AmericanLongRifles Forums

General discussion => Black Powder Shooting => Topic started by: Justin Urbantas on June 05, 2018, 07:12:09 AM

Title: my finest shot!
Post by: Justin Urbantas on June 05, 2018, 07:12:09 AM
This is the finest shot I have ever made with a smoothbore. Had my father in-law down for a visit with his brothers, and we were out doing some shooting. I showed them about how to load a flintlock, and then commenced to drill the bullseye off hand from a full 50 yards. Needless to say they were awestruck. I was a little surprised myself. I mean, I'm a great shot usually, but this was fantastic.

(https://preview.ibb.co/enUfco/IMG_0620.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gNovA8)
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: snapper on June 05, 2018, 02:08:59 PM
when ever you make a great first shot, resist the urge to take a second.

Fleener
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: webradbury on June 05, 2018, 02:10:32 PM
when ever you make a great first shot, resist the urge to take a second.

Fleener

Agreed
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: David R. Pennington on June 05, 2018, 02:46:26 PM
My first ever shot with recurve bow. I was watching my cousin shoot. He had put an arrow in the center of the target. He kept after me to try it. My first shot split his arrow in the nock. It was purely accidental but he was convinced I did it on purpose.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: smokinbuck on June 05, 2018, 03:47:03 PM
I once shot a 1/2" group with my .50. I refused to fire a second shot!
Mark
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Bigmon on June 05, 2018, 04:10:29 PM
First liar don't have a chance!!
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Justin Urbantas on June 05, 2018, 04:49:34 PM
believe me I only fired the one shot at paper, then we shot at steel clangers.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: hanshi on June 05, 2018, 06:44:47 PM
Just smile and walk away; that's what I do on a lucky first shot.  It leaves their eyeballs bulging.  8)
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: EC121 on June 05, 2018, 06:47:14 PM
  Years ago we were at a small monthly match, and I bragged to the crowd that I could shoot a ten after four nines (with no idea if I could do it.) on my last shot with my Hill Pearce .50 flinter on the big bull at 50yds.  Several said they would take a dollar's worth of that action.  Then, of course with the pressure on, I had to do it with all watching.  I beared down, shot a 10X and didn't shoot again, but I collected their money.  The fun shots are always memorable.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Bigmon on June 05, 2018, 06:49:25 PM
I hope you know I was only a joking! That is a fine shot.
One time I purposely missed the entire target and then walked up and stuck my ball starter thru, just to shut up a braggart.
Another time at a big paper shoot I accidentally shot another guys target, who was a big mouth know it all!  It was a five shot target.  Once my Brother and I realized it one of us would purposely put one in his target out of the rings, just for a couple relays.
I think he is still in therapy.
Some guys just can't take a joke.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: stubshaft on June 05, 2018, 07:45:05 PM
I noticed the smaller holes in the target, were you shooting buck and ball?
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Justin Urbantas on June 05, 2018, 07:57:25 PM
I noticed the smaller holes in the target, were you shooting buck and ball?
In-laws shooting a gun that cannot be mentioned here.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: stubshaft on June 05, 2018, 11:10:22 PM
I noticed the smaller holes in the target, were you shooting buck and ball?
In-laws shooting a gun that cannot be mentioned here.

For the record.  You are a much better shot!
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: WadePatton on June 06, 2018, 01:18:56 AM
when ever you make a great first shot, resist the urge to take a second.

Fleener

Golden. 

some little while ago I stepped up to a back yard skeet busting deal.  They handed me a gun. I missed a couple getting my "clock set".  After that I nailed five or seven in a row and handed the gun back said "that's enough of that".  8)  (I never shoot shot)

