...most memorable shot with a weapon.  Since we have such a wide variety of people here (military, cops, hunters, shooters etc.) I'm sure we can come up with some great stories. It can be any type of weapon ( pistol, rifle, bow, peashooter, Howitzer, you name it). It doesn't have to be any record breaking feat, just something you did that impressed yourself. Bragging is not only acceptable, it is encouraged.


I'll start if off with a very modest story of my own.
Last year during deer season I was hunting the mighty whitetail when a 8 point buck broke the field approx. 125 yards off. I nailed him with one shot from a prone position while he was running full bore. I was using a scoped Browning A-Bolt in 7mm. Dropped him in his tracks.
Not exactly the stuff legends are made of but I was pretty happy with myself that day.
Okay, you get the idea so let's hear some stories.
                                FIREGUY

My wife bought me a 10/22 for Father's day several years ago.  "Hon," I said, "you have NO idea what you just started."

Within a week I had a 16" bull barrel, a Fajen thumbhole laminate stock, and a 4-12X Simmons scope with a 50mm adjustable objective mounted on the receiver (the only stock part left.)  And yes, I know the scope is overkill.  My wife saw the assembled rifle and said: "THAT's that cute little rifle I bought you?  It's technologically barbaric!"  

Conan the Borg it is.

Anyway, I took it out to see what ammo it liked, and I bought a bunch of different stuff.  It shot well, but when I tried Federal Gold Medal UltraMatch, I was astonished.  Shot after shot into the same hole at 50 yards off the bench (with the factory trigger!)  I had just tweaked in the scope so the shots were falling right on the crosshairs when a horsefly landed on the target.

"What the hell," I thought.  I followed him around as he crawled over the paper, and when he stopped, I squeezed the trigger.  No fly, just a hole where he used to be.  I walked out to the target, and around the hole was a bloody splatter.  Bullseye!

That's my best shot to date.

6 years old - In a grass field with my BB Gun and shot a long blade of grass in half at 30 yards.

10 years old - Dove hunting with a side by side 20 ga. Let both barrels go while beeding down on 4 birds which were flying over head. All 4 dropped.

18 years old - US Army Basic Training. Sighting in my m16a1 had every round I fired go through the same hole! Couldn't miss if I tried.

24 years old - Alaska hunt. Shot a Caribou where the round had hit a rib went through the heart and through the other lung and out the other side making a coffee mug size hole. (Just a strange experience)

Shooting golf balls at long range and making them fly and the all the other kinda of stuff which I'm sure others have done and will talk about here.

About 2 years ago I was out with 3 of my budys rabbit hunting.  It had been about a year since we had been there and last time we were there TONS of rabbits....could almost just close your eyes, shoot in any general direction and hit one.  Well we had such good luck we went back the next summer.  We walked a few miles and not a damn thing...they all packed up and moved.  Kinda bummed we were walked back to our truck and a small black bird about 20 yards infront of us started to fly off.  After thinking for a sec I whipped out my S&W .357 and shot a single shot from the hip...nothing but a puff of feathers...I reholstered my pistol and said something like "see boys thats how its done".....LOL, I could not do that again if my life depended on it.  All luck...nothing more.
Riz

My buddies and I were sighting in my first AR at our local range which was at the base of a large mountain. After we sighted in the rifle, I started shooting to get the feel of the rifle.
After around 50 rounds or so, a buddy of mine was giving me a hard time about how it'll take years for me to be a good shot. I jokingly said I could outshoot any SEAL, Marine, or anybody who crosses my path.
He pointed to a rock that was on the side of the mountain which was about 200 yards away. He challenged me to hit it fast and without using the sites.
I snapped my rifle up and fired a round towards the rock. Shot felt good and true.
Yep, almost dead center. We looked at the impact from a spotting scope and I couldn't believe my eyes.
Tried it again. This time the POI was about six feet from the rock. Tried several more times. Couldn't do it again if some else's life depended on it. :)

Well, you said weapon. So, when I was 9 I was out with my bow and arrow in the back yard looking for trouble. Fortunately I had a BIG backyard... I spotted a bluejay about 40 feet up in a tree, drinking from a pocket in the crotch between the limbs. I aimed, and let fly. I hit the Bluejay dead center in the ass, and stuck him to the tree. I was suprised, but not nearly as suprised as I was when the heavens opened up with attacking Bluejays divebombing me and trying to peck my head! I ran for the garage to get a football helmet, then went to face down the flock in one on one combat...And so it all began....

