Ok, what is the best shot/shots you have seen or accomplished?

[R.J.Bruce]

When I was a teenager I witnessed a man shoot 7 consecutive trap thrown clay targets in a row with an original .32 caliber flintlock squirrel rifle, missing the 8th, and breaking the next three before stopping. The trap thrower was on the ground, and was constantly moved behind the shooter's back so that he had no idea where the clay target was going to fly. This was in southern Maryland, on the western shore.

 

[ML48]

APOCRYPHAL STORY...,

So the story goes, Clint Eastwood made a trip to Japan to promote High Plains Drifter, in 1973. He was very popular over there ever since one of his Italian made Westerns, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, debuted in December of '67. So when he arrives, Mr. Eastwood is ushered to a waiting car, and a caravan of cars takes him to a reproduction of the town that was the setting for the film. Mr. Eastwood doesn't speak much if any Japanese, but they give him a loaded cap-n-ball revolver, and ask for him to shoot it. They gesture toward the town, so Mr. Eastwood point's it downrange, and squeezes off a shot. BAM!

Except for some reason the thing is loaded live (NO idea how the Japanese managed to convince officials this was OK, but maybe because it was just for the opening of the western town ???) ANYWAY, about 30 yards away from Mr. Eastwood is a sign hanging from a beam projecting from the roof of one of the buildings. So he HITS one of a pair of ropes holding up one end of the sign, and cuts that end free.

Well the Japanese are VERY impressed..., Mr. Eastwood returned the revolver to the fellow who had handed it to him and Mr. Eastwood then returned to the car that brought him..., all the while being showered with "thank you" many dozens of times from the crowd.

Except later Mr. Eastwood told somebody that he had thought it a prop gun with a blank.... , and merely squeezed off a round to make the folks happy, and hadn't even aimed it let alone meant to hit the sign....

LD

He is one of my favorites.

 

[Woody Morgan]

"Synthetic sperm whale oil".
Too many punchlines, not enough bandwidth.

wm

 

[Sparkitoff]

My personal best shot with a ML (in my opinion) was a Pronghorn at 137-yards with my flintlock .54 cal. shooting a PRB. Traditional open sights of course. I did use a digital rangefinder, adjusted point of hold for the wind (used a wind-meter prior to the stalk) and range and hit the boiler room.

 

[Grenadier1758]

"Synthetic sperm whale oil".
Too many punchlines, not enough bandwidth.

wm

Synthetic Sperm Whale Oil is Type F Automatic Transmission Fluid (Ford).

 

[tenngun]

Squirrel hunting one year with a .36 Seneca rifle. I was sitting at the base of an oak. Right and behind me at about 4o’clock was a hickory. Another to my left at about twenty yards.
A fox squirrel started barking out the tree to my right. I leaned at at odd angle and took a shot.
Missed
Little guy jumped behind the tree. I started reloading was just running the ball home when the squirrel dashed down his tree and ran to the tree on my left. I wasn’t read for a shot so I swung butt on him. Snaking his head he went in to the game pile.
One shot one kill…. Sort of

 

[Nazgul58]

In my misspent youth I bought one of those 62 cal Charleville flintlocks from Navy Arms I believe. It was a hoot to shoot!
Out with a buddy shooting I fired it at an Oak tree with a target on it. The ball bounced off and hit me between the eyes!!
It tumbled my gyros for a few minutes and we continued shooting. Had 2 black eyes for a week and a headache. No harm done.

Don

 

[Colonial Boy]

I think that my personal best was with a Rogers and Spencer reproduction revolver, the proud owner asked me to have a shot and at 25 yards I took the “X” cleanly out of the centre of the standard pistol target. I thanked the owner, said what a great pistol it was and moved on; no way was I going to fire a second shot

 

[Josephg]

Couple months ago at a match in Montana I placed four shots in the ten ring and one out. Think it scored 47. Standing at fifty yards. Not bad for me. Was shooting my new Hawken type rifle. Last weekend used the same rifle to win a ten shot match at fifty yards standing with a score of 87. Two matches and two wins with my new rifle. I'm on a roll and really liking that rifle.

 

[duca]

Popped a tater hanging at 100 yards, off hand. Using my wife's smoothbore. That's my best (luckiest) one, it warn't a big tater. Best part was taking Mark Baker's money (he and his buddy John picked several of us as being marks to earn their travel money back home from Montana).

Is that the same Mark Baker from Muzzleloader magazine? Is he still around? I have a few of his old videos on VHS. O and his book too

Anthony

 

[david58]

Is that the same Mark Baker from Muzzleloader magazine? Is he still around? I have a few of his old videos on VHS. O and his book too

Anthony

Yep, same Mark Baker. A fine feller, I don't know his activity level now, but he pulled back from the hobby a bit to raise a son and a daughter. From all I have heard, he is a good dad (and probably granddad).

 

[Tom A Hawk]

When I was a teenager the family always gathered at at my grandparents for Thanksgiving - but it was mostly for the deer hunting and less for the turkey. Uncles, cousins, inlaws and outlaws all flocked in. Us young'ns were always drafted to drive this or that patch of woods and the older men would be lying in wait on the other end. One season I was driving a woods about 75 yards from my cousin when I heard him fire. I went over to investigate and found him standing over a bald headed deer and he was in a distressed state. The deer had been shot right through the side of its head. I said what's the matter? "That was a great shot". He said, "I swear it was a buck". "I saw antlers!". ( the deer on the ground had no antlers and we had no doe permit ). It seems the deer had come running from his left by leaps and bounds when he shot. Upon closer inspection we quickly determined from its biological apparatus that is was indeed a buck. A little searching turned up the antlers which had been blown clean off by the bullet impact.

