Lucky shots

We have all made a few. I was checking traps out by the town dump in late 70's. Ravens flew up as we went by. A buddy driving, my xwife in the middle and I was at the passenger door. Said I need a couple more flags. Stuck my H and R trapper 22 pistol out the window and shot one out of the air at about 50 yards. buddy says it was the luckiest shot he ever seen. Xwife still liked me back then and goes to chewing him out. Saying stuff like he shoots that pistol all the time. I just grinned and kept my mouth shut.

Was checking traps with a buddy. We approached a set he had that held a coyote. Wasn't caught to good and it popped out as we walked up. It was 10 15 yards away when I finished my John Wayne shoot from the hip quick draw. Hit that coyote in the back of the head and rolled him.

What are some of yours?

I was standing on my girl friends front porch showing her and her mother my bow. Her mother said theirs a rabbit down there on the lawn. It had to be at least 60 yards but low and behold I draw back and let It fly and hit that rabbit dead center.

Hunting with my now passed best friend. Looking for whatever we could find. Walking a field road at the head of a series of fields divided by draws that the road crossed. As we approached a crossing, a bunny broke cover and headed across in front of us. Threw up the 10 22 and rolled him slick as if I knew what I was doing. Friend just looked at me and shook his head. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.

96 yard antelope shot with my bow. The lucky part was I didn't account for the wind enough and I hit the buck square in the forehead... he didn't even twitch.

Not a shot I'm proud of but it was lucky due to not accounting for the wind and the result.

Hit a squirrel with my bow at a good 40 yards right through the chest. I thought it was a heck of a shot.

Best had to be blowing a can my buddy tossed into the air in half then shooting each half before they hit the ground. Hard to act cool right then like I could do it again LOL

Now that Beav says that, I crossed drilled a bunny at 50 yards once out in the lot behind the house. Judo point grabbed his guts and stopped the arrow half way through. Had to get the .243 out to retrieve my arrow.

I had a beaver get into a rat floater one time. With nothing solid to pull against the #1 LS held him and he was dragging it all over the pond like a big bobber. I shot him swimming across the (secluded) pond with my Single Six at probably 80 yards and hit him right in the ear. You could have stacked up 100 bricks of 22 shells and I would never have been able to recreate that shot again.

It’s not lucky or too smart, but we used to bet money on tossing up golf balls and shooting them out of the air. Started out with pellet guns then graduated to .22’s (the not smart comment). Once you realized that ball would stop before falling back down it wasn’t just hitting them, it was how many times in a row you could do it. It was always the best out of 10. Max bet back then was $5 a toss. My buddy and I became pretty good shots that way, lol. Think the best I got was 9 out of 10. I still use that tactic on Teal. Always let my son shoot first and they shoot straight up. At the top it’s just pick them off. Back when we had some woodcock around they’d do about the same thing on a flush…up and go like a helicopter.

Just last spring buddy and I were checking beaver snares in the dark. At one stop buddy had a beaver in a snare and there was another beaver swimming near it. I said "I'll get that one". pulled my Wrangler from my hip and shot it in the head! Jumped in the water and grabbed it as it floated by. Keep in mind it was completely dark and my only light source was a not so great headlamp. Complete luck.

Ruger MK2 22 pistol, crow in treetop next ridge over, pushin' 300 yds.
1st shot, right thru the brisket.

Bought a lottery ticket that day ..... wasn't so lucky with that.

I'm glad my friend witnessed it, or I might not have believed it myself

When I was a teenager a couple buddies and me were in the woods shooting stuff with our .22’s. We came into a clearing and saw a rattlesnake out on a big rock sunning himself. Knowing the others were going to try and shoot it first I shot from the hip and got a head shot at about 30 feet before another shot was fired.

Sixty plus years ago, standing on one side of the feed store across from my house, I shot a sparrow out of the top of a poplar tree on the other side of the feed store with my Red Rider. Easy a hundred yards and in the head.

Good luck is simply being prepared when a situation presents itself!

I rolled a loping coyote with a handgun just a couple years ago and measured it at 68 yards.

I shot a buck from a dead solid rest. Knew I hit its vitals. No sign of blood and darkness coming. Looked for an hour with a flashlight. Went back to my truck and the buck was dead on the ground near the tailgate. Heart shot. It ran about 100 yards. Returned the next day to track it backward. Blood ran out after 50 yards.

I used to make some crazy shots with a .22 rimfire semi-auto Marlin rifle on squirrels and rabbits when I was a kid just learning to hunt..... I am pretty sure they were all dumb luck, but my Grandpa was always impressed when I connected on one!

