what is the most spectacular shot you have ever made/witnessed?

About 10 years ago I was hunting the opening weekend of Wisconsin's deer season. There were about fifteen guys hunting a friends 400+ acre farm and on Sunday afternoon everyone sort of headed back to the trucks around 3 or so for the drive home. We were a deer short of filling all of our tags and no one was really looking forward to returning the next week after thanksgiving.
As we were all standing around unloading and such I looked down the picked cornfield that I'd been hunting and saw three deer running flat out across the field broadside to us at about 400 yards. I was more or less just goofing around but I found the lead doe in the scope of my 30-06 and fired. The doe went rear over head and dropped deader than a doornail. I was totally amazed but I looked up, nodded, turned around and laid the gun over my right shoulder and told my friends standing there to hurry up and give me a mirror and I shoot the next one backwards.
Needless to say the moans and groans were audible for some distance.
Blind luck shot but I've got more mileage out of that single incident than any other.
 
Wasn't really "spectacular" or anything, but it sure made an impression.

When I was about 7 or so, my Grandpa told me "watch this" as he took aim with a Daisy BB gun at a big daddy long leg on the wall. The wall was concrete and he was only about 8-10 yards away, so of course the BB came straight back and nailed him dead between the eyes. He made me swear never to tell Grandma how he got that mark.

Taught a young kid a very valuable lesson in both physics and gun safety.
 
Not so much a lucky shot, but...

I'm sitting at the kitchen table putting a scope on a CZ527. After mounting the scope I shoulder the rifle and focus in at about 25 yards through the kitchen window. While I have it shouldered a very large deer wanders into the scopes field of view and just stops... with the crosshairs lined up at the sweet spot.

My wife would not have been please if I'd shot through the kitchen window so the deer lived to see another day. But damn I was stunned to have the prey line up such a perfect shot for me...
 
Best shot: 3 shots in a row from my TAURUS PT1911 on 3 bowling pins at 100yds. My wife, the range master and three other shooters were there to witness. One shot per pin and hit each one knocking them over. I've long since sold that gun and haven't been able to pull it off again with more expensive 1911s.

Luckiest shot: I had made a stupid bet with a buddy at a range that I couldn't hit a clay pigeon at 275 yards with my AR .22lr with one shot. I knew I couldn't do it but I made the bet anyway - you know how it is. Well I shot and grossly underestimated my elevation. The bullet hit way short of the 275yd point (a tuft of dust was visible where it hit) but then somehow I was fortunate enough for the bullet to ricochet and HIT THE CLAY breaking it. That's something I know I could never do again! My buddy claims someone else shot the clay but we were the only two on the range that day.
 
I have made exactly two fluke shots in my 72 years on this earth. One, back in the mid-60s in Alaska while caribou hunting off the Richardson Hwy with a couple of friends.....spotted a fair bull that walked out onto a frozen snow covered pond, we were on a hillside perhaps 200 feet in elevation from the drainage area that held the pond.....fellas were busting my chops with some comment like 'let's see you hit that'..........truth be told 'that' was somewhere between an honest 1200 and 1500 yards distant. I, just for the hell of it, took a sitting position and held probably 15 feet over the animal, dropped like a rock!.....had enough time to lower the rifle following the shot and saw it at the moment of impact......the bull had turned and was looking away from our position, that 180 hit the thing squarely at the base of it's skull......instant kill, actually split the skull and you could move both antlers side to side!.............Still have that rifle, a 1948 transition model 70 in '06..........the scope was the old Weaver V-8 variable that the crosshairs increased in size as you upped the power..........had that thing on it's top end and that caribou was sure a tiny target, just held over the mid section as best I could because the reticle covered most of his body.

The other shot was an absolute BS, throw away shot on what I believe was an egret...........I know, I know........it was just as illegal 50 odd years ago as it would be now. I was shooting tin cans with a little Colt .22 single action....just about finished up when a flock of those birds flew by at what I'd guess had to be about 200 yards and at about 45 degrees...........I just snapped a shot and damn if one of 'em just folded up.....wings straight up and spiraling down........dumb, I know, but you tend to do dumb things when you are a kid.......one things for sure, it and the caribou made for indelible memories.
 
