Your MOST Unbelievable HUNTING shot(s)

[TooManyHobbies]

My best wasn't so much the shot, but the bad situation. My first trad bow kill was a nine point from my climbing stand. My first shot missed the mark and I gut shot him at 18 yards. Luckily, he ran across from left to right and stopped at 15 yards. My second arrow was already on the string and I was able to put it perfectly behind his shoulders. I think both shots were within 10 seconds. If I hadn't made the second shot, I have no doubt I would've lost that animal. To me, the fact that I remained calm and had a quick follow up shot was amazing, because when he crashed 60 yards away I started shaking like an epileptic in a tree.

[Jerry Jeffer]

A few years ago. A doe had been hanging out a ways behind me I think for over an hour. I couldn't see her, but could hear her munching acorns. She knew some thing wasn't right in the area. She tried sneaking around my left side at about 45 yards. When she passed behind an old fallen tree, I kept as low as possible, moved away from the tree I was sitting against, and made the turn so I could get a shot. She continued down an old log path and stopped broadside at 43 yards. As I drew, she looked at me. The arrow was on its way as I shot from a tight crouching position!
 I watched the arrow in the air for what seemed a very long time. The Doe also was watching the arrow, and tried to turn away from it. The arrow entered behind the last rib and buried into the opposite shoulder as she turned to run.
I waited only a few minutes and went to see if my arrow was on the ground, or if I could find blood. Just then, my partner was coming up from his morning sit. He asked if I hit a deer.
"Yes"! I exclaimed.
I stayed at the hit sight, and he looked for blood a bit ahead. A good blood trail started right away and we saw the doe down about 45 yards ahead. She went about 50-60 yards total.

   

[TimRadke]

Pheasant hunt a few years back when a hen got up an  flew crossing right to left... I actually somehow picked out only the eye as it flew, drew anchored and swung all in one motion and released.  The judo tipped arrow caught the bird 1/2" behind its eye and it folded exactly like it was supposed to.  I somehow knew I had that bird even before I drew..

I won't talk about the other 40 shots I've missed at pheasants that summer...

[Terry Green]

Man I love these....hope we have 10 pages of em before its over.

Yeah Charlie...I hear ya...laboring HARD to list my 3rd....too many to choose from....I have narrowed it down to 2, two from TX and one from WY!!!  I know you know the one from WY. And you've heard about the other two from TX.

C'mon guys....keep them coming.  The mind and bow can do pretty amazing things at times...lets showcase them!!!!

[Guru]

Originally posted by Terry Green:
Great reads.....fun reading Mudd's since I was there...brought back great memories. One of my most unbelievable shots was on the previous pheasant hunt.  The revers cant leaning back pretzel shot on a pheasant.

   

Originally posted by Guru:


I may have made the longest shot of the hunt, but without a doubt Terry made the coolest shot!

  This bird flushed straight up and decided to fly right over the line of shooters. Terry swung on the bird and waited till he cleared the other shooters and was directly above his head.

I mean he was twisted, leaning back, reverse canted, shooting directly over his head as the bird crossed about 20ft over his head...and he just hammered him in one of the most contorted positions I've ever seen!

As excited as I got over my shot, I think I carried on even more over the shot I'd just witnessed Terry just pulled off.....it was one of those you really needed to be there, to see it, to appreciate it...
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Keep em coming.... [/b]

That was awesome to witness!!!

[reddogge]

OK, one more. This nice little 5 point sacrificed himself to become my first deer kill/bow kill in 1969. Acturally my first shot at a deer with a bow. I had two bow seasons under my belt with no success or shots so my first season at Aberdeen Proving Grounds was fall 1969. I did the neophyte trick of setting my Dan Quillian death trap tree stand on the edge of a field hoping a deer would walk by. Well, this one did at about 25 yards.

I was shooting a 43# Bear Grizzly, Bear Microflights with Razorheads. At the shot the deer jumped 90 degrees to the arrow flight and the arrow hit him while his hind quarters were still airborne and the Razorhead sliced open his femoral artery and his belly. If you look close you can see the femoral arthery wound. A quick death ensued with the deer going down within eyesight.

