Freak Shots

[Scout]

I shot a really nice 7 point once with the 20 ga. Mossberg and #3 buck from about 20 yards. He went down like a ton of bricks but was alive when I reached him. I finished him with a point blank slug to the heart. Upon skinning, I found that my original shot had only connected with a single pellet, which had penetrated his neck bone. I never used that shotgun again with buckshot.

[Lainford Express]

A guy in our hunting party made a once-in-a-lifetime shot last season. We were standing on my uncles drive deciding to start our next hunt, and say two doe break from cover a very long distance away running full speed. Most of us just turned and watched, but one guy pulled up and fired one shot. The lead doe doubled over and did not get up. The deer was hit right though the right shoulder and had bled out before we walked up to it. Afterward we paced it off, and consensus was the distance was at minimum 260 yards.

I should add, in Ohio we have to use shotguns. He made that shot with iron sights on a Remington 870 Express 12 gauge.

[Scorch]

I was not there to witness this one, but it was related to me with great excitement:
A friend of a friend of mine used to hang around the gun shop a lot. We had a box where we used to throw old buttplates, old sights, and the occasional take-off scope, usually cheap KMart specials like Simmons and Tascos. One day this guy spots an old Bushnell in the box and gets the urge for it, just had to have it. We told him the previous owner had taken it off because it would not hold zero, and he set off into hus "Bushnell has a lifetime guarantee" rant, so we gave him the scope. Then, of course, he wanted it mounted and bore-sighted for free, but I charge by the hour so he settled on the standard charge to mount it and boresight it. Anyway, away he went, grinning like a kid. So about 7 or 8 months later, he comes in one day with a lot of enthusiasm and a big grin on his face and told us he had killed a buck with the rifle we had mounted the scope on: one shot, right through the neck, running. Cooool! So I ask him how tight the scope holds zero, and he tells me that I sighted it in for him and that was good enough for him, so he took it hunting. We checked it several months later, and the scope had mysteriously "gone bad" in the meantime.

Must have been that buck's unlucky day, when your number is up, you're done!

[kodiakbeer]

An enormous group of caribou, all bulls, came in on us on flattish tundra in SW Alaska. There were three of us, and we'd drawn straws and mine was the last shot. They caught our wind at about 300 yards, stopped and began milling around, obviously not going to come in any closer. The first guy took a shot and brought down a nice one. They didn't run, so the next guy took a shot and took another nice boo. Then, the whole herd turned and began running away, and when they did so they exposed a huge old white-necked bull who had been bringing up the rear.

I was shooting a Ruger #1 in 7mm mauser with only a 1x5 Burris scope. I wasn't comfortable shooting at a running animal at that range with that rifle, and said so. But just then they turned and began a running big half circle around us trying to resume their original direction while avoiding us - my friend shoved his 30.06 with a (12?) power scope at me and insisted I take a shot. They were now at least in profile, so I lay down and put the crosshairs about a foot in front of his snout (which is also a good foot or more higher than the kill zone) and squeezed off a single shot. The boo went down like a train wreck, cartwheeling nose over ass at least twice before coming to a rest. I paced it off as we approached and came up with 455 yards - probably a little since we were traversing little humps even on that flat expanse of tundra. Anyway, the slug had caught him on the point of the shoulder and exited the point of the opposite shoulder, breaking the legs and creating the impressive train wreck.

I'll never do that again. Shooting at running game at long range is not sporting. But, I got away with it that time and did it in front of witnesses who did all the bragging for me. In reality, it was just a guess and a very lucky shot. It's the biggest boo I've ever taken to this day.

[ghr]

shot a small spike blacktail in the head with a 1 1/4oz slug. shattered the skull and turned the brain into mush.

[hagar]

Three springbuck in South Africa with one shot. I was actually trying for a 2X1, they were lined up perfectly, and after the shot I found 3 of them dead. My buddies heard me shoot, and could not believe it when they came by. I was using Winchester 165 grain Failsafes, those things go through anything.

[Longdayjake]

One time I stood in on a police shooting autopsy. It was a bad guy that had shot and injured a cop in the foot. Said cop shot the bad guy about 4 times as well as two other cops. The cop was aiming center mass and hit center mass but the only damage to the badguy was to his legs, arms, and one graze wound on his face. The reason was that the guy was laying down and used his legs and arms to shield himself from the shots. It worked. The .45 bullets passed through his legs and then went into his arms and stopped before they could do any real damage. Then another cop got brave enough to step in front of the cop doing all the shooting and put one in the back of the guy's head. That bullet went all the way through the skull and then embedded itself just under the skin on the oposite side. The pathologist and detectives spent like 5 minutes looking for the bullet or for an exit wound. It was kind of comical watching them get all upset that there was no bullet.

