What was your most difficult shot?

[steve white]

This could involve range, speed, surprise, danger, or even the difficulty seeing kudu in the thick spekboom brush of the eastern cape. You tell us what you had to deal with or overcome. Hopefully we can all learn something and up the skills in our hunting toolbox.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

Not Africa, and not a firearm...

In 2009 I went back to visit family in Kansas, over Christmas. I bought a NR archery deer tag. As luck would have it I picked up swine flu right before getting there. I was feverish and miserable the whole trip. Did that keep me from hunting? Nooooo.....

Long story short, on my last morning I was hiking out, after pulling my stand. I had seen a couple of does go into a tangle of plum thickets around several cottonwoods a half mile from my stand. The wind was in my favor so on the way out I angled towards the tangle, without knowing if they were still there.

They were. They started to come out as I approached, unawareof me. I dropped to my knees. I brought my bow up and drew, ready in case a shot was offered. I had to lean back to avoid brush between us. And that was when the stand-off started.

They spotted me but didn't spook. I didn't have a shot. They were as still as statues, staring holes in me. I managed to let off without spooking them but was still on my knees and still leaning back. They had me pinned down like that for over 10 minutes.

Eventually they turned to go back into the tangle. Ignoring the blinding pain in my knees and back, I drew and shot at the closest, dropping an arrow into her boiler room. She dropped in sight. The distance was right at 50 yards, and I still had a slight fever.

Not sure there was a lesson to learn from this other than sometimes it's better to be lucky, and persistence pays.

 

[Tgood1]

Absinthe. Definitely a shot of Absinthe

 

[R eight]

That’s a difficult question to answer….but I guess my last moose hunt. First two hunts in Alaska hadn’t produced a legal bull. So, I was on my third hunt chasing a moose in BC. I’d only seen a solitary bull winkle in a week. 3 days until the hunt was over we bumped a decent bull. He was running. Two shots at between 100 and 140 meters and he was down. At the first shot he showed no sign of being hit and I assumed a tree may have copped the bullet. Second shot he dropped. During the recovery we found 2 bullet wounds, both wounds would have been fatal.

I probably would’ve have taken the shot under normal circumstances. But I knew this was my last moose hunt.

I’d always been told that moose are easy to hunt and that the only hard part was the carry out. I was also told that I’d probably be shooting a stationary animal in close. But it wasn’t to be and I’m pretty happy about that.

Oh yeah….they were correct about the carry out.

Shots were taken off hand, after a short jog, with my R8 in 30/06.

 

[HankBuck]

This could involve range, speed, surprise, danger, or even the difficulty seeing kudu in the thick spekboom brush of the eastern cape. You tell us what you had to deal with or overcome. Hopefully we can all learn something and up the skills in our hunting toolbox.

@steve white - my most difficult shot involves ANY Animal I “really want” - nothing to do with distance, angle, time allowed to settle in and get the shot off….NO, it’s all about “How much do I WANT that animal”? And also, how much time do I have to think about it? If a GREAT buck or bull Elk just “steps out” - no time to get all ramped up…just “shoot” - I have no problems. However, if I see that big rack, walking thru trees, slowly coming in, barely presenting a shot or a poor angle and I MUST WAIT — that becomes a difficult shot. Seeing a “nice” whitetail Buck at 200 yrds - easy to stay calm, hold steady, squeeze…like shooting a ‘target’. But for a whitetail Buck “Bigger then anything I’ve ever taken” = WOW, heart starts pounding, desire to just-shoot-now before he gets away etc.. And that makes the shot difficult - For ME. I must concentrate, get cross hairs steady, don’t rush, and slowly “squeeze” that trigger. When I was younger, Buck fever caused me to miss 2 bucks and make a poor shot on a 3rd and they were just a spike & 5 pointer —- but they were the BEST bucks I’d ever seen at the time and I got excited. Now, I’m calmer at most shots and even with the bigger animals I can Hold-it-together and make a good shot, really took some discipline. However, if I ever see the next World Record Whitetail at 75 yrds — I wouldn’t bet my House that I’ll hit it !!