Author Topic: my finest shot!  (Read 5627 times)

Offline Marcruger

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #25 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

Offline Arcturus

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #26 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
Jerry

Offline retired fella

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #27 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. ::)

Offline retired fella

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #28 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.

Offline Silky921

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #29 on: June 09, 2018, 02:43:09 PM »



From a recent postal match with a new to me. 36 caliber

Offline hanshi

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #30 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.
!Jozai Senjo! "always present on the battlefield"
Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.

Offline Nordnecker

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #31 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.
"I can no longer stand back and allow communist infiltration, communist indoctrination and the international communist conspiracy to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids."- Gen Jack T. Ripper

Offline Cobweb

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #32 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
Nobody can help everybody, but everybody can help somebody!

Offline Mike from OK

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #33 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

Offline Old Ford2

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #34 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.


A little to the left and down would have been better, however with a shot like that, you NEVER take a second.
Fred
Never surrender, always take a few with you.
Let the Lord pick the good from the bad!

Offline hanshi

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #35 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".
!Jozai Senjo! "always present on the battlefield"
Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.

Offline Bob Roller

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #36 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

Offline Ken Prather

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #37 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.
Galations 2:20

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #38 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.
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Daryl

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #39 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!!!!!!!!!!!
« Last Edit: June 14, 2018, 02:33:49 AM by Daryl »
Daryl

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Offline oldtravler61

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #40 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

Offline Hungry Horse

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #41 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

Offline D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #42 on: June 15, 2018, 02:24:40 AM »
Sounds like we need to reawaken the postal shoot...
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline Justin Urbantas

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #43 on: June 15, 2018, 05:03:11 AM »
I like the idea of a postal shoot.

Offline Daryl

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #44 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
Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a spaniel without ears" King George V

Offline Chowmi

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #45 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.
« Last Edit: June 15, 2018, 06:02:43 PM by Chowmi »
Cheers,
Chowmi

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Offline Hungry Horse

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #46 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

Offline hanshi

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #47 on: June 15, 2018, 10:49:35 PM »
Postal shoots are a lot of fun and help with "bragging rights".
!Jozai Senjo! "always present on the battlefield"
Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.

Offline Mike from OK

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #48 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

Offline Gun_Nut_73

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Re: my finest shot!
« Reply #49 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.