Craziest Successful Shot Ever Taken! Not Unsafe!

ncpheasant

New member
We've all had those impossible shots that we somehow pulloff but what about strange flushes? Or unbelievable places they fall?

I have three such stories:

1) I once saw a guy in our group shoot a very high flying cock as we were standing around the truck. One shot dead bird, Bird landed in the truck.

2)We have one guy that on more than one occasion has shot a bird and held his hand out and caught it on the way down.

3)Once my uncle was hunting on the top side of a creek bed, someone called cock behind him and he swung around to see a rooster flying straight for him. He saluted the bird three times as the bird flew right over his head. Keeping his sight picture on the bird and concentrating very hard he pulled the trigger once more. Unfortunately, his center of balance was now off and the four shoot flipped him backwards off the high bank flipping him into the creek below. He did get the bird on that last shoot though! But for all of us around him, we couldn't stop laughing. Uncle Bucky says "Anyone can shoot a bird with style and grace, but it takes a real sportsman to miss three times and take him on the forth while flipping a** over heels into a two foot deep creek.
 
Those are some crazy shots. I've never been that successful. Craziest one I've seen was straight overhead and dropped ten feet in front of me.
 
I was hunting with my uncle in Northern Minnesota. The cover was cranberry bog with a stream running through the area. I was wearing rubber barn boots because at times the bog got deep and wet. We soon discovered the birds were not in the bog but on the little bulrush islands in the stream. So I went into the stream with my Brittany and we went from island to island. As I stepped onto the one island a Rooster came straight up, hit me squarely on the chin. I fell backwards totally off balance and landed on my butt, in the stream. I fired two shots from my hip as I was sitting there in the water and I missed. My uncle was laughing so hard he couldn't shoot. He kept teasing me that was the first time he seen a man cold-cocked by a pheasant.---Bob
 
I have seen one guy in my group I hunt with who is a dead on shot at all times. We were walking some CRP and one bird got up right in front of him. He did not hollar ROOSTER!!! His call out was simply "your dead" as he shot the bird as it tired to get away. And dropped it.


One time I got in the zone. I was and a 4 bird in 4 shot run when one bird got up on one side of the treeline we were pushing. It decided to fly over the tree line to the corn that was still standing. I was in the middle of the tree line and took a shot at it. The bird was roughtly 20 feet above the trees when I shot it and dropped it. I was stoked. 5 for 5. My brother who was hunting with me said, " I would like to shoot some birds some time." So I let the next one go that we saw that I knew I could have easily shot . He missed it also. But after letting that one go it must have got to me a little cause I could not hit the broad side of a barn if I was standing next to it after that.
 
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A wounded bird landed in a fence row...as we were searching for it, one of the members of our group had the new Taurus Judge pistol. He had just pulled it from the holster to shoot a rabbit when the wounded bird flew. You guessed it; one shot from that .410 and the bird dropped like a rock.
 
We were hunting a dry creek bed with decent cover on both sides of it and a rooster flushed out of gun range and flew up into a relatively narrow fence row. My son and a buddy were hunting with us (18 and 20 year old) "Boys...you might as well go up there and walk that fence row...that rooster might be sitting tight up there.." I tell them. They were skeptical...but went anyway. They are walking along chatting it up and the next thing I see is that old rooster get up and hit my son's friend right in the chest. Normally either one of them would have stoned that bird...but they were both so shocked they got off a couple wild shots. The rooster flew about 200 yards over an unpicked corn field and dropped like a rock. Unfortunately we didn't have a dog at the time...and we tried and tried...but could not come up with that bird. :(

So...come to think of it...not sure we can call that a "successful" shot! I always figure if you don't put it in the bag you don't count it!!
 
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A wounded bird landed in a fence row...as we were searching for it, one of the members of our group had the new Taurus Judge pistol. He had just pulled it from the holster to shoot a rabbit when the wounded bird flew. You guessed it; one shot from that .410 and the bird dropped like a rock.

I too have that revolver! Love that gun and THAT is a GREAT story!
 
Being fairly new to pheasant hunting, I was just learning my limitations - and that of my gun as well. Here in NB, we don't have a wild population, so I was hunting a preserve. On my first day out (with three birds to my name so far), we were heading back to camp for supper when we catch a hen sitting in the milo. My guide and I decided to get the dog out and make a push to see if we couldn't get the bird in the air. The hen ran 500 yards down the strip of milo, and then cut in. I still had my O/U open. The dog ran into the milo and flushed a rooster. Caught flat footed, I managed to snap the gun closed, shoulder it and loose one round, dropping the bird right there. I was so elated, and my guide was quite happy for me.