Hey, good job having witnesses.  That's really the only shots that count for braggin' rights!
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Dennis Glazener on June 06, 2018, 01:56:53 AM
Back in the 60's I built a Numrich arms Minuteman kit 45 cal percussion rifle. Didn't look much like a longrifle but the thing shot as good as any rifle I have ever shot. A friend used to tease me about that old smokepole, I kept telling him you ought to shoot it before you talk bad mouth it. Finally he invited me over one Sunday afternoon to shoot a little. We walked out behind his house and I loaded for him and he shot at empty cans he had brought. He had shot it 6 or 8 times and while I was loading he said, it does shoot pretty good. I said yep, it'll knock the eye out of a bluebird at a 100 yards! He said ok deadeye lets see you kill that blue jay sitting it that apple tree. The tree was 50-60 yards away and blue jay was sitting on one of the limbs. I rammed the ball home threw the rifle up and pulled the trigger, down came the Blue Jay! Not sure who was the most surprised me or the Blue Jay! We went over to look at it and its head had been cut off by the ball and was hanging on by a tiny piece of skin. I didn't shoot anymore, I told him I always knew the rifle would shoot.
Dennis
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: D. Taylor Sapergia on June 06, 2018, 04:05:58 AM
I think we've all been blessed with one or two really outstanding shots in our time.  Back in the last century, I attended an annual shoot in Chilliwack, BC.  One of the last events was a single shot at a blank sheet of paper offhand at 50 yards.  Closest to the centre wins a rifle!!  With over one hundred shooters, there were three lines.  I fired my shot...looked good, and waited til everyone had shot and the announcement.  Turns out there were two of us that cut the X penciled in on the back of the paper.  So there was a shoot off, with all those other shooters cheering us on.  My competitor was up first, and when he cocked his rifle and started to raise it, it went off, coming no where near the target.  The judges said tough luck and were going to award the rifle to me, but I thought that was unfair, so I handed him my rifle, and told him to make his best shot.  It was my first Hawken rifle in .62 cal, naturally, and he did well.  When I fired my own shot, I again cut the X on the back of the page, and so won a Sharon Hawken rifle in .54 calibre.  The other shooter was very appreciative of the opportunity but it seems that day, I could do no wrong...luckiest two shots of my life.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: alacran on June 06, 2018, 01:26:30 PM
Thank God for statistical probability!
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Leatherbark on June 06, 2018, 01:27:49 PM
About 20 years ago I was at the range shooting and pulled out my TC New Englander 12 gauge.  I loaded a .690 ball with a patch over 90 grains of 2f and placed the bead on a standard 100 yard black bullseye.  I hit it dead center exactly. I was scared to attempt it again but did and the next shot was very close to the first.  I said to myself that this is against the laws of nature.  Subsequent shots revealed to me no laws of nature were broken.  I couldn't even hit the paper anymore. Both of the first shots were luck.  But at 50 yards I could keep them in the black for sure.

Bob
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Daryl on June 06, 2018, 05:15:18 PM
Well done, Justin - IT happens.

With Taylor, it happens too bloody often.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Justin Urbantas on June 07, 2018, 08:16:53 AM
Here is another of my great shots. My wife and I were out on a jaunt in the woods with my .45 Tennessee flintlock in hand for squirrels and such. I was feeling cocky and I told her to pick out  a target and I would hit it. She picked this leaf and pinned it to a tree 40 yards away. I fired at it offhand and the leaf was gone! We looked around for a few minutes and found that I had cut it dead centre.  She was impressed.
(https://preview.ibb.co/b8fctT/11202955_10206913223459672_462829999534124141_n.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jaBT08)
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: hanshi on June 08, 2018, 02:25:34 AM
I'm impressed as well.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Jerry on June 08, 2018, 04:33:56 AM
  Years ago we were at a small monthly match, and I bragged to the crowd that I could shoot a ten after four nines (with no idea if I could do it.) on my last shot with my Hill Pearce .50 flinter on the big bull at 50yds.  Several said they would take a dollar's worth of that action.  Then, of course with the pressure on, I had to do it with all watching.  I beared down, shot a 10X and didn't shoot again, but I collected their money.  The fun shots are always memorable.

Do you still have that Hill Pearce flinter?
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Nessmuck on June 08, 2018, 06:43:47 AM
My finest shot came with my Daisy BB gun at age 12. My next door neighbor liked his beer a little too much ....and dared me to shoot the ash off his lit cigarette ,while clenched in this teeth! I didn’t hesitate one bit.....backed up about 15 feet and let it fly.....you bet ,he had to relight it !
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: David R. Pennington on June 08, 2018, 01:47:39 PM
Here is another of my great shots. My wife and I were out on a jaunt in the woods with my .45 Tennessee flintlock in hand for squirrels and such. I was feeling cocky and I told her to pick out  a target and I would hit it. She picked this leaf and pinned it to a tree 40 yards away. I fired at it offhand and the leaf was gone! We looked around for a few minutes and found that I had cut it dead centre.  She was impressed.
(https://preview.ibb.co/b8fctT/11202955_10206913223459672_462829999534124141_n.jpg) (https://ibb.co/jaBT08)

