Best , worst or luckiest shot you had ever done

[hawkeye1755]

One day we had a Flintlock shooting competition .The distance was 100 m. In Germany we shot 15 times and every ball count. No cancellation!!! The max. is 150pt. you can get.
It was not my day. I shot only sevens , eights , and a single nine. So i said to my self: This MUST be a TEN.
Concentration , the right breathing , aim small miss small and so on and on.
At that moment the guy on my left side swear: A three . A damned three. It was his last shot.
My concentration was gone , so I take a look through my glass. That guy had shot only eights and nines. And a single lonely three .
I was the last who had to shot , so all from the beginning: concentration , the right breathing , aim small miss small , and so on and on. BANG. Yeah a ten , it must be a ten. I had the feeling. What a shot. One of a thousand.
I look through my glass. YES

 

[Puffer]

I was @ a match last year & the final pistol target was a steel 7" dughnut W/ a a 6'[url] hole.In[/url] the middle was a 2" steel circle. The distance was 25 yd.s To score you had to hit the circle.I stand @ the line,take aim,squeeze the trigger & bang, BUT no BOOM. :: someone yelled "DRY BALL". Sure enough, I'd done it again So I go through the drill of getting a few grains of FFFF behind the ball ( a drill I know very well !! :redfaceAs I stood @ the line ready to "clear" my gun, I looked @ the target & thought "why not" (even though I only had maybe 4-5 gr.s in it ( normal for that short range I use 20 ))So I took aim,squeezed the trigger & bang,-- bang.I looked @ the scorer & she said ,she heard a ding. So I told her I would take it. She said that she would have to ask the Chief. He @ 1st said no, but I claimed "mounainman rules".No one said I had toad my powder 1st,the patch & ball.I decided to load the charge last.Result - He gave me a 1/2 pt.

Oh yeh, I won that portion of the match by 1/2 pt. ::

I also picked up another "new"name, !/2 Ball + the club presented me w? my "very own 1/2 Ball AWARD, which I must wear @ all times.

Puffer

 

[Sham66]

This can be filed under luckiest shot.

In the Army, I was expert with every Infantry weapon. That was a long time ago. First day at the range with new Kentucky rifle. Everyone else was shooting deer rifles and assault weapons, but when I started loading the Kentucky, small crowd had gathered to watch me load and take that first shot at 50 yds. I was praying for 1)sure ignition, 2)at least hit the paper. When I shot and the smoke cleared, the range-master said: "Bullseye!" Crowd dispersed and I relaxed and have had fun ever since.

James

 

[mike alexandre]

We were 14 years old me and my mate, he owned both air rifles and got to use the best one every time we went to shoot rats at the piggery every Sunday for a shilling a rat.
After a particularly good afternoon he handed me his gun and said ok hotshot see if you can hit that bird on the phone wire 50 yards away.
You can guess the rest and I've never fired at anything other than vermin or a target since.

 

[pathfinderifh]

While squirrel hunting with my .32 flinter, I came across my younger brother and his freind who were throwing bottles in the air and shooting them with their 12ga.shot guns. The smart ass that I am I told them to throw one up and I let loose from the hip, and pow, smoked it ::! I blew down the barrel like Wyatt Earp,and cockily walked off like I did this all the time :blah:! That was thirty years ago,and if I tried that shot again,I'd still be there trying!

Pathfinder

 

[David Teague]

I've been shooting BP since I was 13 in 1972...

In the mid 1970's my parents took a job as the managers of a local Golf course.

Our town was in the high mountian desert and the golf couse was outside the city limits and no houses were nearby...

I could go out the club house door where we lived and shoot any of my guns in the nearby hills...

I had a nice Navy Arms 1861 Navy that I shot and carried a bunch (ok it's not a flinter... I own 4 finters but the story is Best/Worst shot.. ok?)I was out walking the hills when I came apon a wayward golf ball... Hmm... a target of merit, so I took careful aim ( 15 or so yards) and squeezed off a shot one handed...

SMACK!!!

My leg was on fire, somehow I'd shot myself!!!

I danced around doing the oh! oh! oh! dance when I saw the round ball from the 61 Navy at my feet, flat as a pancake...

I looked at my leg...

No blood or entry wound, I'd hit that golf ball dead on...

It had sunk into the hill and the flatted the lead ball and bounched it back and hit me in the lower leg.

Great shot... and I never shot a golf ball again.

Cheers,

DT

 

[DGeraths]

This shot was taken with a custom .72cal smoothbore, British maritime musket.

I guess this shot falls in-between the best and luckiest category. ::

A few years back I was on a two day weekend trek when my partner stumbled on a cliff trail while walking in front of me. His trumpline snapped and his pack went flying! It tumbled over the cliff (thankfully without him attached) and fell about a quarter of the way down before snagging on a small tangle of branches growing out of the clifface.