Second story - I had just taken a rooster with my second shot, and had an empty gun. The dog had retrieved the bird, and I was having my picture taken with it. Smiling from ear to ear at the photo op, my guide then asks me if I wanted the good news or the bad. I groaned, and said "The dog is on point behind me, isn't she?" No sooner did I get the words out, I heard the flutter of wings as a hen burst from the cover behind me. I dropped the rooster, grabbed one shell from my pocket, dropped it in the bottom barrel, closed the gun, shouldered, and drew a bead on the hen. It was crossing hard to my left about 35 yards out in a strong wind. All I heard was my guide telling me to get ahead of it. I pulled about 4 ft ahead and pulled the trigger. The bird cartwheeled out of the sky. The dog brought it back and we looked it over, unable to find where a pellet had done damage. When we skinned it, we found just a bit of bruising on the breast, but no shot damage at all. Not a pellet broke the skin. That was a 35yd shot with #6 lead out of a 12ga choked with IC. Wonder if I could do that again.
 
few years ago dad killed a rooster and it landed ontop of my grandmas barn. we had parked the truck right beside the barn on the backside. well the bird landed on the backside of the barn, slide down and we got back to the truck and the bird was layin on the hood. dad brings it up everytime we go up there to hunt
 
Not a pheasant hunting story, but one worth telling.

A few years ago, three of us were duck hunting out of a small blind. The day was a good one, and I was videotaping as a couple of ducks approached and looked interested in our decoys. As they locked their wings and came in, my buddies opened fire. The birds flared and tried escaping the steel now streaking through the air. As they unloaded their guns, no birds were falling. They were out of shells, so I dropped the camera, grabbed my gun, and unloaded. Not only did I smack a duck, but managed to drop him right on top of the blind! I couldn't believe it; we had to hit the deck or risk getting smacked by falling waterfowl.
 
The two favorite stories I have for this aren't even about shots on roosters-

1. Took my college buddy pheasant hunting for the first time. He grew up in Kansas City, but wasn't quite 'city', belongs in the country for sure. He knew how to handle a gun, did pretty well on the trap range, etc. Anyways, we're on a public hunting area in central Kansas, walking a field to a waterway. As we get into the waterway, a rooster jumps up in front of us, almost at his feet. I'm holding back to allow him a shot at his first bird. He simply watches it fly dead straight away. "Bud, why didn't you shoot that thing???" I ask. He replies "It was such a pretty thing, I just wanted to see it fly." He has since gone on to kill lots of ducks, doves, and I think even a few pheasants.

2. I missed opening weekend a few years ago due to work. My dad, bro in law, and his buddy went. They called me at noon to say they had limited out already, to rub it in. They then went on to tell one of the birds that was taken. My brother in law and his buddy had winged it, kind of took its rudder out if you will. Then it got in front of dad so they couldn't shoot anymore, and it is flying right at him, but he can't shoot because of them. The bird never did get more than 5 feet off the ground, headed right to dad, never veering off course. He eventually changed his grip on his shotgun and swatted the bird down with the butt of his Beretta O/U, kind of like a bunt in baseball if you will. Every year that story gets brought up, asking him if he is going to club another rooster this year.
 
I also have two stories. I once witnessed my brother in-law shoot 4 roosters on one rise in Western Kansas. Couldn't believe it.

Then, I had a buddy who was driving around to block a corner and he was doing probably 20 miles an hour when a rooster flused and flew back over the truck. We see his door swing open and he shot that bird as it crossed behind his truck doing 20 miles and hour. He never hit the brakes!
 
alright i will share a couple.

1. in 1983 out in northwest kansas i witnessed a guy we were hunting with drop 3 roosters with one shot. On the rise 2 were side by side at about 35 yards quartering away with the other slightly behind. After a good chase, we were able to get the last one. Funny thing was this guy had gone all weekend and never hit anything.

2. 20 years ago in Iowa i limited out with a double and a single 15 minutes into the first draw.

3. Had a farmer hunt with us on a push through some milo. I missed a bird coming at us 2 times. He shot once and caught it before it hit the ground.

4. Prairie chicken hunting in Westphalia Kansas. Before i could shoot the chicken, he killed himself on the high wire. Still went in the game vest
 
I am from Westphalia, Kansas. My family and I own and farm 6500 acres around here. There are very few chickens left .
 
yea it's too bad. this would have been in the middle seventies. it was a pretty well hunted area then. we used to line the outside of the fields and wait for them to fly in. seems to me at that time there were quite a few birds back then. my uncle new several farmers in the area.
 
The farmers he knew would have been my neighbors. My family has farmed here for 70 years. Kind of odd you mentioned westphalia since it only has 150 people!
 
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