Trained caterpillar
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Marcruger on June 08, 2018, 10:06:22 PM
My finest shot was a 50 yard squirrel hit.  I was trying to remove this varmint from my parent's yard.  That wily little critter out-waited me on the back side of a tree, no matter what trick I tried.  I walked back to the house and my mom called out, "Look at the tree." The squirrel had come around into profile upside down on the side of the trunk.  I was so exasperated, I leaned up against the house, held one squirrel high, and "pop".  Down the squirrel went like a sack of potatoes.  I walked over, picked him up, and he decided to wake up. Yikes!  I kept shaking him to keep him from climbing his tail and biting.  I finally handed it to my mom, reloaded, and did him in.  Shot #1 just stunned it briefly.  Not such a great shot, but it stretched the limits of my rifle....a .177 air rifle.  BTW, I put that shot down to blind dumb luck, not any skill on my part.  God Bless,   Marc
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Marcruger on June 08, 2018, 10:09:41 PM
I will add one more.  At my range I had a large white former pill bottle for a target on the 50 yard range. I took a shot, and it disappeared.  I looked around briefly, but no luck.  Then it landed.  Seriously.  The hang time was amazing.  How the thing was hit that made it go straight up in the air, WAY up, and then come straight down is beyond me. I could never do it again in a million years if I tried.  Crazy funny things happen with longrifles.   :-)  God Bless,   Marc
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Arcturus on June 08, 2018, 11:37:34 PM
Yikes!  I kept shaking him to keep him from climbing his tail and biting.  I finally handed it to my mom, reloaded, and did him in.


You must come from real tough pioneer stock, Marc!  You have a squirrel trying to snap at your hand, but you hand it to your mom while you reload?!   ;D   That's one heckuva woman.  My mom wouldn't get within ten feet of such a critter and would've run the other way!    :D ;D
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: retired fella on June 09, 2018, 12:32:31 AM
That is the reason I carry a backup side arm (nothing less than a .44 mag) while squirrel hunting.  Those things are vicious. ::)
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: retired fella on June 09, 2018, 12:40:38 AM
years ago I was involved in a shootoff at our club.  One shot offhand at 25 yards small bull.  Absolutely spidered it.  I don't recall the other fellow even taking his shot.   What do they say about a blind squirrel finding a nut?  Well  that was it.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Silky921 on June 09, 2018, 02:43:09 PM

(https://preview.ibb.co/b3p2F8/20180601_140641.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gStUv8)

From a recent postal match with a new to me. 36 caliber
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: hanshi on June 09, 2018, 09:20:42 PM
I've had a few that surprised even myself; including a running deer with my flintlock smoothbore and a bobcat, in hunting mode, moving with only her backside visible.  But one shot I remember vividly.  I was a teen and had my new Sheridan Blue Streak .20.  We lived in what was then "the country".  Everyone either had a garden, pig farm, livestock, etc.  One morning while outside the house with the air rifle, I noticed what appeared to be a rabbit; it was way past our garden and well out into the neighbor's garden.  I guessed it was at least 50 yards just from our house, likely a good bit farther.  I had no illusions about hitting it that far away, but decided to shoot at it "just because".  I aimed high and pulled the trigger.  I couldn't believe my eyes!  The bunny gave one vertical jump and lay still.  Traveling over to where I'd seen it, there it was, a perfect head shot.  Never was able to equal that one shot.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Nordnecker on June 10, 2018, 02:03:54 PM
Hanshi- That reminds me of something. Back in my school days, I was walking down the road with 2 girls. I saw a rabbit way out in a field. I told the girls I was gonna throw a snowball and hit that rabbit. Well, I never could throw worth a hoot. I had no intention of actually hitting that rabbit. But I made up a snowball and lobbed it as hard as I could. Darned if that snowball didn't come right down on that rabbit's head. He made a little circle and keeled over, feet sticking up in the air. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, it didn't win me any favor from those girls.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Cobweb on June 10, 2018, 06:21:57 PM
I had a situation nearly identical to Hanshi. My cousin and I went rabbit hunting and as we were going thru the gate into the pasture, a rabbit hopped up on a pond bank approximately 125yrds. away. He made the remark "take that new .22 pistol and show me what it's worth." I aimed considerably high and hoped. At the shot, a vertical jump and he lay there. I put the pistol back in the truck!

My best muzzleloading shot was at a crow perched on a limb. One of the guy's that was not a muzzleloader made the remark that if that old gun (.54 cal.)of yours's is so accurate, shoot that crow. It also was about a 100yrds. plus. Not one to turn down a shot challenge, came up from the bottom and when the sights touched the top of his head, pulled the trigger. He sat there about 3 seconds then tumbled forward and straight down! Put the rifle back in the truck!

