What is your most MEMORABLE single shot?

[Bear-of-Grayling]

It was a sunny early Spring afternoon in Michigan nearly 30 years ago. Had just gotten the newly released Beeman P2 (HW75) pneumatic pistol. Sitting on my deck with my 10 year old daughter just talking, shooting and enjoying the spring sunshine. Down a hill in a leafless tree top was a beautiful colorful song bird just singing along also enjoying the sunshine. Must have been some 40-50 yards away. Impressed with the accuracy this new pistol was giving, I loaded, turned and lifted the pistol towards the treetop. My daughter said; ‘Daddy you’re not going to shoot that pretty little bird are you’? ‘Honey I couldn’t hit that bird if I sat here all afternoon’. (Just wanted to see it fly away) then raised the front sight about 20 feet over the bird (forgot how good I was with my BB gun at dropping in an overhead shot) an pulled the trigger. Moments later with the bird dangling upside down by a toenail, swinging back and forth from the tiny branch he was singing on, my daughter ended our conversation by running off screaming and crying. Must say, very impressive accuracy. My most memorable (unforgettable) shot. My last living “unintentional” target too. Learn from me.

 

[Matt247365]

Reminds me of a shot I made about 45 years ago.

It was a late fall afternoon... cloudy... the trees were bare having lost all of their leaves.

Was out doing some plinking with my Crosman 2100 when all of the sudden a huge flock of starlings landed in a large tree about 100 yards from my position.

I watched as some of the limbs sagged slightly under the weight of so many birds. The tree all of the sudden looked as if it had leaves.

My Crosman was already pumped up and loaded so I said what the heck and took a shot at center mass about 5-10 feet down from the top of the tree.

The flock instantly took off. All except for one that fell straight down. Yep, got one!

 

[8thman]

In the late 60s using my friends daisy shot a fling startling! He then said that I would never do that again, and then the next one flew by and down it went! And yes I was surprised also. Just luck 

 

[douger]

agt vixen shot off hand at 110 yards gave me 3 shots but got it https://youtu.be/V_mzN5XPnM0

 

[MDriskill]

Done as a youngster, with my trusty Benjamin 347. A small shallow sinkhole not far from home collected trash and rats. Was perched there one day when I heard one scratching around below. He eventually peeked out from around the corner of a corrugated cardboard box, 15 yards away I guess, but pulled his head back before I could draw a bead. Out of frustration I just fired through the corner of the box.

Walking out later, went past the box - and there lay Mr. Rat, feet in the air. The pellet had passed through all that heavy cardboard, sitting at an angle to me, and then pole-axed his head.

Less "great shot" than "dumb luck" I reckon, but definitely "memorable!" Also an important lesson in how lethal even a small slow pellet can be when properly applied. Still have and love that Benjy BTW...

 

[r1lover]

A favorite memorable shot was when I demonstrated my FWB 300S Running Target's accuracy to my grown nephew who owned only an open sighted Crossman 760. He brought his gun out and put up a paper plate 25 yards away to shoot at. I went over an used a marker to make a 1/2 inch bull's eye on the plate and he said "You're kidding, right?!"

To show him I wasn't, I set a .177 pellet atop a tiny dried weed stem next to the plate instead, returned to the table and knocked that pellet off with my first shot. He just laughed in disbelief.

 

[Gerry52]

Last summer, pesting in Ramona, CA. with my friend Tony (Pesty3782). 80 some degrees, zero wind. I nailed a ground squirrel & a rabbit at 175 & 178 yards respectively within 2 minutes of each other using my FX Boss @ 876fps, 44.75gr pellets. I know you said SINGLE shot but they went hand in hand. The 1st time ever using Hades pellets in my .25 Royale 500 I put one in a ground squirrel's ear from about 94 yards with only his eyes & ears showing above his burrow. Nick (Socaloldman) was with me that time. Hard for me to choose between those memorable moments! 