[8D]

My greatest shot ever was about a year ago after hours at a indoor range I use to work at.
It was the first time I had closed shop with the new guy, he was fresh out of the Army and a little cocky. He was shooting his Beretta 96 and I was packing my Glock 17. He hung a T-12 target, "Orange and Black Silhouette with numbers in the center of each zone." Well his first shot was dead center mass drilling out the small 5 on the paper. Well I had to show this guy that Civies could shoot too, so before he got his second shot off I drew down and fired one shot from the lane next to him. He looked over at me wondering what the hell I was shooting at since there was no target on my lane, my reply was simply "look at your target." He looks at it, nothing..Well bring it in and look closely...And to his surprise a little half moon tore out of the inside of his "Perfect shot"  [sniper]

10 years old, hunting crows with my Crossman pellet handgun... you know, the one they still sell that you can pump up a bazillion times and put a pellet through quarter inch plywood?  Mine was the nemesis of the tree-rat and crow population in north Florida.  I'd guess the blackbird was at least 50 yards away, sitting in a tree, givin me the stink-eye like he was daring me to take a shot at him. So I took really careful aim, breathing, front sight, slow, steady pull of the trigger... whap!  Knocked that bastard right out of his perch!  When I looked at the carcass, I'd hit him dead center chest, small .177 hole in the breast, much larger hole in the sucker's back!


Most satisfying shot I ever made, if not the best.

A buddy of mine used to own a cattle ranch. As usual, they shot every coyote in sight and within a couple of years had starving cattle because of an explosion in the rabbit population. So he asked me to go hunting with him. All I brought was my old mini-14 with a Butler folding stock. He had a 20 gauge. I couldn't hit a rabbit to save my life and he was blowing them away by the dozens. Then way off about 300 yards away I could see a set of ears on a large jack rabbit. I fired and the ears vanished. We figured he just took off. About a half hour later we finally came to find the big jack shot in the eye. That was the day several years ago I decided to get an AR! Still got the mini but don't really know why, I still can't hit anything with it!

Two...I once shot a running-flat-out rabbit at a paced-off 72 yards with my suppressed 77/22.

And once when I was in college, I put seven out of ten shots from my USP .45 on a B-27 silhouette at 200 yards on a known-distance range...a fellow I was shooting with bet me $50 I couldn't even hit it once.

There are a couple of others, but I shouldn't repeat them here since there is an active lobby against that type of hunting on this board [}:D]

QS

Let's just say there were an F-4C and an ammo dump involved.

When I was a kid a guy threw up a dime and I nailed it with  a .22.  (Once)

Classified

some friends were shooting clays when i showed up.  i had a ruger p90 in my car and i nailed the first clay they tossed up.  --never tried again, i didn't wan't to ruin a perfect record.

[NI]

Great stories! Keep em coming!!




Come on! let's hear it. we won't tell anyone.[;)]

Well IIRC both LT and I aimed at moths/butterflies and HIT 'EM IN FLIGHT....mine was 75yrds.I forget his claim yardage wise on the last thread like this.

Hey DarkHelmet, aren't those exploding targets great!  They make you feel like you are wielding a bazooka.  Thanks Daniel Tanner!

