Do you have a funny shootin story to tell?

[Larry (Omaha)]

It was in the 70s and I was at a local ML gun range for a shoot with friends. After the match or during a lull in the competition a friend (A) of mind had a fun idea. Friend A says to me, let's have fun with ****** (B) (****** was one good shooter with eyes like an eagle) A says let's show B this nickel sized target that we will place on the 100 yard backstop. We approach B and tell him the challenge and then walk out to the 100 yard backstop leaving B at the firing line. A and I fake placing the nickel sized target on the backstop and then return to the firing line. A shoots first, then me. Now it is B's turn......... he squints and squints at the 100 yd line and then raises his rifle. B says, I can't see it, but I am going to shoot at it.
The good old days.
Flintlocklar

 

[No Deer]

Sounds like some deer hunters I have known.

 

[BrownBear]

Bud put the sneak on a deer with his Big Boar 58 cal, and it gave him the total slip. That was the last of half a dozen failed stalks in the day, and the last deer we were likely to see before dark.

The deer reappeared beyond the brush a good 300 yards out and stood there thumbing its nose. Bud has a temper, and without even shouldering the rifle he pointed in the general direction of the deer and popped the cap. What seemed like seconds later, the deer collapsed without a wiggle. We hiked over and determined a perfect head shot, in one ear and out the other.

Boy, was he ever embarrassed! Even more so when we dubbed him Beagle Eye. And it stuck!

To this day guys will whistle for him or holler "Where you at Beagle?"

 

[Juice Jaws]

A small group of us (7 friends) use to shoot a couple times a month at a friends place who had set up a small trail walk. The last target was a hanging 3/4 inch pipe about a foot long and set out about 20 or 25 yards. We would all throw in a buck and who ever hit the pipe got the money. If more than one guy hit the pipe would keep shooting in till only one hit it last. Well my friends always made fun of me because I always shot my Officer Model smooth bore. Will long story short, I always won and it drove them crazy. One day the wire broke that held the pipe and when they went to fix it, they saw all the buckshot holes in the brush. They gave me hell but all is fair in love and war, I kept the money but they watch me load now to make sure I use just one big ball. Yes, we are still friends.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Bud fired at a deer. The two of us remaining were watching with binoculars. The deer ran out of the cloud of smoke. When we lowered the binoculars Bud has one eye open and one closed. There was powder all down one pant leg and several balls on the ground and he was reaching for a patching sheet that was blowing away. We calmed him down and got him reloaded while he told us he poked himself in the eye with the ramrod on his initial attempt. The deer was dead a few yards away.

 

[Feltwad]

I came across this write in a old 1860 Newspaper about American goose shooting has write in the Buffalo Newspaper . You have got too have a sense of humour with this rather funny but not true
Feltwad

 

[TFoley]

About five years ago I was on our covered firing point, shooting at a 100 yard target with my .451 Whitworth rifle, I'd carefully loaded it up with the 80gr of Swiss #3 with the rifle held in the loading yoke clamped to the side of the shooting bench - you've seen the kind of thing I mean. I turned around to my gun box to pick up a bullet and card wad, and back again to load it, capping it off on the rest, sighted down the barrel and firing.

There was a gentle whooooooooooooooosh, and then.....nothing. No KA-boom. No recoil. And certainly no hole in the target.

What there WAS, however, was the front half of a Whitworth bullet sticking out of the muzzle - just over half an inch or so.

While we were all trying to figure out what had gone wrong, standing around scratching our collective heads, one of our number suddenly looked up and after a few seconds, gave a big grin. He had been standing right where I had been loading, and a big fat drop of water had just him him on the top of his head. We gaped at the evidence...and right then, another drop fell from a leaking roofing bolt, exactly where the muzzle of my rifle would have been when I loaded it. While my back had been turned picking up the first bullet, that pesky raindrop had dropped straight down onto the powder load, spoling all but the smalest amount that was needed to get the bullet just to the end of the barrel.

I moved a foot away, having seen where the drops were landing, and the next bullets went just fine.

