What's the Best Shot You've Ever Witnessed?

[Malamute]

I shot with a guy a couple times, he could make first round hits on gallon sized rocks at 300 yards with a Colt Single Action 45. He always shot one handed also. He did some shooting, I dont know if youd call it exhibition, but he shot cigarettes and other things out of peoples mouths, business cards etc, they held in their hands, he could hit stuff thrown in the air also, though that wasnt something he did at his shoots in the park. All one handed with a 7 1/2" Colt.

Once I asked him if hed been hunting yet that year, he said he shot an antelope. I asked how far, he said about 465 yards. Yes, with the 45. He shot way hot loads for hunting with 225 gr Speer JHP bullets.

[okie john]

When I was a kid, I pulled targets at the Oklahoma City Gun Club. Every August they held the Regional High-Power matches which are fired at 200, 300, and 600 yards with iron sights. For the slow-fire stages, you pull the target after each shot and stick a spotter into the bullet hole. The spotter is a reversible disc on a spindle. You paste up the old hole and put the spindle into the new hole, white side showing if the hit is in the bull, and black side showing if it isn't, then run the target back up.

Most of those years George Tubb (David Tubb's father) would show up and clean house with a bolt-action rifle. On nearly every string, he'd shoot the spindles out of the spotters at 600 yards.


Okie John

[Bigguy]

My dad back in the 70s. He was retired military. A Green Beret. He went to work for the Corps of Engineers as a lock operator at Lock One. Even back then, you weren’t supposed to have firearms on Government property, but in reality this was at the end of a 20 mile dead end road in the swamp bottoms of southeast Arkansas. He carried a .22 derringer that help bring a lot of meat home with him when on was on the night shift.

Being at the opening of the canal between the Arkansas and White Rivers, Lock One didn’t have a dam. It had a spillway that ran about 100 yards out from the far wall of the lock to the bank on the other side of the canal. When ever Lock two, three miles up the canal locked a boat through, it would dump a lot of water into the canal causing a surge of water that would slosh back and forth in the canal, just like water in a bathtub. This would cause a wave to run over the spillway that would wash any fish feeding at the base of the spillway onto the revetment at the upper end. You had about 15 minutes to get it before the rebounding surge made its way to Lock Two and back. You didn’t want to be on the spillway when a surge came through.

Everything that lived in the woods along the canal, and liked fish, was well aware of this cycle. Often dad would not only get the catfish that had washed up, but a coon or two that was trying to get them.

I often spend the night with him during the summers. I was there one night when a big fish washed up on the revetment, but before we could reach the ladder we spotted a cotton mouth also planning a fish dinner. The fish was 30 yards out and the snake just a little further on the other side. I know because there were joints in the wall at 25 yard intervals. Dad pulls out the little .22 derringer and takes aim. He was holding it in a two hand grip with his arms locked, and resting on the rail. He aimed by moving his whole body. The first shot hit the snake about 12 inches behind the head. The front half of that cotton mouth was wildly whipping back and forth as dad open the break action and reloaded. Eventually the snake settled down and dad’s second shot was right in the head. As a rule, dad didn’t shoot snakes just because they were long and skinny. But that one made the mistake of going after his fish.

Most of the guys who worked with him have seen similar shots. Dad was by far, the best marksman any of us in southern Arkansas county had ever seen. He told me that he had put a lot of lead through that little gun from exactly that spot learning to hit stuff on that wall. The seams in the wall gave him range. The secret was being able to lock the gun in a consistent grip that allowed him to use his arms as part of the sights. He used the rail to stabilize himself and as a pivot point for aiming.

[johncorey]

Small Caliber: My Dad. Mid 2000s. Local LE range. Late Spring/Early Summer. Mid afternoon. Glock 21, Gen3. Standard 230gr ball. Roughly 20m. Fly was exploring the target, standard IDPA cardboard. We just put it up, so not a single round was on it yet. Dad called the fly and drilled it cold. Haven't witnessed anything first hand that has beat that feat.