 

[dizzums]

theres lots, its one of the things that drives me .. in 'recent' memory, i have a flock of chickens i maintain at 10 or 12 and theyre on a schedule of free roaming the yard, which works out foodwise and bugwise and a few other benefits ... anyway predators are a problem now and again .. a few weeks back i looked out the window to check up on them which i do periodocally, and bam theres a good sized predator out in the tree in the corner aboit 65y out zeroing in on them .. i ran and grabbed the first thing within reach which is my prod and eased the window open ... *BING-WHACK* .. nailed it first shot, fell out tumbling stone cold dead .. thats satisfaction there .. protecting your girls .. and with an under-powered gun to .. kinda didnt expect it to be terminal, i was just gonna bring the pain more or less for scoping on my hens ...

 

[Peashooter]

Well i do enjoy when shooting paper, and then when a fly land down there and i am able to shoot it, and it haven't happened too often but a few times it have.

I have also tried to "drill" a hole ( in the wood the fly was on ) right next to a fly, and the damn thing dident take off, at least not before i did the same the #2 time. Its a bit freaky to me, i assume it equate to you standing on a sidewalk and suddenly a car that fell out of some plane land right beside you,,,,, i would run as best as my decrepit old body would allow for.

 

[crazyhorse]

No doubt my first squeak kill. 72 yards with a 850 Air Magnum CO2 '177. First shot high about 2" (uphill shot). Seeing the dust fly above his head I adjusted and nailed him on the second try.

 

[ScottEnglish]

Johnny Walker Black Label, neat.

 

[biohazardman]

Back in the day, when my girls were around eight and nine years old or so, we were visiting the in-laws in Utah. I wanted to get out and about one day so decided to go for a drive. I had never been to Nevada so decided to take a trip up across the border and into the mountains of Nevada on this beautiful summer day so I could say I had been there. So, asked the girls if they wanted to go and with an excited affirmative answer we were off.

I found a nice place to pull over, and get off the road, and as we got out of the car, I grabbed my Ruger target pistol and stuffed it in the holster on my side. It was hot like over 110 degrees out, and the sun was beating down on us, but the dry mountain air and slight breeze made it seem cooler somehow. we were fairly comfortable with our lightweight long sleeved shirts on.

We began on our little expedition, following an old rocky dirt road, admiring the reddish colored rocky cliffs and the outdoors in general, for a few minutes. Then as luck would have it I saw this huge crow land on a peak at the top of a rock cliff at least a hundred and fifty yards from us. So, I stopped the girls, pulled out the pistol and said, “Let’s see how close I can get to him”. I took careful aim holding over the whole front sight and a bit more squeezed on the trigger and let the shot fly. Bang the shot flew true and I saw a cloud of dust burst out right where the crow sat. So, thought I had done well as he flew up about ten feet and started his getaway. Put the gun on safe and back in the holster. Next thing I see is his wings fold up and he just dropped, like a rock, from the sky down from the 150 or 200 foot cliff he had been perched on.

I had to apologize to the girls and tell them that if I had any idea I would hit it I would not have even shot at it. It was ridicules shot even for a scoped .22 rifle and I did it with an open sight .22 pistol. I usually leave animals in the wild alone even they are pests as they are not bothering anyone.

This was just one unlucky feathered creature.

 

[rugerguy211]

About 20 years ago. Daisy break barrel pellet rifle (I don't recall the model number but it was a very low cost rifle.) Bright sunny but very cold winter day, after an ice storm the night before. Sitting on my deck with a friend. We were shooting at icicles hanging on a tree about 20 yards away. After I had hit several in a row, and he was about 50%, he joked that "maybe you missed the branch you were aiming at and hit another???". So I aimed at an icicle hanging on a light about 250' away. We had a pond back there and I had put lights up on a 10' x 3/4" piece of aluminum conduit for night skating. I hit the icicle first shot. He said "lucky shot!". So I asked if he would believe it was skill if I hit the 3/4" conduit. He agreed and my next shot pinged off the conduit. Two lucky shots? Probably, but they were good for a laugh, and it put to rest any thoughts my friend had about being a better shot than me. lol... . 

 

[rkm]

Must have been 50 yrs. ago by now. My first air pistol, Marksman 1010 I think. Christmas evening my older brothers and I were trying to shoot sparrows in the barn.Had gotten a few then there was one high in the rafters we couldn't get to move. As a last ditch effort I cocked and shot from the hip. Low and behold the bird dropped stone cold dead. PURE DUMB LUCK! (But I had witnesses) I shot that pistol sooo much in later years that I could hit a penny, from the hip at about 10 ft..

