Fish tales....

[Cruentus]

I thought this would be fun...

Anybody have any tales of shooting feats that seemed to defy reality? Preferably something you saw in person? Or, something you did. Preferably truthful stories rather then tall tales, please!

 

[bydand]

Yes I do. It defys my reality, but some of you out there may very well be as good; I am not!

A few years ago I went out to plink with my .270 at an old gravel pit where I knew I could get a true 200 yard range. When I arrived there were already 2 guys out there shooting, and so after talking with them, I set up a short range on the other end. This put us when we were shooting about 20 yards apart. After a couple of shots I noticed one of them was shooting a different sounding rifle, so I wandered over and began talking guns and hunting. The guys were from Tenn. and were stationed at the Air Force base a few miles away. One of them was shooting an old Mauser in 8mm (if I remember right),and was Jed Clampett accurate with it. His buddy told me to go ahead and throw a rock downrange, I did and "Jed" powdered it in the air. Challange was on! I threw rocks from baseball sized to golf ball sized as hard as I could as many different angles up and down as I could and he never missed one. One shot each and they were gone. Now I'm a rather good shot, but I have never seen anything like that before or sense. The guy never missed anything.

Before anybody grills me on shooting rocks and shooting rifles in the air, please remember where I live. The direction he was firing, the closest house is in Quebec Canada which is about 90 miles as the crow files. The land for almost 15 miles that direction was run by a lumber operation who was on break from cutting and a small strip used by the Air Force for weapons training which I knew the guys who scheduled use of the area and it wasn't being used that day.

 

[Cruentus]

Yes I do. It defys my reality, but some of you out there may very well be as good; I am not!

The direction he was firing, the closest house is in Quebec Canada which is about 90 miles as the crow files.

Well, then that's O.K.. Even the Canadians would have you shoot in that direction a little more often; but why so far away?

 

[bydand]

Check a map and you will see that the entire Western part of the state there is no towns, cities, nothing up in the northern part. I am located right on the edge of that vast wooded area. You can literally drive for hundreds of miles down old logging roads and not see another soul. When they are cutting you run into log trucks, but not much else. I have done a service call where I drove for 4 hours to a loggers camp and never saw anybody the whole trip there and back and because it was in the summer and no public roads (no cops) I was going about 90 in the work truck down the straight aways. We are closer geographically to Quebec City than we are to Bangor, ME.

 

[Carol]

Well, then that's O.K.. Even the Canadians would have you shoot in that direction a little more often; but why so far away?

LOL!!

Off topic but...curious about the name change, Paul! What does it mean?

 

[bydand]

LOL!!

Off topic but...curious about the name change, Paul! What does it mean?

I wondered about that as well.

 

[tellner]

Not mine, but a former women's self defense student...

We took a few interested students to the range a couple times. One of them is my greatest disappointment. She was short, petite, curly blonde hair, pale skin, in short a classic Victorian beauty. She was also a natural gunsel. Under stress she relaxed and naturally spanned her vision out. She moved incredibly efficiently. She could improvise in unfamiliar situations and always smiled when she did. And, dammit, she wanted to be a pianist. Well, it's her life not mine. But Lord she had natural gifts for combat.

Anyhow, we took them to a local indoor range. This gal put them all in the ten ring at seven feet, ten feet, five meters and ten meters. The pattern started opening up at fifteen meters. First time she'd ever picked up a gun, and she did it with a .22 revolver, a .38 Colt Diamondback and a 1911.

 

[Cruentus]

Name? It means "bloodthirsty." Yes I know...how pleasant...

I had to change it for work reasons. You'll notice also that I will no longer have my real name available publically (like in my profile), even though I can use it privately (so no, my wife doesn't have to call me "Cruentus"...lol)

So...that's why.

