Worst (luckiest?) shot you made for a one-shot-kill?

[Northman999]

Okay, I'll start.

A couple of years ago I'm drifting down a No-Tellie river on the last afternoon of an unsuccessful moose hunt. I spot an average sized brown phase black bear up on a ridge overlooking the river, about 200 yards away, and he's observing me float along. I get my rifle ready (Remington 700 XCR in .375 RUM) and wait until I drift closer. At about 100 yards the bear starts acting a bit nervous, so I aim for center-chest (he's still looing at me, but starting to turn away), and flinch off a round. Well, I lose sight of him due to recoil, but put in on shore and go looking. I find the spot where he was (no blood), look for the closest wooded area (about ten yards away) and go straight there, as a bear would. Three yards inside the woods, there's Mr bear, on his side, stone dead. Upon butchering him I find my shot placement was terrible, but yet here I have a dead bear.

Well, what happened was, I fired as he was turning away, and the 270 grain speer razed him about five inches along the outside rib cage as he turned, cracking one rib, shattered one more, and cracking the one after, and then carried on. The bullet itself never entered the bear's chest cavity at all; the wound suggested that it had actually only penetrated about 1/2 of the width of the bullet itself (so half of .375, or around .19) The second rib hit (the shattered one), had a section of it about 1.5" gone, that had been shattered inwards in several pieces. The shattered rib pieces literally cut the near side lung in half, and shotgunned the far side lung badly, essentially destroying it as well. I found sharp bits of rib all through the animal's boiler.

So a clean miss was turned into a clean kill by a lucky 0.19".

 

[MD]

I was bear hunting and saw a nice big black bear at the edge of the trees about 120 yards across a logged out bowl. I rested the rifle on a stump and watched him through the scope, then I think he noticed the movement or at least made a move to deke into the trees. He stopped and looked back over his shoulder at me and though I usually never take head shots, I thought I could manage this one and shot.

Well, I sure didn't get him in the head. He ran off into the trees at the shot. It took me at least 10 minutes to scramble my way down into and back out of the bowl, with the tangle of brush and limbs and treetops and everything there and when I got to the spot where the bear had been I immediately noticed a huge blood splash on a tree. It almost looked like someone had splashed at least a quart of blood right onto a tree.

Needless to say there was a good blood trail for about 80 yards downhill through the virgin forest and then I came across him, stone dead.

My bullet had penetrated his right rear ham and exited again, severing the femoral artery and he ran until he ran out of blood pressure.

 

[xenasdad]

halfway hit

I was hunting whitetails during the shotgun hunt in Ontario. I had an old marlin goose gun with only a front sight. A buttonhead buck walked out. I had sighted the gun in with super x slugs the week before and they were shooting into about 4 inches at 80 yards. I put the front sight just behind the front leg where that little crease is. I fired and he went straight down. When I got up to him he was on his side but not dead, so I put the muzzle at my origional aiming point and shot him at 3 inches. To my shock the first round had put a groove across the top of his head. I had only hit him with half the slug. I never fired that gun at another animal after that day. I put it in the basement and saved up for an 870 with a slug barrel and proper sights. To this day I wont use a SG without a front and rear sight and I use an aperture sight mounted to the reciever. The gun worked fine it was me that was at fault for that mess. that was the worst shot I ever made.

 

[9.3mauser]

A cow & calf moose walked out to me a few years ago. I didn't have a tag for the cow, but the calf was fair game. Range was 40-50 yards, I had a nice steady sitting position, and a .30-06 with a leupold scope I had just sighted in the weekend before. It took 10-15 mins before I had a clear shot at the calf. Put the crosshairs in the armpit and pressed the trigger. Baby bullwinkle dropped in it's tracks.

When I was dressing it out, I couldn't find the bullet hole in the chest, in fact there was no blood in the chest cavity at all. Looked the carcass over and found a neat hole right in the centre of the neck.

I know I didn't flinch, I don't think I even blinked. The only thing I can think of is that the bullet hit a sapling on route and was deflected. I hate to think what would have happened if it had been facing the other way.

Oh, and it was my birthday that day... I played hookey from work to go moose hunting!

 

[track]

This hunt took place about 18 years ago when I had my son push a bush for me to spook out a white-tail buck. Not one, but two whitetail bucks came out and they were heading straight towards me. Once the lead buck (the biggest) arrived about 50 yards in front of me and broadside I raised my rifle and held on this front shoulder. During this time the second buck was about 5 yards behind the lead buck. When I shot both bucks instantly fell. I was dumbfounded, stunded and my mind was racing. The lead buck was down, but kicking, and the second buck was stone still.
I cautiously approached the bucks and noted that both were dead. Anyway, long story short the bullet entered the first buck just behind the shoulder, struck a rib on the opposite side while exiting, deflected to the side and rear where it struck the second buck in the neck and killed him. My son and I gutted both deer and headed home to contact the Game Warden................I did not own a cell phone at that time, heck I can't remember if cell phones were around back then. Got home and contacted the High River Game Warden and advised him of the incodent. He said to retreive both bucks and he will meet me at my residence. When the Warden arrived I gave him the smallest buck and he gave me a document that I gave him the deer. I thought for sure that he would of charged me, but he didn't. The Warden told me that poachers don't phone his office and report these kind of things.......a fluke incodent.

