge of a big Alberta field. In the evening I saw a very large 10 point buck approach the field to my right. He waited at the barbed wire fence for awhile, then jumped it and started to cross the field in front of me. I slid my rifle forward across a branch, a Husqvarna FN98 30-06 with a 4x Leupold. It had one of those stupid protruding floorplate release buttons. So naturally, the button snagged on the branch and promptly released the full magazine. I could hear my ammo tinkling down through the tree into the snow. I had just the one round in the chamber and the twilight was growing darker by the second. So I concentrated and shot the buck at about 200 yards out. I climbed down and found my floorplate, spring and follower. The ammo I lost in the snow. It was the second largest bodied whitetail buck I ever shot and the only deer I ever got with a single shot rifle.
 
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I took my ex brother in law deer hunting one time years ago to see if he would like it, we come across a grouse on the road and I stepped out of the truck and shot it in the head at 40 yards with a 7mm freehand while the bird was walking, he looked at me with a whole new respect after that shot which I will never be able to replicate in 4 lifetimes but he didn't know that at the time !
 
Took the head clean off a grouse with my 45/70 free hand at 30-35 m ? My buddy who was with me called it my grouse gun from then on
 
Between 1980 and 1989 I hunted every year in Wyoming. One year an antelope that had been wounded by another hunter was seen running downhill across from the hill I was laying on. I didn't particularly want this one but because he was already wounded I decided to try him. I was using a light handload in 120 gr. 7-mm 08. I held an unknown amount over the head and well ahead of the nose. When I fired I was amazed to see the antelope cartwheel down the hill dead. When I approached I found the killing shot in the middle of the neck. How far? Well downhill from my shooting position and over to the antelope I counted 400 paces.

I always figured it was more good luck than good management. Although, I do have to say, I was in my prime then and doing a lot of practice shooting.

Jim
 
After reading the other stories there are always more.
Shooting at a tack at 7 yards holding up a sheet of cardboard. Draw the 44 mag and fire two shots. We were getting close and then my friend hit the tack on the first shot . . . Bill Jordan Style.

A groundhog on the near side of a fence post at 400 yards shooting a Rem 40XB 6 mm Rem. Standing I could see him but he disappeared from prone. With my brother watching I held on the post allowing for the trajectory to carry the bullet over the crest of the hill. Bingo!

Young groundhogs sunning themselves on a rock. When they made a cross my son shot and got two with one shot . . . and he did it again on a different day.

Two crows lined up while drinking at a slough . . . got both with the 338 Win Mag.
 
Just about a week before i went off to basic military , so about 33 years ago, i was walking thru the woods on my parents farm, just before dusk. Was out plinking tin cans but started to get dark. I had 7 .22lr rounds in my dads semi auto. Scared up a bunch of grouse right in front of me, and i emptied the mag from the hip. I had six grouse to clean that night, and my mom saved those for my first Christmas leave to cook them for me.
 
Shotgun,,,, sitting in a duck blind, close to the end of the day, mallard coming in hard and fast, just below the level of the reeds. Couldn't see the duck, only the reflection in the water. Followed the reflection, raised and fired, nailed it. With a bow, sighting in the broadheads, a bright white Styrofoam block, hornet crawling across it, all I could really see was a shadow, 20 yards, sliced it in half. All I can say, pure luck!
 
Not a hunting story but my best so far.
Pedersoli 1885 45-70 with Malcolm 6x scope bench-rested at 200m.
3 shots into .347" ctc.
15gr Unique, 370 gr cast GC
Had the target signed by 2 witnesses.
Never to be done again.(by me)
This one can go into the best LUCKY shot('s) category.
 
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