What is the best shot you have ever made?

It was my first deer hunt - I was 16 and had been hunting birds for about 3 years with my dad and was gun-savvy. A group of my dad's friends were planning a deer hunt and asked my dad to come. He couldn't make it for some reason but asked if they could take me along. They were all older guys (guys in their 40s are "older guys" to a 16 year old) but they welcomed me. We didn't have a "deer rifle" in the house - only shotguns and .22s but one of my dad's friends said he had a 30-06 I could use. The night before the hunt we drove to a farm owned by one of the guys and spent the night there. I remember sitting in with the "older" guys that evening while they talked guns and hunting after dinner. Slept in a big old feather bed (ever done that?) and was up early for breakfast and then to vehicles for a drive out to where we'd hunt. As I remember, there was a military surplus jeep and a Dodge Powerwagon. Terrain we were hunting was mainly flat open land with ravines running through it. We parked and walked several of the ravines but didn't jump a single buck. Decision was made to try another area and we walked back to the vehicles when one of the guys let out a whoop as he saw a nice buck come up out of one of the ravines and bounce off across the flatlands away from us. He was out of range for a good shot so we all just kind of watched him when he stopped, standing broadside to us and looked back. One of the guys said, "well, somebody should at least take a shot." They all shrugged and looked at me. So I laid the 30-06 (which I had never fired) across the hood of the jeep and put the scope on him. One of the guys told me that he's a ways off so give him just a bit of elevation. I put the crosshairs a little up and fired - and he went down. There was a collective "WOW" from all of the guys and I could hardly believe it. We had to walk over several of the ravines to get to him - I'd guess he was about 500 yards away. Big ol' mule deer with a nice rack which I still have hanging on the wall. My dad's buddies bragged about me to my dad and I remember that he was very proud.
rolomac
 
I've been mulling this over for some time.

I don't really have a best shot per say. But I have had my best day of shooting.

I was a junior in high school. And was dating this girl, whom I was rather smitten with. Now, she was a cheerleader and a hunter. We'd spent time in a deer stand, duck blind, anywhere and everywhere. Now, I'd met her Dad a handful of times. But one Sunday he came up to me after church and extended an invitation to shoot a round of sporting clays with him. Just me and him. I, of course, quickly accepted. I'd golfed with her oldest brother and her older brother had been my first platoon leader in NJROTC. So I was anxious to ingratiate myself with him as well.

Well, the next friday night, I forewent the usual post football game party, came home, and showered. And then proceeded to sit in front of the open gun safe for an eternity. I was agonizing over what shotgun to bring. Agonizing. I knew she hunted ducks with a Benelli and hogs/deer with a Mini-30; but I'd seen her brothers afield with Charles Daly guns, NEF Pardners, and Handi-Rifles. I had no clue where her Dad lay on the nice gun spectrum. I ruled out my Mossberg 590 quite quickly, and my SBE right after. Seriously considered my Red Label, and finally, after much teeth gnashing and second guessing, went with my Sportsman 58.

Well, things started off terribly when he showed up in his battered farm truck and was wearing his old field jacket that still proclaimed him as a Gunnery Sergeant of Marines.

But thank the skies, he was shooting a Beretta 686. And I dropped the first report pair. And he bagged them both.

But as the day went on, I found my groove so to speak. I finished 44/50 and he went 41/50.

That was my best day of shooting.
 
The range I used to go to had an old pressure tank on the line as a reactive target. It was a liitle bigger than the standard size acetylene tank, and was made of two hemisperes welded to a tube to make the pressure vessel. It would make one heck of a THUD when you hit it. I took a refurb Mosin to the range one day with some Winchester softpoint ammo, ans my first round must've hit that tank JUST right, because the whole upper hemisphere popped off in one piece with a most perfect musical *PING* and flew about 30 feet straight up.

When we checked it out, the round had hit right on the weld line and shattered it completely around the entire tank. The entire weld was brittle, with barely more than 1/4 penetration. I have no idea how that tank had survived all the hits it took before, or how it hadn't ruptured under pressure.

That *PING* is one of the greatest sounds I've ever heard.
 
Best shot I never made was at roughly 250 yards. I was hunting white tail in MO when a fantastic 12 point monster buck that absolutely would have gone B&C stepped out in a perfect unobstructed path in the forest. I put my rifle on him and knew I only had a split second when I also noticed that just to the lead was a complete and utter moron who thank god did not know the first thing about how to implement a ghillie was sitting with his back to me. If I would have fired I surely would have dropped the buck as well as the the moron who was playing Rambo and further more trespassing on my property.

I make great shots all the time, but the one I'm most proud of is the one I was quick enough not to make.

I did get the monkey arrested for trespassing with a firearm and hunting without a license.
 
Not me, but a very close friend a few years back. In his yard just messing around with our .22s, I found a 12g hull in the dirt. Set it on a stump and paced off 50 yards. $20 bet on who'd hit it first(open sights). My first shot was juuust a lil' low.
His first shot sent it flying. Payed up and went to set it back up. You could have knocked me over with a feather. He shot the danged primer out of it! No other mark except a perfect hole from brass head to plastic hull. He wouldn't try it again either, and, can't say I blame him.
 
Well, 2 instances actually.

A 525 pace (with the big boots, stride was 34-36") shot on a Pronghorn. He was feeding, barely moving, no wind. Shot him with my Rem 700 ADL in 30-06, handload 150gr with 3050fps.

The other was a triple on Morning Doves with my Beretta 391 Urika, 20 ga.

Mike
 
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