The best shot you ever made

here`s the story of how I bagged my 8pts velvet rack pie-bald buck.

A few years ago while hunting whitetails on Anticosti Island a buddy of mine and I spotted an albino buck about 300yards away in a tall grassy field. The buck was walking in the opposite direction and it was 10-20 yards before he would reach the limits of the field and vanish into the thick stuff.

The wind was blowing unusually hard and without an approriate rest in sight, we quickly realized that we would have to get closer for a shot. This was now a race against time.... We were at 236yards huffin and puffin when we both shouldered our rifles (standing offhand), and now we were racing each other... who was gonna bag this buck first... it could have been a few seconds that went by, which seemed like an eternity, when I finally got him in my crosshairs long enough to squeeze off a shot. Direct hit, he took his few last steps and then face planted into the ground. I remember thanking myself for all the time spent at the range.


I`ve also been known to shoot fly`s with my 10-22 (8.5-25x50mm) at 50yards.
 
This goes back a very long ways about forty years ago. We were walking out after a fruitless days deer hunt, we were headed out early, as one of the guys had to leave, and we all went over in one vehicle.
Anyways, the lead guy was a new guy in camp. A grouse flushes in front of him, and he nails it from the hip, with an SMLE in 303 Br.
He admitted later that it was a reflex, as he is a big grouse hunter, and was as surprised as we were when the bird fell.
 
I was gopher shooting with my cousin - we both had .22-250's - WAY across the field we see a housecats orange face peeking through the grass....the cat would have been MILES from any farm house so I say "d'ya think I can hit that?" To which the answer was, "NO WAY - that's OVER 400 yards it's WAYYY too far away!" I aimed straight at it's head with the fat part of the duplex crosshairs in my old weaver straight 6x power scope and squeezed. Much to both our surprise I saw the kitty flew backwards through the air. We paced off over 400 steps LAUGHING our butts off. Kitty had a bullet track right up his nose and bulet entered right between the lookers. Total luck. Nothing more - nothing less. I didn't even expect to scare it.

Best shot I've ever SEEN made? My Dad when I was but a lil gaffer. We saw a dead calf along the neighbors property on our way home from deer hunting. Suddenly this furry face POPS up from behind the cow and I hear ol Dad exclaim all happpily "COYOTE!" Next thing I know, he pulls into the neighbors property (we had standing permission to hunt there) and lines up over the hood of the rusted out Toyota's hood and squeezes a round off from his .270. I remember SQUEALING will glee to see the face literally explode to the bullet's arrival. It was only about a 300 yard shot - right to the neighbors fuzzy long haired chihuahua's touque. THAT took some explaining....somehow we're all still close friends...even though we shot their dog.
 
xring_assassin said:
I remember SQUEALING will glee to see the face literally explode to the bullet's arrival. It was only about a 300 yard shot - right to the neighbors fuzzy long haired chihuahua's touque. THAT took some explaining....somehow we're all still close friends...even though we shot their dog.
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You squealed with glee when you shot someone's pet?

Wow!:mad:

You're quite the hero.:rolleyes:
 
Best shot (or three) I've ever made was 3 years ago while deer hunting. It was the third morning of the hunt and I was sitting over a long hayfield. As the fog lifted I could see 2 does walking up the field toward me. I was shooting a Beretta Pintail slug gun with 385 gr partition golds. At about 150 yards they started angling across the field. The larger of the does turned and faced me and I squeezed off one round centered on her chest. She turned and ran right to left across the field with the smaller doe following. Figuring I'd missed the first doe, I pulled on the second at a dead run and squeezed off round #2. At this point I just set the gun down wondering how the hell I'd ever missed both deer. The deer are maybe 225 yards out now. Doe 1 suddenly falls and doe 2, following right behind her trips on doe one and neither deer gets up. Turns out I shot perfectly on both deer, heart on #1 and lungs on #2. So my friends and I dress the deer out and load them up for the butcher shop. We head to the butcher shop, drop off the deer and head home. We're passing the farm where I shot the two does at about 11 am on our way back from the shop when my buddy yells "BUCK!". We pull over and watch as this real nice 6 pointer grazes under an apple tree. We had 1 tag left so we pulled around the corner and parked the truck. I had to leave my hound in the cab as we snuck across the first field to a fenceline almost 200 yards from the buck. I had my Beretta and my friend has a 870 with a red dot. we ended up reaching the fence about 50 yards apart. I take a perfect rest on a rock and am just checking for obstructions as my buddy suddenly cracks off 3 rounds at the buck. (Turns out he thought since I was taking so long I must not have had a good shot). I quickly pull up on the now running buck and round #1 cuts a half moon in the rail fence in front of me. Round 2 hit him high and back but put him down hard. That shot paced out at 180 yards.

