Luckiest/most impossible shot you ever made/saw

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Jeff, CA

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Sorry if this has been posted before, but I'd like to hear some stories.

The luckiest shot I ever saw: a high school buddy of mine and I were out on a steep hillside with our Crosman 760's. We were after anything that moved, but mainly birds and the occasional jackrabbit. We had stopped for a breather when a dragonfly flew by, about 12' overhead. My buddy whipped his gun up and fired from the hip. I actually saw the BB cut the dragonfly cleanly in two. The front half went into a dive and crashed. I swear it made the classic "sputtering engine" sound. To this day he swears it was pure shooting skill.
 
I once shot a blue bird (I was very indiscrimate) one handed with a .22 Remington single shot.
I had the rifle extended out at arms length. Shot was probably 25 feet or so. No witnesses, but probably couldn't ever do it again.

Gator

[This message has been edited by swampgator (edited April 21, 2000).]
 
Once, a looong time ago (summer 60), a friend
and I were hunting whatever small stuff we
could scare up just west of McLean, Va. (the
whole area is built up solid now, very up-
scale, and if you fired a shot there you
would be in deep doo-doo ) We were walking
abreast and there was a sudden rustling
motion in the grass at our feet. Thinking
" SNAKE" we both quick-hopped backward and
I popped a fast 22 hvhp at the motion.
Checking cautiously, we found a small shrew
about 1 1/2" body length with a small hole
in mid-back and the entire underside gone!
I KNOW I couldn't do that ever again.
crankshaft
 
When I was a teenager, a friend and I were out hunting. My friend was using a 12 gauge with "high brass" loads. We were acually bird hunting when we suddenly jumped a rabbit that we almost stepped on. My friend swung around and fired one fast shot from the hip, hitting the rabbit at a range of about 5 feet. It wasn't pretty,there wasn't much left. He salvaged the head, hindquarters and two strips of skin holding them together.
eek.gif


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TFL's official "Curmudgeon Member" and damned proud of it!
 
When I was teenager (do these stories all start that way?), I brought a friend to my house one afternoon and was showing him my relatively new Ruger Superblackhawk .44 mag pistol. It was the first handgun I'd purchased (I wanted a S&W M29 like dirty Harry, but who could afford them in those days).

Anyway, we saw a flock of quail about 50 feet down the hill in a walnut orchard. I raised the .44 and fired into the flock, not really aiming at any one of them. Much to my surprise, I popped the head right off one of the quail. My friend (who hadn't seen me shoot before) was pretty impressed with my skill.

There was another time, not long after, when I hit a running ground squirrel at about 75 yards with a S&W M59 9mm (my second handgun purchase). Unfortunately, there were no whitnesses to this one. But I still remember the satisfaction of making such a lucky shot.

Doug
 
many years ago i was the proud owner of my first .45. i had practiced with it until i could hit extremely well at most distances. i had even shot at 100 yards and over just for fun, but of course hits at that distance had a large element of luck. one afternoon a large group of guys and myself were shooting rifles offhand at a metal gong/plate that hung from a tree 150 yards away. after several guys had cleanly missed the gong i stepped up to the line and got a bunch of grief from them about what would hapen next (my offhand rifle skills were not that great then). i transfered my rifle to my right hand and drew my .45 with my left. i fired a shot at the gong aiming about twice as high as i usually did from 100 yards. in the distance the distictive "CLANG" as the hardball bullet struck the gong. i could not resist blowing across the muzzle like in the movies and reholstering the gun. "Next" i said and went to sit down.

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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what is for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the outcome of the vote.
Let he that hath no sword sell his garment and buy one. Luke 22-36
They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh because of fear in the night. Song of Solomon 3-8
The man that can keep his head and aims carefully when the situation has gone bad and lead is flying usually wins the fight.
 
Last year after an IDPA match, a few of us were doing some off hand accuracy shooting at 15 yards just to see how tight we could group five shots. While a friend was shooting, I saw a fly land on the target. I told him to shoot the fly but he ignored me. When he was done I asked hime why he didn't shoot the fly and he said why didn't I shoot it.

