What is your most unique hunting success - airgun or not?

[Blackpaw]

Okay, I am sure this is a bit off the wall, but we all has a one off of how we had a successful hunt.

Years back I was hunting pheasants with my dogs. We were hunting in a ravine that had a spring with long grass and birch growing on the hillside. The dogs were busting pheasants left and right, then I was down to one to limit out. Well, here is where it gets interesting.

Both my dogs dig their noses in the grass under a birch tree, and won’t budge. So I stuck my own nose there and then notice I am looking eye to eye with a cock pheasant trying to go out the backdoor through the grass above the hole he was in. Well, like any good hunter I adapted and over came the obstacle found a solution. Solution was I grabbed the pheasant by the neck and thus had two pissed off flat-coated retrievers that I “took their job” by not letting them retrieve the bird.

 

[smokeOnBro55]

Once killed a cat while target shooting.

Was shooting in some woods. Target nailed to a tree. After about 25 or so shots I shot one thru the tree and heard a strange metallic impact sound. Stopped shooting and when to investigate. Someone had stolen a caterpillar D9 and ran it into the woods from the other side. Covered it with netting and branches. I hit it good. 

 

[JohnnyPDX]

Bow season Oregon Coast late Summer bow hunt.

After walking / stalking / sitting for four hours I spooked an elk in bear country and heard a rumble but didn't have an arrow nocked and couldn't react fast enough for a bear or elk.

Bow in hand, 44 mag on hip and watched a cow elk running uphill into thickets at 10 yards. Part-time hunter, full-time elk.

"Hair tag" in pocket.

No chasing, no point... just gone.

 

[FelixS]

At 15 or so, I shot a sparrow out of the air in mid-flight at about 60 yards; Benjamin .177 with iron sights. This, after about 100 or more attempts throughout a few years.

I also shot a tin can at about 100 yards -in the wind, with the same gun. I didn't take that much time to aim, just figured, "oh, this much hold for the wind, and this much hold over for distance..." then I shot and figured I missed and was about to tun away, and then, "ping!".

 

[bubblerboy64]

Best shot I ever made was …. I hit a 6 inch swinger at 500 yards OFF HAND. Totally a lucky shot. Hunting ? Got a groundhog at 420 yards. I know that’s not all that special but it’s MY best shot. 

 

[lamarkeiko]

It was April 1972 and I was on a destroyer at Pearl Harbor about 6 months before my enlistment in the Navy was up and we got short notice that we had to deploy to the Tonkin Gulf. My wife was 4 months pregnant with our first child, so I was not very happy about having to leave her. After 4 1/2 months I was given emergency leave so I could be home for our sons birth. After reporting in at Treasure Island Naval Base, in California I was given unlimited liberty so I could be with my wife for the birth. I headed North to my family home where my wife was staying with my parents. The baby wasn't in a hurry to come out as scheduled and California deer season was about to start. I hadn't been deer hunting for 4 years. I got my Model 700 Rem .270 out and it was Saturday morning opening day of deer season and I went out to my familiar hunting grounds about 2 miles from home. The sun was just cresting on the horizon, I was about 30 minutes into my hunt and across a canyon about 200 yards away I spotted a buck laying down looking my way. I took my time and got in a prone position and carefully took a shot. The buck jumped up and took off running, and when he was out of sight I could hear a brush crashing sound. After a short wait I followed up on the shot and found the blood trail which lead me to the buck piled up. It was a nice lung shot. This was the first legal buck I had ever shot. It was a blacktail with a 24" wide and high spread. I later had it officially measured and it made it to 145 best in the Boone & Crockett record books. I've shoot many bucks since then, but none as big. My son was born 2 days later. I reported back to Treasure Island and they processed me out of the Navy a couple weeks early of my enlistment date.

Lamar

 

[Jim81]

Probably different from many/ Helping dairy farmers ridding their barns from roosting Starlings. Not by shooting but by chasing them out into the dark wet night with a green laser. As city boy in my earlier life 'walking a mile' in the dairy farmer's shoes has been rewarding to me in a major way. Kinder, hardworking, 'real' people are pretty hard to find.

 

[Longfellow]

Coyote. 617 yards. 25/06 / 87gr SP. 1980.

Back in the day, I used to bounty hunt for yotes and bobcats in Parker County, Texas. Ranchers back in those days used to pay $100 for a pair of ears. USMC taught me how to shoot at long range. I already knew how to shoot before I signed up; but, Uncle Sam taught me how to kill stuff at 500 yards.

 

[cea1960]

I was pheasant hunting. I needed one for my taxidermy class the following day. I didn't see any all day and had called it quits. Leaving the parking lot a cock pheasant flew into the side if my jeep, killing itself.

 

[KatoKevin454]

I was 14 years old at a friends house, he had a huge yard, couple acres, he had a piece of junk leaking Crossman BB/pellet gun, it would only hold air for about 20 seconds, there was a Bird sitting on an old car Axle way out in the yard about 40 yards out, I pumped the hell out of the gun and loaded a BB in it, pointed it in the air and said "Potshot", pulled the trigger and we watched the BB in flight making a long arch and Nailed the Bird on the head, killing the bird, We looked at each other and said "No Way", it was an impossible shot, but it hit the target, his dog ate the bird before we could get to it..... one in a life time shot.....

 

[Zorin]

Dumbest buck in California.

Was bowhunting in Los Padres National Forest in Southern California and spotted just the tip of an antler poking out of some tall grass at around 75 yards.

There was a stand of oak trees about 30 yards from the buck's location. I carefully stalked until I got to 30 yards. I pulled the bow back and waited for him to stand up. He HAD to know I was there right? I am holding the bow back and he's still just lying in the grass. I then realize that he has no idea I am right there. 

I let the bow back down slowly, and rest a minute. I then draw back, and with a loud stomp with my boot in the dry oak leaves, the buck jumps up. I don't even remember releasing the arrow, but boy, did I hear it smack home! It sounded like I hit a wooden plank. The buck goes maybe 10 yards and piles up dead. 

Totally lucky hunt that day. The buck made a mistake, and the wind was exactly right in my favor.