Kyle Wright
Active member
Not the furthest or the luckiest, but what’s the best shot you’ve ever made while hunting?
Best Shot You Ever Made
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YETI
Well-known member
A literal last few seconds of legal shooting light shot on my first Mule Deer buck. I use a crossbow during archery season due to my fucked up neck and back (thank you Uncle Sam). I had missed the same buck the morning before because he winded me from 15' right before the sun came up. I went home and got hammered out of frustration. I woke up the next day, hung over as hell. Given that it was the last day of the season, my wife persuaded me to go out that afternoon/evening. She probably just wanted me out of the house so she wouldn't have to keep listening to me moan about how hungover I was.
Anyways, I posted up behind the scrub oak I was using as a blind at around 1600. Last legal shooting time here is 30 minutes after sunset. I had not seen any bucks until 10 minutes after sunset when this guy appeared from over my left shoulder about 100 yards away. I managed to not freak out and even though he looked in my direction a few times, I managed not to spook him. As he kept getting closer, I could see time running out on my watch. Finally, with about 45 seconds left, he turned broadside to me and I put one right through the breadbasket. He went about 40 yards and dropped. How I stayed calm through that I'll never know
Anyways, I posted up behind the scrub oak I was using as a blind at around 1600. Last legal shooting time here is 30 minutes after sunset. I had not seen any bucks until 10 minutes after sunset when this guy appeared from over my left shoulder about 100 yards away. I managed to not freak out and even though he looked in my direction a few times, I managed not to spook him. As he kept getting closer, I could see time running out on my watch. Finally, with about 45 seconds left, he turned broadside to me and I put one right through the breadbasket. He went about 40 yards and dropped. How I stayed calm through that I'll never know
Kyle Wright
Active member
Wonder how much being hungover elevated the level of difficulty?
Doug Patteson
Active member
Asking the woman who would become my wife to dance within moments of seeing her across a crowded bar. Best shot I ever made.
Oh shit, that wasn't what you meant...
Oh shit, that wasn't what you meant...
Rjohnson.307
Well-known member
Good topic.
This is the one shot that immediately comes to mind.
At first light I heard a distant bugle approx a mile away. I hoofed it as fast as I could in that direction. I topped a ridge and located a nice 6pt pushing his cows up the next ridge and he was fast approaching private land and no way for me to close the distance. I threw my pack on top of a large boulder building a shooting position. Ranged him at 650 yds straight across a deep canyon, I dialed the turret and waited for a broadside presentation. The bull was about 75 yards from the private boundary when he gave me the shot, I settled the crosshair on top of the shoulder knowing he had traveled a few more yards and let the 300 Norma eat, a 210gr Accubond at 3200 fps folded him like a lawn chair.
This is the one shot that immediately comes to mind.
At first light I heard a distant bugle approx a mile away. I hoofed it as fast as I could in that direction. I topped a ridge and located a nice 6pt pushing his cows up the next ridge and he was fast approaching private land and no way for me to close the distance. I threw my pack on top of a large boulder building a shooting position. Ranged him at 650 yds straight across a deep canyon, I dialed the turret and waited for a broadside presentation. The bull was about 75 yards from the private boundary when he gave me the shot, I settled the crosshair on top of the shoulder knowing he had traveled a few more yards and let the 300 Norma eat, a 210gr Accubond at 3200 fps folded him like a lawn chair.
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Jackson C.
New member
515 yards on a coyote. Me and dad both missed while he was running but he got to the edge of the field and looked back (fatal mistake). 
brentbruggink
New member
Deer hunting with my dad. I was probably 14 or so.
My dad didn’t grow up deer hunting, so we were really two novices sitting in a pop up blind.
Two does walked in and were standing one in front of the other but facing opposite directions.
I pulled the trigger on my Remington 1187 12ga and the slug smoked the first doe. When she went down the other one did too. We thought she knocked it over but then we heard kicking in the woods. We walked up and saw a huge blood trail and the second dead doe.
Two does with one slug and an awesome memory with my dad.
My dad didn’t grow up deer hunting, so we were really two novices sitting in a pop up blind.
Two does walked in and were standing one in front of the other but facing opposite directions.
I pulled the trigger on my Remington 1187 12ga and the slug smoked the first doe. When she went down the other one did too. We thought she knocked it over but then we heard kicking in the woods. We walked up and saw a huge blood trail and the second dead doe.
