Toot your own horn ?

[Sixby]

Bull Quail. I called a head shot at 60yard and made it. I figured it was head or miss the way I shot but never really expected to do anything but scare him. It was a rubber blunt and cleanly took his head off. Quail dinner. Big mountain quail.

[TheFatboy]

I once made a for-fun shot with both feet pointing towards the target from about 15 yds. Perfect shot, right in the bullseye.

[ChuckC]

How about an almost.   Been shooting so far over my head my nose was fixing to bleed. . . and took a long shot,  60 - 70 yards at a clump of stuff on the sand bank,  right over the campfire.

You guessed it.  I squarely hit the firewood sticking up out of the blaze and there stuck the arrow, getting cooked as I watched.  great.

A friend and I were stumping and taking some really interesting shots.  On the way back to the cabin, we saw my long handled shovel, stuck in the ground near the fire pit.   We looked at each other and just knew what the next shot was.

There was still a sticker on the handle, maybe 2' above the ground.   I just barely missed. .  woulda killed any deer,  but Jack. . .  well, I need a new shovel.
ChuckC

[Ragnarok Forge]

I attended a novelty shoot at my archery club about two weeks after I got my first longbow. The shoot was a 15 target walk and stalk shoot where you would walk along the trail and when you saw an animal you took a shot.  You could move foward and shoot but not move backwards at all.  

The first target was a mule deer buck at 77 yards. I heard a lot of guys hooting and hollering as they missed the target with their wheelie bows.  A couple of them even ribbed me that there was no way I would hit the first target. I walked down the course with my line judge and saw the first target.  I aimed at a limb way above the target and let er fly.  I hit the target perfect right and left and at the top of the 8 ring.  My line judge and I had a good laugh, high fived and that so far has been my best shot.

[2treks]

I just remembered my best(ist) shot on foam:
   I was shooting my recurve one day and the neighbor came out of his house and said "HI" so I walked over to chat. I had my recurve leaning up against my body while I used my hands to embelish the story I was relating. The bow fell down and my friend about broke his neck diving after it to no avail. He picked the bow up and looked as if I would have to throw it in the trash. I looked at it and said "lets see if the sights are nocked off" nocked an arrow from my poket quiver and centered my "kick" target(1ft sq.). about 70paces. I did not shoot again for him.

[ChuckC]

Chuck. .   that's when it works the best.  That's when people yell  "W O W "  and maybe they wanna try.  I carry extra kleenex for when my nose bleeds.
ChuckC

[twitchstick]

It would have to be my frist shoot with a bow. My older brother had a bow and was roving around during a fishing trip. As big brothers are he would not let me try his bow out,no matter how I begged. I begged and begged then he finally let me shoot it. He had been trying to hit a post in the middle of a flat. This post was about 100 yard give or take a few yards and he missed time after time. Of course being the youngest I kept saying "I bet I could Hit that". Buy pure luck my very frist arrow flew to its mark and drilled the post right in the little 4"x4" square sign on it. I still don't think I could do It again.      

[stik&string]

My most memorable shot came when my (now) 3 year old son, finally showed some interest in what his daddy was always doing in the backyard. After talking to him about everything, and explaining how my bow worked, I center punched the target with an arrow. My son was shrieking in excitment and asked me to do it again. I drew and hit the target in the same spot, my first and only robin hood with trad equipment. Of course whenever the topic of hunting comes up my son has to tell everyone how his daddy is "robin hood" and I have to make sure to never shoot around those people as they will be expecting to much out of my shooting ability.

[GG]

My most memorable shot was a kill shot on a running pig at about 8 yards. My buddy had just shot a pig with a compound when they exploded everywhere. Two ran by me and I center punched the second one on a dead run. He ran about 40 yards before going down.

[B M A]

For me it would be a cow elk I shot at 7 yds on the run.  Double lung and cut the heart.  She went 65 yds and dropped.  Then it was time to whack and pack.  She was 5.1 miles in, in roadless country.  It was a long but very exciting and gratifying.