The luckiest shot I ever made as an adult was on a coyote that I later stepped off at just over 450 yards. She was running dead straight away down a picked cornfield row. Rolled the window on the pickup down and laid the .22-250 out the window. She cartwheeled on the 1st shot.

was hunting and seen a badger turn the corner and ran down 2 track to his hole.....
he polked his head out real flat ya could just see his eyes
i shot with old single shot 22 rem and the dust flew about 10 ft above him i said chit i missed.... walked up to the hole and there he was stone cold dead hit him right on little white stripe beetween eyesbullet ricoched off his skull

Me and a buddy were walking in to call a spot and jumped a coyote at about a 100yds it ran for a small patch of slew grass and when it hit the grass, which was about 3 foot tall, I lead him about 2 foot and shot. He was in the grass when I shot and couldn't see him. I shot hoping to keep him running so he wouldn't take a right turn and stay in the grass. I wanted him keep running straight so he would come out the other side and I could get another shot. My buddy was behind me and never saw him but said it sounded like a hit. I said no way I couldn't even see him when I shot. We walked up there and their it laid dead about 6 feet in the grass.

When I was a kid, I used to give the neighborhood chipmunks fits by hunting them with any type of equipment I carried at the time. I once killed a running chipmunk with a huge acorn that I shot from my slingshot Hit him right in the back of the head as he was going away. Another time I had just bought a cheap throwing dagger and had the opportunity to throw it at a chipmunk that was running away from me, and I knocked him out with it. Did not stick him but hit him with enough force to put him down until I got to him to finish the job.

When I was about ten years old, my dad and BIL walked down to a shed. A flock of birds flew into a cedar tree overhanging the shed. I picked up a rock and before anything was said, two birds hit the ground. Yep, the old two birds with one stone trick! . My witnesses are hard to come by now, dad is dead, and BIL is 92!

I had an uncle who had shot several pheasants on the fly with a .22 rifle according to my dad.

I was 11 or 12 years old in a field with a Red Ryder BB gun when a goose passed by L to R. Pulled up and swung through like that spring powered BB gun was a shotgun...caught that goose in the eye. Rolled him.

Every dove I have ever killed.

Not sure of the year some time mid to late 1970s. Was duck hunting with group buddies. Decided I was going to move across the little channel in front of me stand on other side for while. So I'm wading across the channel gun in one hand leaning back on my shoulder. Was carrying something in other hand don't recall what. I'm out in the channel water up to about my belly button. One guys yells got birds coming at you. I was looking at where I was going not up.
Anyways I threw the old 12ga Mossberg 500 up straight arm one hand out like was holding pistol. Cap ofg a round and folded up one of two teal coming right at me. Bird fell so close only had to take couple steps forward to pick it up. Lucky shot and lucky didn't fall over in water. Which I have done several times shooting goof in years since. I've shot ducks in lot weird positions but that was only one hander.

One morning was hunting geese on edge of field. Was always duck at first light before geese moved. So I had two 31/2 in loads of 4# shot stuffed in my double barreled 10ga
Flock of about 20 teal came buzzing in. I swung up on a birds and shot. 3 birds fell out dead two other crashed little farther over. My dog got all 5 picked up and back to me. One and only ever 5 birds on wing.

Mac

I shot 5 quail on a covey rise once...all individual. Got lucky on the last 2 as they were getting out there by round 4 & 5. One of my HS teachers was with me and didn't believe until my dog retrieved 'em all. Boy, did we have a lot of quail back then...

As teenagers we had a steel plate set up about 100 yards. Someone had punched a few 12 gauge slugs through it. One of my buddies stuck a live 12 gauge shell through one of the slug holes and dared a group of us to hit it with my our .22 rifles.

Several guys took offhand several shots a missed. My turn came, I shouldered the rifle (iron sights), held over a bit and let fly. The shell popped. There's not much of a report when they aren't contained in a chamber, but everyone knew I'd hit it.

Best thing you can do after a feat like that is DO NOT TRY TO REPEAT IT. LOL

They tried to get me to attempt it again but I refused and just basked in the glory instead.

I still have the brass with the .22 bullet sticking in it somewhere.

I watched my ol man shoot a doe near 500 yards down a power line with an ol Rem 7400 .270. Once. I remember me, dad, dad’s friend and a couple other guys were hunting a piece of property that backed up to a power line. All morning we hadn’t seen anything except when we met up and dad pointed down the power line near 500 yards out we saw about 4 does looking towards us. Dad said Im shooting one of em. His buddy laughed and said they ain’t even gonna know you are shooting at them. Dad climbed up a power pole in the stand and braced up. His buddy was looking through his scope underneath. Dad shot and I saw a white tail flipping. His buddy said dang I think you hit it! Dad said I know I did. His buddy went after it but it had ran off and died in a briar filled deep swamp. He couldn’t drag it out. Dad admitted it was pure luck. Said he aimed about 4ft high.