600 Yard "9" On A Moving Target

I was at a High Power Rifle competition. 600 yard stage. Target started being pulled down. The shooter, a great guy I might add, instantly dropped his AR sight picture from center bull to a 6 o'clock hold, followed the target, and squeezed...

The pit had marked it a miss when they ran it back up but the confident shooter called a challenge. They pulled the target down again, double checked, and rescored it.

I got a 9!
 
Too this day I still find it hard to believe.
I nailed an 8 point buck at 125 yards with a Ruger SBH 44mag, 240gr JHP with a dead on heart shot using iron sights in low light.
I hunted with that pistol often but never took a shot over 50 – 75 yards.
We hunt over feeders here so most shots are close in to the blind.
This morning on a new lease I spotted this massive buck on a tree line 125 – 130 yards out.
I just could not help myself.
I squeezed the trigger and saw the buck jump and fall.
I figured I had shattered a front shoulder but when I got to him he was dead as dead gets.
I really figured the round was either going to fall short and pass under him but it hit the kill spot.
Just got lucky because in those lighting conditions I could barley make out the outline of the deer.
Took my best guess, aimed, and it paid off.
 
Shooting my first duck at 10 years old. Swinging across to my left after he was spooked from the decoys by the other hunters, I reached over, swung and bam! DRT! Never has there been a prouder 10 year old tromping across the swamp to claim his first duck! Don't know how spectacular, but sure was cool!
 
M60 7.62mm shot group....

While in the US Army, I went to a training range & fired a 3 round burst of 7.62mm with a M-60 machine gun. You could lay a US dime on the shot group. ;)
I was working on the M-60's sights & firing standard milspec 7.62mm ammunition not special match grade sniper rounds.
 
Last October, my buddy had just picked up a Sig P250 .45 and decided it was time for a range day. At the time, I had already been shooting with my Baby Desert Eagle .45 for about 5-6 months, so I was fairly accustomed to the grips, sights, et cetera, and could put a round pretty much anywhere I wanted to. So after my friend had put about 100 rounds through his Sig, I told him it was time for a little competition - whoever could get more headshots on a silhouette target at the longest distance. He set his target at 15 yds, and to give him a sporting chance (okay, I was showing off), I set mine at ~80 feet. When he called "Go" we both dumped 20 rounds into our targets. I forget how many of his shots hit their mark, but 19 of mine did. Nothing "spectacular", but since the Baby Deagle was my first pistol (well, excluding the Ruger Standard Auto .22) and I hadn't been shooting it that long, I was fairly pleased with myself.
 
My brother and I were shooting a bb gun in the back yard in the suburbs. The canopy of trees covered the ground in shadows except for a cotton ball of a dandelion practically glowing in the lone sun beam 20 yards away. I called my shot. At first I thought I missed but the shot hit an inch low and the dandelion slowly keeled over. TIMBER!!!
 
Not a particularly remarkable shot but a funny one.

When I was in the Navy, stationed in MS, we were having our annual quals with the M16. At the end of the 100 yd range, spotters were down in the butts with spotting poles (a pole with a disc on the end, and they momentarily hold it where your shot hit the target). The company clown was in the next lane in the butts spotting, and as he was lowering his pole I took a shot and hit it and knocked it out of his hands. He said it stung the crap out of his hands and blamed the guy next to me. He denied it and I never fessed up.
 
My brother hit a milk jug pretty much dead center at a distance that later measured over 525 yards. Rifle was a Remington Model 7 243.
Now the part that makes it impressive is he had just bought the rifle, mounted the scope, and this was his first shot with the rifle. At the time we didn't know how far the distance was and when he later went to sight in at 100 yards he wasn't hitting the paper of a standard 8.5" X 11" target. I think it was just SHL.
 