 

[tenngun]

We were doing a demo shoot at a county fair. A large bullet proof back board had been made that we hung balloons from for targets. And we would load and shoot demonstrating the process.
We were all decked out in our best rendezvous clothing and talking like a script from ‘The Mountain Men’. Two of us had just shot when’s tourist yelled.” The Indians are coming now what’cha going to do?”
Both of us had pistols on our belts. Unscripted we both drew and fired at almost exactly the same time, it sounding like one long boom. Our shots were at the same balloon to one side of the back board. The two new holes in the board were almost touching and from where the tourist was it looked like one big hole. As calm as if it was planned we retuned nonchalantly to reloading.
Some times Grandfater smiles on By-God Mountain Men

 

[Little Brother]

Many years ago, just as i was getting started in ML shooting and the mountain man living history, me and a buddy were set to shoot at the Sespe rendezvous in California. We were camped quite a ways from the range so come the morning of the shoot, we had to pack everything over to where we were gonna spend the morning shooting.

We took our place amongst what may have been 60-70 other shooters. After getting our first round targets set and listening to the day's briefing, we had a pretty smooth first round.

Well, that's right up until the moment I was swabbing my barrel and managed to snap my ramrod clean off. Adding insult to injury, thats when we both realized that neither of us had thought to grab a range rod which was still back at camp. I didn't know what to do and was pretty embarrassed.

Anyway, my buddy, who is a notoriously slow shooter, just looks over seemingly unphased and says, "just shoot it out, Little Brother". After a minute or two of thinking about it, I knew I was gonna need the forgotten range rod to make this work. So off I went. Luckily by the time I made it back the range was still closed and folks were still setting targets for the next round.

The range master calls to clear the range and everyone made it back to their stations to ready their first shots for the 50 yard target.

For me that meant seating that broken rod and getting some powder down the flash hole of my rifle. I got it all done just as the firing commenced. My buddy was watching me as I moved forward to prime the rifle at my hip. For all I knew, this was gonna go sideways and we were gonna get booted off the range.

Anyway, I said screw it and pulled the trigger and watched as my broken ramrod skipped harmlessly off the ground before spearing my target somewhere just below center. Uh, I thought, that wasn't too bad. And all I heard was my buddy laughing uncontrollably.

We ended up having a pretty good day of shooting and as a bonus, I even recovered my busted off ramrod. At some point later, I made a short ball starter out of it.

Learned a lot that day and though I've had my fair share of mishaps along the way in the years since, I've never again forgotten my range rod.

 

[Grenadier1758]

It's an old story, but always fun repeating it.

It was a long time ago at a Rendezvous. Skunk and I were on the line to shoot at our targets when a group showed up talking about how these old time guns made a lot of smoke but weren't very accurate. But they couldn't see any targets. Whatcha shooting? Playing Cards. Don't see any cards? Oh, we are shooting at the edge. We have to split them. Great guffaws from the group of spectators. About that time Skunk stepped to the line and fired his shot. Out of the cloud of smoke half a playing card drifted down the range. My turn and another half a card floated to the ground. The big talking spectator made the claim that was a fluke and likely couldn't be repeated. Well after two more cards were split, they just walked away. Sure wish I could still see those cards.

That was a great day.

Actually, I can see those cards. They are part of my trophy collection with my rifles. I just can't see them at the range.

View attachment 89152

Did that with my 12 pound 45 caliber Hawken Rifle back when my eyesight was sharp, and my muscles could hold that rifle steady.

 

[LME]

What is really funny is when we were pistol shooting at the range with modern and old revolvers. One fellow was an excellent shot and was looked up to for advice which he gladly shared. When a new fellow asked how far was a pistol limited he said depends on who is shooting and told the fellow if he could see the enpty soda can about 75 yards out, The fellow said yes he could see it. Then the shooter raised the gun up in an instance and shot, The can jumped ,he shot again the can jumped again after the pistol was empty and the can jumped every time he fired the fellow was amazed. Then they told him that a cord was tied to the can and around a tree and back to where we shot. Each time he shot the cord was yanked and the can jumped. This always got a good laugh!