Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game What is the best shot that you have ever made?

5x3 mule deer at 375-400 yards up a 30 degree +/- slope. Quartering away; I put the crosshairs 9" high on my 300WM with 180 gr Partition. My brother and I had spent a lot of time perfecting a load my Winchester liked. Took the top of his heart off. He went about 15 ft. and was dead when he hit the ground. Fortunately I had 2 witnesses. Now, if I can find a wallhanger Bull Elk.....

Went on a preserve quail hunt in al. about 4 years ago with hunt/work buddies. I had been kidding about how all that you need is one BB in the eye to get your quail and keep shot out of the meat. Well, when we first walked out for the first covey rise I wasn't quite ready but threw up my sxs 20 with #8's as the birds flew into some tall pines (50 yards away, measured). Well my quail fell behind the first big pine and floated down dead. WE ALL STOOD STARING, INCLUDING THE GUIDE, and walked to the bird. Sure nuff, one shot in left eye-----I proceeded to act like I planned it and we had fun talking about the shot all day and night!<P>Thanks for asking, brings back good memories!

i only have two that come to memory,ten point buck,125 yards,borrowed 16,first five missed got him with the sixth or seventh shot.second one was a red fox we chased for hours.he was on his way back across a 300 yard bean field,30 yards more and he would have made the cover.guess i was just sick of chasing him,one shot off hand,.222 rem,270 yards on a trot,this was my favorite....

I can't claim this one as my own but it was the best shot I have ever seen and will probably stay that way! I was rabbit hunting with my dad and my uncle, it also happened to be grouse season. My dad was using an old Remington .22 with a peep sight, my uncle a 12 gauge shotgun. First action came when my uncle jumped two grouse and missed with two shots. We all agreed that grouse are damned hard to get. We kept going and quickly my dad was surprised by a burst of thunder from out of the snow. Almost before I even saw the bird my dad had swung on it and I heard a pop from his .22 The grouse dropped, hit it right in the neck! My uncle turned real red and didn't say a word. [img]images/icons/mad.gif" border="0[/img]

Isn't it great when we connect?<P>Mine? I had hunted coues whitetails in AZ. for a dozen years or so and had to pass on some real beauties because of the extreme distances. I switched bullets with my only rifle, a 284 win, to the 100 Barnes X. I had that load doing 3600 fps. That year on the season opener I saw two nice 3 pointers (western count) moving up a ridge. One stopped broadside at approx. 440 yds. I laid down using a bi-pod and the first shot dropped him. It was interesting to see the deer fall and and a bit later hear the twack of the bullet. <P> My other shot was a head shot on a coyote using a 22 rimfire with CB short ammo. The distance was measured with a rangefinder after the fact: 90 yards! <P>Keep the stories comming!

Does it count if you're not aiming at it? My brother had recently returned from the Army and we spent many days walking and shooting at timber tigers, aka chipmunks. Of course we would take turns on the first shot but would then shoot at will with our Ruger Super Single Six 22 revolvers. One day my brother missed and we both were shootng at the running tiger when we saw something filp over in the back ground. I unintentionally shot a woodcock dead that had been lying behind the running chipmunk.

Easy answer - I knocked a grey squirrel off a tree limb at 35 long paces with a box-stock Colt Commander in .45 ACP and commercial reloads for which I'd never sighted the gun in. Whacked him just forward of the ear.<P>I've never tried it again - why ruin a 100% record?? <P>As for Mr. Squirrel, some days you just shouldn't get out of the nest...

My best was a goat at around 300 yards, with my 25-06 Remington. Sighted to hit on at 300 yards, practised on a range with a 250yd setup and when the time came to shoot, it hit right where I aimed. Funny thing when it went out of my sight I thought I had missed so picked out a rock back of where the goat had been and fired at it and when I hit it, I knew then that I would find it dead when I climbed up and sure enough it had gone down between some very large rocks and never took another step. I guess the other shot I like was one my late brother took on a goat hunt just after he had spent 3 months in a hospital, after a serious dirtbike accident in the back country. He had been out of the hospital awhile and working on getting his strength back and when he could move without the pain being too much we went hunting, well he was carrying a 243 we put together ourselves and some reloads someone gave him as he hadn't been able to reload yet. Well we had just stopped the truck and he decided he better see if he could still shoot and he had brought the 243 as that was all the recoil his body would take so he fired off a shot and said it didn't hurt too bad so we carried on and just down the same damn road he looks to his left and there was the goat high up on the other side of the mountain across the river so he got out of the truck and put the crosshairs on him and got him with one shot, now I had to wade waste deep across the river and climb up to get his goat while he gritted his teeth and slowly made his way up to try and help, funny thing is I don't like heights but I knew how far he had come to get this far and wanted to try and make it easier on him, so I knew I better get up there and get the bulk of the work done and then when he got there we took pictures and then I backed everything back across the river and back up to the truck, it was about a 400 yard shot. He and my dad always were the best shots I had ever seen. Unfortunetly my brother died just shy of his 42nd birthday working for a company that had to send him to Kodiak Alaska to work on some engine or powerplant up there and he took sick and they couldn't get him to help in time, so I will always cherish the many memories of my favourite hunting partner. I still have two other brothers to hunt with but he and I were only 1 year and 10 months apart so we pretty close. Thanks for the chance to share a good memory. [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img]