Once while tree rat (squirrel) hunting, I spotted one of the little fiends running from tree to tree, at about 50yds or so distance. I led him and as he leaped from one tree to another, I fired. I led too much, and missed the tree rat, but shot the branch he was jumping onto. So, "secret squirrel" goes to land......and no branch. He met his untimely death by falling to the ground, breaking his neck.

I was maybe 9 or 10 years old riding in flat bottom boat with my grandfather and my great-uncle. I was in the front of the boat just taking everything in when my grandfather taps me on the back, hands me my uncles .22, points at a fallen tree on the river bank and tells me to "Kill that snake". I'd never shot a scoped rifle before and it seemed like it took me forever to finally find the snake in the scope. I finally got just a glimpse of him and squeezed the trigger. The snakes head shot straight up in the air and he fell back across the log, stone dead. I'd hit the log just under his head and the bullet deflected straight up into him.
Ok, it's not a war story but any story with your grandfather and a dead snake in it has to be worth something.

One day of shooting is memorable.  Not surprisingly, the two shots that come most vividly to mind were taken many years in the past, and time has polished the details. . .

The first shot was taken at one of our summer homes during a party with my father's partners and colleagues.  I was with the group of kids who were propped up against old white pine trees, covering our backs with sticky resin, knees in the dirt and needles, and shooting everything from Red Ryders to "10 pumps" to those cheesy 1911 look-alike BB/Pellet/Dart spring guns at Neccos (you know, the candies), soda cans, and playing cards.  
There was a family of three sisters who were roughly my age, and they were taking great delight in pouring BB's down the barrel of the Daisy to shoot at targets "shotgun" style.  This approach was the product of the boredom of shooting and never hearing the satisfying sound of a shot on target, nor the rewarding splintering of a hit in the middle of one of the 1" diameter candy wafers.  The girls had forgotten about the target, 'cause the twangy "poof" sound of five BB's at once was enough to entertain. . .

Eventually, the father of the girls, a pipe-smoking angler and big-game hunter, wandered over to check on our progress, and the girls struggled for possession of the gun so that they could be first to impress their father with their shooting skills.  Of course, the winner of the struggle didn't dare put BB's down the barrel in the presence of her father, but instead assumed a "girly" kneeling position, and lined up on one of those really foul chocolaty tasting brown Neccos.  It just so happened that she and I were aiming at the same target, and it just so happened that we both pulled the trigger at precisely the same time.  The thin candy exploded, and she was lifted into the air by a beaming father and carried all around the yard on his shoulders.  "You should have seen that shot!"  he cried with great pride.  It was her first bullseye. . .    

Later that day, I shot a bumblebee off of a clover flower with a .22, and the memory of long ago tells me that it must have been 100 yards away.  

Spent the evening shooting mosquitoes with squirt guns filled with a 1:10 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water, and never once shot out an eye

The key here is; when you make an absolutely phenominal shot that also happens to be completely by accident, hide your amazement and play it off as if it's what you intended from the start.

Out hunting with my uncle when I was little...  He with a .30-30, me with 12ga slugs (I was 8.)

Bad day tracking - nothing moving.  Nothing to track.  Wasted a whole damn day in the bush.  On the way back in, I hear something flapping overhead.

Pulled a classic "Jeff Cooper" snapshot at a sparrow probaby 50' overhead and at full speed.

Small explosion of feathers.

I put the safe back on my shotgun, turned to my uncle, and said "I feel better now, I shot SOMETHING today!"

NEver in a million years would I have expected to make that shot!  It's been a good long time and we still talk about it...

FFZ

I was practicing for a Bullseye Match with my Benelli MP3-S (.32 S&W Long Wadcutter gun) at my local range.

I was doing my thing, perforating the target at 25 yard backstop when I see movement out of the corner of my eye (I don't use a sight disc - yet). Lo and behold is a gopher doing his thing below and to the right of my target stand. I continue shooting but the damn gopher keeps popping up and disturbing my concentration. On a lark, I changed my aim and fired one round. Right through his head. Just like that...I'd NEVER be able to duplicate that shot again. But I did win the Match that weekend...