The rope I carried was not nearly long enough to reach the pack and although we tried to toss rocks down at the pack to dislodge it, it was to no avail. It was clear we had to figure out another way of getting the now dangling cargo.

After about an hour of walking we covered the ground needed to circle the cliff face and come out on the opposite side of a small river, below the cliff. We stood on a small rise on the bank of the river. Looking across, I could see the pack; about 100 feet up the cliff and about 75 yards away from me as the crow fly's. From our raised vantage point, the pack was just at a slight elevation from our position.

My friend suggested taking turns shooting at the pack, or more specifically, the small branch that it was dangling from. I volunteered to take the first shot.

I loaded my musket, knelt down next to a stump and rested the stock carefully on the make shift shooting rest. Having always enjoyed shooting smoothbores I have gotten fairly good at hitting distant targets without the aid of a rear sight, but this was distant indeed.

After about a minute of careful aiming I squeezed the trigger and... Cla-Clack-whoosh-BOOM!

The next thing I heard was my friend yelling "YEAH!". I stood and stepped to the side to try and pear past the smoke from the shot and was treated with the wonderful sight of the pack bouncing to rest at the base of the cliff, directly across the small river.

According to my partner, my shot had shattered the base of the branch that held the pack in place, sending fragments of wood in all directions as the pack fell free. That was exactly where I was aiming.

We walked back down and across the river and thankfully recovered the pack, intact with our dinner inside.

eace:

 

[pathfinderifh]

It had sunk into the hill and the flatted the lead ball and bounched it back and hit me in the lower leg


The first year I hunted with a Black powder fire arm was in 1981 with a Brown Bess I had traded for some refinishing work[my occupation].Being overlly exited,I had forgotten my powder measure. Finding a used .45 casing it looked to poor enough powder. When we all met up for lunch, my brother wanted to see what this giant ball would do to an old fridge. I stepped back @ 15 yds, took carefull aim and pphhsstt...pop...doink, the ball bounced off the back of the fridge and landed a meer 2" from my toe . needless to say, the folks in my party were NOT impressed! ::

Pathfinder

 

[MikeChapin]

I have had a couple of lucky shots over the years. I had just traded for a .54 Bondini Hawken pistol. A friend of mine had won it in a drawing and did not really want it and offered it to me because I had a .54 Hawken that would be a good companion piece. I took it to the club range to try it out. Myself and another member were shooting pistols and not doing too bad - just having fun. Neither of us were great pistol shots. When we finished we went over to where the rest of the members were shooting for quarters at feathers at 25 yards. They talked me into shooting at the feather with the pistol. I threw in my quarter and took aim and fired. I cut the feather in two. I quickly gathered up the quarters and put the gun away before I had to do it again.

The other time I was firing in a match, big bull at 50 yards. It was a very hot day and I had been shooting all day. It was my last shot at the target. I had had some trouble with the gun clogging up in the dry heat but did not want to clean it just for the last shot. I had a very good target going and just wanted to finish up. I lined up and pulled the trigger. The pan flashed and the gun just laid there. I started to drop the rifle but heard a sizzling sound around the touch hole so I pulled up and sighted again and the gun went off. It managed a 10X. A friend of mine standing next to me said "Damn Mike, my hangfires just allow me to wobble off target. How did you manage that?". It was the longest hangfire I ever had and the most productive.

Even a blind pig can find an acorn once in a while.

 

[Nightwind]

I took a good friends' 12 yr old son with me on a squirrel hunt about 15 years ago. As we were slowly walking through the woods, I saw a squirrel peering from a tree about 25 yds away. I told Brian I saw one and for him to stand still. He asked "where is he?" As I was slowly raising the rifle, I told him where to look. He says: "boy, he's a long ways out there!". I squeezed off the shot and saw my tree rat slump onto the branch he was sitting/hiding on. "You got him! said Brian. As we walked towards the tree where it layed, I wondered why he kept on walking. I sat the gun down and climbed the 15 feet up to retrieve my squirrel........ and saw him picking up another one about 25 yds further out off the ground. Seems the first squirrel got shot on top of the head right between the ears and the second one got the ricochetted(spelling?) round ball to the rib cage! I tried to act like it was intended to be that way, but the next words out of his mouth was :" Maaaannn, Dad's NEVER gonna' believe that shot" Puuuuure luck, indeed!

