this should be fun, in a sentance or a paragraph describe your "shot of a lifetime" please include location

I have several that rank high in my memory but, I'll just speak of a couple.

#1:

Once, several of my college friends and I were outside of their house shooting cigarette butts w/ a Bejamin Air Rifle when we narrowed it down to 2 of the best in the bunch, Dee and I. We decided that the cigarette butts were too easy so we started shooting beer cans in the air thrown by fellow compadres. I ended up edging ole' Dee on the friendly competition and it was time to put the pellet rifle away. As I walked to the house (about 25-30 yards away from the guys) My friend Dee yelled for me to shoot a Beer bottle cap he found smashed in the road so, I proceeded to load the ole Benjamin and he threw the bottle cap as far as he could in the air, I pulled the trigger, there was a clang, the bottle cap disappeared and everyone in the yard was totaly silent and starring right at me. I politely said ok guys I'll put her up now and turned and walked in the house. Ole' Dee still talks about that every now and then. To tell the truth I probably couldn't have done it if I had tried 1000 more times but, It sure was pretty neat.

#2

We were Hog hunting w/ dogs along side a Bayou in in North La. and after a good while of walking and looking for fresh sign the dogs jumped a herd of pigs and the chase was on. After a run through the woods chasing the herd waiting for a bay, the hogs crossed the Bayou so, we had to just sit tight and listen for a while. All of the sudden the dogs started coming our way and a small boar came into sight running down the opposite side of the Bayou and we all just silently watched as he headed our way. When the Boar got to w/in 40-50 yards everyone started saying "shoot him" "Shoot Him!!" which turned the boar straight away. I quickly un holstered my S+W 586 357Mag and let it roar as the hog disappeared into the brush. We then proceed to find a way to cross the bayou and luckily a large tree had fallen across shortly up the bayou. When we made it back to where the hog was, there he lay. Everyone looking at me in disbelief. I never even thought I hit anywhere close it was a long ways for a six shooter especially at a running target. They started calling me John Wayne when I'd go hunting w/ them.

Sorry for the length but, it's good to bring back memories.

Good Luck!

Reloader

One that comes to mind was a bow shot about 20 years ago. We were in camp near Montrose, CO. A few of us were flinging arrows one afternoon, when somebody noticed a chipmunk above 70 yards above us up an open hillside. As a joke, somebody gave one of those "I'll betcha you can't hit that thing" challenges, to nobody in particular. I thought what the heck, all I'll have to do is walk up the hill to get my arrow back after everybody quits laughing, if I don't ruin it on a rock... So I turned, nocked an arrow on a Bear recurve, with no sights, and let 'er fly. That arrow arched up, started back down, and damned if it didn't center punch that little chipmunk!

As you can imagine, the silence & stunned looks were everyone. I nonchalantly walked up the hill, pulled my arrow, and carried it back down with the chipmunk still skewered. Then it was MY turn... "Well, who's next?"

Two occasions come to mind. One with a combination of skill and luck, the other, just pure luck.
The "pureluck" occasion was as follows. On a very bad huntingday, I was taking a short break. Had started a fire and was just about to load the coffeepan. I had my dog on a leash, tied to a tree near the fire. Then I saw that she heard something, and it was a raven. It came flying straight towards us, about 60-80 metres up. Quickly I chambered a hollow point, .22 WM in my Krico and set the scope on 3x.
I thought, -Oh well, I`ll give it a try.
When it was straight above us, I pulled the trigger, and the raven came down! I couldnt believe it! I had to walk about 10 paces to pick the very dead bird up. Even if I get a hundred more of these opportunities, I think I would miss.

The other time was when I was hunting for Capercallie.
My dog was doing a "not so good job" on a caper, but I had to go there and see how she was acting, since it was her first fall of hunting. On my way there, I spotted another one, about 60 metres away. At first, I was just watching it, but then I decided to try. Just in case we should need one for a finer dinner sometime.
So I lay down under a pinetree and took aim. When I did that, it turned its head, so I could see the right eye of it.
When the cross was at what I assumed was in the middle of the eye, I squeezed the trigger. Successful indeed, for the entrance was in the lower part of the right eye, and the exit in the upper of the left!

quote:

Originally posted by boom stick:
this should be fun, in a sentance or a paragraph describe your "shot of a lifetime" please include location

I'll pick the time I ricocheted an arrow off a big poplar tree and into the heart of a running whitetail deer that I was going to miss by 5 yards or so. Witnessed! I told the gal that the deer was behind another tree and I had to ricochet it. Thief Lake Wildlife Refuge, Mn. 1983

Boreal,

In Golf they call that a SSWP (Shitty Shot Well Played).