   

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Great Thread guys..... I just Miss..... A Lot...    :rolleyes:

Except for this 23+ yard swimming Carp.  I thought no way.  Had to Clout shoot him but shots were way to far and few between. I shot out all of my line just as it impacted the fish.

 

[Ray Lyon]

I'll see if I can prod Ron 'Lobo 'LaClair to make a contribution here.

[Archie]

Speaking of Ron LaClair, I'll never forget that picture of the mouse he shot up on the wall inside his cabin.

[rbcorbitt]

Great thread!   Keep it going!!  

[Kris]

At 48 yards I shot through both eyes of a grey squirrel on my front lawn...but the story gets better.  The squirrel was in a depression and all I could see was a sliver of his back line...upon the shot, he actually disappeared from my view and was out of my line of sight.

I can still picture the white fletched, Judo tipped, MFX 400 arching across my lawn...B A R E L Y clearing the grass berm the squirrel was behind.  I heard a very faint P O P...or what I thought was a sound???  No way!  I had to finish what I had been doing in the house before I was distracted by this ridiculous and "time wasting" fun.  

About 45 mins. later, I ambled down across my lawn to find a stone cold, young grey
squirrel with a 400 shaft half way through both eyes.  

Truly amazing (and lucky of course)...I had interpolated where the squirrel should have been and took a blind shot and connected at almost 50 yards.

Kris

notes: There are a 40 vertical feet of grade change across my lawn, this makes the shot "tree-stand like".  There are squirrels on my lawn most of the time; so shots are taken often, making these distances familiar and known.

I was shooting a 62" 57#@28" Silvertip recurve.

[maineac]

Great stories all, thanks for sharing them!

[twitchstick]

For me one shot that stand out is a shoot I made when I was dating my soon to be wife. This was twenty years ago when I was in college. My girl friend and a roommate wanted to come along while I did some roving. They both were real curious on how I shot and way I used a long bow. They started asking how accurate I was and would find things for me to shot at. Then my roommate pointed out a little bird, I believe it was a snowbird or at least a very small bird. It was out about 45 to 50 yards out when my roommate called out "I bet you can hit that bird in the head". I said I didn't want to shoot a song all that bad. Then my "girl friend" dare me too with a little poke in the ribs! " or is it too far for ya". Well I think we were all surprised when my judo took the poor little birds head off. There was a few quit moments after that. I don't think I would have even taken the shot if I thought I could have hit it. I'm still surprised she stuck it out with me after that.

[wingnut]

For me it was a double header afternoon a few years ago in Idaho.  My old hunting partner and I decided that it was time for us to team up for an evening on a hunt.  You see Rusty and Jason were in camp with us and Paul and I were the veterans and seemed to always grab one of the others to hunt with.  But this evening Rusty and Jason wanted to go after a bull that was hanging around camp.  So Paul and I looked the topo over and decided on a small drainage that neither of us had been in before.

The hunt started pretty quiet.  In fact, we both laid down and took an hour nap to let the sun move a bit more west before we headed up the south side  of the drainage.  As we moved we began seeing a lot of fresh elk sign and continued to climb.  As the drainage turned into basin at the top we flushed a grouse and Paul to off to see if he could collect it for the pot.  I waited patiently on the trail and that's where shot number one occurred.  As I stood silently on the trail I heard the snarling and snapping of a charging critter directly in front of me.  I readied an arrow thinking that this could be the last of me.  And then it broke from cover coming at full speed.  I drew and released without thought and it was over.  A one ounce shrew had met it's maker and non to soon as it was only 4 ft from my foot.

Paul came back with the grouse and I told him the story and showed my kill.

We progressed down the basin to keep the wind right and crossed the creek.  All of a sudden there were elk moving right to left.  I called and Paul drew and shot.  I watched a cow move into a clearing 50 yds ahead and go down.  Paul signaled for us to switch positions and I moved forward.  He called and another cow presented herself between two trees 35 yds up hill, one covering her shoulder and the other her rear quarters. A ray of the sun broke through and illuminated the kill zone.  I drew my longbow and released watching the arrow hit in the middle of the 10 ring if there had been one.  She walked up hill 30 yds and collapsed.