I would have to say this last summer at an Traditional shoot seeing my 12 year old son win a novelty shoot was even better.  It was a flying goose.  The object was to be the closest to the kill, a nickle size spot.  The youth shot at 15 yds. and the adults at 25 yds.  He beat everyone.  At 15 yds he was 1 3/4" from the dot and then wanted to move back and put it 1 1/4" from the dot at 25 yds.  

Brock

[huntindad]

Got my first trad Robin Hood last spring with my mojostick but it was luck as the arrows were both outside the 4" bull by 3 or 4 inches at 18 yds.or so.Once when I was a kid I shot a dragonfly out of the air with my wristrocket at about 15 yards my friend didn't believe me so I had to wade a creek and search tall grass to make a retrieve to prove it,shoulda mounted that thing for all the work!Bill

[CJC]

this past year at a 3-d shoot, some compounders said, "you can shoot through, if you shoot from the open stakes."  it was a feeding doe target. i guessed it was about 40 yards through the trees.  needless to say, there was a loud roar when i center punched the x ring. i did not say a word, just casually walked through the group like it happens all the time.  i see those guys all the time at local shoots and lets just say theres alot more respect for this tradguy!

[hawkeye n pa]

Watching a bunch of guys trying to shoot a chipmunk at 55 plus yards on a old oak tree top that blew down.  It would scramble this way and that way at every arrow.  I thought I wouldn't waist an "arrow".  Then they  all emptied their quivers and the little fellow perched on top of a limb.  All it took was one shot through the heart.  LOL

[Mudd]

It was a beautiful fall day and I headed to the woods early just to be there. Being it was around 2:30 in the afternoon I didn't want to get in the tree stand just yet because I knew if I did I'd start to get fidgety about the "bewitching" hr.. So I decided to do a little stalking/still hunting. I had just walked down one of my favorite ridges and decided to take a rest under a huge white oak tree over looking a small valley. I could see for a very long ways up and down the drawn from there. The warm sun felt so good filtering down through the leaves and limbs and added to the camouflage I was wearing.
 I hadn't been there very long, maybe 30 minutes when I hear deer running across the way. It took me a bit to pinpoint exactly where the sounds were coming from but when I did it was primo. I see this doe making tracks and she's doing it in fine fashion too. She is doing a lot of zigging and zagging, just trying to stay a step or two ahead of this awesome buck that's dogging her for all he's worth.
 I remember thinking "How cool is this?" Way!!!
as I sat there with an arrow on the string of my Thunderstick III. I thought to myself I bet that ole girl is going to lead him right by me on the deer trail that's about 8 ft away from the base of the tree I'm sitting under. I could visualize exactly how it would happen.
 Things sort of start to pick up fast as the doe does exactly what I had already played out in my minds' eye. They've crossed the bottom and are headed straight up the hill along the deer trail.
Both deer went by me never knowing I was anywhere around. In one smooth motion I rise to one knee while pulling "bravehartes" string back to that well known anchor. As soon as I touch my spot and while I'm tracking their progress with a hole drilled into his boiler room, I released. I watched the arrow fly true to the point I had earlier envisioned it hitting. Mr. Buck never missed a step, he was so intent on keeping up with the doe that was just ahead of him running with her tongue out that he never knew he had just been killed.
 I slumped back to a sitting position and just listened as both deer were now out of my field of view. It didn't take long for me to hear what I was listening for, the telltale sound of the buck crashing into the brush or a brushpile as the hillside was littered with them that Earl and I had made clearing out underbrush earlier that summer.
 I got up, gathered up all that was laying about me because I knew if I found what I knew I was gonna find I'd be hard pressed to remember to come back for anything I might leave laying on the ground. Then I headed up the hill. The blood trail was there and Stevie Wonder could've followed it too..lol I made an abrupt left at the top of the hill staying on both the blood trail and the well worn deer trail they had taken. I'm now about 55 yds from where I was sitting when I look up the trail to witness such an awesome sight. I mean it looks like the ground has sprouted antlers. Racing forward at this point I just can't wait to get my hands around that rack.
 My God! He is one beautiful buck! I pause for a moment and give a little prayer of thanks. I then put down my bow and just as my hands touch those monstrous horns I get a tremendous jolt as my wife shakes my shoulder.
 I was so happy, but I was also in my lazyboy and I had just experienced the hunt of a life time and now I realize I don't have to drag anything out nor do I have to deal with field dressing a deer..
 Wahoo! Man! What a hunt!!! and all without leaving the comfort of my chair.
 This is a real story and still one of my favorite hunts.
Thanks for reading!
 God bless,Mudd