What luck!

Reloader

Reloader,

Where I golf it would be called an "SBS" Shitty but satisfactory.

I can think of a few shots that Ill probably remember until Alsheimers sets in, but one that was particularly gratifying was when I was very young, (Im guessing about 10 or so) I used to frequent the community youth center during the summer months.

One day the manager organized some archery competetion and toward the end of it he laid a target flat on the ground, the idea was to lob an arrow into the air and back down at the target about 50 or so yds away. The oldest guy participating was my neighbor and an archery freak, highly practiced and pretty much a ringer to win, that is until the manager said "whoever wins this gets a soda".

Poor Donnie, (my neighbor) had no idea how bad I wanted that soda, Id been playing hard there all day and was mighty thirsty. So I beared down on that shot like it was life and death and nailed it. I still remember to this day the look of disbelief from Donnie and how good that Dr Pepper tasted.

corn field upstate NY 450yds left ear of a woodchuck 22-250.

One time while walking with an old girl friend in Montreal on 20 below zero winter night. I saw a huge sewer rat walking across an ally. I picked up a flat chunk of ice a threw it side arm about 30 yards and nailed the beast right in the head. It just rolled over and didn't move. My girl friend looked couldn't believe my throw. I don't think I ever told her how lucky it was!

quote:

One time while walking with an old girl friend in Montreal on 20 below zero winter night. I saw a huge sewer rat walking across an ally. I picked up a flat chunk of ice a threw it side arm about 30 yards and nailed the beast right in the head. It just rolled over and didn't move. My girl friend looked couldn't believe my throw. I don't think I ever told her how lucky it was!

The Ole' Crocodile Dundee shot huh.


I had a similar instance happen on a Construction site years ago. There was a bird in some grass about 25 yards away and I picked up a small dirt clod and threw it at the bird. As The rock neared the bird flew up and had a head on w/ it. He lay dazed for a few seconds and then went on. The guys were amazed but, it was just another one of those lucky shots.

I know a lady that killed a Robin in flight w/ a golf ball off the tee. Must not have been his day.


Reloader

My good friend and I were hunting Mule deer near Mono Lake in Ca.We were driving along this dirt road and he says "Look a coyote" about 500yds out along a creek bed there he was just walking along so we pulled up and got out on the hillside in sitting position. He shoots first and misses the coyote is running full bore. I figure what the heck and shoot my 7mmRM. at the shot he says you got him.I was amazed but we paced it of at 492 steps.

The first deer I shot was with a 30-06 at 25yrds through the eye and out the back of the head. After years of not getting a shot I was thrilled.

I shot a rabbit through the eyes with my friends sons 22mag RG at 50yrds I had never shot his pistol.

I shot a crow flying overhead with my S&W K22 my cousin still braggs about it.

Just lucky or maybe the hundreds of thousands of 22lr shots that I had practiced with.

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader:
Boreal,

In Golf they call that a SSWP (Shitty Shot Well Played).

What luck!

Reloader

I watched a friend's kid kill a flying mallard with his potato gun one summer day. Unfortunately, it was not duck hunting season and a nearby lakeshore owner turned him in. The kid got a ticket for taking a duck out of season. We all chipped in and payed it for him.

o.k. here is mine, not though i would like to repeat it...

it was i believe 8th grade and i was at my good friend robert willbergers grandparents house in the country. we took a lever action bb rifle out to have a mini red neck day and just shoot stuff and kill birds. i had the rifle and robert was about 80 yards away and he says "shoot me" (pretty stupid, but stay tuned) not thinking that i could hit him. than self preservation kicked in and he said wait! and ran up a hill so far he thought surely he could not hit me now and said "o.k., shoot me now" with a big smile on his face, he was then about 130 yards away ( i want to say 150 yards but distances lengthen as you get older) i proceeded to be Quigley down under and pumped the thing till it would not go anymore, put tons of hold over so much so i could not see him becouse the barrel blocked him out. i pulled the trigger and a second later he fell to the ground writhing in pain screaming/with tears with his hands over his right eye. wanting to think he was just faking it i didnt run for a second but i knew the sound of pain and ran over to him. luckily the bb went in the corner of his eye and did not puncture it but came out right away. robert, if you read this i am still sorry.

