What was the best shot you have ever made?

OK, let's hold off the BS flags on this thread, at least for a little bit.

Simple question looking for an HONEST reply.

What was the best shot you have ever made? One that had you puffing your chest out a bit, and it even suprized you.

I have two. Not terribly long range, but I was happy and it suprized myself.

The first was with my very first M1Garand in 30/06. I was shooting at clay pigeons set up on some rolling dirt berms.
They were about 100 yards away and a few others were set up at about 25 yards or so.
OK, I shoot 6 just fine, and I had not shot the Garand that much but was very impressed at how easy it was to point and shoot.
Well, after getting those 6, I then just dropped the Garand to my hip and blasted two more right off the hip.
The pointablility of that rifle made it so easy.
Not a big thing, but this was the first time I had ever shot a Garand.
Needless to say, that started a lifelong love affair.

The second was in South Dakota. Just outside Rapid City is a shooting area called Berretta Road. There are hills and the usual beautiful Black Hills views.
I had been teaching a lady friend of mine how to shoot, and then she learned the fun of plinking with her 10/22.
She then suggested I climb a steep hill and put a 2 liter bottle full of water up on the hill and whoever hit it within 5 shots got their choice of sandwich at Arby's.
I ranged the bottle at 238 yards from us. We both had 10/22s with Nikon scopes.

She hit all around it, but no cigar.
When it was my turn, I thought I would be a smartass, and remove the magazine, and only put one round in the chamber.
I told her you only need one, right?
The bottle was uphill so I aimed a little low and sure enough, busted it with my one shot.
I was not about to let out I was just as suprized as she was.

She even got a little playfully huffy with me for being a smartass.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, those are my most fun shots I have made.

Please share with us yours.

PS...we have all seen and heard of amazing feats of marksmanship being performed with the keyboard.

Qualifying in basic, I put all 10 rounds through the exact same hole during sighting.

OK...thats not true. I put my first round dead center but the guy next to me bumped me (he was a lefty) so we both repositioned and I fired my next nine. When we got down range the Ti looked at my target with the one round dead bullseye and said "what the hell is this?" and I responded "great shooting, sir" Then we looked at the guy next to and his target and its 19 rounds. For what it was worth...my 9 were in a much tighter group.

During qualifying I shot a quarter size hole in my target. They couldnt account for most of my rounds and wouldnt take it on faith that Iput the rounds in that tight a group so even though they could only count 15 of 30 rounds, I was DQ ed and had to re-qualify. I'm pretty sure it was payback for the 'great shooting' comment.

I had another range day with some friends and my kids and they were having trouble with a snub nosed Rossi .38 special. They were complaining about the fixed sights on the gun. I walked up and cranked off one lucky (stres...lucky) shot dead center and sat the gun down and said "theres nothing wrong with the sights on this gun" and walked away. Never fired it again. Why destroy the mystique.

On the Par 5, 4th hole at the Sub Base golf course in Groton Ct. in 1983.

I went for the green in 2 shots, and flat out semi shanked my second shot over the stone wall out of bounds. The ball continued to bounce all over the asphalt and hit the stone wall on the otherside of the road and went airborne again.

It came back in bounds, and bounced onto the green and settled about 5 feet from the cup.

I made the putt for my first eagle ever.

OH....you mean shooting?

Bowling pin at a 150 feet with my first shot using my Ruger 3" SP101 .357 using .38 target rounds. Pure fluke, as I didn't hit it again in the next 24 tries.

I hit a barn with a 12 gauge once.

RetiredNSmilin said:

OK, let's hold off the BS flags on this thread, at least for a little bit.

Simple question looking for an HONEST reply.

What was the best shot you have ever made? One that had you puffing your chest out a bit, and it even suprized you.

I have two. Not terribly long range, but I was happy and it suprized myself.

The first was with my very first M1Garand in 30/06. I was shooting at clay pigeons set up on some rolling dirt berms.
They were about 100 yards away and a few others were set up at about 25 yards or so.
OK, I shoot 6 just fine, and I had not shot the Garand that much but was very impressed at how easy it was to point and shoot.
Well, after getting those 6, I then just dropped the Garand to my hip and blasted two more right off the hip.
The pointablility of that rifle made it so easy.
Not a big thing, but this was the first time I had ever shot a Garand.
Needless to say, that started a lifelong love affair.