One of my best shots.

While my father was at work my brother and I took the liberty to shoot everyone of his pecans out of one of his pecan trees. Range was 35-40 feet. Dusted every fricken pecan in that tree.  Our trophies for this fine feat was... yep, our asses were busted black and blue.

Ben

About two years ago I was Hog hunting in Paris Texas.
I was thick in the woods trying to make progress while weaving around obstacles. I heard a Wild Hog start to haul ass about 50yrds ahead of me at my 11 o'clock position. In a matter of seconds I had the gun up and saw a  dark spot pass in a hole in the undergrowth strait ahead of me. Without looking through the scope, I fired a guess shot at around what was my 2 o'clock position. I used the dark spot I seen to guess at the elevation and lead the shot purely by the sound of the Hog ripping through the growth.
I actually downed the Hog. I heard is squeal 3x after I shot and figured I might have gotton lucky. It took me a hour to find it. I hit him right behind the head in the lower neck.
Given the density of the woods, I think that lucky hit never would have happen if I was carring something lighter than my .300WM.
TRUE STORY.
Then a bunch of totally cool Ninjas repelled out of the forest trees and hooked my up with some Jambo Juice and some fries. We all celebrated.

Long time ago...when I was a young lad of 15 or so...I popped a crow flying about 100 feet right over me with my Benjamin pump .177.  Had about ten pumps in it as I remember.  Luckiest damn shot ever.  Killed that crow dead as a rock...but that ain't the one I'm most proud of.

Lots of years later, I was assigned to a destroyer and one of the jobs I had was as gun director officer.  That ship had two automatic 5" guns and an automatic fire control system with a radar on top.  The director also had a pair of binoculars on a little sight assy. that was slaved to the gun target line, for the director officer to look through and see what the ship was shooting at...or to spot on the guns.  That device moved wherever you were going to point the guns.  I could also take control of the two gun mounts if necessary.  There was also a fire controlman petty officer in there with me.  He was very skilled as I remember.  For most of the time, the director officer's job was just to kick back and watch what was going on.  Since we were up high on the ship in the stabilized director, it was a smooth ride even in rough seas...and nobody came up there to mess with us.  When the weather was great, I'd just push back the observation bubble/hatch and we'd catch rays.  Sometimes though, things got hairy.  One time while conducting a fire mission against shore targets, I spotted some country battery fire.  That's where the bad guys shoot back at you.  I took control, slewed the director and guns around with the control handles, and fired one spotting round...from about 8,500 yards.  (Try that with your AR!)  One quick correction (Right 1.5, drop 800, fire for effect!) and six rounds later, no more counter battery!  I still remember they taught us to "spot long" in school.  That is still my most memorable shot[s] with a "weapon"

So...does that qualify...or do I have to lie about my skill with my AR?

[;D]

About 20 years ago I was standing in my kitchen, working on dinner, when my girlfriend's brother walked in and lit a cigarette, despite repeated requests from me not to smoke in my house. I grabbed the rubberband that was holding together the legs of the chocken I was quartering and snap shot the band at the cigarette in dorkus' mouth (about 20 feet away). The rubber band took the lit tip of the cigarette off.

He didn't smoke in my home again.

As far as my best shot with a gun goes, it would have to be a double tap on a 75 yard IPSC target that required the scoring ring to be broken out to determine that the two A zone hits weren't just one hole. I ended up with the best score on that stage and considering I was squadded with Doug Koenig and Matt McLearn (past and present world champions at the time) I was really impressed with myself.  That was the best IPSC match I ever shot, and I never did that well again [;)]

Me and my bro were out shooting with some friends.He had his Mini-30 with a 40 power scope on it.Im shooting my new bushy with open sites. He had spent the day siteing it in.So when he thinks he has it just right,we go out and put up a new target.We deside we are going to shoot at the same time.Well what do ya know.From about 80 yards out we both hit dead center half inch apart!Just to show him it was not a fluke i put 5 more shots in right next to it.Its a good feeling when your big bro says good shot! :)

QBANG

Yikes!  This is why blaze orange is so often required in the woods.