[BEN]

Last summer:
I took the nock off a buddy's compound-shot arrow at 55yds ( after he dared me to just "hit the target" from that range) on our local 3-d course.

I didn't offer to try it again though!

[Pinelander]

Cool story, Mudd. Sure wish I had those kind of dreams on a regular basis, lol.

Well, my bell-ringer/tooter was a hunting shot 12 years ago on November 24th. A wide-racked buck came trotting towards me and stopped directly under my tree stand. He stood motionless looking intently for that “other” grunting buck. As I looked down at the top of his head (a mere 5 ft. below my feet), the steam from his breath wafted up towards me on that cold and calm morning.

After a few heart-pounding moments, he moved quickly away from me and I drew back, but there was too much cover for a shot. He stopped again about 40 yards out, sniffing around in the leaves. I grunted again and he came back quickly, but stopped behind a thick bush at about 5 yards. Again, he stood motionless looking intently for that “other” grunting buck.

Like the first time, after a few heart-pounding moments he moved quickly and by the time I reached anchor he was 18 yards out, quartering away and headed for the next county. My arrow sliced through his liver and exited his right lung. Was it a lucky shot? Maybe and maybe not.

But two things I am sure of.... 1) I’ve not had a hunting adrenaline rush like that since then, and 2) I missed that same buck 23 days prior that morning, a half mile away on the other side of the property!

Yes, it rings out in my head and I will always remember that morning (and that shot) as if it happened yesterday. Thanks for asking!

[barebow17]

A few years back I was shooting with my son at the local 3D range.We were at the shooting butts.They have them set 10-50 yards.We shoot the 10-30 yard targets.My son asked me to shoot the 50.Drew back and let it go.We couldnt see where it hit.Walked down and it was in the x.Never did that again.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

[Cyclic-Rivers]

The thing that brought me back to Trad!

I was at a 4-H shooting booth at the local fair.  I paid for my wife's young cousins to shoot a round at the 3-d targets.  I had the itch to shoot so I bought a round for myself.  There were a bunch of guys standing there watching.  My first shot was a perfect shot on the standing bear.  Then a perfect shot on the coyote and then a perfect shot on the turkey.  At this point I was getting big headed and the guys told me to shoot at the ground hog.  Perfect shot!

I had one arrow left and someone said put it between the eyes of the bear!  Perfect shot!  At this point the guys all bought another round for me and I put every arrow between the eyes of every target requested.  Part of me was feeling lucky and part of me felt like I was Robin Hood.  Hard to come down at a moment like that.

Switched to trad and although I am not shooting as well as I did that day, I enjoy every Shot which is exactly the opposite of my wheels!  I would get frustrated at every bad shot.

[30coupe]

My best to-date would have to be the shot I made on my buck this year. It was about 15 minutes before sunrise, pretty dim. There was a basketball sized hole through some pencil-sized limbs about 10 yards from the deer, which was broadside at 22 yards from my tree stand. I double-lunged him with my 46# Kanati. That shot replays in my mind just about every night before I drift off to sleep...with a smile on my face.