[Old Grump]

Trucker brother visiting the folks when they lived in South Carolina about a hundred years ago. Old man grabbed his 22 and got on the horse, my brothers guns were in Cleveland but he had his old 30-30 at home so he got on the Mare. That horse was a story all by herself.

Came back with a nice mess of wild ramps but no squirrel. My brother had a shot at one from horse back and lucky for him the mare must have been on her be good day schedule that day because he is still alive. They found the top half of the head and the body of the squirrel minus tail, legs, and most of its insides. The consensus between them that there wasn't enough left over to mess with. That is still his bragging shot 35 years later even it was only about 25'. I shot his gun later and at 25 yards it shot 15" to the left, it was one unlucky squirrel.

[cnimrod]

Father tells the story of how he and his brother were playing darts in the basement when a mouse ran across the floor.
DRT

[James R. Burke]

Hogdogs I like that one. Never know what can happen. Very good idea looking for those fleas before giving it to the dog. Smart move. One time we were watching four deer running accross a field, they went down a hill out of sight then they came back into sight when they came back up. We noticed that there were only three. Just figured one cut out a differnt way. We were four wheeling so a little while later we ended up were they went down that hill. There was a fork horn lying dead with its neck broke. Must have tripped or something. We called the DNR and they came out, because we wanted a tag to keep it. He did not think much of it. Checked it out, and tagged it for us..

[edward5759]

Back in the late 50s I was deer hunting with my father.
It was in an area around where the city is now Camelback and Scottsdale Rd
in AZ.
We jumped a buck and out of the brush it ran. I shot hutting in the gut and about 10 feet of intestine came out.
My father said you little b******d you going to haft to clean it!
Just then the intestine got caught on a barrel cactus, and at full speed running, it gutted the deer.
Everything from the wind pipe on back was gone!
It was very easy cleaning.
I was trying to tell my father that I planned it that way, but all I heard
ed

[jgcoastie]

I was walking back to the truck with a buddy after an unsuccessful morning of duck hunting (as most of my mornings spent duck hunting are)... Well, about 20yds off the trail in a small clearing, there was a rabbit just sitting there next to a clump of brush. I said to my buddy "I'm gonna kill something today, it was gonna be you for dragging me out here, but I reckon I'll shoot that bunny instead." I took aim real quick, aiming at his ears, at squeezed the trigger. Well that rabbit went crazy, spinnin, jumpin, backflippin and acting all out of sorts, squirting blood everywhere in the process.

Went over to collect it after it had settled down a bit and noticed that only the right ear and a small hunk of neck and skull was still there attached to the body, everything else was gone... 3" BB steel shot is bad medicine for bunnies apparantly.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Interesting posts!

Was rock chuck hunting one time and spotted a big chuck on top of a rock maybe a 100yds out. Chuck was face toward me with his nose slightly off center into the right to left breeze.

Put the cross hairs on the end of his nose and at the shot the head was gone back to the shoulders while the artries on both side of the neck where pulsing spirts of blood. Chuck laid there for a bit and then flopped off the rock and on to the ground.

More recently, I was white tail hunting here in Ideeeeeho when a nice buck broke out of the brush 50 - 75" in front of me. The buck ran towards and slightly in front of me, maybe 20' out, got in front of me and lined up with a shallow draw before turning and running almost directly away.

I lined up on him hoping for a raking shot behind the near shoulder and out the front.

At the shot, the buck was DRT so I took the very short walk - 30yds +/- to the critter looking to see what damage had been incured.

Didn't see any blood or damage until I finally saw a drop of blood on one cheek.

Got to look'in and the bullet had entered at the back of the head, just below the horns and gone out at the point of that drop of blood.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Bigjfb]

14 years old, my first deer hunt. Had a Win Model 88 .308, problem with the magazine, it would fustercluck once in a while after a shot. SO I carried my Granpas old S&w model 10 .38 with me as a sidearm, "Just in case".

I was hunting a powerline, just got out of my car, got my guns, walked up over the hill, there was a little 2x2 looking tight at me about 25 yds away. I put my scope on him, squeezed the trigger, nothing happened, no shell in chamber. When I jacked the lever to chamber a round, it jammed of course. The little buck was just looking at me with wide eyed amazement. I gave up on fiddling with the rifle, unholstered the .38, took aim at where I thought the little bucks heart was.

"KABOOM!" and the thing dropped. I set the gun down and ran up to it, blood was trickling out of a clean little hole in its neck. I was so excited, I picked up the little buck, threw it in my trunk and went home to consult my hunting book on how to clean it. Next day I Had to go back for my gun I had left on a rock.


ANother occasion, hunting antelope with a good friend, he took a spill down a hill with his gun slung over his shoulder. Later in the day he gut-shot an antelope at 200 yds, his gun was later determined to be way off after his spill. It was last few minutes of the season, the wounded buck was about to cross a fence onto a private ranch, so I took a shot with my 300 wsm. The yardage was calculated with a rangefinder, almost 600 yds. I was sighted for 300, really had no idea how high to hold for that shot, so I just put it a few inches high above the back of the shoulder, dumped the buck. Luckiest shot of my life. 150 grain Nosler went clean through.