My father-in-law always said -- If you don't take the shot you'll never know if you could or couldn't!

Big John
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Mike from OK on June 10, 2018, 09:15:25 PM
I've made a handful of remarkable shots or at least shots that I had no realistic expectation of successfully achieving.

And they all had one thing in common...

· They were spur of the moment shots taken on a whim... Target was chosen. Shot was taken.

· I was relaxed and had made no prior mental preparation... No hugging the stock tight to my shoulder, no carefully sighting down the barrel... Just a quick, relaxed placing the stock to my shoulder and snapping the shot off.

It seems that often times we tend to be overly meticulous and tend to psych ourselves out.

But I have no idea how one could train himself to be an accurate snap shooter on a consistent basis.

Mike
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Old Ford2 on June 13, 2018, 05:10:23 AM
This is the finest shot I have ever made with a smoothbore. Had my father in-law down for a visit with his brothers, and we were out doing some shooting. I showed them about how to load a flintlock, and then commenced to drill the bullseye off hand from a full 50 yards. Needless to say they were awestruck. I was a little surprised myself. I mean, I'm a great shot usually, but this was fantastic.

(https://preview.ibb.co/enUfco/IMG_0620.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gNovA8)
A little to the left and down would have been better, however with a shot like that, you NEVER take a second.
Fred
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: hanshi on June 13, 2018, 11:25:17 PM
Mike from OK brought up a good point.  Many of the deer I've killed were taken without much thought; just pulled the trigger as the rifle touched my shoulder.  Some call them "snap shots", which is nicely descriptive, or "in the zone", which works as well.  Regardless, it always happens in an instance and without thought.  So I keep trying to drive into my head the idea of "shoot quick and don't think, or dally".
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Bob Roller on June 14, 2018, 12:12:33 AM
That is the reason I carry a backup side arm (nothing less than a .44 mag) while squirrel hunting.  Those things are vicious. ::)

I have a first edition of Bill Mauldin's WW2 cartoons and the two main GI's were Willy and Joe.
One of the funnier ones was Joe holding a flashlight on a big rat perched on Willy's knee and
aiming a 45 at it.The caption read."Hit it between the eyes because they charge if wounded".
One other showed Willy on a walkie-talkie saying,"Able to Fox,I got a target but be patient".
The target was a Tiger tank straddling his foxhole.

Bob Roller
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Ken Prather on June 14, 2018, 12:39:43 AM
About 30 hundred years ago, I was a kid hunting rabbits with an old .22. The sun was setting so had poor light. Saw a nice cotton tail up a hill. I took a quick shot and missed. It started to run zigzagging away. As my father taught me I whistled and the rabbit stopped further off, backed by some brush in the shadows. Very poor sight picture it being dusk and all. Mr bunny stood up on its hind legs and looked back at me. I aimed and fired and it flopped on the ground. I walked up the hill and picked up the rabbit and could not see an entry hole. Upon closer inspection I had shot that poor fellow right in his mouth thru his front teeth.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: D. Taylor Sapergia on June 14, 2018, 01:06:40 AM
Ken, I had an almost identical experience hunting varying hare (snowshoe rabbits) many years ago.  Every spring, before the ice went out on the river, and there was still six feet of snow in the bush, our black powder club would do a bunny drive to collect meat for our annual wild game dinner.  It was a great money maker for the rod and gun club, and everyone enjoyed it hughly.  The BP section provided a sweet and sour bunny dish which was one of the first to be cleaned up.
We had made a great haul, collecting some forty bunnies and had made our way back to the vehicles parked along the roadway.  I was one of the last to get back, and as I approached the road, I turned and looked back and saw a big buck standing on his hind legs about sixty yards distant.  I still had a .350" ball in my rifle, so I took aim and shot him right between the eyes.  He flopped over backwards and did not even wiggle.  So I snowshoe'd back toward the river and retrieved him, smiling all the while at the great shot.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Daryl on June 14, 2018, 02:31:23 AM
Although that was a long time ago when he could see, that sort of shooting will be our nemesis, yet again.   ???  He can now anew, see his sights!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: oldtravler61 on June 14, 2018, 04:01:22 AM
  My most memorable shot was with Jack Duprey. Jack was outback of his house. Sighting in a Fowler he just finished. He already had two hits in the black 9 ring. He said Mike yeah want to shoot it?
  So I took the gun an shot the x out of the center ! Jack always the character
took the gun an we walked back to his house. Said to his wife as if really upset "Mike out shot me with my own gun !!" That target is one of my cherished possessions .   Oldtravler
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Hungry Horse on June 14, 2018, 09:39:19 PM
About fifty years ago I had a Christmas to remember. Two things happened back to back. My boss gave me my first Christmas bonus (200 bucks), and I bought my first muzzleloading rifle ( two actually). One was a Dixie York flintlock kit, and the other was a CVA .50 cal. Mountain Rifle kit. I built them and began shooting. But the Dixie was unreliable, so the CVA became my main gun. The spring after getting my new toys, my dad told me he thought he was losing a goodly part of his pear crop to ground squirrels in the part of his orchard that bordered the hills. He asked me to thin the heard. So every evening after work I would cruise over there, and shoot squirrels, with my muzzleloader. Squirrels are pretty smart and quickly figured out that stopping to have a look at close range was a death sentence. So the more I killed the farther away they would go before stopping. One evening as I drove along the fence, I spied a squirrel standing lookout on top of one of my dads smudge pots. He was way out there, but the light was right, and he was in a spot where I could make a safe shot. I guesstimated the shot to be about 200 yards. Since I didn’t want to hit the smudge pot, I held a little higher than I normally would. I squeezed of the shot, but instead of seeing squirrel parts flying at the edges of the billowing smoke cloud, I saw nothing. The squirrel simply vanished. I was curious, and went out to check for random squirrel parts. At first I found nothing, but then noticed something white, like a piece of eggshell sticking to the stack of the smudgepot just beyond the one the squirrel had been standing on. It was a piece of skull, and after finding it, I found the decapitated squirrel beyond the second smudgepot in the tall grass. I had counted the paces it took to get from my truck to the squirrel, and it was 204 paces. One very lucky shot for sure.