 

[Cranky Pants]

This fella stood out on a logging road 2 days before the end of season 2 years ago. I hadn't seen a damn thing all season and was going in for an hour's sit and to remove my camera. I was expecting him to bolt for the woods at any second so I took a standing shot with no rest. Range was around 250 yds with a .270. Pulled on the front shoulder but as he was in some light brush on the edge of the road I figure the bullet got deflected or blew up or maybe I really screwed the shot and hit the ground and shrapnel hit him, I don't know but it went in his belly right where the fur meets and came out the side.

No blood at all, only a little white hair. Found him the next morning as it was late when I fired on him. Tracked him for 200-300 yds down a hill in thick woods, no snow, no blood, that was fun. Just about to give up and I found him in some low spruce.

11 point 144 3/8 B+C

 

[mossyhorns]

I grew up in Nova Scotia and that is a real bute for that part of the world cranky pants. Nicely done.

One of my best shots was years ago with a pellet gun. I was a teenager and me and some pals were goofing around seeing who was the best shot. Picking out things and seeing who could make the shot first, you know how it goes. I was on a lucky streak and was doing pretty well for myself when one of my buddies spotted a starling way up in a tall pine tree. He challenged me to make the shot and I stuck my chest out and said something along the line of " not only can I make the shot but I'll shoot him in the eye". The shot was much further then was reasonable for a pellet gun and I "held off" and let er fly. Down comes the starling and you guessed it, right in the eye. We all knew it was total luck but it made for some great stories around the fire for a few years after that.

 

[Dogleg]

It was about '98 and I was hunting with a friend beside a community pasture near Dundurn. It was just about quitting time when we saw a little buck standing faceing us. Nobody had rangefinders that were worth a darn, or at least we didn't but it looked like it was at the long-side of point-blank for the STW I was useing. At the shot it went straight down, and we couldn't see much more than kicking legs and flying snow. It was dead by the time we walked up to it and there was blood sprayed all over the place. The bullet had hit it in the hind-leg, just high enough to catch the lowest meaty part of the hind-quarter and sever the femoral artery. As near as we could tell, he fell at the shot and bled out while trying to get his feet under him.

A few years later we were hunting with a bunch of guys on Camp Dundurn, 3 standard cab trucks full. A call came over the cell to get over to where the same friend was because there was something we had to see. He had a nice buck with a bullet broken front leg and nothing else. We just about wore that deer out looking for a bullet hole, but it wasn't there to be found. Unless it broke it's own neck running away or had a heart attack we don't have a clue why it died. There wasn't even any blood on the snow. Funny thing is, he had switched to an STW himself since my broken leg kill. I loaded his shells.

 

[Gatehouse]

Not my shot, but one a buddy made, and I was enlisted to help track it down the next day. He had made a quartering to shot on a small buck, from pretty close range.

He had done a good job of following the blood trail,and could see where he had laid down and bedded a few times. Blood on the snow, and it looked like from the near shoulder and was coming out the offside in the rear of the paunch. We assumed the bullet had gone through and wondered why the deer wasn't down yet. Eventually the three of us found the deer over the side of a bank. Upon examination, we found that the deer had died of a #### shot.

Bullet smashed the front leg, but went low and under the belly, hitting the deer in the nuts and blowing them mostly off. Deer bled out from his balls...

We still tease him about why he is so mean as to shoot a deer in the nuts!

 

[dtkb]

A few years ago we were a couple hundred miles north of town doing some road improvements on a Dept. Of Highways contract, sleeping in our 'trusty but rusty' Atco trailer. Its late October and the mice are looking for a warm place for the winter. One of our hired men is sleeping across from the furnace and every night hears the mice scratching around the duct work between the furnace and bunkhouse wall. He shines his flashlight to chase them away through out the night. The mouse traps are bringing an end to this crafty veteran. So our winner employee brings his crack barrel Diana pelletgun up on our next turn around. His idea is to Lay on his cot prone, in the dark, with the barrel pointing at his pre determined 'kill zone.' So he lays down and I help him get his air rifle lined up, everything is looking as good as can be, out go the lights. Maybe 10 minutes later we can hear the mouse scratching around the tin then 'POP', 'TING', 'OW OW OW!!' 'lights, lights!!'. Well for those who arent familiar with an atco trailer, they are only 12' wide. The width of the bed, length of the barrel and depth of the furnace would give our hired man about a 4-5 foot shot. Back to the story, I fly outta bed and hit the kitchen lights to find our guy leaking blood out of his forehead and swearing in Dene!! He was ok but pretty embarressed. Lucky the ricochet didnt catch him in the eye.... Finally caught the mouse with reese peanut butter cup for bait. Fwiw

 

[Dugga Hunter]

Got this Whitetail buck in the fall of 2009. Hunting from a ground blind he was broad side but at a bit of an angle to me. He dropped his head to look at something just as i squeesed the trigger holding on top of the front leg.