When I was about 15 and in High school in Las Vegas 5 or 6 of us where "hunting" in the desert outside of town. I was using a friends single shot 22 rifle when we came across a jack rabbit sitting up kinda looking at us. Well we all cut down on him and we all missed him (even the guy with a shotgun). The rabbit just sat there trying his best to be a nice still target for us. We all took another shot (or 2) and then he decides maybe there is some other place he should be and takes off running straight away from us. I had reloaded again and brought the gun up and made a snap shot. Well the bunny tumbles over and lays there twitching. We run up and there's not a mark on him, but then we see there's blood in his mouth and nose. We finally Look "underneath his tail" and there is a slight amount of blood there. I, by pure accident, shot him right through the anus and the bullet scrambled his insides. That after none of us could hit him while he was sitting still. Talk about pure dumb luck.

Compared to some of the stories here, mine is pretty tame. It wasn't the longest shot I have ever done, but the best.

Where I used to work we had a big cook out and shooting fest every year. The highlight was a long range shoot at a filled fire extinguser. The thing was set up at around 350 yards, and we each paid a buck for a shot, winner take all.

The first guy had a 7mm Mag, and he just barely missed it. All I had at the time was my .223 Savage and a new batch of reloads that I hadn't tried out yet.

Wanting to impress my girlfriend (who is now my wife) I went up to the line and figured I would try to at least get close. Held over 10 inches (it was a light load) and then up wind about 5.

Hit the extinguesher dead center. Pure luck since I had no idea of how that load was going to work.

Mine story's quite lame compared to most, but it was just a season or two ago, and a buddy an I were waiting for shooting light in a duck blind. We already had birds swimming in the spread, and we were itching to start banging away, but wanting to be legal boith watched the second hands of our watches. At the instant the minute hand hit 12 on the proper minute, a mallard came sailing into the blocks left to right. I jumped up and cut him down at around 25 yards. At the report, two others jumped off the water, one headed right to left, and one headed dead away. I drew down on the right to left bird and folded it too, then immediately looked for the third, who was in afterburner mode headed dead away at around 45+ yards. With my last shot I stoned her and she fell down dead as well. I sat back down into the blind, giggling and damn pleased, and my buddy, who saw the whole thing but hadn't shot, says simply, "Wow, nice shootin' TEX!"

Not the first time I've killed three or four with one loaded shotty, but this one sticks in my mind best.

blue quail..300 yards..rested 300 win mag over fence post..shot his head off..texas panhandle..1984..my 5 year old son said, "do another one, dad!"..I think the statute of limitations has run out for hunting quail with a rifle

How about a pheasant, cleanly decapitated at fifteen yards.

Weapon...? My irrigating shovel, pitched under hand.

I also hope the statute of limitations has run out on a pheasant out of season. It made a good addition to dinner, split eight ways.

This was about 1970, so I was in grade eight and about 14 yr old. It was the first pheasant I ever killed, come to think about it, that was the first game animal I ever killed. Too bad it was not legal.

The location was about 170 yds due north of my present house.

I do not know if this is a 'shot of a lifetime' or not, but I once shot an impala ram on a dead run at close to 300 yards free hand with my .378 and hit it right where the neck meets the chest. The shot was on purpose and I was actually trying to kill the animal, but I didn't think I could actualy hit it and neighter did anyone else. I hit it with a 300 grain Hornady RNSP with my .378 and when I hit it the poor animal hit the ground like a truck hit it...I was stunned that I hit it and so was the PH. He told me to shoot that ram and I did. All my other poor shots evaporated. This took place in Feb/March 2001, about 50 mile NE of Port Elizabeth, RSA.

My shot-to-remember was when I was a teenager out on the farm one evening with the .22 long rifle. I looked down a field about 110 yards and saw just the head and neck of a pheasant sticking out from behind a tree. Offhand I aimed at its neck, pulled the trigger, and to my surprise it fell over!

Southern Colorado, 4x4 bull elk through the heart at 450 yds. with a .358 Norma. The light was low, and he looked a lot closer than 450...

Plenty of luck involved in that one!