 Hungry Horse
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: D. Taylor Sapergia on June 15, 2018, 02:24:40 AM
Sounds like we need to reawaken the postal shoot...
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Justin Urbantas on June 15, 2018, 05:03:11 AM
I like the idea of a postal shoot.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Daryl on June 15, 2018, 05:25:12 AM
Someone set it up - as usual, Taylor and I will shoot it at the same time although this time, we'll photocopy HIS target and send 'them' in. ;D
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Chowmi on June 15, 2018, 05:59:00 PM
I think my favorite shot was 25 years ago. Maybe not the best shot in the world, but very memorable for me.
I finished building a TC Hawken .54 percussion on a Friday. It was the first muzzleloader I’d ever seen up close or held in my hands. I took it to the range and figured out how to shoot it, helped by an Englishman at the next bench over. He told me he built high end muzzleloaders and showed me what was probably a dueling pistol he built, along with a fine case and all the accouterments.
Wish I could remember who he was.
He suggested I go to a club shoot down south of Tucson the next day, which I did.
At the club shoot, they had playing cards edge-on to shoot at from about 7 yards or so. I thought, “No way..”. Then proceeded to split one in half on my first try.
I kept the two pieces of card in my shooting box for at least 15 years.
That gun and that day shooting is what got me so hoplessly hooked!

Norm.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Hungry Horse on June 15, 2018, 07:26:48 PM
The best part of these memorable moments is we can remember them in detail, because they were a confidence building instant in our lives. So why can I remember these moments, and not remember where I put the car keys?

  Hungry Horse
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: hanshi on June 15, 2018, 10:49:35 PM
Postal shoots are a lot of fun and help with "bragging rights".
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Mike from OK on June 17, 2018, 06:17:50 PM
The best part of these memorable moments is we can remember them in detail, because they were a confidence building instant in our lives. So why can I remember these moments, and not remember where I put the car keys?

  Hungry Horse

Because making fantastic shots is important... Car keys are an incidental detail of our harried lives.

Mike
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Gun_Nut_73 on July 10, 2018, 02:10:56 AM
My finest shot was earlier this year, in a postal match, where I somehow, with Gods good grace, shot a possible (50-4X).  Ironically, it was with an old Navy Arms Hawken I had repaired.
Title: Re: my finest shot!
Post by: Dennis Glazener on August 27, 2018, 07:35:30 PM
Please remember that our rules do not allow discussions involving modern guns, I have removed three replies that do not meet the rules and there are one or two others that are borderline. Please read our rules and comply: http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=42270.0
Dennis