Wasn't expecting a head shot but what the heck more meat for the freezer.

 

[hoytcanon]

25 years ago I stalked a 400 black bear feeding in a choke cherry patch... it was a cold morning and I had put on a fleece sweater... I had last seen the bruin feeding next a large boulder, so I tried to keep the boulder between me and the bear as I stalked closer... when I was within 30 yards of where I thought he was, I started moving to the right to get a clear shot, as I stared at what I thought was the bears location, I heard a snap to my extreme left... I turned in that direction, drawing my bow as I did... there he was standing broadside at 15 yards staring in my direction, when I released the string I felt the slap and immediately knew what had happened, with my hyper extended body posture the string had struck my sweater as it travelled forward... it seemed like slow motion as I watched the arrow dive toward the ground and I knew that I had missed cleanly... BUT, to my amazement, the arrow carreened of a low hanging branch and riccocheted upward, hitting the boar exactly where I had aimed, squaring the lungs and penetrating with about 6" of arrow out the ribs on the offside... the boar let out a big WOOF and charged straight towrd me, passing within 10 feet and dropping dead 20 yards behind me... While I was happy with the bear, I have never felt good about that shot... I guess it was just his time to go to the big BBQ in the sky.

 

[Max4]

Not a big game kill and you can choose to believe it or not I really doesn't matter to me. As a kid (7 or 8 yrs old) my brother and I were always out in the woods shooting our pellet guns. One day we are walking through the bush and a dragon fly flew past us so I pulled up on it (still flying) and snapped a shot off. Obviously I had not real intention/hope of hitting it but much to both of our surprise it fell right out of the air dead. In not saying I could ever do this again or that any skill was involved but it did happen.

 

[sealhunter]

i was 16 with a single shot 2 3/4 16 gauge. I was hunting a marsh with another guy, far more experienced than me, with a 12 gauge 3 inch pump. I think he was only with me for my dog.
As we walked along, two ducks flew up,,, he didnt raise his gun as he thought they were outta range and were also cutting hard...i raised my gun, slowly, thinking about the shoot, passed through the first duck and squeezed one off...both birds dropped! the guy i was with, looked back at me, then looked at my gun, then with a little bit of a surprised face and a smile said "lets go get em"

i was young, nor real good with range or much else...

the ducks were about 60 yrds out or more,... it was a complete fluke to get one much less both

 

[dgradinaru]

Well I was hunting for any buck in October season here in Bc and I was driving up a logging road where there was lots of clear cuts. We had previously shot a grouse but no sign of any deer, anyways we had stopped the atv and me and my brother said " Lord Please Bless us will a buck" prayer. We went on for 5 mins and then coming around the corner I spotted a decent sized spread 3x2 buck . I got off he atv and walked a few yards back since he was behind some bushes and aimed with a old German mauser sporter chamberd in 8mm. I aimed with the peep sights and even took my time. Before I took the shot I moved and pulled the trigger. The buck ran about approx 30yards out of sight. When I went after it I found it laying dead on the ground . I pulled it closer to the road and so I can take pics , as I was taking pics a few hunters come along after 2 mins after the shot , as I was getting pics done he buck all of a sudden try's to gets up! I was just holding him by the antlers. we cut his neck right away and loaded it up on the atv. As we were heading back we met another hunter in his atv and told me that he had shot at this buck and missed. So I was pretty happy that The Lord herd my prayer. As I was gutting it at home I found out the the bullet had snipped the lower part of his body since he was broad side and knocked him out. No arteries we cut no blood on the body . I was one happy hunter when I went through all of that.

 

[alberta_outdoors]

I was gopher shooting with a buddy of mine years ago. Both of us were using 22lr. We saw these 2 gophers chasing each other by a fence line about 75yds away. I line up waiting for them to stop and my friend says "come on ya chicken shoot one" So shooting offhand I shoot and sure enough one of them piles up. I look over at him all proud and he says "you were aiming for the 1st one weren't you?" Sad to say I was but it still looked pretty good.

My grandfather was an outfitter in BC and him and one of his guides were boating down the lake to camp. This lone duck flies by doing mach 10 in the opposite direction. My grandfather calmly pulls his pistol and shoots and kills the duck. When they retrieved the duck the guide asked him who he thought was more surprised, the duck or my grandfather.

 

[Brutus]

Was varmint hunting with a good buddy who was pretty darn near expert with the hand caller for coyotes.
We were just west of Moose Jaw, near the little town of Mortlach on a mutual friend's cattle pasture.
Both of us settled down on a nice rise overlooking the snow covered rolling hills due west of us.
Long story short, there was one that stopped being so stubborn at 350, and decided he was hungry enough. Then, at 75 yards the wind sent our scent, right to Mr Wile E. He swapped ends pronto and he hit his afterburners. I held for the back of his head and I knew the cusp of the rise was at 200 yards. Perfect sight-in distance for my 222. Seconds before the trigger broke, he made the mistake of looking back at us over his right shoulder. The bullet should have struck the back of his head. Instead of that bullet path, the 50 grain SPSX entered his skull through his right hand eye. I could never repeat that shot in a million years.