The second was in South Dakota. Just outside Rapid City is a shooting area called Berretta Road. There are hills and the usual beautiful Black Hills views.
I had been teaching a lady friend of mine how to shoot, and then she learned the fun of plinking with her 10/22.
She then suggested I climb a steep hill and put a 2 liter bottle full of water up on the hill and whoever hit it within 5 shots got their choice of sandwich at Arby's.
I ranged the bottle at 238 yards from us. We both had 10/22s with Nikon scopes.

She hit all around it, but no cigar.
When it was my turn, I thought I would be a smartass, and remove the magazine, and only put one round in the chamber.
I told her you only need one, right?
The bottle was uphill so I aimed a little low and sure enough, busted it with my one shot.
I was not about to let out I was just as suprized as she was.

She even got a little playfully huffy with me for being a smartass.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, those are my most fun shots I have made.

Please share with us yours.

PS...we have all seen and heard of amazing feats of marksmanship being performed with the keyboard.

Click to expand...

My brother and I took a 22 pistol out in the yard for fun. We must have been 5 and 7. I aimed, shot and actually hit the barn door.

486 yards with my 308 LTR. Nice 8pt that was DRT. Missed the heart by an inch or so. 168 Amax, amazing on light skinned game.

A WWII re-enactor brought a semi only tommy gun to the range. For chucks I held it at a 45* angle and fired one round, hit the 400 yard steel. Everyone was amazed, I acted like I did that all the time and handed the SMG back saying, 'nice trigger' with a straight face. He asked me to do it again and I asked him if he missed that, and if he did shame on him for not paying attention.

220+ - yds trotting coyote. bunch of students prepping at an UKD range, coyote trots across the field. I grab my old rebuilt Mauser, cut the power of the scope in half, 2 mil lead, one round, coyote dropped mid stride. 168 amax blew quite a hole in him.

Sniper golf, 3 golf balls hanging at 300 yards, one round per ball. I was pretty impressed with myself until the senior instructor hit each as it swung... :3oops:

240+- yards, running hog. Shot one of the group and the rest scattered, pretty fast when they want to be, got the boar at full value, half power on the scope, 6 mil lead- he summersaulted to a stop. 308 DPMS with Lapua FMJ.

I can throw a pistol fairly well... eace

Twenty years ago, when I lived and worked in the Ugliest Corner of Lower Alabama (UCLA), I knocked off work early & went fishing with a buddy on his family's land near Slocum.

My Army bud Steve was a generous host, packing not only a case of beer in the back of his truck, but also a nice assortment of handguns & rifles, with abundant ammunition.

I myself brought along a couple of my own firearms, just in case we decided to do some target shooting.

After a perfect afternoon of fishing and relaxing, not to mention a fair amount of beer drinking, cutting-up, joking around, scratching, spitting, and cussing,
we finally settled down on the tailgate of that blue Ford truck and decided it was time to break out the firearms and test our mettle.

The mettle in question was actually a ragged little collection of pond turtles, sunning-themselves on a fallen tree limb that was sticking up out of the middle of the pond.

I first opted for my trusty Savage over & under 22 rifle/ .20 gauge shotgun, but the wiser outdoorsman Steve cautioned me to put that weak $hit away.

I then reached for my well-oiled Smith & Wesson model 686, with the .357 hollowpoints.
Sweetboy intoned, "Naw, you're just going to make a lot of noise, and after you miss with that cannon, all the targets will be swimming for the deep."

I was at a loss for what armament to reach-for. The tree limb was a good 70 yards away, and the breeze was fair. The visibility was good, and the sunset was probably an hour away at best.

Steve finally settled the matter by reaching behind the truck seat and producing a very handsome (and quite heavy as I recall) Chinese SKS.

I exclaimed, "What the hell is that, and where did you get it??"

Steve brought me up to speed on the make, model, nomenclature, shop of origin, and handling characteristics of this wicked and cumbersome beast, and proceeded to squeeze-off a practice shot or two at a nearby tree stump. And then he set said beast into my hands.

"Go ahead, take your best shot," he said, giving a nod toward the hard-shelled little victims, resting comfortably out there in the middle of the pond.

70 yards away, out in the middle of that pond.

I gulped, and then set down the foreign firearm for a moment.
My throat had suddenly become quite dry, and perhaps another beer was called for.

I cracked open another beer and took a long, cold swallow, and then burped through a totally-affected steely-eyed gaze at the offending turtles in question.
"Not much chance of missing at this distance, I reckon," I commented.

(Not much chance of me hitting a turtle, or even the whole freaking tree limb at this distance, is more likely, I think to myself.)

