at one point I had a not very smart friend shoot a rabbit 5 feet away with a 12 gauge target shot the rabbit was shredded

I've killed more than a few extremely annoying Squirrels while Deer hunting.

I had a friend do the same, head on. When we were cleaning the rabbits, I told him "this one is yours". As he was cleaning it, with a totally serious face, he said "this rabbit was eating plastic". The plastic wad was deep inside the rabbit's gut. I guess it hit like a slug. He did save the hind quarters though.

A guy told me they would shoot Ptarmigan with their rifles by shooting a rock near a group of Ptarmigan, he claimed they would often get multiples per shot.

My grandpa said that he once got 6 shags ( cormorants ) with one shot from a 22-250.
He was shooting varmageddon ballistic tips though so I suppose it could happen.

I’ll have to try that with the ones here making a mess of my pond ….

waggler- Did you kill that thing with the concussion of your round going by it...?

Just plain scared it to death. Actually base of neck, I hit about an inch lower than I intended. I do miss now and then, but body shots are out of the question for obvoius reasons.