What's the best shot you ever made?
- Thread starter OptimusPrime
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Delford
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Sounds like most posters (not all) were as lucky as they were good. That was me shooting four positions at different elevations and distances with a friend at the farm. I put 2 into the same mudhole on the creek bank down right at about 15 feet, hit the second target at about 30 feet up middle, missed the tree root up the hill at 20 yards and mid left and then broke the stick on the branch at 15-20 feet down hard left. All this in about 15 seconds with my P345. Good thing the 230 gr hardball is big. I doubt I could do that now, a year later, as my eyes are changing as this baby boomer ages. The left is actually better but I'm having to find my point of aim again with my right eye. With practice I'll get there 
I was in high school, it was summer and all my high school buddies, plus a passel of neighbors and little kids were having a BBQ in my backyard in Memphis. Someone had given my father a length of surgical tubing, and he'd spent the weekend carving out a classic "Y" shaped slingshot, wgt a little leather cup and everything.
So my dad's giving all the little kids a "zen of slingshot" talk while he absentmindedly picks up a green plum, slips it into the little slingshot and looking at a robin on a wire at the top of a telephone pole, I swear 20 yards away, lets the plum fly. I'm watching the plum — and you all know what's coming — thinking no way, Jose. The shot is perfect and the robin detonates, feathers everywhere, little children running around screaming that the bad man hit the birdie, neighborhood mothers, not to mention my Mom, yelling at my father, who looks shocked until he looks over at me rolling on the ground laughing. Then with all those people yelling at him, he grinned, because it was a damn fine shot.
You know, the thing between fathers and sons is complicated. Somehow he and I jst never "clicked." He'd fought in the Pacific, been a football star, married the head cheerleader, was a hunter and a shade tree gunsmith, but not really a shooter...I think never could figure out what to do with his nerdy, bespectacled smart-ass son who quoted Jeff Cooper and was obsessed with pistols.
After Dad died I went through his effects looking for the old Flat-top Ruger .357 that he'd use to teach me to shoot, but it was long, long gone. Later that year I found a beat-up Flat-top at the LGS, bought it cheap and on a whim sent it to Dave Clements at Clements Custom Guns with the instructions to "make it good again." I took that gun to a class at GUNSITE, and standing on the 15 yard line with 125-grain Hornady JHPs I put 5 shots, rapid fire, all touching into the center mass"X."
They were damn fine shots.
Happy Memorial Day, Dad. Thank you for your service.
Michael B
So my dad's giving all the little kids a "zen of slingshot" talk while he absentmindedly picks up a green plum, slips it into the little slingshot and looking at a robin on a wire at the top of a telephone pole, I swear 20 yards away, lets the plum fly. I'm watching the plum — and you all know what's coming — thinking no way, Jose. The shot is perfect and the robin detonates, feathers everywhere, little children running around screaming that the bad man hit the birdie, neighborhood mothers, not to mention my Mom, yelling at my father, who looks shocked until he looks over at me rolling on the ground laughing. Then with all those people yelling at him, he grinned, because it was a damn fine shot.
You know, the thing between fathers and sons is complicated. Somehow he and I jst never "clicked." He'd fought in the Pacific, been a football star, married the head cheerleader, was a hunter and a shade tree gunsmith, but not really a shooter...I think never could figure out what to do with his nerdy, bespectacled smart-ass son who quoted Jeff Cooper and was obsessed with pistols.
After Dad died I went through his effects looking for the old Flat-top Ruger .357 that he'd use to teach me to shoot, but it was long, long gone. Later that year I found a beat-up Flat-top at the LGS, bought it cheap and on a whim sent it to Dave Clements at Clements Custom Guns with the instructions to "make it good again." I took that gun to a class at GUNSITE, and standing on the 15 yard line with 125-grain Hornady JHPs I put 5 shots, rapid fire, all touching into the center mass"X."
They were damn fine shots.
Happy Memorial Day, Dad. Thank you for your service.
Michael B
RonniiRaygun
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Best Shot
100 yard shot with my SIG 1911-22 at sporting clays. We had a range setup for pistols and at 90 degrees we had a 100 yard range setup with clays. My buddy grabbed my sig and sent 10 shots down range and was able to dance around the target. I said if you can dance around it like that I can hit it. I hit that one and the one next it.