 

[MDriskill]

My SECOND most memorable shot(s) was in the early 90's, when I was lucky to shoot 10-meter rifles with some buds at the local range on Monday nights.

One summer evening I arrived to find them outside, plinking away at .22LR casings, set up on a 2x4 20 yards away. They were hitting 'em about half the time. Well I'd stuck a Crosman 157 in the car - a short, open-sighted .177 CO2 pistol - which I pulled out first on a lark. Dang if I didn't obliterate THREE IN A ROW - the effect multiplied by the pistol's being ten times louder than the springer match guns.

Realizing my chances of hitting another were about a zillion to one, I yawned, put on my best "Aw heck I can do this all daaaaaay" expression...and put up the pistol.

 

[DonaAna1]

There are two shots I remember.

One with a Browning Buckmark on a rabbit at close to 100 yards. It was a shot which a friend of mine gave me first chance before he took it with a scoped Nylon 66.



The one with the air rifle was more being in the right place. My wife likes to get out of the house and "go with" when I shoot ground squirrels. There is an old house near one of the orchards we shoot at. According tp the owner it is an old Bracera house and there is a rusted swamp cooler still denying the weather there. Wife and I are looking for gs and do not see any. Then I notice the swamp cooler and it looks through a naked eye that there is something on top of it. I ask the wife to glass it and tell me if it is a gs or not. Sure enough it is, but, for some reason I can't get a range on it through the finder. So out comes Strelok and mildot and all those old range calculations. I finally ended up at 155 yards. Out comes the Wildcat m3 and I be damn it was DRT.

Best shot with an ag. And he gave me enough time to calculate.

 

[Tominco]

August 18th 2021, I was preparing for RMAC and had just finished some sight in work with my .22 Red Wolf shooting slugs. Way out at 170 yards I saw a bush with some flowers on it and decided to send a few downrange to see if I could nail a flower. A test of skill and a test to see if the work I had done was holding true. 

1st shot, I took some petals off it! I was thrilled! Second shot missed and hit a branch on the bush behind it. But, with the 3rd shot I NAILED IT! Dead center and low! I let out a holler and jumped right up out of the seat of my shooting bench!

I went down range and searched until I found the flower that I had just shot off its stem. I wasn't really thinking about how small those flowers were but, the center portion is only about 1"!

2nd most memorable shot was my final shot during EBR Pro Class Speed Silhouette 2019. Sebastian Lopez and I had qualified in the 1st and 2nd seats and we were putting on a GREAT show for everyone!!! He had a few misses, I had a few misses but by the time we reached our final few targets, we were at a dead tie... and, I knew it too! During my run, I can use about .05 of a second to peek over at the next lane or, use my peripheral vision to get an idea of where the competition is at. So, I knew we were in a dead heat and I had zero margin for error. He shot back to front, I shot front to back. Our last targets were hit at nearly the identical time! If you watch the video below (~10:28) they show just how close it was. I think I recall someone saying it was 4 frames of the video between hits! That's the closest Pro Class finish I've ever seen and it was a thrill to go up against Sebastian. I was really hoping to compete against him again at this past EBR 10X. 





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvDxqouYn6Q 

Happy Shooting! 

 

[Harv24]

As a newer guy to PCP's my only one was about a month ago, leaving the woods after a morning of Squirrel hunting, I was walking back to the car, and I wanted to empty my Cayden .22, So I stopped and spied a cattail about 30 yds away, and took a standing off hand shot, and the cat tail exploded by the hit..



I looked around and said "Damn, nobody saw that but me???" Lol

 

[FelixS]

agt vixen shot off hand at 110 yards gave me 3 shots but got it 

https://youtu.be/V_mzN5XPnM0

Ha! I don't have a recording, but did the same at 101 yards off-hand in 3 shots!

 

[HeyU]

Hi Bear,that sounds like a regrettable memory. Who was Scrooges old partner ? Marlow? Anyway those chains he had shackled to him, every link in the chain was a regret. My 1 of many regrets is that I can not at the moment remember the most memorable single shot. I'm sure there are a few candidates. I'll just have to wait till one rises to the surface. Good thread,I have enjoyed reading every1s accounts.