3 deer in one day, 4 shots, 2 deer shot at dead runs, 1 at 125+ and 1 at 180. I doubt I'll ever do it again but it sure is a cool story.
 
Great shot

The best shot I ever made was on a crossing hungarian partridge, I'd guess about 65 yards. Led it by about 10 feet, and it made the slightest flutter right after, the shot, so I thought I had hit it then glided down the field for another 100 yards, landed, took the dog and found it.
Best part was having a witness. FS

Now the best shot I ever saw was on a goose by a fine American gent name Walter Badorek. Walt shot an O/U Kreigoff, 2 3/4 inch chamber using Estate number 1's. He pulled up on a crossing shot and that thing was dead in the air. I don't know how far, but I did say to Walt" how far did you lead that goose? His answer was about 23 FEET, now that my friends is shot gunning at its finest.
 
I was skimmin' the Death Star in my X-Wing when a 5-point muley showed-up right in front of a small exhaust port. Next thing I know is princess Leia being my sister.
Does this count? :)
 
I was walking along a trail looking for ptarmigans. I didn't have a dog so I was just trying to flush some out. I had the rem 870 by my side with 2 in the magazine. All of a sudden I hear the beating wings of 2 birds fly up in front of me. I went to #### the gun but it wouldn't go. I fiddled around for a sec with the action release and quickly took aim and bam, one of the birds drops dead right out of the sky. The shot was difficult because there was very little time to get it off, I couldn't get the gun cocked right away, and the bird was moving quickly to the left meaning I had to get a good lead on him.

Usually they flinch for a while but this guy just dropped dead faster than I had seen any game die before. After cleaning him up there was about 4 holes right in the chest and the rest of the bird wasn't touched at all.
 
best shot i ever had was with a new 22 my sister bought me as a christmas present.a running jack rabbit at 30 yards. one shot and down he goes .i felt like the best shot on earth and as i walked over to pick him up the rabbit got up and hightailed it out of there. talk about a let down .must of just stunned him as there was no blood at all.no rabbit for supper that night.
 
my best shot was probably on a partridge about 75 yards away with m single shot 22 he flew up i cocked it pulled up about a foot in front of his head shot and to my surprise his head dissapeared and the second best was a duck flying straight away with the same gun i just pulled up put is on his ass and i seen feathers fly and ive shot a couple other ducks with a 22 nylon but thats not hard when you got 15 shots
 
The best shot I ever made was a head shot on a chipmunk about 20 yards away when I was a kid. He poked his head out of a hole in a shed and I took aim with my BB gun and shot. He didn't move and was stone dead.

I then played a joke on my buddy and who hadn't seen the chimunk and said, "Look, a chipmunk!" He blasted away with his BB gun at least ten times and missed and just couldn't believe the chipmunk wouldn't run away. He finally figured out something was up when he saw me rolling on the ground laughing.:)
 
holy jumpins said:
my best shot was probably on a partridge about 75 yards away with m single shot 22 he flew up i cocked it pulled up about a foot in front of his head shot and to my surprise his head dissapeared and the second best was a duck flying straight away with the same gun i just pulled up put is on his ass and i seen feathers fly and ive shot a couple other ducks with a 22 nylon but thats not hard when you got 15 shots
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Please dont shoot waterfowl with rifles. Besides being illegal, its dangerous.
 
This thread brings back a lot of memories, and I have to admit most of the 'best' shots were sheer flukes.

I recall shooting a crow with an old single shot Cooey, out of the top of a 50' Aspen that was swaying nicely in the wind, and at least 220 m. distant...the crow just s-l-o-w-l-y leaned forward at the shot, and fell straight down without as much as a twitch or a flap or a stray feather.

