Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bizzare freak unbelievable accident ..........two times in one week!

You know how when you do something long enough your bound to have strange things happen. Well I have had my share of these things but this week I had a bizzare or freak thing occur and then yesterday it happened again!
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<br>I wrote this already to two of my firends, at the time I did not post it because I felt it to unbelievable and some of you guys would think I was stretching the truth. I decided to post anyhow because this is really bizzare. So here is the story.
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<br>I have been shooting my 458 Lott every day or every other day. I live in a rural area and it's easy for me to do this. Since I leave for my Africa season in May I want to be 100% confident with this rifle so lots of shooting is in order. Seems like I'm reloading, shooting, or watching the new little guy which fills my days now. Even Brian showed up this week( BW to you guys) that was a nice visit although short. Still it's good to meet another guy from the forum.
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<br> Anyhow, I drive up the road and get to a dead end section with a huge Cedar stump. Lots of folks shoot here and to be honest it's a bit embarrasing for the crap they leave behind. However it's the most convienient location for the time I want to spend shooting. I pack along a 3/4" thick section of plywood 2 foot wide and 4 foot long. This I staple my targets to. I have been shooting the Lott at various distance from 25 yards to 125 yards. For a backup work rifle that's about the most usful distance to practice at.
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<br>Early in the week I was shooting at a big rock from 40 yards, about the size of a basketball. My drill was to rapidly shoot at it three times. With each shot I could see the plume of white smoke come off the rock. It's a big target but then I'm hunting in Africa for big game so it's realistic. However on the 2nd shot I see a branch the siz of a small tree fall from someplace back in the woods! The bullet glanced off the rock and took down this huge branch. Maybe I better get further away from the rock!
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<br>So I'm back to 75 yards and click of a few more when another big branch falls from above the target! Can you believe this? the bullet glancing off with enough mass to blow the limb off of a tree? Strange,......... Oh this is not the good part yet! I move back to 100 yards and stand next to my truck. I want to see if I can recover some of the 450 grain swift A frames I'm shooting so I shoot into the big clay embankment way down at the end of the road next to the big stump. I shoot and see something at that exact instant fly into the air right in front of me.
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<br>My first though is Oh no my rifle flew apart! What broke and when will I get it fixed? am I screwd for using it in Africa this year, what is Johns number, How soon can I get there? where is the ferry schedule to cross the inlet. Thoughts were racing through my head like the bullet train! Hold on here, ........nothing seems to be missing? the bolt works fine, Hmmm what the heck flew off my gun? I walk down the road among the billion spent .22 rimfire shells and 1/2 billon shotgun shells, and there is a little bird laying there. What the heck happened to that bird, clearly he was not hit with 5000 plus foot pounds of energy? He just fell from the sky in front of me! It's still warm and soft. Was it just his time to go while in mid flight? This was pretty strange and although surprised by the event, really happy it was not my gun that flew to pieces. So I tossed the little dude aside and kept shooting.
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<br>Yesterday I was shooting through the Chronograph and testing some loads. While doing this I shot through it. Then right over the device, something appeared to fall on it and then off to the side. It measured the shot's speed but it looked like something fell, I could see it there! It's another Bird! A different kind but still laying stone dead, still warm and soft. What the heck is going on here? Is the concussion so powerful from this rifle that it will drop a bird stone dead if its in front of me? This could be the greatest grouse rifle ever. No bullet damage just shoot next to it! What the heck could cause these birds to expire from the blast of the rifle? This is weird but I can't help thinking it's also funny in a sick and twisted kinda way. Well it is to me anyway. The 458 Lott has a big load of recoil, over 5000PFE and enough muzzle blast to drop small critters from the sky!
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<br>I suppose this is going to be too bizzare for some to believe and I understand that. I don't think these were suicide anti gun crazed birds(different species too) Just some bad luck for them. Can't be coincidence that they just fell from the sky can it? I think the blood pressure must be high when they are flying and the shock wave must burst the tiny little blood vessels in their noggin's, or what else, I have no idea!

I suppose if they were close enough the muzzle blast could kill them, but my bet is they are literally having a heart attack. We had a natural gas tank blow up here two years ago. It was a couple miles out of town, but it shook all the windows and walls in town. Right after it went off all the pheasants in the area went crazy crowing and screeching. It was real eering as we didn't know what happened at first. We didn't know if it was a bomb or if the local sugar plant had an explosion or what. Anyway after it was all sorted out one of the strange side affects from the explosion was a number of birds especially pheasants were dead. Many were nowhere near the explosion in terms of feeling any kind of blast, but apparently the unexpected noise at around 5:00am was more than they could take. Near as anyone can figure they had heart attacks.