...The luckiest shot I have ever witnessed was not my own. A friend and I were out shooting rabbits in country Vic Autralia when we spied a mob of kangaroos. He decided he wanted some dog meat and tried to get close enough for a shot. Bear in mind that we were both shooting .22lr with subsonics. The roos wouldn't let him get close, and bailed up behind a fallen tree he took aim at a big buck I figured was around 170m away. I tried to talk him out of it but he popped it off anyway. The big roo just just slowly keeled over a good second after the shot. The little slug had gone in between two ribs and gently let the air out of him.

My luckiest: a group of us shooting an old scoped air rifle when someone says "bet you can't hit that! (insulator on an alectricity pole). Well, needless to say I had a crack and it went "TING!" Then there was the time I hit a swallow in flight with another old airgun....

My best, well there are a few. One was with a fellow AR member, hunting roe deer in a beautifull English wood in a glorious day.
A roe buck we had been trying to stalk had given us the slip. We kicked him out of his bed, and as he jumped across the trail, through a shaft of sunlight, I took a snap shot at the deer in mid air. He dissappeared over the trail but it had felt sooo good.
Just off the trail we found the deer with a hole through his neck at the base of the skull.

Another memorable one was in north western NWS Australia. I had been looking for a big boar I had kicked out of bed unprepared 3 days earlier. I kicked him out again in the same area and he bolted headlong into a tree, causing a big dustball, I fired but missed. I ran after him hoping for a shot in the open, sprinting for as long as I could, then tried, slowing to a desperate jog. I got a glimpse of him now just shy of 200m away. Holding my breath, resting against a sapling I took a bead on him and fired, dumping the boar in his tracks.

I guess it's my turn, all luck though, I assure you. On a Northern Mi. fall afternnon riding around looking for deer sign. I got out of the truck to shhot a fox squirrel some 50yds away, as I got out I flushed a grouse. I promptly shot the grouse aas it flew straight away down the two track. We drove ahead about 100 yds around a corner and saw a grouse cross the trail i got out flushed another grouse and shot it as it flew straight away. My buddy who was with me shook his heade in disbelief, He said You just shot two grouse flying with my .22.It was a Remington pump .22 and I wished it was mine. Of course I acted like I did that every day

Shot number one was my first big game animal, a Whitetail Doe at 75 yards from my first high powered rifle a Marlin 336 30-30 with iron sights. Tied for number two was a 91/2 Brown Bear at Cold Bay Alaska, a huge Moose on the Farewell Burn in Alaska, and a Cape Buffalo in the Selous of Tanzania. The later three were not killed with the 30-30, but with a .300 Winny, .340 Wby, and .416 Rem, respectively. Good shooting.

I have a few I remember and I would like to share two with this forum.

1. Back in the early 80,s a friend and I were driving around the scrub rocks West of Spokane looking for coyotes, when we spotted a nice deer upon a bluff at an incredable distance. He said see if you can scare him ( it was obvious too far to consider a thought of hitting him) I rested my rifle on the passenger window and held about 3 1/2 of the deers body length above and squeezed off a shot from my 243 Winchester. I then brought the heel of the rifle back into cab and as the heel touched the floor mat, the buck collapsed as if he had been dropped from an airplane. The time frame from shot to the buck dropping was over a second. We estimated the range at somewhere around 600-800yds. My friend was impressed enough by the following week he purchased a rifle identical to mine!

2. Hunting Brown bear on the Alaskan Pennisula, I spotted a nice brown about 350 yards and shot him going straight away with my 338 WM. The bear flinched and spun around and stood on his hind legs. I placed another bullet in his chest. The bear's reaction was if he were swatting bees on his chest. He dropped down on all fours and started running diagonally away from me and headed to the creek below us, placing a considerable distance from me. I fired twice more while he was running and missed both. I reloaded and watched as he crossed the creek and stood still looking back in our direction. I noticed above him about 3 feet was a Sea Gull hovering just above his hump. I thought perfect picture I aimed where the Sea gull had been hovering and squeeze off a shot. The bear dropped like a rock. Closer inspection revealed the first shot had entered through the right testicle, broken the Phallus and stopped into his chest hear his gall bladder. The chest shot was OK, but the last shot had centered the spine above his hump and turned out his lights. I still am very thankfull to the Sea Gull for his assist![/QUOTE]