On another occasion on our trapline, more than 45 years ago, when I would have been about 14, we were travelling down a bush trail in the old truck that was our only transportation at the time. A wolverine suddenly popped out of the bush and began running straight down the trail, about 50 yds. ahead of us. I bailed out on the running board before my Dad even had time to stop, and let fly with an old Mossberg .22; (a massive bolt action tube-mag repeater that had a chunk of valve push-rod brazed on to replace a broken bolt handle).

The wolverine kept right on running, and there was no chance in hell that I'd hit him, but I was running full speed behind him not intending to let such a prize escape! After about 100 yds. or so, he went up a good sized Spruce tree and commenced the most God awful snarling and commotion; I recall wolverine #### spraying down out of the tree, and being scared as hell! I was busy squinting up the tree, trying to get a shot at him, but not being able to see well enough.

After a good two or three minutes of this, he came tumbling down out of the tree and landed right at my feet! I was busy trying to shoot him again - only to discover that the gun was empty. I guess when I first spotted him, I had just stuck one cartridge in the chamber an otherwise empty gun...and never loaded any more. Lucky for me, he was stone dead when he hit the ground. That first and only shot went in behind his ribs and stopped right in his heart, and was a complete fluke.
 
260 yards on a whitetail buck. Using a 30/30 Winchester Model 94 carbine. A single round of 150 grain silvertip factory round, deer DRT. Peep sights (Williams) and a "firestite" front optical bead of course. No wind, early morning, about 9'ish, and an offhand firing position, due to winterwheat.

I had on purpose a high sight-in at the rifle range, and practiced plenty beforehand @200yards.

He was quartering onto me, and his white throat patch was my aiming point. Bullet struck two inches off dead-centre of his chest. There was incredible damage in there.

Somewhere I have the remaining 77 grain, crushed copper jacket, that I recovered.
 
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My First Elk

Last fall was my first time really hunting Elk. I had gotten my Special draw for Antlerless in WMU 357 and was hunting with friends and family near Grovedale. We got there and set up camp on the second day of the season and then proceded to scout and push some bush. Only problem was Mid Sept that year was pretty warm, 20-25 durring the day. So after 4 days of pushing bush and seeing the occasional deer a couple of blackbears and dropping some chickens for the camp pot we were getting kinda P***ed off!.
Luckily the weather changed and it started to rain that Saturday night and the temp dropped so that there was frost on the ground the next day. I had to do some convincing to get the guys out in the morning, but we loaded up and set off. Low and behold on the leaes road we were following into where we would park the truck there was nothing but fresh traks and scat all over the place.
We stop the truck and my buddy and and I turn left and the rest of the guys turn right. We were definatly the lucky ones! About six hundred meters down the trail we were follwing we came to a clearing of what used to be an old oil lease. Now grown over with alfalfa and some clover. We stopped on the edge and pulled out our binos and started to look. With the rain continuing to pour down my buddy thought he saw something and dropped his binos and jerked up his rifle .
With a sharp hiss I heard "holy crap there's a s**tload of em!" I finally found them and told my buddy that they were way to far, at least 400m away! His response was to crank a round at a real nice cow! First shot missed! I told him to use by shoulder as a rest. He cycles the bolt, short strokes it, misfires! cranks it again and then the second round goes off. he drops the cow, spine shot.
By this time the small satalite herd is moving and mewing and bawling. My buddy is happier then a pig in poop and I am trying to figure out how to fill my tag. So I circle around about another 200m to the left of where I left my buddy and come to the edge of the treeline still in cover, see a spiker bull and what looks like a young cow. The spiker is trying to herd the cow but no luck. Well when thats all that is left you take your chances. So with the rain pouring down I bring up my rifle and find the I can't see s**t through my scope! I pause, wipe it off begin my tactical breathing because at this point my heart was doin 110 in a 50 zone. Breath in then out take up the slack Wham 180 grs of Whiny Soft point .308 into the lungs just behind the right leg! She sticks her head up kinda shimies around and then drops!
After I shoot anything on 4 legs takes off and there we are, two elk on the ground one stone cold dead and the other still pawing away. My buddy walks up to his and puts her down. After some high fives we pace it off, 390 meters to my buddies elk and where he dropped his bag. 125m to mine from where I came out of the bush. Col Copper was right! If you can get steady get steady if you can get closer get closer! By the way anyone who tells you that you are undergunned with a .308 for Elk is loony. I used my old Rem 788 LH with an old weaver fixed 4 power and a 17$box of ammo from crappie tire. And I have the satisfaction of know that my steaks taste a hell of a lot better then his!
 