When my son was about 12 years old, I saw him kill two dove with one shot. The birds were crossing from opposite directions. No flying together.

Me and a friend were beaver hunting a big swamp once. About an 85 acre flooded timber used for duck hunting. There were atleast 3 visible beaver lodges there. We had to paddle out to an island in the middle of the swamp and wait for a chance to pop one. I watched a beaver swimming around zigzagging further away. He finally climbed out on a mud bank 200 + yards out. I had to lay prone on the ground with my rifle sitting on a grass clump. Took me a bit to find him. He looked like a little hairy basketball. I put my crosshairs dead center and shot. He rolled over in the water and went to flopping. We paddle out and got him before he sank. I was tickling with that shot but in all reality my 25-06 was dailed in at 200 yards so it wasn’t an amazing feat of marksmanship.

When my son was about 12 years old, I saw him kill two dove with one shot. The birds were crossing from opposite directions. No flying together.

About thirty years ago I was on a hound hunt for deer. I was one running through some young pines. I stopped and I dropped him with a round of buckshot. When I went to retrieve it, I had killed two deer. Never saw the second deer.

right at half mile.... shortly after getting married so was maybe 81 82 was deer hunting and we got dumped on in snow cpl feet no one was getting around.... i had a 2wd f150 with a slant 6 5010 jd wheel weight in back and chains on good tires i was getting around lot better than 4wd,,,,anyway i pushed snow with bumper out in the middle of 1 quarter section and the deer were in the middle of the next... i was shooting 300 w mag w hot reloads 180 g open sights i shot low first shot raised up a foot and shot half way to them raised up another foot and dumped him just a average 4x4 he was laying there thrashing blood turning snow red and a much bigger buck came running up pawing and snorting.... i shot almost a box of shells at till i couldnt shoot no more felt like someone was sticking a knife in my brain that shot was trying to fill my wifes tag too

One time I took a shot with a tall skinny blond and I woke up with her….idk if you’d call that lucky but I was good with it!

For my 10th birthday, I received a quiver, three arrows, arm guard and archery targets as one of my presents, my dad bought a new string for his Ben Pearson wood bow and wanted to hand it down - he said he would pick-up some straw bales after work and not to shoot the bow until then. That being said- 1st shot was a gray squirrel behind the shoulder that lodged in an oak tree about 20' up... bullseye!! 2nd shot and bullseye, was after I taped the target to my mother's umbrella clothesline pole - kinked it and crumbled the whole thing. 3rd arrow was shot straight up in the air- never saw it again. Who ever said it's easier to get forgiveness than permission... never met my dad lol.- he was actually only upset that I lied to my mom about her flimsy clothesline pole- it didn't take a lot of forensics to see the extruded field tip at the kink point. That bow proudly hangs on my cabin wall today.

It's not with a gun but with one of my first 110 conibears. I was trying to kill these fox squirrels that were gnawing on our picnic table on our patio and just as I was setting the trap.... along comes Mr. squirrel. Well he stops. I stop as I have the trap set but I'm kneeling and he's staring me down 4 foot away as he was making his way towards the table.

And Mr. squirrel bolts! And in that moment... I toss the conibear in the direction he was heading at a gallop.
AND in that moment, the trap hits the ground like I'm setting a tunnel set, and the squirrel runs right into it and I catch him front and back sections.
BANG! Got him!

Couldn't toss a set 100 coni 4 foot and catch a racing squirrel again if I did it a million times.
It was the beginnings of my ADC career, best I figure it.

I took a coworkers son dove hunting on year. He was just going through shells. I was explaining how to lead and follow through on the shot and to let the birds get closer. So here comes a lone bird. I told him to watch how I swing and follow through. The dove is coming straight at me, I shot, hit the bird and I stood there and with shotgun in one hand and caught the bird with my other like I was catching a routine flyball. 10 years later he still mention that was the coolest thing he ever saw and goes dove hunting every chance he gets to try and catch one.
As a kid, my buddy and I would try and hit flying clay birds with our 22s. It took 20 pounds of shells before we got it all figured out. It came down to getting the right angle and setting the clay on the duplex in the scope and firing. I could usually get it on the third shot out of my 10/22.
Turkey hunting with my dad, we where heading back to the house when a Tom took off running, My dad shot and the turkey tumbled. He had loaded the gun accidently with a slug and took the head clean off the running turkey.

A number of years ago, out with my old Winchester 22lr. I was in a deer hunting shack calling coyotes.

The wind was blowing some and it was cold. About a hundred yards down this lane I see a squirrel venturing out into the road.

I pull up and look through the scope. He looks like it has lice and not a lot of hair.

So jugging the distance and wind, so with the gun on a rest estimated the hold. Bang. Rolled him. Right through the mid section.