Magpies

My brother is legally blind in one eye, and had an old H&R 22 cal revolver he had inherited. None of us could ever hit much with that gun. One morning after milking, bro was taking a nap, and a nest of fledging magpies was leaving home from a big old spruce tree right next to his bedroom window. There were several adult birds caw cawing at the top of their lungs (if you have ever witnessed this, you know how annoying these things can be!) A couple of us were working on some piece of equipment in the shop right by the house where the nap was supposed to be happening. All of a sudden we heard some loud swearing and looked over to see the brother in his tighty whiteys on the front porch with that useless revolver aiming into the big spruce tree. He took a shot and TWO magpies fell out of the tree! He turned and went into the house like it was intended to happen that way. Snort---:D
 
Since I am not a great marksman, I will have to use the spectacular concept. One example was cutting down palm trees in Nam with a Quad 50 machine gun. It was mounted on the back of a 5 ton truck and attached to our jungle clearing unit for security. You can find pictures of quad 50's used in Nam on Google. :cool:
 
This happened this spring, some friends and I we're out shooting a variety of guns we all brought-we had a table out in the field. My girlfriend was shooting at clays that a buddy was throwing in the air with my Winchester 1300, 12 ga. I loaded up my other friends' Smith & Wesson M&P .45 ACP and chambered a round, about that time my girlfriend fired at another clay my friend had thrown but missed-the clay began to fall toward the ground and just being silly I raised the .45 and pointed in the general direction of the falling clay about 35-40 yards away and squeezed a single round off, the clay exploded about 6 ft from the ground and everyone got quiet-I was just as surprised as they were. :cool:
 
Nothing all that spectacular, just a bit of luck. Shot a running squirrel at 80-90 feet. He was crossing in front of me and started to angle away down a slight hill running through the leaves. Already had the iron sited RWS 350 Mag .22 pellet rifle up and ready. Led him a little and shot. Pellet was in his head. Entered just below the base of the right ear.
:D
 
I had always heard the stories of how good of a marksman my grandpa was from other family members and wasn't sure if I should believe them or not. I have personally witnessed a couple now.

One was on a mule deer.
It was on the other side of a canyon running straight up the other side at approx 400 yards (if anything it was a little more). When he spotted it he says "I've got to turn him for a shot", so he shot in front of him twice and he finally turned and started running across the hill. BOOM, right behind the shoulder, 29 3/4" 4x4 down, the impressive part was this was all offhand, standing.

The second one was a Pronghorn antelope.
We spotted a nice buck a long way off and were discussing how to get closer.
We've got the bino's out leaning across the hood looking for little hills and such to use for cover and he walks up "just shoot it from here".
We're talking the better part of 1,000 yards here.
So my dad tells him to try if he thinks he can do it.
He laid his rifle across the hood and watched him for a minute and says "ok, the wind is good, I'll pop him in the head when he lifts it up above the brush again".
Buck lifts his head and BOOM, he put it right up his left nostril and it came out below the right ear.
If wouldn't have been there I'd still say they were full of it.

He has made many exceptional shots over the years, most with an old model 70 in 30-06 with a 4x weaver.
 
The first time I loaded a revolver with a six-chamber cylinder up and got off 14 continous rounds out of Maurice. Gas-powered shell ejection and magazine feeding worked first time out on what used to be a Ruger New Vaquero. Five rounds in the cylinder followed by auto-switchover to a 9rd magazine for 14 rounds total.

Maurice the FrankenRuger *lives*.

:)
 
Two in my 71 years....both 22 caliber

We were jeeping with friends near Doctor's Park between Almont and Taylor Park ( CO ) ....it was 1968.

A bunch of Blue Grouse ran into a schrub sized evergreen. I parked while the other four passengers watched. I was wearing a High Standard Double 9 22 LR revolver.

I kicked the bush and up flow two Blues. Bam! Bam!

They both dropped dead. The watchers were quite amazed, and I waited a while to tell that I was loaded with 22 bird shot. Nevertheless, not bad, huh?

============

Three years ago on the grass air-strip where I have been killing prairie dogs for maybe 7 years, I was set up with a bench, as was my buddy, Joe.

I had seen and taken one wild pot shot at a dog near the north end, and there was some dust, but it was a deep miss but the hit point straight on the verticle of the 12x scope. The gun was a Marlin 60.

About 10 minutes later he came back up, and I said "watch this shot at the far off dog".

Bam. I held him on the bottom curve of the scope. He flipped upside down with his legs kicking.

I had to measure it. So I went down the runway with my Nikon Laser. The Subaru made a hard laser target and it was just 5 feet to the side of my bench.

346 Yards.

Calculated that my arc had to peak 19 feet above the impact point.
 
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