 

[oldwood]

'Bout 10 yrs. ago , last day of Pa. flintlock season ,shot a white tail doe through the neck. She was walking across a pasture with brush patches in it . Stepped off the shot to about 190 yds. Was using a .62 cal. flint long rifle . Put the top of front sight blade about 3' above the end of her nose and touched it off. The doe disappeared , we found her in a ditch 20 yds from where she was hit. ................oldwood

 

[david58]

Couple months ago at a match in Montana I placed four shots in the ten ring and one out. Think it scored 47. Standing at fifty yards. Not bad for me. Was shooting my new Hawken type rifle. Last weekend used the same rifle to win a ten shot match at fifty yards standing with a score of 87. Two matches and two wins with my new rifle. I'm on a roll and really liking that rifle.

Liking your rifle and feeling confident when you shoot it is worth points and Xs.

 

[ozarkjim]

Hi everyone, back about 30-35 years ago myself and some friends attending the Peck Ranch Managed deer hunt in southern Missouri. I was shooting my new to me TC Hawken in 45 cal, and the 1st day was coming to a close and we were heading to camp for the evening, we had to empty our guns before going into the camping area.my partner Roy, suggested we shoot into a rotted limb scar on a dead tree. He shoots and chips the edge of the hole. I shoot in to the rotted limb scar and I miss! Very upset! I shoot again, missed again. Roy was gaffawing! Something is wrong Says l this gun has to be sighted in again, Roy was still laughing, Got to our camp site, and went straight to the camp firing range. A large group of men were shooting off hand at about 30 yards at school paper sized targets hung from a wire with clothes pins holding them 4 or 5 men from 4 or 5;positions, most all of them were missing the paper, now my turn comes up. I missed twice! Much ribbing from my friends! The next day at the days end, Roy and I went back to the same tree to unload again, I shook my head and said here goes, Roy says I’ll stand away to the side to see better. Missed again, Roy let’s see the punk wood in the limb hole, it was slightly disturbed, Roy being a retired logger then realized that the balls were hitting he punk and were filling back in before the smoke cleared! Shooting the clothes pins may not have been my best shots, but they are my most memorable!
Ozarkjim

 

[ozarkjim]

Hi everyone, back about 30-35 years ago myself and some friends attending the Peck Ranch Managed deer hunt in southern Missouri. I was shooting my new to me TC Hawken in 45 cal, and the 1st day was coming to a close and we were heading to camp for the evening, we had to empty our guns before going into the camping area.my partner Roy, suggested we shoot into a rotted limb scar on a dead tree. He shoots and chips the edge of the hole. I shoot in to the rotted limb scar and I miss! Very upset! I shoot again, missed again. Roy was gaffawing! Something is wrong Says l this gun has to be sighted in again, Roy was still laughing, Got to our camp site, and went straight to the camp firing range. A large group of men were shooting off hand at about 30 yards at school paper sized targets hung from a wire with clothes pins holding them 4 or 5 men from 4 or 5;positions, most all of them were missing the paper, now my turn comes up. I missed twice! Much ribbing from my friends! I look at my group most of the guys. Were laughing so hard that they almost fell over. Then I said I am going to shoot a clothes pin off the line. They just shook their heads, I blasted the clothes pin to splinters the target then hung down by one pin. Roy said that was just plain luck, I looked at him well says I, I”ll just shoot the other pin, by this time everyone at the range came over to watch and gloat. I hit the other pin, the target hit the ground, the other shooters just walked away shaking their heads, The next day at the days end, Roy and I went back to the same tree to unload again, I shook my head and said here goes, Roy says I’ll stand away to the side to see better. Missed again, Roy let’s see the punk wood in the limb hole, it was slightly disturbed, Roy being a retired logger then realized that the balls were hitting he punk and were filling back in before the smoke cleared! Shooting the clothes pins may not have been my best shots, but they are my most memorable!
Ozarkjim.

 

[vintovka]

As a joke another shooter balanced a shiny new quarter on a 75 yard line target holder. It disappeared first shot with a .50 TC hawken off the bench. Assuming it was thrown by the jolt on the holder we searched the area for a while.. Found it much later in the dirt some 20' away. It was struck offcenter and sent it flying. I still have it somewhere and will post it found. That was like 40 years ago and that range is now buried under one of the stores in the Folsom Outlets in Folsom CA.

 

[mark_fare]

This was 50 yds, offhand with my Pedersoli Brown Bess musket.

 

[Tanglefoot]

Howdy rp,

If ye know how Iron Chest got his handle, ye must be a TAB member. That was at the rendezvous in 1980, up near Waco. I was standing next to Mike when it happened, waiting for my turn.
Mole Eye was standing t'other side and when we heard that bullet hit we both figure he was gone beaver. Turned out the ball got flattened when it hit that oak stump and hit him flat-side to.
He did get a whale of a bruise out of it. Shinin' times.

Tanglefoot

 

[Idaho Ron]

My best shot was last year. I had a bull tag but didn't see much for elk at all. My son and I came around a corner in the road and two bulls were on the side of the hill. One left the state the other hid. Two hours of playing hide and seek my son saw him. I got there and he started to walk up the hill. I knew he was close to private land and I had to put him down right there. I got the range, 248 yards. I set the sight for 250. I held a pinch into the wind. The placement was aimed at the shoulder/spine. The bulls legs pulled up at the shot, and he was down right where he stood. My son Jacob was watching from off to my left. He said he saw the bull drop then a second or so later he heard Boom. He said it was like something off Quigley down under.