And those are the best shots I have ever made.
 
Mike

[Swinestalker]

I was out in my yard with blunts several years ago just shooting at leaves, ant beds, stumps etc. with my Longbow. It was winter so there were no leaves on the trees. There is a 25 foot tall pear tree at the corner of my house and a lone crow landed in the top of that tree about 60 yards from me. Of course I nocked an arrow and rather casually let one fly at him. Now I was trying to hit him, knowing full well I could not. He was facing me and it seemed as though that arrow was in the air for an hour! Shot looked good and I thought it just might give him a scare. I knew he would fly long before the arrow reached him. Much to my amazement, the arrow was true, and even more amazing was the fact that he just sat there and took it like a man! It hit him square and hard, killing him like the wrath of god. I was so proud, I dang near mounted that crow!

[Sockrsblur]

"Killing him like the wrath of God" that was great I really laughed out loud!  

[fnshtr]

My most memorable shot was taken while walking (stalking) through the woods with my (then) 6 year old son. He carried his little bow with suction cup arrows and I my recurve.

A squirrel jumped up on the side of an oak tree about 20 yards away and my son said "shoot him dad!". I pulled up, figuring to ruin or lose the arrow and took him off the side of the tree. He went to school the next day and told his friends what a great shot I was. PURE LUCK!

Also remember a nice little 6 point buck I stalked from 150 yards to within 20 on a windy, rainy morning. I had lost sight of him as I crawled the last 40 yards or so. He had been feeding on acorns on a flat that had been recently timbered. When I raised up to find him, he raised his head and I caught the movement. He was about 20 yards away, just on the other side of a pile of tree tops.

The shot was perfect... he ran up the hill away from me, then turned to his right and stumbled back down the hill and died within about 20 yards of me.

My final one was about 55 yards on a whitetail buck. Long story, but he was standing in a position that it was pretty much kill or miss (between two tree trunks with branches over top).

Enjoying this thread.

[Homebru]

Well, not exactly what you may have wanted but my "best" shot was "the shot that turned me trad".

 

Originally posted by onewhohasfun:
......
AS a side note, This is the reason I switched to a stick bow. 3 yrs. earlier I missed a giant buck straight below me. AT 1 YARD. Same group of pines.

That was the last time I ever shot a compound. Never shot one again.

I shot a Bear bow as a kid, for fun.  Stolen by our neighbor.  I shot powder burners for a number of years.

Shortly before my Dad died, he bought a compound bow so that he could hunt in warmer weather with another group of guys (Dad never killed deer but hunted every year).

After Dad died, I inherited the bow.  Several years later I decided to hunt with it.  One season.  I was hunting from the ground and had an encounter with the largest 8-point whitetail deer I've ever seen.  Lot's of "holy crap, you shouldn't do that with a whitetail nearby" kinds of things (whistling at the buck, standing and turning around, etc.).  That big boy came walking right past me (I was on the ground) and I shot right over his back at about 6 yards.  I decided right then and there that the sights on that bow were of no value and neither were the wheels.

homebru

[cahaba]

OOPS

[cahaba]

A couple of years ago during the second week of rabbit season I decided to try my luck at one of the many rabbits I had seen on our property.
 About 45 min. into the hunt I spotted a rabbit out in the open on a little rise in the landscape. I knew the shot was at or beyond my maximum distance of my effective shooting range but everything felt right.
 I raise my longbow up stared at the rabbits head and get off a good release. I watched the arrow as it arched toward the target and seen it hit right below the rabbits head in the neck area. The rabbit makes a couple of jumps and took it's last breath.
I walked off the distance of the shot and it was 36 long paces from where I shot to where the rabbit lay. I skinned him out and drop him in a gallon freezer bag.
The rest of the day was uneventful. I got home and asked my wife where the flour was. I basted the rabbit with heated liquefied butter and rolled him in flour. I fried him in a deep cast iron skillet with some scallions and a little wine. My wife loved the taste of the rabbit and said "go kill us some more". She loves the taste of rabbit better than chicken and I do too! Rabbit season starts Oct. 1st. this year and I for one can't wait!