Now that is COOL!!! I saw a bird fall dead out a tree once when I was younger, but nothing like that!! Thanks for the story
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Let's see J..J..hack and J..ohn J..ay Audobon
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<br>Mike

you're just not leading them enough...

Strange things happen. I was hunting spring turkey with my black powder rifle one spring. Poped a cap on a bird but the cap didn't pop. The noise made the bird nervous and I quickly put a new cap on the nipple, cocked and fired again. It went pop but no boom and no bird. I quit for the day, walked back to where I was parked and cleaned out the nipple with a pick. I put a fresh cap on and fired into the land owners trash dump just to empty the rifle. At the shot, a squirrel fell out of the tree next to the dump and hit the ground. He fell from about fifteen feet and looked stone dead. I was wondering what in the world could have come out of that trash pile and hit that squirrel? When I walked over to take a look the Squirrel jumped up and ran off. Did he just faint and fall off of his limb when I shot? That's all I can figure out.
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<br>It's funny things like that which help me keep a sense of humor.

Squirrel rope a dope.
<br>You must appwoach them vewwwy cawefuwy

JJ on the bird deal I think you just got lucky twice close together. Birds do just fall dead for no apparent reason. You didn't say what kind of birds they were but I have seen the following just fall dead. Some where at my bird feeders and some were just flying along with a bunch others. I have seen it happen to Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwings, Song Sparrows, Cow birds, Grackles and once a goose. I don't know why they do it but I have seen it happen. One minute they are happily pecking away at the sunflower seed and they sort of scrooch up, sit there a second and keel over dead as a door nail.
<br>BCR

I can not believe these answers! JJ, you know what it is don't you?
<br>These birds are all flying around and hear this horrendous noise and come to investigate, and when they see it is the Poatal Master himself they just drop dead because they know they have no chance.
<br>They just sacrifice themselves to the Man!

Seems like Elmer Keith, when he went to Africa the first time, shot a buffalo or rhino. At the shot, the tick bird that was sitting on the animal, fell dead.
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<br>He attributed it to the impact of his bullet on the rhino, and the shock of the bullet.
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<br>Me, I think the bird just got ahold of a bad tick.
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<br>Joe.

A few years back while I was out sampling surface waters for fecal coliforms on the coastal beaches here in WA ST. I came accross a dead Gray Whale. I bet he didn't fall from the sky.
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<br>Bullwnkl.

BCR, Those birds didn't happen to fall over just after they looked at you did they? :-) TM

Bullwnkl, You really need to get another hobby. I mean really, out looking for fecal colliflowers? :-) TM

This gives new meaning to "bird droppings", eh? ~~~Suluuq

Hey Bullwnkl How many clicks on the counter does a whale get??
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<br>Mike

Jim,
<br>Our aviary friends rely on an extremely fragile membrane (similar to that found in our inner ear) for their balance when sleeping on perches and to orient their bodies in flight. A birds ears (no external pinna) is less able to receive the wide range of sounds that a human ear can perceive, but is more sensitive to intensity. The muzzle blast from your rifle (like the thermobaric cave-bombs in Afganistan) is creating such a concussive shock wave that it is destroying the membrane that these birds rely on to maintain proper orientation in flight. Losing their bearing in flight, causes them to free-fall and break their necks on impact with the ground. If you think back real hard, I�ll bet you that none of these birds were wearing hearing-protection. Case closed ....
<br> S.B.
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TM that is a distinct possibility.
<br>BCR

Depends on if the whale is getting ripe.
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<br>Bullwinkl.

Bird droppings? Indeed. Don't want to be around for the whale droppings! Speaking of bird droppings, you ever see a quail squirt when it flushes on a covey rise? I've seen it many times. I always miss those birds. It distracts me, wondering if I really saw that and thinking why do they do that. Of corse the mental distraction and the fact that I took my eye off of the bird to look at the dropping falling to the ground is what causes me to miss with both barrels. I finally figured out why they do it. It's their verision of chaff. Quail counter measures.

PDS, I bet you're nailing the [email]crp[/email] out of those droppings though:)... ummmm, did I just say that???