Since I hit it with my 22 I tried an XDM .40 but couldn't do it. I then tried my XMD 9 5.5 target match and hit the next three clays. It took all 16 rounds though.
100 yard shot with my SIG 1911-22 at sporting clays. We had a range setup for pistols and at 90 degrees we had a 100 yard range setup with clays. My buddy grabbed my sig and sent 10 shots down range and was able to dance around the target. I said if you can dance around it like that I can hit it. I hit that one and the one next it.
Since I hit it with my 22 I tried an XDM .40 but couldn't do it. I then tried my XMD 9 5.5 target match and hit the next three clays. It took all 16 rounds though.
janedoedad
Member
My very first bullseye with a M-14 on the 600 yard line at Camp Pendleton. Note: I am not a Marine.
r1derbike
Member
75 yard shot with a .22 Marlin repeater, open sites, golf ball on a T, dead center. Prone position. First shot.
30 years ago.
Now, I can't even see open sites, let alone a golf ball at 75 yards.
Still have that ball somewhere, and I had a witness as it was with his rifle, first time I shot it. I asked him before the shot, what distance sight-in, and guessed holdover. He couldn't believe it. Me neither. Thought I just grazed it. Nope, the money shot.
The guy was a stealth (how may I say this?) stalker in 'nam.
30 years ago.
Now, I can't even see open sites, let alone a golf ball at 75 yards.
Still have that ball somewhere, and I had a witness as it was with his rifle, first time I shot it. I asked him before the shot, what distance sight-in, and guessed holdover. He couldn't believe it. Me neither. Thought I just grazed it. Nope, the money shot.
The guy was a stealth (how may I say this?) stalker in 'nam.
double bogey
Member
In the mid 60's, I was about 10. One of those wire $.10 sling shots from the dime store and a bb, a sparrow at 30 yds. Thirty yrs later, a wrist rocket with 00 buckshot for ammo, and a mockingbird off of a friends tv antenna at about 30 yds. I need to get another slingshot.
When I bought a mk1 ruger I used to plink a brick of ammo a couple of times a month on my parents farm. Hitting "hard shots" seemed to be easy. Once got shooting at a 5 gallon metal bucket a long way off I got to where I could hit it every shot. Walked the bullets in, 6' high, and 6' right for an aimpoint. BIL ,shot at it all day with a rifle and never did hit it. This was over a pond so we never could get an accurate distance measurement. Lord I wish I had somewhere to plink again and .22's were $8.00 a brick.
When I bought a mk1 ruger I used to plink a brick of ammo a couple of times a month on my parents farm. Hitting "hard shots" seemed to be easy. Once got shooting at a 5 gallon metal bucket a long way off I got to where I could hit it every shot. Walked the bullets in, 6' high, and 6' right for an aimpoint. BIL ,shot at it all day with a rifle and never did hit it. This was over a pond so we never could get an accurate distance measurement. Lord I wish I had somewhere to plink again and .22's were $8.00 a brick.
1-1 Banger
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1280m first round hit when we first got our XM2010s. Just an iron maiden but it made me squee a little. Caliber is 300 Win Mag. The funniest/best shot I ever saw was when I was about 10 or 11. My step dad had picked me up from school and as we were almost to the house, he sees around 6 turkey buzzards sitting on our hay bales about 50 yards off. "Hey son, get into the glovebox and give it here" I knew what he meant and handed him his Taurus PT-92. He rolls down the window, braces on the door, and squeezes off 15 shots about as fast as he can accurately, which was pretty damn fast. Hit all but one at least twice, with the first two rounds hitting low and drilling the haybale. I swear the man can shoot a pistol in the same league as Wild Bill, it's unreal.
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bubba15301
Member
the next one
dagger dog
Member
Killed 5 grey squirrels with 4 consecutive shots, out of the same tree using a double barrel !
Snuck in to a favorite spot late in the evening ,there were so many squirrels in that big shag bark hickory tree I thought it was starting to rain 'cause there were so many cuttings falling through the leaves.
It looked like a squirrel blizzard when I popped the first one, hair flew every where, got the second with the mod barrel with a crossing shot ,hit the lever pulled the empties, slid in two more pulled the left trigger, and two come falling out, thought it was over but caught another trying to sneak out.
Snuck in to a favorite spot late in the evening ,there were so many squirrels in that big shag bark hickory tree I thought it was starting to rain 'cause there were so many cuttings falling through the leaves.