 

[MA-Caver]

A friend of mine is a black powder enthusiast (as am I) he has a replica of the old Civil War Navy Colt (.45 cal I believe) and we were out in the desert messing around and plinking at stuff. He then set up a can of old beans some 10 yards away. Told me to shoot from the hip. Asked him: "you mean like a quick draw or something or like this?" and I had the gun pointed down at the ground then lifted it up and fired in one movement... blew the can to pieces. He stared at the can then at me then walked off to his rifle in digust.
Then about 10 minutes later he set up his .50 cal rifle and a target some 30 yards away... He fired a shot and hit his paper target near about center... pretty dang good. Reloaded and said it was my turn, thinking I'd be a bad shot with a rifle, I brought it up to my shoulder, aimed at the target and his shot and fired. His revenge was loading 120 grains in the rifle rather than the standard 90... not so bad (as I was expecting it) my revenge was a Alvin York shot of putting my ball right on top of his, or rather inside of his shot.
Don't mess with us Tennesseeans... we all know how to shoot!

 

[Cruentus]

Check a map and you will see that the entire Western part of the state there is no towns, cities, nothing up in the northern part. I am located right on the edge of that vast wooded area. You can literally drive for hundreds of miles down old logging roads and not see another soul. When they are cutting you run into log trucks, but not much else. I have done a service call where I drove for 4 hours to a loggers camp and never saw anybody the whole trip there and back and because it was in the summer and no public roads (no cops) I was going about 90 in the work truck down the straight aways. We are closer geographically to Quebec City than we are to Bangor, ME.

I was of course joking around with my last post about shooting at Quebec, btw..

My little story is sort of humerous. Here is the back-story:

I was just starting off in firearms training, but I had a good foundation built already. A friend of mine wanted me to teach him how to shoot. He had some limited experience already. Now, I teach different then a lot of people, specifically target shooters. I start people off with fundementals 1-handed 1st, with sites taped, and with the target only about 2-3 yards out. I want them to focus on good form, grip, natural point of aim, etc., that would be applicable to combat shooting, without having to worry about use of sites and fine tuning at the early stages. We gradually move the target out to about 7 yards with the one hand, then add the second hand, body point, and then add the use of sites for longer range/time/cover. I am not the only one who does this, btw.

To demonstrate proprioception (the same thing that allows you to walk around your house in the dark without tripping over every peice of furnature) and the minds ability to index where the target is, I usually put the target out 5 yards, I look at away from the target, and I point and shoot at the target without looking at it. I always keep my gun pointed down range, and safe, of course. I am trying to demonstrate that you can shoot things without artificial sites, and sometimes even without your eyes. I always hit the 5" by 11"paper at least when I do this.

O.K., so I put the target 5 yards out. I look at my friend and say, "I have already mentally indexed where the target is. I not only don't need sites to hit a target at close range, but I don't always need my eyes either." In one smooth motion, I drew my firearm while looking at him in the eye, pointed, and shot. I was using one of those black targets that punch out florecent yellow. I had a florecent yellow dot right dead center in the target, where the small X used to be. I looked at my friend like this was a normal thing that I do all of the time, and simply contineued with my point, "Now of course, normally I would always look at my target and assess what I am shooting at. But as you can see, my body knows where the target is as much as my eyes do, once I have mentally indexed it."

My friend just blurted out, "Holy ****!" I just smiled as if nothing spectacular happened.

But on the inside, I was laughing my *** off. I can hit a 5 by 11 inch target on a fixed range at about 3-5 yards like that no problem. But Dead center!? As if I am ever going to hit dead center of the bullseye like that ever again without looking at my target! :lol: No way!

But, it was cool just to be able to do it once!

 

[bydand]

My friend just blurted out, "Holy ****!" I just smiled as if nothing spectacular happened.

But on the inside, I was laughing my *** off. I can hit a 5 by 11 inch target on a fixed range at about 3-5 yards like that no problem. But Dead center!? As if I am ever going to hit dead center of the bullseye like that ever again without looking at my target! :lol: No way!

But, it was cool just to be able to do it once!

I know you were joking, but anytime you can get a dig at Quebec it is a good thing. (Anybody from Quebec, before you orginize a lynch mob just remember, I have some great friends that live in Quebec and love going over there, so I just joking also.)