Steve commented, "The sun's going down pretty soon. Let's get after it before we lose the daylight."

My fishing partner harbored just a hint of amusement behind those Ray Ban-covered eyes, for he and he alone knew my history with firearms.
I owned a few, and I always kept them clean and well-oiled,
but I was not a very steady or reliable shot.

Eyeglass-wearing schoolgirls have produce better results on the JrROTC firing range than me.

No-Go, Bolo, dumbasss, those are all names I've been called on the various Army marksmanship ranges I've suffered through over the years.
I enjoy shooting, but I have never been terribly good at it.

"Alright, boy," Steve prodded. "Let's see what you've got."

I leaned over the corner of the truck bed, and rested my left elbow on the polished blue surface of the paint.

"Third turtle from the left," I announced, and then leaned forward into the sights.

(Why did I call the shot? Why didn't I just take my shot, miss like usual, and then hand the SKS over? What the hell is wrong with me??)

I don't know how it happened, but somehow that afternoon the Gods of Marksmanship smiled on me.

I relaxed my breathing for just a moment, pondered the beauty of the sunlight settling on the trees just beyond the pond,
experienced a Pabst Blue Ribbon-influenced moment of peace and tranquility,
set my sights on the happy little collection of turtles,
and then I squeezed the trigger.

*Bang*

The rifle thumped into my shoulder in a very comfortable and natural way, and then,
somehow,
the third turtle from the left exploded in a tidy little burst of red viscera, shell fragments, and tree bark.

I masked my surprise and amazement, and then took a moment to appreciate and evaluate the SKS that I held in my hands.
I glanced down the barrel like I knew what I was looking at, and then rested the stock of the weapon on my thigh.

I paused to take another swig of beer, and then handed the rifle over to my good friend.
"Your turn, boy. Let's see what you've got."

There are moments in your life where everything goes your way.
Not many, admittedly, but there they are.

When they happen, you've got to appreciate them, and celebrate them.
Because they don't come around very often.

Best shot I ever made was with my dads .22 rifle, at a lake out in the middle of the woods. Kind of a secret spot my dad and I went to to fish. It was full of large mouth. Only issue was, after rains, there's no where to cast from. So we're there, soaking up some sun after a little hunting, he with his m1 garand (great deer hunting gun, he always said) and me with the .22, which is great for everything else. Anyway, this day, the bass are just breaking the surface every five seconds. Taunting us, I said. So, I find a rock, lug it to shore, get on my belly, prop the barrel, and wait. I forget how many shots I took...it was either 3 or 4....but on the last shot, I hit one! My dad was like, No ****? He figured I was wasting ammo and scaring everything away . But there it was, floating on its side, bout 25-30 yards out. So I stripped down, and swam out to get it. Water was cold (it was right before fall in SC), but worth it. Get it back to shore, to show dad, I had hit that sucker right in the gills. We didn't get anything other than that bass, but that stands to me as my all time most impossible shot. Probably coulda sat on that lake another 20 years and never make a shot like that.

I can't say it was my best shot, but I went shooting with my adult son, he wanted to shoot his new rifle, and a friends 9mm pistol.
My vision depth of field is no good, so I don't shoot much any more, but we went to one of those indoor ranges (40 Yards max)
He puts the pistol target at 15 yards, and hands me the pistol.
I took one test sighting, could see both the sights and the target well enough to tell him just to move the target to the back.
(I never thought 15 yards for a decent pistol was much challenge)
Anyway at 40 yards, I placed all but one of the rounds in center of the silhouette.(this was surprising to me too)
We shot the rifle and the pistol quite a bit more, and I did not think much of my effort, as in my ill spent youth,
I regularly shot silhouettes with a .357 at 100 yards.
Several years later, I was at one of my son's party's, and over hear him bragging to his friends about my shooting that day.

At the range, all of my shots are good shots. Sometimes the target moves.