Two does with one slug and an awesome memory with my dad.
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I was out hunting with Fred Eichler and wanted to confirm POA/POI on this revolver when using the Black Hills Honey Badger ammo. Fred asked me to shoot this prairie dog at 72yds and I was lucky enough to put a round through it on the first shot.
gelhaargerald
Active member
It was late doe only season here in Iowa. The county I was in you could use shotguns, muzzle loaders and pistols. I didn't have a slug gun so I went out with a muzzle loader and my Raging Bull 44 mag. There was a good foot of snow which isn't overly usual in Iowa.
I was kind of sneaking through the timber, I don't sneak very well. Came up on a group of does and I was able to get a shot with the muzzle loader. I can miss with the best of them.
They kind of took off towards and open field. I did a big loop around them and kicked them back up towards the CRP field. I knew there was a road cut into that so I hustled about 50 yards to my left so I could see down this road. As soon as I got there a doe jumped across the road at 60 yards away, I hadn't reloaded the muzzy so I pulled out the 44 and leveled it right where the doe jumped. As soon as the next one jumped I squeezed off a shot. Instant regret sunk in for taking a really stupid shot. If you have ever walked in a CRP is field its really tough to judge distance perception. I walked in a straight line right to where I thought the shot was and to my surprise the doe was dead right where I shot.
Ya more luck than good shot but I am not sure I will ever top that. Typically I lean towards not shooting than shooting so I probably won't put myself in that situation again.
I was kind of sneaking through the timber, I don't sneak very well. Came up on a group of does and I was able to get a shot with the muzzle loader. I can miss with the best of them.
They kind of took off towards and open field. I did a big loop around them and kicked them back up towards the CRP field. I knew there was a road cut into that so I hustled about 50 yards to my left so I could see down this road. As soon as I got there a doe jumped across the road at 60 yards away, I hadn't reloaded the muzzy so I pulled out the 44 and leveled it right where the doe jumped. As soon as the next one jumped I squeezed off a shot. Instant regret sunk in for taking a really stupid shot. If you have ever walked in a CRP is field its really tough to judge distance perception. I walked in a straight line right to where I thought the shot was and to my surprise the doe was dead right where I shot.
Ya more luck than good shot but I am not sure I will ever top that. Typically I lean towards not shooting than shooting so I probably won't put myself in that situation again.
Steve Johnson
Active member
November 2012...had the little man in a "kid carrier" backpack when I shot the deer. Kneeling w/ BogPod, Ruger 77 in 308 Win. Shot was long-ish considering the self induced variable stack, but the stars lined up.
Kyle Wright
Active member
Do you always pick your game up with a Leatherman?
Only when someone hands it to me like that.
Kyle Wright
Active member
Gotcha. Thought maybe it was rabid or something.
I think that was Fred’s fear so he was just being safe
Chip Hunnicutt
Member
Marco Polo in Tajikistan 2021. Above 15,000 feet, sun about to drop behind the mountains, at that altitude the full moon looked like the Death Star. 630 yards, 15mph crosswind.
Rjohnson.307
Well-known member
Hell yeah! Congrats
Bill Mazelin
Active member
South Africa, last June. We were creeping up on a small group of warthogs in our truck, they figured out we were there, and they started out at a slowish pace. When we picked up some speed, they did the same. When the group changed direction and started running directly away from us, we stopped the truck, I got my rifle in position and fired a single shot at just over 200 yards on one of the bigger pigs in the group. By the time I broke the shot he was on a dead run. Hit him right in the taint! A lone hit from my Gunwerks Skuhl in 375 Ruger did him in. My wife snapped the pic as I was checking out his tusks.
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YETI
Well-known member
By that point all of the Devil's Juice had worked its way out of my system and I had drunk a shit ton of Pedialyte
Not rabid - but in that part of Colorado there have been several confirmed cases of them carrying Bubonic Plague - the ole' Black Death. So wise not to fuck around with them....but fleas can jump the distance of a Leatherman so if you start noticing swollen lymph nodes might be time to see a doc.