[Deerhunter]

Hunted doves with a friend for several years on his uncle's farm. We could hunt the whole farm as long as we shot the pigeons when ever we got the chance. There was a flock of about 20 that flew around the farm. There was one all white pigeon that always seemed to be in the middle of the flock. Well one day we were out and they had landed in the grass field. As we walked out they decided to fly over us in a tight flock toward the barn. I told my buddy that I was going to get the white one. As they flew by I pulled up and shot once. The white pigeon fell out of the middle of the flock. I was shooting 7 1/2 high brass and never hit any of the other birds.

[Patsy4fingers]

I am surprised to see all the responses about people shooting animals that were running away from them. Dont shoot if you arent sure it is going to be a kill shot.

[Tomas]

When I was golfing once when I was younger, I creamed a third shot on a par 5. As I watched the ball sailing over the green and to the right, it hit a tree and went in without ever touching the green, it just bounced off the tree and went straight into the cup - I'm a hack at golf - so, it was my only eagle ever. THAT was a freak shot...now on to hunting...

Two years ago me and two other guys were putting a hunt on some elk in a place we call the "gnarly hole". Elk love it down there because there is no way to get in there without making a ton of noise, there is no way to shoot them from above, and there is water and lots of elk yummies at the bottom. So, we thought we'd try and flush them out and use a typical military hammer and anvil type movement. Two guys went down in there to flush them out, and I'd flank them (the anvil) and be waiting when they ran out. So as I'm getting into position I run into a pack of at least three wolves (couldn't legally shoot them yet) who were behaving very aggressively towards me (turns out they had a deer down). So I'm done. I'm trying to gain elevation to get an open field of fire in case they really get violent - screw the elk hunt - at this point. I'm concerned about being attacked, and concerned about shooting a collared wolf and going to jail. After a bit, they stopped harassing me and I'm lost, can't get anybody on the radio, and just trying to figure out where the truck might be. The sun is setting anyways, only 15 min. or so left of shooting light when 100 yards away and slightly down hill from me in medium thickness of timber I see the whole freakin' heard running full bore. There is a small knoll they are running behind so I can only see the upper 3/4 of their bodies, but I unsling my rifle aim and settle. Little did I know that one of my hunting party (Steve) was coming in behind the heard and doing the exact same thing. This all happened so fast that by the time I got my act together I was aiming on the very last elk, a very large cow - the same one Steve was aiming at. I still don't remember how much of lead I gave her, there was no time to calculate speed, distance, wind, etc. I just threw the rifle up, and aimed, and after I pulled the trigger I saw a cloud of dust behind that knoll. As I walked up to the top of the knoll, Steve was standing below it looking at the elk. "Nice shot Tommy" he said (He's the only person who ever calls me that) "you shot her right out of my scope". To this day I still can't believe I made that shot. She must have been running 30mph, and in trees and 100 yards away (97 actually) the bullet double lunged her and she dropped in a heap. I was so sure he'd shot her - until I pulled out my 180gr Fail Safe from her far shoulder. He shoots a 7mm mag. In retrospect, that shot was so improbable, too many trees. Speed, time, trees and mental state were all working against me. But it was an amazing (freak) shot.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Good one, and you have more restraint then many folk around here have.

Thankfully, most of the origional wolves are dead from natural causes or will be before many more years, and hopefully 95% of the rest of them also.

But then, seems like lead is a natural cause. Get enough lead in a critter and they just naturaly die.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[HAMMER1DOWN]

was out shooting gophers yesterday and I was aimint at a little whistle pig about 200 yards out with my .22 LR (.22-250 was cooling down) and when I pulled the trigger I seent a cloud of dust kick up about a foot in front of the little guy, As I was getting another shell in the chamber the darned thing did a dramatic death it just fell over so slow like in those movies....HAHA I couldn't believe it... I just wish I had someone to be recording it... Anyway went up to where it was at and sure enough the bullet had ricochet'd right into the little guys chest..

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Interesting,

Once took a shot with a 270 at a ground critter. At the shot the critter took a dramatic ride complete with flips.

Went to his hole and nothing but a mark in the dirt mound just below where he was sitting. WOW, what a ride!

Have watched lots of critters and/or parts of critters take a ride after being hit with fast stepp'in .22s or 6mm but those didn't walk away from the landing zone.

Another time I was in a critter patch when one of them popped up on top of a logged many years back stump. The stump was probably 4 - 5' high.

Anyway, popped him with my Security Six loaded with cast boolets ahead of about 2.5gr of Bullseye.

Same reaction as the bouncing .22. The critter remained standing and then just slowly tipped over dead.

Guess sometimes lead poison takes awhile to be the death of you.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot