this should be good, in a sentance or a paragraph describe your "shot of a lifetime"

Any West Virginia grouse that I hit ...... not too often, though.

A quick shot at a flying vulture, aprox. 50 metres high...open sights...286 grain bullet....9,3x62....

Witnesses very impressed but not more than I...

L

Two I remember the most both happened last year.

1) My first shot at a Cape Buffalo. We were hidden by some brush looking over a large group of Buff and I new I would get my first shot at a Cape Buff..I was shaking, knees knocking, etc..Pierre van Tonder let me calm down and then pointed out the Buff to shoot...After the shot, Pierre slapped me on the back and said "he is down"..great feeling the Bull never got up or took a step.

2) I hunted up in Alberta, Canada last November for Whitetail... the first day I saw a HUGH Deer step out into a cut lane, at approx. 500 yds, grab my rifle looking through my scope I saw it was a Muley...no Muley tag so no shot. I told the Outfitter about the deer and said I need I Mule Deer tag..got it...three days later I watched a Whitetail Doe cross the cut land followed by a 150 class Whitetail Buck..not a shooter up there...I looked back to the other side of the cut land and this HUGH Muley was heading for the Timber at approx. 225 yds I had little time and could just make out hair and top of rack through weeds...I shot.. thought I may have missed...ran down to see and came upon a set of antlers that were a couple feet over the snow....I thought I killed "King Kong"...I was jumping up and down like a kid.... That Muley grossed 201 1/8" I have not seen a Muley with a rack as tall as mine...it is very tall!

Well maybe a little more than you asked for but all good stories are...I condensed them down as best I could...

The herd of Tsessebe was heading into thick bush>My PH said that the last one was a good bull and that I should take him.From sixty yards I raised my bow ,came to full draw and released.The bull turned slightly at the shot and dropped a bit to run.The arrow took him directly in his ear as perfectly as I could place it on a dead specimen under lab conditions.The pole-axed bull went rigid as a board ,teetered for a second and then fell straight back.The tracker came unglued,laughing and hooping like a banshee.

Another time I had snuck to withiin sixty yards of a herd of zebra.My Ph had pointed out a good stallion and I was preparing for a shot.The zebra were getting a bit nervous and the PH pressured me to shoot as soon as possible.I took the shot and as the arrow hung in space the stallion started to turn away.As the arrow struck the PH shouted ,"You have hit him in the neck!"
"Yes ",I said,"but it will be alright."
The bull took off at a dead run but pulled up almost immediately with blood squirting from a femoral artery wound.Great spurts of blood shot six feet in the air leaving a trail that Stevie Wonder could follow.The animal expired in just seconds and less than fifty yards from the position of the shot.

Both of these are classic examples of great shots and WHY IT IS MORE IMPORTANT TO BE LUCKY THAN GOOD!

1999 R.S.A. black wilebeest 150 yards at dusk uphill after 1 hour stalk,180 gn. Nosler partion .308 shot through open mouth hitting spine.

Hunting on public land near Montrose Colorado for Mule Deer. On top of a mountain gutting my buddies 3 point when five bucks run out of some timber and into a sage brush valley below. The biggest is in the lead. Lets just say a long ways off. No wind blowing and I get a good rest on the side of a pine tree. Crank the scope on the .300 win. mag. to 12X and I hold on top of his horns. I still remember seeing the white throat patch and then four legs sticking straight up then he disapears onto his side in the tall grass. The 200 grain trophy bonded bullet has broken his neck. When I finally get down the mountain three hunters from Colorado emerge out of the trees and are picked up by a jeep. They ask me if I saw some deer run by. "Yeah they went that away".

"Shot of a lifetime" could be defined so many ways. A super long shot on a deer, a double on a pair of drake mallards, crossing shot on a pheasant in high gear. But my "shot of a lifetime" is my first shot in Africa: 200 yards on a Zebra on my birthday!!

some stories need more room, thats o.k. just keep it interesting

Ringncek pheasant flying away with T/C 40 cal. 10" barrel #6 shot.