 

[bob1961]

me and my friend was at the range and i had my restocked T/C hawken and he had his in-line....we both shot and thought we had good site-in's and let each other shoot the others gun....well i shot and then he shot and when we looked at the targets we just shot and thought what the hell....my shot was dead centered but at 12 o'clock high....his shot was dead centered at 6 o'clock low ???....till we both found out that he sites-in with the 6 o'clock hold and shot my rifle with a 6 o'clock hold....and me dead center on the bull's eye and shot his with a dead on hold....then we looked at each other and thought if we knew that first it would have been 2 bull's eyes with each others rifles :crackup:....

then another time i was walking home and came across 2 guys in a yard shooting there bows....so i stopped and said hi....he was out there fer bout 30-45 mins trying to hit the 5" ballon he had tied to the target....i watched fer bout 5 more shots and still couldn't hit it....i said mind if i give it a shot....he said sure....and mind ya i shoot with no release and one pin at 20 yards on my bow....he had an overdraw and release and multiple pin site....so i went to take a shot and just used my fingers with all fingers under the arrow fer an instinctive shot and hit the ballon the only shot i took at bout 25 yards with his bow....needless to say he was a little mad with a comment " i've been out here fer bout an hour trying to hit that and you hit it with one shot with my bow without using any sites"....but he was impressed :crackup:..........bob

 

[6mmppc]

Back in the late 60's I had a .45 "Minute Man" longrifle from a Numrich Arms kit (til this day its the best round ball rifle I ever fired). Had a friend that used to laugh at me wanting to take it hunting. Couldn't convince him how well it shot. He asked me to bring it over one Sat afternoon so he could shoot it. I was loading .45 round ball's with 90 GR of 3F He had hit several cans at about 60 yards and while I was loading it again, he said "had no idea those things shot so well" to which I commented yeah, it'll knock the eye out of a blue bird at 100 yds. About that time a blue jay landed in the apple tree behind where we had the cans. He says "ok lets see you kill that jaybird" I finished loading, threw the rifle up and without taking much aim fired. Down came the jay. He said WOW. I said "knocked his head off"! We walked down and picked it up an low and behold his head was hanging from the body by just a piece of skin! Couldn't do it again in a 1000 shots!.

He kept after me to shoot some more and I told him no I was through for the day. :thumbsup:

Dennis

 

[Bradley]

Not black powder, but still best/luckiest shots...

At the age of 13 or 14, it seemed my .22 rifle was an extra appendage of my body. I carried that thing all the time. We had a major pigeon problem around the barn, so dad gave me the job of thinning them out a bit.

One afternoon, our neighbor Charlie was over and he, my dad, and I were standing in the driveway just chatting about nothing in particular. As we were standing there, a pigeon took off out of the hay loft door and flew over head. Without even thinking, I raised the rifle and shot. The bird folded up and dropped about 30 yards away from us. Shot right through the head.

At first, dad and Charlie stood there, stunned. Then they started laughing and teasing me about how lucky a person could get. Being a cocky young teenager, I said "No, I'm just that good." and the like. Being attached at the hip with that rifle I WAS pretty good...just not THAT good.

So, dad looked up to the top of a monster maple tree we had growing in the yard. That thing was huge. Three grown men couldn't touch hands around the base of the trunk. Well, dad looks up and at the very top of the tree there was a single leaf out on the end of one of the branches.

Dad said "Bet you can't hit that leaf." I raised up, cracked off a shot, and the leaf came tumbling down. I went over and picked it up and brought it back. I said "You mean THIS leaf?" The shot had neatly cut the stem right at the base of the leaf.

Charlie laughed so hard, I though he was going to keel over.

Two shots, back to back, both of which were probably one in a thousand.
A boy and his first rifle. Good memories.

 

[3 stinky dogs]

I am getting used to my flint gun.I was shooting with some frends who braught there AR-15's and there deer rifles.we set up a 5 gallon bucket and set a dirt clod about the size of a tennes ball on top at 200 yeards.They emptyed there magazines at it and got evry thing around it and the bucket as well.I was loading my muzzle loader while they called me Davy Crockett ,and Dannel Boon wannabe. I aimed where I thaught it would hit set the trigger took a breath slowly exhaild and CLACH FZZ BOOM ! a nice little red cloud was above the bucket.I packed up my stuff and left before they could tell me to do it again.I for got to add that my father had the abilety to bark squirls with just about anything that would launch a projectile.

 

[Stony]

don't know if it was the worst or best shot I've ever taken, but it was the funnist one. I was in the Air Force and stuck in Idaho. I actually enjoyed it out there cause I could all the shooting I wanted to. Myself and some of my friends were out bunny busting (in Idaho, jackrabbits are considered pests and open year round) when one of them yells out "Dave, behind you!" I spin around and there a few feet behind me is a jackrabbit trying to sneak away. Well, I cut loose with the .54 and all I can see is smoke. The other guys start laughing. As the smoke clears, I can see the rabbit. I had missed the rabbit and let me tell you, a .54 can blow a good chunk of dirt into dust. I had hit the ground right under him. Now while a jack rabbit can run fast, he hits hyper-drive real quick. You know when he's in hyper-drive as his ears will lie flat on his back. This rabbit is in hyper-drive mode, except he isn't moving fast at all. If you can picture a rabbit tip toeing, with a bad case of the shakes and thinking "What the heck are they shooting at me with?", you got a good picture of what this rabbit looked like.