Larger stuff: Live AT4 range on target armor. 200m-300m, no perfect recollection on this. March-ish 2012. I put one into the turret right above the ring. Dude next to me launches his and it flies right into my hole, striking the far inside area of turret. Like exact same hole. That was just unreal.

[JohnO]

Funny how the BB gun thing keeps coming up. I'll add my memorable BB gun accomplishments. Two stand out to the point that when I think of best shots ever they always come to mind. Back in the day my constant companion was a Crossman 760 Powermaster. (Ten or so years ago I purchased a 760 Powermaster for my son and the quality was nothing like I had as a kid.) One day I was in my yard and noticed a single stem coming up out of a bush. I had the usual 10 or so pumps already into the gun. I rotated to square on the bush which was 90 degrees to my right and shouldered the BB gun at the same time. With literally a flash sight picture I broke the shot and to my utter amazement I cut that stem clean off which was no wider that the BB. The bush was probably in the 15 to 20 foot range.

The other childhood BB gun notable feat occurred when I walked down the street to the stream. I spotted a frog sitting on a rock on the edge of the stream. Being the typical kid I took a shot at it. Somewhere again about 15 to 20 feet away. This time I aimed carefully. The shot broke and the frog never moved. I couldn't believe I missed. Actually I thought the magnetic tip on the bolt head had dropped the BB and the reason I had missed was because the BB had rolled out of the barrel and I shot only air. After the crack of the shot, the reloading and pumping of the BB gun I started to wonder why the frog never moved. I walked over to the frog and that was when I spotted the red spot between his eyes. I had nailed the critter square between the eyes and it went stone cold dead without a twitch. 40+ years under the bridge and I still remember those two trigger presses like it was yesterday.

[TR675]

Air rifle, shot from the hip, distance feels like it must have been 100 yards but it was most probably less. I still remember that little silver BB's perfect rainbow arc as it sailed through the air, glinting in the sunlight, on the way to smacking directly into my neighbor's very expensive double paned window. No idea why I even tried the shot, other than I didn't like that neighbor very much.

[SteveK]

Myself and my duty issue S&W 4563. Crippled deer with both hind legs broken are still surprisingly fast. It ran (literally) down in a hollow and was coming up the other side approximately 40 yards away when I drew and fired a quick double action shot on the move that hit its intended spot. The bullet struck the deer dead center between the shoulder blades and stopped it DRT. And the old man that reported the deer in the first place and could have verified the shot was twenty yards behind me when it happen. Imagine that.

[uechibear]

I've competed with both pistols and rifles, so I've seen some good shooting, but this event from childhood is still the one I tell people about.

My younger brother and I were about 6 and 8 years old, walking across the dirt floor of a large quonset hut which stored farm machinery, when a small field mouse about 20 feet away ran full speed across our path. My brother was carrying our shared BB gun at the time and took a quick shot from the hip before the mouse could find cover. I don't remember where he hit the mouse (probably in the head), but it dropped DRT and didn't even twitch that I remember. I'm sure my brother couldn't do it on demand, but we were both very impressed by what had just happened!

He's now married to a woman who doesn't like guns, so I'm the only one who still shoots.

[MGW]

This is cheating because I didn't witness it and it's a five shot group. The private invitation only range I shoot at is owned by a pretty good bench shooter. He shot and the Camp Perry matches a dozen times. He has a distinguished gold medal somewhere. He's in his mid 70's now and still reloads and shoots a lot.

The group pictures is five shots at 100 yards. He has an entire book of targets like these. There was a group that was actually better from 200 that I didn't take a picture of.

He shoots a lot of 6mm and I believe that's what this group was shot with. Actions are custom built based on 700 actions. They load from the left and eject on the right. He showed me a couple of his rifles today. He claims the triggers on his bench rest stuff is less than an ounce. After dry firing a few I believe him.

[HCM]

He's now married to a woman who doesn't like guns, so I'm the only one who still shoots.

That's just sad.