Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors Best shot of life!

Yesterday and old friend and I walked down to river, I had a sporter varmint in 223 that I had traded thru 3 before finding one that shot like I wanted, it was unwieldy with the 26" barrel so my smith cut it back to 23 " and put an 11 deg target crown on it , any how after watching the river we thought a beaver was swimming across, after looking thru scope it was a monster timber or as old timers call them cane break rattler, I went for head shot and 1st shot my buddy said I was an inch high, I drew down close and went for the mass behind head, let me tell you guys a 50 gr HP traveling about 3400 blew that sob into! Gator or Gar food! One swimming wide open in a river running 10 mph was not and easy off hand shot! I wish we had done the video but phone was 100 yards up hill in truck! Im just tickled to have had a witness!! very best WinPoor

IF you had the 243 Target you'd have gotten him with the first shot:)

Trouble with the target ,I would not have been dragging it around in truck! This gun is in a syn, B&C stock with the big alum , bedding block, 4.5 x 14 leupold with the varmint reticule! LOL very best WinPoor

Great shot.. Anything moving is tough for me...Nice work..

Winchesterpoor: Nice shooting!
I think I may hold the record for "missed" shots on a Rattlesnake?
From 8' away I was DEEP into the second cylinder (9th or 10th shot!) full of 38 wadcutter ammo (out of a 6" barreled S&W M-66) before I struck the head of a large Wyoming Rattler!
And that snake was just laying there (coiled up with head raised)!
Again good for you on whacking that MOVING Varmint!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VarmintGuy:

I think I may hold the record for "missed" shots on a Rattlesnake?

I think we could tied for that record! It was worse than any Buck Fever you ever saw. Glad no one was video taping that cluster +"$#.

Thats why I love to work with a gun, when you know if you miss its your fault, when you have 100 % confidence in your gun ...... it just works! He was far enought away, Im calling 75 to 100 yards to hear the whack, n my buddy ask what kind of bullet was that ,he could see snake mist every where, I lost him in scope but knew when I heard report it was dead nut solid! v best winpoor

Knivesforme: I did not want to allude to my own shortcomings but I think I might as well fess up.
This particular Rattler struck at me just as I saw it and once I came down from the sky I was full of adrenaline (or Buck Fever jitters.
I do recall taking careful aim for each shot and missing each shot - I think I was adrenaline jerking the trigger (only excuse I can come up with)?
And I qualified Distinguished Expert numerous times during my LEO career - of course NO Rattlesnakes were striking at me during those qualifications!
I now carry shot loads in my various tag along in snake country revolvers.
You did not (or maybe you care not to!) mention how many shots you took that day?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I've heard every once in a while even a blind squirrel finds a nut....

I HATE snakes...you da MAN!
Bob

Very nice shot indeed. I saw a friend of mine open up with a semi auto 22 on a swimming snake once. I think it was about 5th or 6th shot but he still talks about it today and I'm the witness. Ricky

WP, good on you for popping that bastid before it did some harm on the other side of the river. Nice shot, too! Woulda liked to seen that one.

My friend Ive been right there! Three or four years ago I was helping a mid 80's friend that flew in Korean War, they have a second home up here on river and something ,lightning had killed a tree in front of house , driveway, I took an 89' Husky saw and dropped the tree and had a 7600 ford tractor to drag it off in woods, pulled it off into wood as far as I could and backed tractor up to have slack and unhook chain, 2 steps and no one had to tell me what I had stepped in, I do not know how I jumped so high nor fast, I hollered at the old man 40 yards away to grab my pistol out of drivers door in my pickup truck,a Belgium made Browning Hi Power Ive had well over 35 years and thought I could shoot! LMAO on shot 8 or 9 out of 13 I got the head!!!! LORD was I shaking like a leaf!!! 17 rattlers and a button, I had never seen that many on a timber rattler, It was as long as a case mini trapper, I sent rattlers to Tallahassee Fl with my wife to give to FWC Biologist and they tried to say the things were endangered! BS, I have a photo of rattlers I will post up, Folks buy them around here so usually Im good on a head shot in one or two shots! Not when you step on one!!!!! No one has to tell you what just happened, you just know and that flight stuff hits! This old man used to watch me crop dust and could not believe how shook I was ! I know what you guys are speaking of!! very best winpoor

My experience with dumping a 10 round magazine and not hitting a thing was due to (1) the first rattlesnake I had encountered in the Desert near Octillo/Borrego Springs near San Diego CA. (2) the instant recognition that I had probably missed stepping on many others running around the area.
The snake was flush with the sand coiled in a near perfect very tight circle, it's head in the center of the coil and the speckles and coloration being and unbelievable match with the sand. It was the realization of both these facts that made me leap into the air claw for some space start yanking the trigger on the old High Standard model B without hitting anything but sand.
I had many previous and have had quite a few post encounters with Rattlesnakes but this one to this day gives me pause to think about how many I had to have been close to.

In warm weather, when it's really dry, I will squirrel hunt barefooted, sometimes. Walked up on a rattlesnake one day and did the high jump thing. I'm not sure, but I believe I set a new high and long jump record, at the same time. I landed so far away I had to take several steps closer to kill the snake, with a shotgun.

NO ONE has to tell your brain what you just did when you step in one! I cruised timber and burned pine woods off 2 years during college, I started out wearing gator chaps mainly for briars and catclaws but they would turn a fang, prob got struck 2 or 3 times, I always had a machete and I kept it sharp as a pocketknife, in my cowboy days I have killed them with a 12 ft kangroo hide bullwhip I got out of PNW, David Morgan , my best and least expensive bullwhip was made out of flat paracord type nylon by a half blind old cowboy in Okeechobee FL!
The thing with the snake in river was even though he was a monster for a timber rattler there was a small target , he and the river were moving and I nailed him freehanded. There was no fear from just stepping in the stinking SOB!!! very best WinPoor