A stepback 3 point game winner


Oh wait not that kind of shot huh

Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

I killed ten squirrels with a single slingshot round.

two-England 2000, John Marshall's Chargot estate shooting partridge. his famous drive -this was the one that involves a creek coming down a hillside surrounded by 150Ft tall spruce trees giving the shooters very little time as the birds fly over the trees. well I was on the end peg at the very top of the hill and a wood pigeon comes out 90M away and my loader says-Have a go at it sir. 28G Ruger Red Label-#6 shot, I swept through the bird by now 130 meters away and hit it with the first shot. It flew another 40 meters before dropping right in front of my brother who was almost 200 meters at the end of the drive

second one-far luckier. HS in 75, me and two friends were out shooting airguns-I had a sheridan 20 caliber pump up airgun. One of my friends knew I was a good shot, the other didn't know. There is this sapsucker sitting at the top of dead tree 60 yards or so away and the guy who didn't know I shot a lot asked the other guy if I could hit it. and Jay joked, yeah I bet he can hit it from the hip. So I gave it a try and much to my surprise, the poor sucker dropped dead-hit him right in the head. I felt awful. I told my dad and he said-you could try that shot 100 times again and never make it. True, but the next day in school everyone was talking about it

A BIG ass shotglass we were takin cherry shots like today and WHOOOOMAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN..........i chugged at **** back like a guddamn LOWRIDER whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

RetiredNSmilin said:

OK, let's hold off the BS flags on this thread, at least for a little bit.

Simple question looking for an HONEST reply.

What was the best shot you have ever made? One that had you puffing your chest out a bit, and it even suprized you.

I have two. Not terribly long range, but I was happy and it suprized myself.

The first was with my very first M1Garand in 30/06. I was shooting at clay pigeons set up on some rolling dirt berms.
They were about 100 yards away and a few others were set up at about 25 yards or so.
OK, I shoot 6 just fine, and I had not shot the Garand that much but was very impressed at how easy it was to point and shoot.
Well, after getting those 6, I then just dropped the Garand to my hip and blasted two more right off the hip.
The pointablility of that rifle made it so easy.
Not a big thing, but this was the first time I had ever shot a Garand.
Needless to say, that started a lifelong love affair.

The second was in South Dakota. Just outside Rapid City is a shooting area called Berretta Road. There are hills and the usual beautiful Black Hills views.
I had been teaching a lady friend of mine how to shoot, and then she learned the fun of plinking with her 10/22.
She then suggested I climb a steep hill and put a 2 liter bottle full of water up on the hill and whoever hit it within 5 shots got their choice of sandwich at Arby's.
I ranged the bottle at 238 yards from us. We both had 10/22s with Nikon scopes.

She hit all around it, but no cigar.
When it was my turn, I thought I would be a smartass, and remove the magazine, and only put one round in the chamber.
I told her you only need one, right?
The bottle was uphill so I aimed a little low and sure enough, busted it with my one shot.
I was not about to let out I was just as suprized as she was.

She even got a little playfully huffy with me for being a smartass.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, those are my most fun shots I have made.

Please share with us yours.

PS...we have all seen and heard of amazing feats of marksmanship being performed with the keyboard.

Click to expand...

shooting a 22lr at 238 yards is kinda like lobbing mortar shells at a target. :2razz: But it is fun.

My old boss liked to go long range gopher shooting in the spring. I went with him once after work. He had a really, really sweet 22-250 with a light trigger with hand loads for the gun. Let me shoot it (had bi-pods) and the nicest scope I'd ever looked through. Glassed a gopher out at 250 yards told me which cross hair to put on the gopher. Squeezed the trigger and splat, didn't even lose the gopher in the sight picture as the recoil was so low. Unfrigginbelievable how nice that gun shot. Got me interested in reloading.

Winchester said:

shooting a 22lr at 238 yards is kinda like lobbing mortar shells at a target. :2razz: But it is fun.

My old boss liked to go long range gopher shooting in the spring. I went with him once after work. He had a really, really sweet 22-250 with a light trigger with hand loads for the gun. Let me shoot it (had bi-pods) and the nicest scope I'd ever looked through. Glassed a gopher out at 250 yards told me which cross hair to put on the gopher. Squeezed the trigger and splat, didn't even lose the gopher in the sight picture as the recoil was so low. Unfrigginbelievable how nice that gun shot. Got me interested in reloading.

Click to expand...

Nice story.

I have never shot a 22-250, but have held the rounds in my hand. Man, the reservoir of powder in that casing sure is big.

I can imagine it shoots like a laser beam.

RetiredNSmilin said:

Nice story.

I have never shot a 22-250, but have held the rounds in my hand. Man, the reservoir of powder in that casing sure is big.

I can imagine it shoots like a laser beam.

Click to expand...

They do, I got one now too. :lol:

Now this one isn't my shot, but one of the stories my mom told me about my grandfather shortly before he passed (never knew him as he died when my mom was 12). They went over to my mom's friends birthday (on a farm out of town). The boy had gotten a .22 pistol and my grandfather asked if he could try it. He took out a quarter, threw it out in the air brought up the pistol, shot and hit the quarter. Gave the pistol back to the boy and said nice gun.