SigClay said:
Last fall was my first time really hunting Elk. I had gotten my Special draw for Antlerless in WMU 357 and was hunting with friends and family near Grovedale. We got there and set up camp on the second day of the season and then proceded to scout and push some bush. Only problem was Mid Sept that year was pretty warm, 20-25 durring the day. So after 4 days of pushing bush and seeing the occasional deer a couple of blackbears and dropping some chickens for the camp pot we were getting kinda P***ed off!.
Luckily the weather changed and it started to rain that Saturday night and the temp dropped so that there was frost on the ground the next day. I had to do some convincing to get the guys out in the morning, but we loaded up and set off. Low and behold on the leaes road we were following into where we would park the truck there was nothing but fresh traks and scat all over the place.
We stop the truck and my buddy and and I turn left and the rest of the guys turn right. We were definatly the lucky ones! About six hundred meters down the trail we were follwing we came to a clearing of what used to be an old oil lease. Now grown over with alfalfa and some clover. We stopped on the edge and pulled out our binos and started to look. With the rain continuing to pour down my buddy thought he saw something and dropped his binos and jerked up his rifle .
With a sharp hiss I heard "holy crap there's a s**tload of em!" I finally found them and told my buddy that they were way to far, at least 400m away! His response was to crank a round at a real nice cow! First shot missed! I told him to use by shoulder as a rest. He cycles the bolt, short strokes it, misfires! cranks it again and then the second round goes off. he drops the cow, spine shot.
By this time the small satalite herd is moving and mewing and bawling. My buddy is happier then a pig in poop and I am trying to figure out how to fill my tag. So I circle around about another 200m to the left of where I left my buddy and come to the edge of the treeline still in cover, see a spiker bull and what looks like a young cow. The spiker is trying to herd the cow but no luck. Well when thats all that is left you take your chances. So with the rain pouring down I bring up my rifle and find the I can't see s**t through my scope! I pause, wipe it off begin my tactical breathing because at this point my heart was doin 110 in a 50 zone. Breath in then out take up the slack Wham 180 grs of Whiny Soft point .308 into the lungs just behind the right leg! She sticks her head up kinda shimies around and then drops!
After I shoot anything on 4 legs takes off and there we are, two elk on the ground one stone cold dead and the other still pawing away. My buddy walks up to his and puts her down. After some high fives we pace it off, 390 meters to my buddies elk and where he dropped his bag. 125m to mine from where I came out of the bush. Col Copper was right! If you can get steady get steady if you can get closer get closer! By the way anyone who tells you that you are undergunned with a .308 for Elk is loony. I used my old Rem 788 LH with an old weaver fixed 4 power and a 17$box of ammo from crappie tire. And I have the satisfaction of know that my steaks taste a hell of a lot better then his!
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Just curious what "tactical breathing" is?:confused:
 
Seems your best shots often come in the first few years you learn to shoot.

When I was 12 I received a little Baikal pellet gun that I still have.
I shot a feral pigeon on the fly from the hip once. It took me by surprise and I shot instinctively. I clearly remember it cartwheeling in the air before splashing in the creek close to where I lived.

Then when I was older I got a 22 and was amazed at the added range and knockdown power it had over the 177. I got 2 pigeons with one shot a over 75yards with that one. Never knew the second pigeon was behind, bullet when right thru both.

Then last year with a 17 hmr, out the bedroom window, shot a crow with a 17 grain remington plastic tip. Was pretty far enough and high in a tree. Crow just fell slowly, my brother watching from another window saying "No way!...".

Last summer, first year shooting with a bow, a Martin Moab, buddy wedges a beer cap in a shooting block. Lauch the first arrow from 20m then hear metal on metal sound. It was a lucky shot but buddy wanted to try the bow after that one!
 
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