It looked like a squirrel blizzard when I popped the first one, hair flew every where, got the second with the mod barrel with a crossing shot ,hit the lever pulled the empties, slid in two more pulled the left trigger, and two come falling out, thought it was over but caught another trying to sneak out.
SharpsDressedMan
member
In 1991, when taking a police sniper course in London, Ohio at the Ohio Peace Officers Academy, we were being trained by Carlos Hathcock and a coupled guys from Virginia Beach PD. We had to run a given distance with gear (to get our heart rates up), drop down, set up, and fire a shot at the head/medulla of the paper target at 100 yards in 10 seconds. Luck allowed me to have the best shot of the group, punching almost exactly center of the pupil of the nearest eye of the target (our goal, as that placed it center to the medulla at the back of the head). When Carlos looked at my target, he just said, "Peachy keen! You know what that means, doncha? Damn good shot!", and laughed, shooting me a big smile. It doesn't get any better than that in my life of shooting.
jstein650
Member
Now, that's some good stuff!
Yoda
Member
1917 Eddystone
I bought a used (obviously!) US Model 1917 rifle. The stock had been sporterized, but all the metal was original, so a friend and I re-stocked it with an orignal stock. To do that, you have to remove the front sight.
I took it to the range to shoot a few rounds and adjust the front sight. I put a target out at 75 yards, figuring I'd probably hit the paper somewhere and then I could adjust the sight from there. I fired one round, then went downrange to do a look-see.
I could not have hit the bull any squarer if I'd gone out there with a hole punch. An absolutely perfect shot. I still have the target. I haven't fired that rifle since. I guess I just don't wantto know if it was luck or talent!
(I know, 75 yards isn't really that far, but still...)
On the other hand, I also bought a Lee Enfield of about the same vintage, at at 75 yards, I wasn't hitting the paper. I also wasn't hitting anything at 50 yards. At 15 yards, I finally got something... but it was clear that the bullet was flying sideways! THAT explained a lot.
(I know, Lee Enfields are generally pretty good shooters, but THAT one sure wasn't!)
- - - Yoda
I bought a used (obviously!) US Model 1917 rifle. The stock had been sporterized, but all the metal was original, so a friend and I re-stocked it with an orignal stock. To do that, you have to remove the front sight.
I took it to the range to shoot a few rounds and adjust the front sight. I put a target out at 75 yards, figuring I'd probably hit the paper somewhere and then I could adjust the sight from there. I fired one round, then went downrange to do a look-see.
I could not have hit the bull any squarer if I'd gone out there with a hole punch. An absolutely perfect shot. I still have the target. I haven't fired that rifle since. I guess I just don't wantto know if it was luck or talent!
(I know, 75 yards isn't really that far, but still...)
On the other hand, I also bought a Lee Enfield of about the same vintage, at at 75 yards, I wasn't hitting the paper. I also wasn't hitting anything at 50 yards. At 15 yards, I finally got something... but it was clear that the bullet was flying sideways! THAT explained a lot.
(I know, Lee Enfields are generally pretty good shooters, but THAT one sure wasn't!)
- - - Yoda
xfyrfiter
Member
.410 single shot break over, 25 rounds ammo, jackrabbit hunting from the bed of a 59 Chevy PU over the headache rack, in an empty pasture. 24 jacks and a gray fox that had been in the chickens. Never before or since, but that night I couldn't miss.
gamestalker
member
With a rifle, I took an antelope at over 600 yds. Here how it went down, I spotted the goat and began making my stalk but the terrain was to open and flat to get close. I settled in and got a good solid rest and nailed him through both lungs and punched the heart. He went down like he was hit by a semi. But it doesn't end there, even though he went down and it was a clean kill shot, he got back up and ran full bore at which point the only shot I had was off hand and on the run. So I held the cross hairs on his nose and let one go and he flipped through the air. Now he was down for good, I had put the second shot through the neck.
Now how measured the distance being this was back before range finders were available. I paced off steps from my spotting scope to where I shot him through the heart / lungs which was 587 steps. And then on the run off hand was 633 steps. I measured my average step when I got home and it was between 38" and 40". This worked out to 636 yds. on my first shot, and 685 yds. on the neck shot figuring it off of 39" steps.