One day, I hit the target twice at 25 yards with my S&W Model 15 .38 Special. I would have hit it at least three times, I'm sure, but my sights weren't adjusted right. I do a whole lot better with my replica Henry Yellowboy in .22 LR. The Nikon scope may seem out of place on a replica lever-action rifle, but it works pretty nice.

matchlight said:

One day, I hit the target twice at 25 yards with my S&W Model 15 .38 Special. I would have hit it at least three times, I'm sure, but my sights weren't adjusted right. I do a whole lot better with my replica Henry Yellowboy in .22 LR. The Nikon scope may seem out of place on a replica lever-action rifle, but it works pretty nice.

Click to expand...

sarcasm?

Does Call of Duty count because once I got two headshot kills from one bullet and one of the targets was in mid-air.

It was worth a lot of points.

RetiredNSmilin said:

OK, let's hold off the BS flags on this thread, at least for a little bit.

Simple question looking for an HONEST reply.

What was the best shot you have ever made? One that had you puffing your chest out a bit, and it even suprized you.

I have two. Not terribly long range, but I was happy and it suprized myself.

The first was with my very first M1Garand in 30/06. I was shooting at clay pigeons set up on some rolling dirt berms.
They were about 100 yards away and a few others were set up at about 25 yards or so.
OK, I shoot 6 just fine, and I had not shot the Garand that much but was very impressed at how easy it was to point and shoot.
Well, after getting those 6, I then just dropped the Garand to my hip and blasted two more right off the hip.
The pointablility of that rifle made it so easy.
Not a big thing, but this was the first time I had ever shot a Garand.
Needless to say, that started a lifelong love affair.

The second was in South Dakota. Just outside Rapid City is a shooting area called Berretta Road. There are hills and the usual beautiful Black Hills views.
I had been teaching a lady friend of mine how to shoot, and then she learned the fun of plinking with her 10/22.
She then suggested I climb a steep hill and put a 2 liter bottle full of water up on the hill and whoever hit it within 5 shots got their choice of sandwich at Arby's.
I ranged the bottle at 238 yards from us. We both had 10/22s with Nikon scopes.

She hit all around it, but no cigar.
When it was my turn, I thought I would be a smartass, and remove the magazine, and only put one round in the chamber.
I told her you only need one, right?
The bottle was uphill so I aimed a little low and sure enough, busted it with my one shot.
I was not about to let out I was just as suprized as she was.

She even got a little playfully huffy with me for being a smartass.

Ok, ladies and gentlemen, those are my most fun shots I have made.

Please share with us yours.

PS...we have all seen and heard of amazing feats of marksmanship being performed with the keyboard.

Click to expand...

M-60 school in Nevada firing 20 year old training guns that probably had a million rounds through them. The course for the day was pop up targets between 100 and 1100 yards. The exercise was to identify targets and adjust using only the battle sights. I was the only one to hit an 1100 yard target.

RetiredNSmilin said:

sarcasm?

Click to expand...

I wish. Let's just say I need a lot more practice with the revolver. With the .22 rifle, though, I'm not bad. Getting really good takes more practice than I've had time for.

Lutherf said:

M-60 school in Nevada firing 20 year old training guns that probably had a million rounds through them. The course for the day was pop up targets between 100 and 1100 yards. The exercise was to identify targets and adjust using only the battle sights. I was the only one to hit an 1100 yard target.

Click to expand...

We should call you "killer" from now on....
(sarcasm from one vet to another)

We went to Fort Smith, Ark once for range training. We weren't used to training on army ranges, so it was a bit different for us (infantry Marines). I shot four possibles in a row out of four attempts. A possible means you hit every point possible during the qualification.

I had all the officers and senior NCO's at my firing line and they were watching me shoot. We were only going to do three qualifications because it had gotten dark, but the Major told the army range sergeant, "Run another one." I looked up from my spot and said, "Sir, it's dark and I can't see much." He just said, "Do your best, son. It's fine."

I got another perfect score. I don't know how. I was shooting at shadows. And HITTING them! All the other firing lines were getting abysmal scores because no one could see the popup targets.

I was very proud of myself after and had a good name for myself within my company. The gunny a couple months later approached me with an offer for scout sniper school. I was happy and everyone was highfiving me. Then a few hours later they had looked at my medical records and said my uncorrected eyesight was too poor, so I got screwed out of going to the class. Maybe my life would have been different had I gone.