Navy boot camp, shooting for qual and not for score (which still chaps me, the only thing I did GOOD on in boot camp)..lol.  Anyway, 7 mags of .22 from a colt ace at 25 yards, 2.5 to 3 inch group all centered perfectly.  Not too great, unless you consider poor lighting conditions, dark target, dark sights, and BC glasses..:-)  "Son, where did you learn to shoot?"  Oh, here and there sir.  "Take that to the yeoman, have him hang it in the classroom"  Yes SIR!

There were 3 people (including myself) hunting on over 6,000 acres. We all had VO radios. The other two were far away, behind me actually. They even entered at a different point in a different vechicle. It was private land. I may have violated a a rule by not actually aquiring sight of the target but, i hardly consider the act reckless.

Could be the unlucky (and stupid) pigeon dumb enough to land about 80 yards out on the pistol range.  Got him on a bet with a single shot from the trust Ruger Mark I.

Ever shot one of those big carpenter bees with an airsoft pellet?  Catches the sucker by surprise when you can hit him in the air (on average, about one hit every ten shots) out of the fake Glock 17.

One time I had a guy shooting a pistol at a knockdown steel he brought out and set at the 100 yard line.  I had the AR.  He told me to go ahead and take a shot at his steel.  I told him I didn't want to because I thought the .223 would damage the target.  "Naaah, not that .22 pipsqueak, go ahead."  Then I fired a shot and nothing happened.  "You missed.  Try again." Fired about five shots, nothing happened, the guy was laughing his ass off because I couldn't hit the target.

Then we went out and checked it and his fancy steel target have five holes in it, centered.

Reading all these stories takes me back to my childhood, messing around with air guns.  

1) Once, while my brother and I were out eradicating the songbird population in our neighborhood, he held his Crossman 760? at the hip and fired a blind shot into a small tree (20' tall) maybe 30 yds away.  A sparrow fell out dead as dirt.

2)  Later in life, I told a buddy I was going to shoot the string that held the coke can we were shooting at, with a single shot .22, from about 30-35yds, and actually did it!

3)  I also shot a water snake swimming across a pond at about 50yds with the same SS .22

Pre 64 Model 70 in 300 H&H Magnum 150 grain.
One whitetail at 465 yards and another whitetail at 495 yards. Shot them both through the heart, different seasons. They were both standing broadside. They are my longest heart shots.

Shot many running whitetails with the 300 H&H as far as 500 yards away.

My farthest whitetail kill standing broadside was 690 yards with the 300 H&H (through lungs).

Shot a whitetail standing broadside 204 yards away with iron sights on a model 94 30-30.
My dad almost had a heart attack when he saw me drop him.

I have never ever missed a deer. I have killed 29 deer with 29 shots. Most of them with the 300 H&H.

I have shot well over 200 coyotes with a 25-06. I have missed quite a few of them running many hundreds of yards out there. Pretty small target to try to hit running full speed at 400
plus yards

When I was young and stupid I use to shoot crows
when they were flying with my .22 LR with a 4x scope. Got real good at it until I finally decided that I should not be shooting up in the air with a rifle.

Consistently shot crows out to 350 yards with a scoped Pre 64 Model 70 in .243 (light to moderate winds).

Consistently shot crows out to 250 yards with a
scoped Model 700 in .222 (light to moderate winds).

When we use to go out and walk pheasants up, my
grandfather could consistently shoot them from the hip with his 12 gauge. He did not miss very
often. Most amazing shooting that I have ever
seen.

My father was also the most amazing shotgun shooter that I have ever seen. No one could pass shoot Canvasback and Redheads like him.
You ever try shooting a Canvasback flying 60-70
mph plus the wind speed behind them. Its a real bitch.