With a shotgun I would have to go with a duck I dropped from the hip at such incredible distance that it was so far my Son and I could hardly believe it. That shot was clearly pure luck.
But my son once made a shot on a tweety bird with his pellet rifle that was well over 150 yds. and up at the very top of mountain pine. It was barely visible with the naked eye.
GS
Now how measured the distance being this was back before range finders were available. I paced off steps from my spotting scope to where I shot him through the heart / lungs which was 587 steps. And then on the run off hand was 633 steps. I measured my average step when I got home and it was between 38" and 40". This worked out to 636 yds. on my first shot, and 685 yds. on the neck shot figuring it off of 39" steps.
With a shotgun I would have to go with a duck I dropped from the hip at such incredible distance that it was so far my Son and I could hardly believe it. That shot was clearly pure luck.
But my son once made a shot on a tweety bird with his pellet rifle that was well over 150 yds. and up at the very top of mountain pine. It was barely visible with the naked eye.
GS
gc70
Member
Pure luck, but ...
My son bought a Dan Wesson CBOB immediately after that model was introduced and I went to the range with him to try it out. He shoots very well and tore the center out of a target at 25 feet shooting three or four magazines of ammo. He pushed the target back to 50 feet and did okay, but couldn't quite pop the target dead center.
My son finally persuaded me to try his new pistol. With a pistol I had never touched before, my first offhand shot was perfectly centered in the bullseye. I'm no fool, so I handed the CBOB back to my son and told him it felt funny in my hand, but seemed to be reasonably accurate.
My son bought a Dan Wesson CBOB immediately after that model was introduced and I went to the range with him to try it out. He shoots very well and tore the center out of a target at 25 feet shooting three or four magazines of ammo. He pushed the target back to 50 feet and did okay, but couldn't quite pop the target dead center.
My son finally persuaded me to try his new pistol. With a pistol I had never touched before, my first offhand shot was perfectly centered in the bullseye. I'm no fool, so I handed the CBOB back to my son and told him it felt funny in my hand, but seemed to be reasonably accurate.
I was teaching archery at scout camp, and kids asked me to shoot for them.
From about 15 yards I got an exact bull's eye. They then asked me to shoot again, and I did. Split the first arrow. (totally luck, crappy equipment, and I never shot in front of them again)
From about 15 yards I got an exact bull's eye. They then asked me to shoot again, and I did. Split the first arrow. (totally luck, crappy equipment, and I never shot in front of them again)
hardluk1
member
I don't guess I ever made a great or special shot. Missed a couple that I knew I could not miss.
Rifleman 173
Member
Viet Nam in 1970. At Sniper School for the 4th Infantry Division at An Khe we had to do a series of 900 meter shots on steel silhouette targets to pass the course. If you failed to make the minimum number of 900 meter hits, you failed the course.
After I got through Sniper School I got assigned to a platoon and the enemy didn't know I was there. Early one night an enemy sniper showed up and started taking pot shots at our position and at the platoon to which I was assigned. The guy must have been using an old Mosin Nagant with a scope on it because his rate of fire was slow and we could actually hear him rack the bolt on the rifle. More or less he was shooting at whatever sounds and whatever motion he could detect but he wasn't hitting anything. He was, however, coming close. One of his bullets hit like 2 feet above my head as I moved into position.
The dummy was shooting without relocating. He'd shoot and stay where he was situated and shoot some more. That made my setting up of him so easy! I saw where he was firing from next to a tree, took aim at that general area and waited. When he fired again I zeroed in on his specific shooting point. The next time he fired I also instantly fired. The enemy sniper didn't do any more shooting.
Later on, several weeks later, intelligence reports would indicate that I hit the enemy sniper right in the head with my one shot. I ruined his whole day. What the intelligence guys also reported was that the 2 trainees with the sniper who was supposed to be teaching them ended up being so scared that neither one of them would move for over half an hour.