You have to love being able to keep your cool and not stammering out the same phrase yourself. My brother did the same thing a few years back at the same gravel pit with his Marlin .444. A few guys were out there shooting their "longer range" bolt actions from about 200 yards out at 1/2 liter plastic soda bottles filled with water. They had a whole line of them downrange and there was 1 green colored bottle right in the center of their spread. We talked a bit and found out they were out there sighting in their rifles for bear hunting, a couple had .243's and figured they were plenty big for a black bear. They asked what we were shooting that day so we got out our rifles. When he pulled his lever action .444 out of the truck, they started in on how it would be good at close range, but anything over 100 yards it wasn't worth a crap. He asked if he could take 1 shot and when they said sure (with a snicker) he loaded up, then turned to talk to them with the butt resting on his hip and the muzzle straight up in the air. He casually said "See that green bottle?" rolled the rifle off his hip cocked it while it was rolling with one hand (a-la "The Rifleman") touched off the brute from the hip and the bottle dissappeared. Without even a flinch he continued with "Now you don't" When the bullet hit the hill behind the bottles it just exploded into the shale and he just casually looked at the guys shooting the .243's and said "You do know the object is to kill the bear and not just piss it off right? I think I'll stick to my short range choice, good luck with yours." We climbed back into the truck and when we drove out they were still standing there with their mouths hanging open. He turned to me and said "Jeeze, that was a lucky shot, didn't think I could pull it off."

 

[Cruentus]

lol... that's hilarious.

I have another one not nearly as cool, but still pretty cool.

My friend who is a recruiter and I were at an indoor range. Some young guys were messing around with an M-14 with Iron sites. We were the only ones on range besides them at that time. They were asking questions and messing around a little with us, and also bragging a little about how they are these "big shooters," so my buddy goes, "Hey dude, you could join the military if you really want to learn how to shoot."

The other guy goes, "What do you mean."

My buddy goes, "Step aside and I'll show you." He puts the target down range as far as it would go, sets up, and says, "Now watch the middle of that target."

Bang.

Hits the target dead nuts center, as he found out when he reeled the target back in. They all had a look of surprise on their face. Without missing a beat, he throws down some recruiting business cards and says, "Yea, if you want to learn how to do that, give me a call." And we went back to our area.

It was classic. Later, he was like, "Yea, like I shoot M-14's ever. It's a good thing that they didn't ask me to do that again!."

It was pretty funny. My friend is a crack shot with a rifle, but still that was a hard shot to make with that gun with iron sites, and without being used to or in practice with it!

 

[tellner]

'Course if we're going to talk about shooting feats there's always the one about the Texan, the Californian and the Oregonian...

The three guys were sitting on a hillside drinking and bragging.

The Texan took out a bottle of bourbon, took a swig, threw it in the air and shot it with his pearl-handled Vaquero. He said "Don't y'all worry. We got plenty more of that back home."

The Californian extracted a bottle of Napa Chardonnay from his portable wine cooler, took one sip and threw it into the sky. He pulled out a Cali-legal Barret .416 and blasted it to powder. "That's alright," he said "We have more of that at home."

The Oregonian reached into his backpack, pulled out a Rogue River microbrew, drank the whole thing and threw the empty into the air. He pulled out a shotgun, blasted the Californian, caught the bottle and turned to the Texan.

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of those back home. Besides, the bottles worth a nickel!"

 

[Cruentus]

lol. Dude, that is awesome. I've got to tell that to my Brother-inlaw who lives in Cali! :lol:

 

[tellner]

*doffs hat*
*tugs forelock*

Thankee Guvnor.

 

[Grenadier]

Mostly from 1911 / .45 ACP afficianados who grossly overstate the power of the .45 ACP.

The .45 ACP is a wonderful cartridge, and an excellent manstopper for a handgun caliber, but at the local IDPA match once, a cranky old fellow took a look at my Glock 31 (357 Sig caliber), and snorted as he said something about how I was using a plastic pea shooter. I simply listened to his words, as he would say things about how a .45 ACP could blow a man's arm off, or knock him down, while it takes a dozen 9 mm rounds to stop a man.

I didn't say anything else to him, figuring that he simply needed to rant. When it came time to chrony everyone's ammo, he was boasting about his new great custom load that would put down a bear. I wasn't very impressed at all, since he didn't even break the 165,000 power factor with his powderpuff 230 grain loads, since his ammo clocked in at around 700 fps. He became rather embarassed when the director told him that he was not allowed to compete in the CDP division, since his ammo didn't meet the minimum power factor. So, he had to shoot in ESP (the division where I competed), and he wasn't too happy about that.