Al "Shifty" Schultz
Well-known member
Lots of memories, lot's of great shots over a lifetime of hunting, military and SWAT.. A couple of shots that stand out for me:
Deer hunting in Montana, ex girlfriend and I spot a nice buck 500+ yards out bedded across an open stubble field in the snow. I gave her the opportunity but the buck was already watching us and on high alert.. finally, after what seemed like an eternity with her fussing around, the buck got up and started trotting away. To my ex's credit she said that she couldn't make the shot.. I told her that I knew someone who could and asked her to lay down on her belly in the snow, she did and I got down prone and rested my 300 RUM across her ass cheeks, dialed for 550 yards (my last range on the buck) compensated for lead and smoked him right through the heart, he collapsed mid trot..
Another shot that stands out in my memory, was during Griffin Warrior, a Military/Law Enforcement Sniper training event and competition at the US Military Yakima Firing Range.. one of the events was crawling up to a house on a hill, taking out the sentries without being spotted, clearing the house and establishing a sniper hide without being observed and then conducting a sniper shot at an identified threat 500+ meters away in a mock village.
My partner and I belly crawled through the low grass and sage and took out the sentries with our sub guns using UTM rounds.. the judges ruled it clean so we advanced to clearing the residence also with our sub guns and UTM rounds eliminating some other "hostiles" in the house. We were on a time limit because "roving patrols" of tangos were driving around the countryside and would randomly Pop into the house, etc..
At any rate we got our hides established with no one observing us and no one could or had spotted us. Then the judges took our bolts from our sniper rifles and our live ammo and we began our marksman/observer roles looking for a threat or target.
I was on the gun and observed a hostile, drag a woman out of a building and put her down on her knees between buildings down in the mock village.. I called the shot and the judges stopped the scene, removed everyone from the village, set up a steel plate where the hostile had been standing then put a mannequin approximately where the hostage had been... When everything was set, the judges on my end gave me back my bolt and my one round and told me to "prove" my shot.. I made my scope adjustments and smacked the steel silhouette wear the head would have been.. we won that event out of all the other teams. Not just because of the shot, but because of the whole scenario from sentry removal to the final proof shot..
The images attached are from my hide after the winning shot (you can't tell but there's a black mesh screen that I put up over the window opening) and of the buck I shot from across my ex's ass cheeks.
Deer hunting in Montana, ex girlfriend and I spot a nice buck 500+ yards out bedded across an open stubble field in the snow. I gave her the opportunity but the buck was already watching us and on high alert.. finally, after what seemed like an eternity with her fussing around, the buck got up and started trotting away. To my ex's credit she said that she couldn't make the shot.. I told her that I knew someone who could and asked her to lay down on her belly in the snow, she did and I got down prone and rested my 300 RUM across her ass cheeks, dialed for 550 yards (my last range on the buck) compensated for lead and smoked him right through the heart, he collapsed mid trot..
Another shot that stands out in my memory, was during Griffin Warrior, a Military/Law Enforcement Sniper training event and competition at the US Military Yakima Firing Range.. one of the events was crawling up to a house on a hill, taking out the sentries without being spotted, clearing the house and establishing a sniper hide without being observed and then conducting a sniper shot at an identified threat 500+ meters away in a mock village.
My partner and I belly crawled through the low grass and sage and took out the sentries with our sub guns using UTM rounds.. the judges ruled it clean so we advanced to clearing the residence also with our sub guns and UTM rounds eliminating some other "hostiles" in the house. We were on a time limit because "roving patrols" of tangos were driving around the countryside and would randomly Pop into the house, etc..
At any rate we got our hides established with no one observing us and no one could or had spotted us. Then the judges took our bolts from our sniper rifles and our live ammo and we began our marksman/observer roles looking for a threat or target.
I was on the gun and observed a hostile, drag a woman out of a building and put her down on her knees between buildings down in the mock village.. I called the shot and the judges stopped the scene, removed everyone from the village, set up a steel plate where the hostile had been standing then put a mannequin approximately where the hostage had been... When everything was set, the judges on my end gave me back my bolt and my one round and told me to "prove" my shot.. I made my scope adjustments and smacked the steel silhouette wear the head would have been.. we won that event out of all the other teams. Not just because of the shot, but because of the whole scenario from sentry removal to the final proof shot..
The images attached are from my hide after the winning shot (you can't tell but there's a black mesh screen that I put up over the window opening) and of the buck I shot from across my ex's ass cheeks.
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