We had four Corsican Rams in front of us. My buddy and I both set up for shots. I tried picking out the best horns, beard and color. My compadre shot first. I asked him, "Which one did you shoot?". He replied, "I don't know".

We watched for a few seconds that seemed like forever until one finally stumbled. The other three turned into the brush and took off. I ran after them and followed in a quick jog for about 50 yards. The first two were out of sight and the last one was just going over a cliff I was not going to make it up in time. I took the offhand shot at about 80 yards and dropped him on the spot.

Heading back to camp with my buddy Al after a long day in the woods I was taking a real ration of bull for hunting with my Ruger 1A 7x57. "Ya only got one shot in that thing", he was moaning.

All of a sudden we heard the sounds of something tearing through the leaves. Right then, approximately 100 yards away a red fox rips out of the woods into a meadow. Shoot him! shoot him! hollers Al.

I threw the rifle up and pulled the trigger. Al watched in amazement as the fox did a quadruple cartwheel and piled up into a stump. Right through the eyes!

Ya only need one bullet Al!

Al has seen me shoot from the bench so to this day, he still believes it was skill rather than luck. Who am I to disappoint him?

Like many others, could be anything. 180yd running shot at whitetail at dusk as it ran up and down a hilly South Dakota prairie.

Triple on drake canvasbacks. Triple on drake eiders etc...

Typically though, any shot on the skeet field

Sorry, I can't do just one.

Dropped a doe in her tracks, standing, no rest used, no sling, 87 yards paced off, one shot from my ".35 Bear Buster" (a .35/444 wildcat on an Enfield action).

My first bison, one shot from my Remington rollingblock chambered for .45 2-4/10", about 90 yards, in a wind you had to lean WAY forward in to walk, with snow stinging my eyes, with a 100-billion-degree-below-freezing windchill factor. Using a 520-grain load, it was "textbook Western (movie)."

BOOOOOOOoooooooooooom!

Long pause. Watch time tick by on watch. Put rifle down. Go into town. Order pizza. Eat pizza. Drive back out. Pick up rifle. Wait for the hit.

"WHAP!"

<< pause >>

Bison slowly falls to Earth. "THUD!" Earth rumbled on impact (... I think).

Textbook. Absolutely textbook.

Russ

Mine came last year. A Boone & Crockett whitetail 200 yards away with another deer in front. Only his neck exposed. Another lease hunter was driving in my direction and going to spook the deer in about another second. Boom! Whop!

Boy, thats a tough call, but I think it has to be the Black Wildebeest that PH and friend Phillip Price insisted that I try for..800 yards and moving pretty fast, and I hit him 3 out of 5 shots and its all on film...Phillip said I knew you could do it boy! He thinks I can't miss, because that was after I rolled a Black Springbuck running at 200 yards and a Kudu standing, off hand at 350 steps and a Springbuck at 400 with his shoulder for a rest, most of this is on film.......It was a lucky hunt for me, I was in my zone that year...Not always that way i assure you....

I normally will not take a shot over 300 yards and only then with a rest on a standing animal..

With a rock there are two:

I was 8 years old and at my grandfather's farm in Arkansas. I had been trying to kill a big bull frog I had been chasing all day with my Daisy BB rifle. I ran out of BBs and was leaving the pond when froggy pops up about 15 yards from me. From the top of the dam I pick up a PeeWee baseball sized rock and fire at the huge bullfrog. Hit dead center in the head and Grandpa helped me skin the critter and cooked his legs for me that night.

The second was my junior year in college. I was with 2 buddies on cold winter night and we stopped in a "rural" area to discharge a bit of beer we had comsumed that evening. As we stepped out of the car the headlights revealed 2 bunnies about 30 yards away. One of my buddies chunked a rock just as I was picking up a couple of good sized stones to try my luck. The bunnies took off and I threw and killed the first one one the run. As soon as I could reloaded I threw and killed the next one with a perfect head shot. My buddies were a impressed, but not nearly as much as I was, because they had seen me pick-off and throw out baserunners when I played catcher in high school and college. Yes I picked up the bunnies, skinned them later that night and had them for dinner a few days later. As a college kid I never wasted money, beer or food.

With an arrow there are two:

When I was 14 I killed a duck rising off a pond with my 40 lb Ben Person recurve and cedar shaft target arrow. Like the others, I knew when I released the arrow it was a kill shot.

The second shot was when I was in high schoool. I was shooing an old Bear Whitetail compound bow and a cheap K-mart fiberglass target arrow. With 3 witnesses, I hit a Starling sitting on a barbed wire fence at 75 yards. I told them I could kill it and then had to restain my astonishment upon doing so.

With a firearm there is only one that stands out. I drew and hip shot the head off a rattle snake that was poised to strike my 6 year old daughter. The range was less than 3 feet when I stepped in front of her, but I have never pulled off a luckier or more important shot. This was witnessed my my wife and parents, who maintain it was the fastest draw and shot they have ever seen. I still get hero points for that one.

Perry

Wyoming about fifteen years ago. It was a two on one hunt for mule deer and pronghorns. The other hunter was a nice fellow from Ohio and was a total stranger to me until we met the day before the hunt.

He won the toss for the first shot. The guide located a shootable mule deer and we walked and climbed for about an hour to get into position for a shot. When everything looked right the hunter from Ohio stood up and fired his .270 off hand at the deer that was about 75 yards away. Clean miss. Deer was trying to figure out where the shot came from when shot number two went off. Clean miss again. Now the deer started off up hill away from us. Shots three and four at the running deer were also misses.

I was sitting on the ground next to the guide watching the escaping mule deer through the scope of my 30-06. When the other hunter started cussing and said he was out of ammo I fired off a Speer Grand Slam aimed at the root of the deer's tail. He was well past the 200 yard mark and eating up more ground by the second. The sling was nice and tight and my elbows were anchored on my folded legs. The shot connected and the deer droped out of sight into the sagebrush. We found him dead right where he fell.

All my shots on big game are special to me and can't really pick one. The best shot I've ever seen anyone make was by my wife who took a running mule deer buck perfectly through the lungs at 200 yards off-hand. This was when she was just starting out and didn't "know you can't do that" so to speak.

For me my best technical shot is on a gopher, target area 2 inches or less, at 157 yards from a sitting position. (We went back to my truck and got a 100 ft. tape and measured it.) No big right, well I was using a bolt action 22LR and there was a variable breeze requiring a bit of "estimated" windage. I hit it under the chin and broke its neck. The bullet didn't even penitrate the gopher completely.

OK if we are not restricted to game animals then I will tell this one.

We were visiting old friends who had moved from Houston to Mission to be near family. My friend was driving me around introducing me to differend folks. Seams like he is related to half the folks in that town. We wound up out in the boonies on some property owned by one of his cousins. It was a sort of get-away for the men to go and drink beer and eat brisket and drink more beer.

He tells his cousin that I am a safari hunter and can hit anything with a rifle. The cousin says that he enjoys shooting and does a little hunting. He gets a Marlin .22 out of his truck and hands it to me to admire. I comment on what a fine gun it is and tell him that I have heard that they are very accurate.

He insists that I take a shot with it. Everyone insists that I demonstrate my shooting ability for them. My friend sees a black bird pearched on a guy wire of a television transmission tower about three hundred yards away and suggests that it would be a good target.

I did not want to offend anyone but knew that I did not have a chance in hell of hitting the bird at that distance. I aimed a good bit over the bird and squeezed one off. The bullet made a twang as it hit the cable under the bird and then I was astonished as the bird fell straight down. The bullet must have either fragmented as it hit the cable and killed the bird or bounced off it and hit the bird on a richchet.

My "shot of a lifetime" was hitting a straight-away clay bird with a snap shot, starting with the buttstock at my belt, using an H&K SL-7 in .308.

On game, while not especially spectacular, taking down my Cape buffalo, which was walking slowly broadside right to left, with an off-hand shot through the top of its heart at 35 yards with a Merkel .470 NE double rifle was pretty satisfying. I'd gotten the Merkel only a few weeks before the trip and had put only 40 round through it in practice. The buff shot was my first shot on game with it.

Kind of a weird thing, but it was actually three shots in a row on elk. My two hunting buddies had each shot an elk, but only wounded them. I helped follow up each elk, and due to circumstances, ended up shooting each running elk and stopping it. They saw another group of elk and told me to shoot. I did, at a laser-measured 307 yds, and killing it instantly. All three shots with a .375 H&H Mag, scope on low power, 210gr X bullet. The total time was less than an hour. Probably will never get that lucky again in front of witnesses in my life.

Great thread--haven't read all the posts but am looking forward to it...

I'll take this from a little different angle--let's say a "sub-optimal angle" shot, because to this point, this is my "once in a lifetime shot" ie; won't ever do this again!

Stand hunting in NW Wisconsin's deer season. Nice doe walks into the shooting lane which runs straight west. Deer is northbound in a Norway pine nursery, and crosses the lane before I'm ready to shoot.

So what do I do? Jump out of the ground blind and take off on a dead run--over foot high pine furrows--to the North-West, hoping I can cut off the deer at the next northernmost shooting lane.

Does it go without saying that one should not run with a loaded firearm? Stupid idead #1

I make it to the northern shooting lane at the same time as the doe, which sees me and turns tail, running ever so slightly to the right.

"Don't shoot," I say to my self. "Well, if you do shoot, shoot high and to the right, that way, if you hit it, it will be head or neck, and if you miss, it will be a clean miss."

So I shoot. And I hit neither head, nor neck. As best I can determine, I grazed the right shoulder. Deer's right hoof (front, I'm guessing), stuttered for a moment, judging by the track on frozen dirt, and found a drop of blood about 30 feet further.

Tracked the doe for 1 1/2 hours until dark with a friend. At one point the deer stood still and bled somewhat freely. I was optimistic at this point.

Then, we must have pushed it on, because no deer and no more blood

What's the point? Last time in my life I take a piss-poor shot like that!

friar

one to many shots of tequila in my youth, got in a fight with a wood fence and my back door, lost both to both of them, never touched it again.

quote:

describe your "shot of a lifetime"

I haven't lived near a lifetime yet and I haven't made that shot yet either. I'll keep you posted.

my son and I were bowhunting for whitetail deer in Pa, when we spotted a grouse strutting back and forth on a log. We flipped a coin and I won the shot. I missed him at twenty yds and thought he ran off but when I went to pick up my arrow I saw he was crouched ready to spring so i drew just as he launched and released...knocking him out of the air at 30 yds. NOW! that was shit luck!! but my son couldn't believe it said "that was the best shot he'd ever seen" and paid for dinner that night. I never told him i actually missed where I was aiming but still hit the bird

I was 19 and hunting in Rhodesia with my Uncle Robert, we were on the trail of a world class Kudu. As we went by a village of locals Uncle knew some of them as they worked for him either hunting or on his various farms. They informed him of a very mean bad tempered broken horned old Buff that was running people off and several escaped by the skin of their teeth. He thanked them and we continued the tracking, as we passed a water hole sourounded by bush we checked it over very carefully. I was hunting with his .470 double and he had his 505 Gibbs. We stopped some twenty feet or so from the hole to plan our next bit of strategy when he came for us with the usual gusto. "He comes" is all i heard as his Gibbs whent off and in slow motion i turned and fired the right solid and saw a whitish hole between this eyes. Then a milli second later the second barrel went off as if by it self putting another whiteish hole beside the other just as his Gibbs barked again. Four rounds in about 2 seconds or so and i had the shot of my lifetime. Charlie

here's another: I was spotting for my buddy on a Montana muley hunt and I spotted a nice 4x4 at 200 yds bedded with a smaller 4x4 and 2 does.I pointed him out to my pal and he took the shot off a good solid rest....the small 4x4 and does jumped up and he said..damm I missed! I looked thru the spotting scope and could see the bigger 4x4 lying dead. I told him you killed him in his bed, he said " I did like hell he's running down the creek" we hiked over and honest to Pete my pal says " I never saw this buck till right now this second, I swear on my kids head"
Now that's some kind of shooting !

My shot of a lifetime was in Texas in 1999. My hunting pal and I had a hunt in the Texas panhandle. After hunting the ranch for three days, I shot a fine buck in the 160 class. A great shot at about 200 yards. The buck goes down like struck by lightning. My buddy, Clint was having a streak of bad luck. He hadn't seen a shootable deer for 6 days. The ranch foreman was helping us out by trying to locate some big bucks to look at. We headed out to an area known to sport some fine heads and some bonus shooting of wild hogs. We love hog hunting as much as deer hunting . The three of us were heading for an area ajacent to some canyon land when we spotted a huge deer brousing ahead. Clint and the guide decided to make a stalk for the Buck. I stayed back so as not to get in the way. I had left my binoculars in the truck so I was sitting down on the edge of the field looking through the trees when this buck came through on my side of the tree line. I had my rifle scope on him for more than 30 minutes waiting for Clint to shoot.The buck kept looking my direction but because the low west sun was in his eyes and I was sitting and using my bi-pod I was able to keep very still. I waited for a shot to ring out. Looking at a 16 point buck with dual dropper tines and double brow tines can be a bit unnerving. This was the biggest deer rack I have ever seen. Suddenly a shot rang out and the deer ducked down and ran back into the tree line. I just knew that he was down and out as fast as he hit the ground and disappeared into the tree line. We got together to find the deer. The rancher said he had been hunting the family ranch for over 50 years and had never seen a bigger deer anywhere. Both ofthem were litterally shaking from excitement. We looked for over 4 hours that day and 8 hours the next day. We found no blood. A flat miss! I had that buck solid in my sights for more than 30 minutes and at less than 100 yards, but I couldn't hit it. It was Clints deer not mine. We rarely talk about the big one that got away, but when we do we smile really big as we know that we both saw an awesome natural sight. A truely amazing, once in a lifetime hunting experience.

My dad was bulldozing brush into piles and I was about 12 years old with my trusty Westernfield 22 bolt action with 4X scope doing varmint control. A cottontail burst out of the pile in high gear about 25 yards away broadside and I took him through the eyes.
About that same year when we were deer hunting a nice buck jumped out of the gully below me. I missed him once or twice (or maybe more?) but just before he went over the ridge about 225 yards away I put one right between his ears.

I was on my first mule deer hunt by Granby CO. Late in the afternoon on the last day I was still looking for a good deer. I briefly saw one thrash a bush about 200 yds away and then walk away. I decided to see if I could stalk him. After a couple of hours of slowly following I saw him just as the light was fading. The sagebrush was to high for a sitting shot and there was nothing to rest on. I knelt and shot him at what turned out to be right at 350 yards. More luck than skill, but not bad for my first mule deer.

My shot of a lifetime was last year in Zim on the Gongooue River near MatuSadona National Park..With my Ph, Ian Dodds we stalked up to a herd of 24 bull eles...The showdown was at 30 feet...

But my shots of a lifetime won't be till July 25 thru August 14 when I head to Tanzania for a lifetime hunt...

Mike

We were just putting a wrap on a ludicrously successful afternoon hunt near Katy, Texas for pen-raised pheasant. The birds all seemed to have a death wish. We were standing around the vehicles as the sun was dropping low. All guns were being put back into cases and people were laughing and joking. I had just broken my shotgun down and place it in the case on top of the car. Someone asked where one of the men was. He hadn't come out of the field into the bar ditch where we were all getting ready for sausage and beer.

Someone said, "there he comes". I looked over just as the man forced his way through the brush line between field and bar-ditch. A cock pheasant flushed out right under his feet and came, rising, right toward us. I had no time to do anything except grap the stock of my shotgun, throw it to my shoulder and yell, POW!, POW!, POW! as the cock pheasant sailed over the top of me. The pheasant immediately turned his head, looked right at me .........hit the highline, breaking his neck, and falling onto the highway. For a minute we were all dumbfounded, then we just fell all over ourselves laughing. Never in a million years could I reproduce that shot.