But those 900 meter shots on the steel silhouettes were really the rough ones to make because they forced a shooter to focus and concentrate everything he needed to do on making that one long range shot. When we made those shots in those days we had to concentrate on our breathing, trigger pull, becoming one with the rifle, getting the right picture in the scope, slow trigger pull and getting the wind drift right. To say going through Sniper School training was intense was putting it mildly. We were constantly thinking, studying, calculating, estimating, guessing, re-figuring things and so on. Then we'd cross check our answers with other shooter's answers to see how close we all were. And, yes, we sometimes did feel like we were pounding our heads against a wall: :banghead:
After I got through Sniper School I got assigned to a platoon and the enemy didn't know I was there. Early one night an enemy sniper showed up and started taking pot shots at our position and at the platoon to which I was assigned. The guy must have been using an old Mosin Nagant with a scope on it because his rate of fire was slow and we could actually hear him rack the bolt on the rifle. More or less he was shooting at whatever sounds and whatever motion he could detect but he wasn't hitting anything. He was, however, coming close. One of his bullets hit like 2 feet above my head as I moved into position.
The dummy was shooting without relocating. He'd shoot and stay where he was situated and shoot some more. That made my setting up of him so easy! I saw where he was firing from next to a tree, took aim at that general area and waited. When he fired again I zeroed in on his specific shooting point. The next time he fired I also instantly fired. The enemy sniper didn't do any more shooting.
Later on, several weeks later, intelligence reports would indicate that I hit the enemy sniper right in the head with my one shot. I ruined his whole day. What the intelligence guys also reported was that the 2 trainees with the sniper who was supposed to be teaching them ended up being so scared that neither one of them would move for over half an hour.
But those 900 meter shots on the steel silhouettes were really the rough ones to make because they forced a shooter to focus and concentrate everything he needed to do on making that one long range shot. When we made those shots in those days we had to concentrate on our breathing, trigger pull, becoming one with the rifle, getting the right picture in the scope, slow trigger pull and getting the wind drift right. To say going through Sniper School training was intense was putting it mildly. We were constantly thinking, studying, calculating, estimating, guessing, re-figuring things and so on. Then we'd cross check our answers with other shooter's answers to see how close we all were. And, yes, we sometimes did feel like we were pounding our heads against a wall: :banghead:
Comrade Mike
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I was at a local out door range next to some gentleman who recently bought a 500 S&W for the novelty, shall we say, were shooting it a couple positions down at the 90 foot pistol range. It was the longest one smith made, 8 inches I believe? Anyway, they were having a good time not hitting much of anything but making a hell of a boom.
Well I was around 15 at the time and had been shooting for nearly 5 years. I was with my dad at the time. These two thought it would be hilarious to see me shoot it and bounce it off me head or something, so they offered to let me shoot it. I'd handled large bore handguns before so no big deal. First shot was about a half inch left of center, second shot took out the middle of the shoot'n'see touching the first one. Put it down after that, said thank you and left them speechless.
Well I was around 15 at the time and had been shooting for nearly 5 years. I was with my dad at the time. These two thought it would be hilarious to see me shoot it and bounce it off me head or something, so they offered to let me shoot it. I'd handled large bore handguns before so no big deal. First shot was about a half inch left of center, second shot took out the middle of the shoot'n'see touching the first one. Put it down after that, said thank you and left them speechless.
Late 80's - Bob Marshall wilderness pack trip. 200 yds sitting on a steep slope shooting into a shadowed opening in the thick lodgpole timber on an opposing slope. 5x5 bull elk between the shoulder blades and shattered his spine (as he was getting ready to mount a cow)
Couple days later my brother had missed an elk at about 75 yards. We decided that maybe he had done something to his scope. So I gave him my rifle - we were both shooting ruger M77 .300 win mags. A little ways down the trail 2 nice muley bucks take off at a dead run. Brother shoots and misses the larger buck, I drill the smaller - but still nice, buck through the liver with brothers gun. I gave him his gun back and said- 'here, nothing wrong with the scope.'
Couple days later my brother had missed an elk at about 75 yards. We decided that maybe he had done something to his scope. So I gave him my rifle - we were both shooting ruger M77 .300 win mags. A little ways down the trail 2 nice muley bucks take off at a dead run. Brother shoots and misses the larger buck, I drill the smaller - but still nice, buck through the liver with brothers gun. I gave him his gun back and said- 'here, nothing wrong with the scope.'
Arkansas Paul
Member
Par 3 - 140 yds
Firm 9 iron.
Ball stopped about 3 inches from the cup.
Guns, I have no clue.
Jackal
Member
I shot a yellow jacket out of the air, mid flight at about 45ft with a Gamo pellet rifle with open sights. Only happened once, and I was lucky enough to have a witness.
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