My best shot wasn't with a muzzleloader but with a .357 while out with a muzzleloader. But that's a different story for another time.

 

[reddogge]

At a rondevous 20+ years ago we were paying $1 a shot offhand at 50 yards at a whole Smithfield ham hung from a string. The shooters went around a couple of times and the guy in front of me hit the ham sending it spinning wildly.

Everyone was laughing and one guy said "After that shot that ham ain't fit to eat!"

I let it settle as much as it would and aimed close to where it tied to the log where it wouldn't move so much, touched off the shot and down came the ham.

Turned out it was OK because the first guys ball hit the shank so no meat was spoiled.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Sad or funny? Don't know but scored a 6 with the ramrod years ago at a local shoot. Guys had to huddle a bit to see if it counted but decided, what the heck, let the idiot have the point. Good thing it was a wooden ramrod!!

------------------------------------------
About the funniest shot I know about happened to a bud who was a cop at Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Charley and his partner were working overtime around Christmas at one of the local malls that had been having some theft in the multi-level parking garage. The captain told them that if the guys could out-run them to at least let them know you're back there...(figured it out yet?)

They were on foot in the second level when they flushed a car thief. Charley said he ran like a deer and Charley and his partner were falling behind. Charley's partner had a Model 29 S&W .44Magnum with full factory loads and didn't want to shoot in the low ceiling, concrete structure so Charley hauled out his old Colt New Service in .45 and aiming to the side of 'zippy', set one off he was sure would pass out of the far wall opening and into the grass burm. First, you need to know that Charley loads two rounds in .45 Colt. A black powder case jammed full of FFFg for his old single action and a stout smokeless round for his service revolver. No one knows why but one of those 40 grains of black powder loads 'Murphyed' into his service loads. When Charley squeezed one off in the confined space of a parking garage, it was a FFFg 40 grainer! Charley says it roared like a pack howitzer on Charge-7, flashed like a 90 pound strobe light and made enough smoke to hide a VW mini-bus. When they ran through the cloud, 'senor perp' was frozen in a pool of his own brake fluid! All he would say was, "G** D***! What did you shoot at me with?" over and over. They called a Dallas P.D. unit to haul him to jail and an hour later Charley was doing the paperwork when the Watch Commander came in and told him :crackup: the head jailer at Dallas wanted to talk to him. The guy was at a loss cause all they could get out of the prisoner was, "G** D***! What did he shoot at me with?"!!!! Within two weeks Charley had had at least 20 Dallas officers call to ask, "Can you load me some of those cartridges?"; "Can I shoot them in my 1911 .45acp?" Got to admit, it got folks attention!

 

[ffffg]

the best shot i never took.. about 10-15 years ago i loaded my bunch of black powder guns to the montana state championships... my son noticed that there was no one shooting the pistol match.. i have a tower .69 boot/saddle pistol(whatever) that would shoot about 2 feet high at 25 yards.. my son begged me to shoot the match, none the less no-one entered and it went uncontested.. i was ready next year tho.. bought a fancy high dollar pistol, got it all sighted in and practiced for the easy win and about 6 other guys were also ready including the local gunsmith that cleaned house on practically all the mathces he shot every year.. no regrets, id hate to win a championship with a score of one or two..or zero.. :cry: dave.....

 

[twsteven]

My best shot was made with a S&W Model 18 4 inch K-22 revolver. I had been mowing at the gun club when one of the new trap shooters showed up to practice a bit. He brought along a small ground trap, a case of clay birds, and proceeded to miss every shot he took. I knew him pretty well so felt comfortable teasing him a little so I told him I could do better than that with my revolver. I felt my boast was safe as I wouldn't shoot it up into the air. He called my bluff and adjusted the trap to throw the bird about a foot above ground. Well, I figured he hadn't hit any with his shotgun so I couldn't do any worse. I cocked my revolver and called "Pull". I swung, fired, and the bird shattered. Fortunately I recovered from the shock first so was able to make a production of re-holstering my revolver and saying "See". Needless to say my revolver stayed in my holster the rest of the day.

A friend of mine made a similar shot with a flu flu arrow and a recurve bow. This was done in conjunction with a hunter education class we were teaching. As soon as the arrow broke the bird he turned to me and asked "Did you see that?" Of course I responded, "See what? I was looking over there." He knew I'd seen the shot and tried everything he could think of to get me to acknowledge it.

 

[benvenuto]

luckiest? getting my piece of sh** flintlock to fire first time I used it (first time I had ever shot BP too). I had five shots go off perfectly, but spent the rest of the day getting misfires and flashes in the pan. :curse:

best? A few weeks ago, three shots in the same hole at 25 yards with NO PATCH :hmm:
still can't work that one out....