Reading these posts brought back memories of the luckiest shot I have ever made. I was plinking in my backyard with a marlin bolt rifle when my cousin who lived next door came over. I was about 16 and he was 4 years younger than me. When he asked what I was shooting, I said blackbirds. At that very moment the world's most unlucky blackbird flew overhead, and I swung and nailed him dead in the chest with a 22 lr hollowpoint, and he exploded in a puff of feathers. I acted like it was no big deal and headed back to the house. My cousin has told that story at every family gathering since. I just shrug and act like it was no big deal [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img]

I guess my best shot was one that wasn't particularly lucky or difficult, but the circumstances made it fun. I was pheasant hunting with my dad and two friends. We were walking in a line through a strip of overgrown pasture next to some milo stubble, spread out abreast with about 10-15yds between each of us. I was on the far left, Gary was to my right, Dad was to his right, and Mike was on the far right. A rooster flushed in front of Mike and angled away and to the left, crossing in front of all of us. Mike started the barrage of gunfire, missed I don't know how many shots, then my dad took his turn. The bird was still flying so Gary took a couple shots. I had just been watching the whole thing, figuring that this was somebody else's bird, given where it was flushed. But it was still in the air! By now everybody else had run dry or quit shooting, and this rooster was about 50yds out, in front of me, and still untouched! So after a brief pause in disbelief, I snapped my old beater 30" full-choked 870 to my shoulder and dumped it cleanly with one shot. I figure at least 6 or 7 shots were fired before I decided that it was up to me. I casually walked over to pick up my bird and asked them all if they had remembered to put shot in their loads. They called me a smart-ass. -al

See my post - South Dakota prairie dogs under "varmint" to see a photo of one of my best shots.

what is with all the squirrel shooting??? the poor hepless critters....<P> Anyways I would have to say that my best shot was on a squirrel also... I heard it behind me and so I slowly turned around and it was staring at me from inside a knot hole, it was hanging 1/2 way out but then it was like it opened its mouth to say something but before it did my bullet (from the ruger 10/22 that I was using) found its mark... BANG right in the kisser [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img] <P>needless to say he sure tasted good.

My best shot is still what i origialy possed, but i gess I'll add this too. First time I shot my shotgun (12ga.) It was at a chipmunk. It was atlest 10 yards out on a tree stump. I knew it was more power than i needed (1oz. rem dove load with Mod. choke). The body of the chipmunk hadn't been damiged at all, Just the head was missing. In was like i was using a turkey choke or a slug.

I was about 11 or 12 and we had gone to some friends mountain cabin for a quail hunt. I was too young to hunt, but I had a slingshot. After the quail hunt we all gathered in front of the cabin and they placed a tin can on a fence post at about 50 yards. They were shooting at it off-hand with a 22 LR single shot. And they had fired about 10 or 15 shots passing the rifle around for each shot. No one had hit the can. Well, I had my slingshot around my neck. (I had found a red inner tube and cut some high quality rubber bands for the sling shot. This was about 1946 or so and tires had tubes in them. Red inner tubes were the best.). Anyhow, took off my slingshot while they were reloading the 22 and had a pocket full of round rocks. I took one and made a perfect hit on the center of the can. It went about 10' backwards off the post and everyone just stopped and looked at me! I put the slingshot back around my neck and didn&#8217;t shoot anymore.<P>The second one was when I was on a donkey packing trip. We had just packed in about 35 miles in 2 days and made camp at Ray Lakes (about 10,000') in the high Sierras. We went fishing and it was fantastic. Every cast, a starved trout hit the fly. When we got back to camp, a chipmunk had gotten into my bag of Hershey Kisses and chewed them all up. The chipmunk ran off and I picked up a rock ant threw it at him. It was about 50' and I hit him in the head running as fast as he could go. He fell over dead as a stone. Harvey the guy who had taken me packing couldn&#8217;t believe it.