My father also had the quickest reflexes and follow-up I have seen with a shotgun. Him and his hunting buddy use to take the plugs out of the shotguns once in a while when duck or goose hunting. Uh-Oh, you did not hear that. He could empty his Model 870 12 gauge pump before the first duck or goose hit the ground. And he would hit a bird with every shot. I saw him do this on numerous occasions.

It was amazing watching my father also shoot running deer and coyotes. Unbelievable how he could hit a running coyote 400-500 yards away.

All true, no bullshit.

My best was on my grandmother's farm.  A blackbird landed in a small bush, and I fired my pellet rifle at it.  I missed.  Then I realized my uncle's house was in my line of fire, most notably its windows.  The large, decorative, old-fashioned sort made of a wooden lattice with lots of one-square-foot panes puttied in place.

I go over and look, and there is a mark where "something" recently slammed into the half-inch wood strip between two of the panes.

Now THAT's what I call shooting! [:D]

btt 'cause I like this thread.

Flying crow from a moving car with a 12 ga.  Scared the driver, he then put the car in the ditch when the body of the crow landed on the hood of the car.

SP

One fond memory from my misspent youth involved some long range shooting-by my next oldest brother.

I was raised on a farm, and had plenty of opportunities to wander around our land carrying an old Glenfield .22. I happened to spot a woodchuck, and promptly shot and killed him. Not a terribly long shot, as I recall.

Never one to miss a chance to screw over my older brothers (believe me, I was the victim more than once!), I carried the dead chuck out to the center of a hayfield that was visible from our house. I then propped the chuck up in an upright position with a stick, perhaps 250 yds from the house. I then returned to the house and waited for the right moment. About an hour later, my brother and I walked out of the house, and I looked out in the field, and pointed out the chuck to my brother. I said I could probably get him with my .22. My brother laughed and said it was a job for his scoped 30'06. I agreed that he was probably right. He ran back into the house to grab his rifle. Luckily([:D]) the chuck was still standing up(hell, he even looked a little bigger after an hour in the summer sun!)

My brother came back out, rested the gun on a tree, took careful aim, and fired. The chuck just stood there. I innocently suggested he shoot again. 2 shots later, the lightbulb clicked on in my brothers head. It was either that or my uncontrolled laughter! He was not amused.

I was 18, my friend and I went out one winter in the desert. We thought it would be cool to see snow capped catus.

I always took my single shot .22 whenever I went out in the desert (snakes suck).

Well we were out there checking things out, thinking aloud about how beutiful it was. Well we got to talking about shooting and telling tall tales about our best shots. Well... I pushed the limits and my friend called me on it. I had bragged about shooting over 100 yards with the .22 and hitting bullseyes.

My friend had this piece of solid plastic rod with him. It was only 1" in diameter about 1' long. He promptly walked out 100 yards and stuck it in the ground, only half was showing. He walked back and said "Hit that!"

Now the fun part was the rod was WHITE! Mind you there was snow on the ground. I could just barely make out the rod sticking in the ground.

So I load my single shot .22, shoulder it (while standing), take some some breaths, line up the sites, slooowwwllly squeeze the trigger.

"POW!" The bullet leaves the barrel.

"PACK!" The bullet hits the rod!

"Death curdeling scream!" My friend standing right next to me is screaming and jumping up and down. My jaw just drops, I just shot my friend.

Only now my friend is ripping his pants off, down to his ankles (underware included). I am just standing there in amazment, thinking "What the hell is he planning?!?!?!"

My friend is now fondeling his nuts, mumbleing "Oh, my god. Oh, my god! Their OK, their OK!"

I just start laughing my ass off, when I realized that the bullet had ricocheted off the plastic rod and hit my friend in the family jewels!

So, my best shot is one white 1" dia rod at 100 yards in the snow and 2 nuts at 200 yards (there and back) with ONE SHOT!