All throughout the match, he kept ragging on my choice of a weapon, saying that the 9 mm is weak, etc (even though I was using a 357 Sig). After the match was over, we went over to the chrony, and I showed him how "weak" my cartridges were, by launching a 124 grain flat point to the velocity of 1400 fps, giving me a 173,600 power factor rating.

I then tested my custom 147 grain 9 mm loads out of my Glock 17, which can hit 1200 fps, giving me a 176,400 power factor.

He left the match grounds, grumbling something about how the chrony must be broken if a pea shooter registers higher than his hand cannon.

 

[Cruentus]

THat's hilarious. I can think of a lot of dumb middle-aged to old guy stories from the range.

 

[KenpoTex]

Two come immediately to mind...

1. Several years ago, my father and I were hunting wild boar down in south Texas. While walking along the fence-line on our property, we saw a pack of hogs (probably about 10 IIRC) on the other side of the fence in the neighbor's field. When the hogs saw us, they all began running back towards the brush on our property. As they crossed the open area between the fence and the brush, I took a shot at the first one. The thing litterally stopped as if it had hit a brick wall. When we reached the hog, we saw that my bullet had hit him at the base of the skull, severing the spine and instantly shutting him down. As we walked down to where it fell we had paced off the distance: 175 yard head-shot, on a running hog, with an open-sighted .30-30 (honestly, I expected to hit him, I used to be pretty darn slick with a rifle...I just didn't expect the head-shot ).

2. While out plinking one time we (again, my dad and I) had a 10" steel disk at about 30 yards, and a steel plate at about 150 yards that we were shooting with a variety of guns. After a while, my dad pulled out his old (old enough to pre-date model numbers) S&W .32 revolver (little tiny thing with a 2" barrel). He hit the target at 30 yards a couple of times, then he decided to take a shot at the plate. After he fired, there was a lapse of at least 2 seconds before we heard a faint "clang." when we walked down to the target, there was a bullet lying on the ground right in front of the plate, and a small grey circle (not even a dent) where the bullet struck the plate. For some reason, he's never tried a shot at that distance with that gun again...quit while you're ahead I guess

BTW: Paul, love the new avatar.

 

[Cruentus]

Since we are talking about animal stories;

I did have 2 groundhogs that had decided to burrow under my deck. One was huge, and the other was normal size. But, they are a hazard, and I had been waiting for the opportunity to get rid of them.

Well, I looked out my kitchen window at dusk, and there they were. Both of them.

I burst out my back door, drawing my Sig 225 9mm. They both went from basking in the grass to looking at me. I put two rounds in both of them, one at about 35 feet and the other about 50 feet. Took care of my groundhog problem.

That probably isn't that spectacular, and definatily not as cool as the hog story, but I felt like a gunslinger that day anyway...

BTW: Paul, love the new avatar.

Thanks, hoah. PM me and I'll tell you where it's from!

 

[Cruentus]

lol... that's hilarious.

I have another one not nearly as cool, but still pretty cool.

My friend who is a recruiter and I were at an indoor range. Some young guys were messing around with an M-14 with Iron sites. We were the only ones on range besides them at that time. They were asking questions and messing around a little with us, and also bragging a little about how they are these "big shooters," so my buddy goes, "Hey dude, you could join the military if you really want to learn how to shoot."

The other guy goes, "What do you mean."

My buddy goes, "Step aside and I'll show you." He puts the target down range as far as it would go, sets up, and says, "Now watch the middle of that target."

Bang.

Hits the target dead nuts center, as he found out when he reeled the target back in. They all had a look of surprise on their face. Without missing a beat, he throws down some recruiting business cards and says, "Yea, if you want to learn how to do that, give me a call." And we went back to our area.

It was classic. Later, he was like, "Yea, like I shoot M-14's ever. It's a good thing that they didn't ask me to do that again!."

It was pretty funny. My friend is a crack shot with a rifle, but still that was a hard shot to make with that gun with iron sites, and without being used to or in practice with it!

Actually, I was mistaken on this story. It was an M1 Grande that they were shooting. Makes the story a little more spectacular, maybe.