Mine occured when I took my boys out gray digger hunting. They had rifles and I decided to take my .22 pistol. Anyway I fired 19 times and killed 19 gray diggers. They were gee whizzed (as was I but didn't admit it). I never told them I went out by myself the next day and the only reason I could even hit the ground with that pistol was gravity [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img] I still tease them to this day about not needing a rifle to hunt ground squirrels.

Went to the range with a friend, and as he was unloading gear, I sat down at the bench and looked down range at the 100 yd berm. A flock of starlings were sitting in front of it, so I sighted on one with my .44 Redhawk and SPLAT. My friend said "what are you shooting at, you don't have any targets up. I told him, and he had to walk all the way out to see it. Best varmint shot was the top of a woodchucks head just below the surface of the ground. Looked like a dirt clod at 200 yards but I knew that chuck hole, and squeezed off a shot with my Marlin 39A. The bullet lobbed right into the hole and took him in the top of the head. He was sitting there with his head on his chest and his little front paws folded across his belly. Sighting in a 100 gr nostler load for my .243 I came upon a woodchuck at about 125 yards and a big fox squirrel at about 80 in the same bean field. Eased out of the car, set up some sand bags, dropped the fox squirrel with my 39A, picked up my .243 and hit the chuck through both eyes. There was no way I was going to pass up a bean fed squirrel just to check out a deer load.
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hey every1...my best shot was one that could happen to every1 but it has to be my favorite...it was getting dark and i didnt even have time to put on some hunting clothes...so i went out the way i was with my .22 hoping to see a big bushytail..by the time i was sitting in the woods it was almost dark...them dang reds were barking everywhere t the point where i was gonna pop them...then i heard a bark..i looked and way down the hill i saw a big grey just sitting there on the edge of the tree...i took careful aim...and shot...for about 5 seconds nothing happned i was sure i hit it but now i wasnt so sure...then he just dropped...it later turned out to be an 80 yd shot...and hit the squirrel right behind the shoulder(with a hollow point its his whole shoulder)...n e ways that was my most memorable...to date...
<br> Sniper17

My best shot was when I was 8 years old. My grandfather had a garden about 150 yrds from the house. Today crows are semi protected in Texas and will nearly land on your shoulder, but back then (1972) you could not get within 200 yrds of one. The crows use to infuriate my granddad because they would peck half of his tomato crop. Well one big crow landed on a garden fencepost and I eased onto the front porch with my Nylon .22. (open sites) Just about the time my granddad said, �You can�t hit�.� I squeezed off a round and dropped the crow. My granddad was overjoyed. He had a real scarecrow to tie to the fence post. They left his garden alone for the rest of the year.

Now I'm not the best shot in the world,but one time as a freind and I were coming out of the woods after a morning hunt I got lucky and made a heck of a shot. To get back to the truck we had to walk across about a 300 acre pasture. As we were walking and going over the mornings uneventfulness I noticed a movement at the other end of the pasture. My buddy had a 270 with a fancy scope and I had had a marlin 30/30 with a 3x9 buschnell. I asked my friend if I could look at his gun. After he handed it to me I told him there was a deer at the end of the pasture. We both sat down and put the crosshairs on the deer trying to figure out how far away it was. I fiddled with the scope for awhlie( dang thing had 2 sets of cross hairs) then took aim and shot. My buddy asked where the deer went and I nonchalantly said"DOWN". We stepped it off at 379 paces. Hit the deer right in the middle of the neck!!! Only problem was that I was aiming behind the shoulder. Now everytime we go hunting together and I ask to see his gun he says "Where's he at!" Went the next day and bought a 270 of my own. Havn't shot a deer over 60 yds away since!

Hello, THE BEST shot I ever made was on a Big Grey Squirrel at 35 yrds. I was shooting my 22 cal Beeman Pellet rifle (spring loaded), when I saw this BIG Bore. I took aim at him, But he started RUNNING to the nearest tree. I followed him with the front sight let out my last breath and FIRED!!! The 22 cal pointed pellet "HIT"!!! He did 1 thrashing and that was IT...I paced the shot and I still remembered it was 35 yrds, AND he was running!!! I sure do remember it like it was yesterday. I cured the hide and have it in my gun safe....Good shooting...MVGS