Sitting in a swamp in South Carolina, Spring Gobbler Season with my 12 year old son armed with a 12 gauge sitting between my legs. Low and behold even with my pittiful calling here comes 2 Jake Turkeys answering. We watched them come all the way in and about 25 yards he dropped the hammer. I'll never forget him jumpping up an running hollering the whole time "I got em, I got em".

6 years later I lost him too soon. Take you boy / girl hunting today, not tomorrow. Some day those shots of a lifetime may be all you have.

Tom T

My shot of a lifetime was the one that saved my a$$!

Stopped a wounded charging buffalo in dense forest brush at about 4 paces with my .375 and a scope set on 3 power

my best shot of a lifetime came a few years back.
It was the day my youngest daughter graduated medical school (her 2 siblings had graduated previously, all 3 on my tab) and it was a dbl shot of Crown Royal over ice!

3 come to mind & as others have mentioned this type of shooting skill is not done by me every day

1. I was working a starve out grass ranch & was supplementing income shooting coyotes (back in the day of a $40 skinned dog). My partner & I were out on Xmas morning feeding heifers, we drove up to a feedbunk with the wind blowing snow across the ground & a big old dog coyote jumped up out of the feedbunk & took off. My partner had his "thuty thuty" so he jumped out
& proceeded to miss with every shot. I finally got out of the pickup & grabbed my .257 Roberts (it was a beerjoint trade special definately not a tackdriver), just as the coyote topped over coming out of the draw I took a shoot at him & split the top of his skull at somewhere around 400 yards on the dead run. Dunk still thinks I am "dick deadeye"

2. My friend got a new M77 in .338 & asked my son & I to go out with him while he sighted it in. We had a target set up on a sucker rod electric fence post. He & my son were blasting away, they kept asking me if I wanted to shoot it. I said no that I wasn't overly interested in anything that recoiled (I was plinking a can with a .22 pistol) Finally they prodded me enough that I took a shot, the target was 100 yards away & I told them that I would just take 1 shot & shoot the fence post in 2 just to show them how it was done. Offhand I'll be damned if I didn't split that post in 2! Just handed the rifle back & told him I didn't need to shoot it anymore.

3. Last day of my first trip to Mongolia & we were working a billy ibex. He was standing directly head on across a ravine with the wind blowing, measured on a rangefinder at 532 yards. The guide said, take the shot it is the only chance we will have. I did, the bullet went in just on the outside of his shoulder blade "rode" the ribs down & broke his hip. They also think I am Dick Dead eye, of course when we walked up on him, he jumped up & tried to take off... at about 15 yards I had to shoot 3 times before I could calm down enough to hit him!!

Mike

Without a doubt my shot of a lifetime was my first big game animal. A Whitetail Doe shot when I was a starving student who couldn't afford the rifle a .336 Marlin in 30-30, ammo or the hunt (although I was hunting in my home area I had to save for a week for gas money to drive 20 miles). I had always hunted small game and waterfowl growing up but that launched my big game hunting career and many hunts followed including a 91/2 ft Brown Bear from Cold Bay Alaska, a Cape Buffalo from the Selous in Tanzania, an Boone and Crockett Alaskan Yukon Moose from the Farewell Burn in Alaska, Several Bull Elk from New Mexico and Colorado. I will try to remember them all as the years pass but I will never forget that first one.

I have 2 of them:

First one I was about 9 years old at my grandfathers house. My cousin and I were out with our BB guns shooting whatever we could.....hunting to us...... Well, It was time to go inside for lunch and my BB gun was pumped up and ready to shoot. Without even looking up into a tree, I pulled the trigger and 2-3sec later, down fell a HUMMINGBIRD!!!! My cousin looked at me like....DID YOU TRY TO DO THAT??? I just shrugged and said it was a tough shot but I thought I would try!!!

Second was a couple years ago at the deer lease before season getting things ready. Driving into our biggest wheat field, my wife spots a coyote and my dad stops the truck. I hurry out the back door and grab my gun case in the bed...open it...load it....and just as the coyote is reaching to the run stage instead of loping at 300 yds I squeeze off a shot freehanded. My dad just starts laughing and my wife says you got him. Lasered it with the Leica at 300yds on the dot.

Kyle