My first shot hit about 1 inch below the fly and it buzzed to a new location on the target. The second shot was just to the right and it buzzed again. With the third shot there was a hole where the fly had been. I figured it just flew away but we all went to look and, sure enough, there was little fly spatter all around the hole. Looked like a dead center hit.

Mikey
 
Two stories. One time while squirrel hunting w/ my Savage 24, a .22lr over 20g, I was drawing down on a squirrel. He was hopping from one tree to another, and I triggered off what I thought was the shotgun. Instead of BOOM I got POP, having not selected the correct bbl. You guessed it. Perfect shoulder shot, on a leaping bushy-tail, 30-40 yards.

My wife came storming thru the den with her Colt Det Spec 2" loaded w/ the Speer plastic-bullet target ammo. Wearing a look of angry determination, she stormed onto the back deck, leaving the door open. I hear "pop-pop-pop <CATSCREECH>". She had nailed our neighbor's 20-pound Catzilla, on a dead run, at maybe 15 yards, pulling double action on a 2-inch snubbie purse gun. I was stunned, she thought nothing of it, not realizing that not Bill Jordan, Elmer Kieth or Ed McGivern could have made that shot on the best day they ever had.
 
While in still High School, I flung my window open and the pigeons on the roof of a distant building took flight. I raised my Crossman BB gun without aiming, nailed one in flight. A large burst of feathers, including the smaller down type erupted from the pigeon as it lost control and plummeted. One less bird to defecate on the heads of humanity.
 
Friend of mine was egged into trying a skeet shot with a 1911...after shooting handguns all morning, we had switched to shotguns. After a few rounds, his son asked him if he could hit those clay pigeons with a .45.

He drew, called 'pull', and made a perfect shot. Nothing but fragments.

He put his pistol away. We asked him if he would demonstrate his skill again to us mere mortals, but he refused. Something about being "one for one" and not wanted to mess up his average...


A
 
I once threw an obnoxious drunk woman's (waterproof) pager into a hotel pool 50 yards away from a 6" vertical gap in a hotel window on the ninth floor.

Does this count?
 
I worked as a mechanic in a foreign sports car garage. there were compressed air nozzles there that had tubes on them about 6" long with about 1/4" (.25 cal) bores on them. when the boss bear was gone my friend and I would experiment with greased ball bearings in these air guns, 120 psi can do impressive things. well, one day my buddy aimed for the wall clock and couldnt hit it to save his life. I took one shot and hit it dead center. what I didn't know was that the cover was glass. Instead of bouncing off of the plastic I thought it was, it shattered in spectacular fashion. The ensuing 5 minutes consisted of my bud and I cleaning up the glass off the floor and pulling all the shards of the clock, in the hope the bear wouldnt notice, which he didnt until after I was gone from that place awhile.
 
Back in 1987 when commanding a mech infantry company in Germany this happened to me: We were at Wildflecken doing small arms ranges and my company was running the M-16 qualification range. The morning we started the range I was called to battalion HQ for a meeting. I didn't like missing the start of a range as I felt the leaders should fire first, but I had no choice. So I trusted my LTs and Sergeants to make it happen.

Well I show up later in the morning and the range is not running smoothly. Many soldiers could not qualify. Things were just a mess. I was dissappointed but instead of of throwing a fit I said, "I'll show you guys how to qualify on this range!" I turned to the armorer and said"Get my M-16." Now I was only authorized a .45 but the armorer kept a very nicely maintained M-16 for me, knowing that in the field I would carry that in additon to my M1911A1.

He brough the rifle to me and I went got the required ammo for the qualification. Then went to one of the points and told the range officer to run the standard qualifcation targets for me. I hit 29 of the 30 targets, qualifying as expert. I never did that before! I got up after clearing my weapon, handed it to the First Sergeant and said: "Thats the standard, now make it happen. I'll be back after lunch to see if things are running fine." I then rode off in my jeep. The range ran smoothly all day!
 
In 68(!) My INF platoon was on a practice range in Korea. I put an M-79 HE round in the drivers hatch of an old junk M113 at about 200 meters. My platoon Leader saw the hit and bet me a six-pack I couldn't do it again. I won the bet! After he left the range, I put 15 more rnds down range at that M113 and didn't come closer than 20ft in any direction! I had to buy my squad a case to keep them from blabbing to the LT!

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Proud,dues paying,member of the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy"
 
Two birds with one stone? Heck, I can beat that!

Back over 25 years ago when I was a teenager (no snickering, please), we had a large bird feeder on a post about 15 yards from the house. Dad only wanted 'pretty birds' to use the feeder, so Starlings were fair game.

One winter day, a whole flock of Starlings came to feed. They were everywhere! I pulled out Dad's Sheridan pellet gun, put five or six pumps into it and loaded it with a 5mm/.20 cal pointed cylindrical pellet. I eased the kitchen window open a crack and took aim at them all lined up on the feeder. I squeezed off a careful shot and got three birds with that one shot.

The first just slumped over on the feeder. The second pitched backwards and hung upside down by one leg (birds feet are relaxed when closed). The third was blown off the back of the feeder as it absorbed the last of the pellet's energy. My mother, so slouch of a shot herself, witnessed my once-in-a-lifetime shot!

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Remember, just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!
 
...Then there was the time I was spending the weekend at my friends' family retreat in southwestern PA.

Tom's family had an entire valley of about 500 acres. In this valley they had dammed up the creek and made a small (~five acre) lake. On the shore of this lake they had built an A-frame cottage.

We were getting bored with shooting trap, so I thought I'd give it a try with my dad's old .22 autoloader. Tom launched the clay and I hit it with my first shot. To prove it wasn't a fluke, we kept on doing it. We would hit at least every other bird with our self-imposed three shot limit per bird. It is all in the technique! Just wait for the thing to flatten out its trajectory, then blast away!

We also were plinking at targets, cracked clay pigeons, and other such things we had set up on the far bank of the lake (about 75-100 yards).

Occasionally, we would see snakes swimming across the lake as we shot from the second floor deck of the A-frame. Since Tom's family had horses, and the area was known for rattlesnakes, we took exception to any and all snakes. Tom took aim with his scoped .22 and missed cleanly. I again used my dad's old .22 autoloader. I shot as fast as I could pull the trigger, churning the water all around the snake, hitting it. It continued to writhe around so i continued to shoot at it. Did you know that it takes three hits from a .22 to sink a snake?



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Remember, just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!
 
20 yrs ago at the truckstop garage I worked at B F Goodrich set up a helium filled 6 ft tire for a display down over the bank next to the interstate about 60 ft in the air. We commenced in firing air gun tubes and ball bearings and shot it down without even thinking about the cars on the highway(dah) luckily no one got hit I hope ,no one made a complaint. 10 yrs ago I went over to my aunts house and my cousins husband was shooting at milk jugs filled with water at 30 yrds with a ball and cap 44 and missing. He turned toward me and said you Pa. stump jumpers are supposed to shoot so good you give it a try. I told him I was going to shoot the cap of the center jug. One shot one cap I walked away and said one shot was all a stump jumper needed. He had one of those looks that I wish I had a camera for. Never would do that shot again In my life. racer
smile.gif
 
12 oz. Coke can at 147 yd. (paced off after the shot) with the first shot from a borrowed M1991A1 Officer's Model .45. It took me 3 more mags to hit it a second time, I should have quit while I was ahead.

I shot 8 for 10 thrown clays with a Steyr AUG (1 shot per target) after I zeroed it for a guy at the range one day.

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
In '81 I went elk hunting with a few friends of mine in Washington state. Also along was the father-in-law of one of the guys.Wayne was in his 50's at the time.

We were back from the morning hunt one day and descided to do a little shooting. Rifles shotguns, handguns, you name it, we shot it.

I get out a model 84 Beretta .380 I had and complained that it wasn't very accurate. Wayne picks the thing up, aims at an 8" paper plate at 100 yards and proceeds to nick the edge of the plate with the first shot! I spotted for him and the next three went within 4" of the center.

Turns out that in his younger days, he was captain of the Navy pistol team, and coach of the Olympic pistol team. He was pretty good with a rifle to.

I learned a lot from that humbling experiance.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Rick



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Guns cause crime like trailerparks cause tornados.
 
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