Your Toughest Shot -- Bird and Setting

[Gerald McPherson]

Well here's mine. Bird is a very large dove. Setting is among several round bales on a three legged dove chair. Shooting is slow as we sit and chat. Suddenly there is a bird about ten feet coming in for a landing on my hay bale. I see the bird the bird sees me. The bird throws his brakes on and stops in mid air at about four feet with its wings spread very wide.I do the fastest gun mount ever seen and pull the trigger. Me and the chair tumble backwards with me upside down missing a hat and glasses. The bird goes on its merry way. My friend laughs his fool head off. He likes to tell the story in large crowds. That bird had a wing span of about three feet when he hit reverse.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Gerald McPherson

Well here's mine. Bird is a very large dove. Setting is among several round bales on a three legged dove chair. Shooting is slow as we sit and chat. Suddenly there is a bird about ten feet coming in for a landing on my hay bale. I see the bird the bird sees me. The bird throws his brakes on and stops in mid air at about four feet with its wings spread very wide.I do the fastest gun mount ever seen and pull the trigger. Me and the chair tumble backwards with me upside down missing a hat and glasses. The bird goes on its merry way. My friend laughs his fool head off. He likes to tell the story in large crowds. That bird had a wing span of about three feet when he hit reverse.

Gerald, what a great account of a miss...and better yet that you can tell it on yourself. (BTW, I have long ago gotten rid of my three-legged stool for dove hunts.)

[charlie cleveland]

that made me laugh for a while...charlie

[Stan Hillis]

Toughest wild bird shot? No question ............ wood ducks coming into a little beaver pond at first light. They land on the water at, what seems to be, at least 50 mph, dodging between trees, darting back and forth, until finally plopping down within 5 yards of you oftentimes.

I've shot doves for 60 years here and South America, wild quail in Georgia and Arizona, green timber ducks in Arkansas and Mississippi, but nothing is as consistently tough as those woodies coming in to land in a little beaver pond in timber in the predawn light.

SRH

[Ed Norman]

I forgot about another tough shot I had hunting. A couple I got to know back in the 70's helped me train my first beagle. They offered to take me grouse hunting with their bird dog. I think it was a wire haired griffon? I remember watching the dog quartering, I remember him going on point, Bob directed me to an area to the right of the dog, Bob walked in towards the dog and several grouse flushed, maybe 5 or 6 if I remember correctly. My first wife had just gotten me a browning over/under 20 gauge for my birthday, and this was my first hunt with that new shotgun. I aimed at a grouse, took my shot, 2 grouse fell, the dog went and retrieved both of them. Bob was standing there with his mouth wide open, his wife Patti was just smiling. I tried to act like it was no big deal the next shot I took was one of my toughest shots ever.

[Joe from MO]

Shot at a Goldeneye on Truman Lake back in the 80's.... I still remember it like yesterday.

I was shooting south of the blind coming towards us with a nice tail wind. I lined up pulled away for the lead, and just as I squeezed the trigger, it made a hard left, as only a goldeneye with a tailwind can do... Because the bird was out my end of the blind, my dad had not even pulled up his gun, and was just watching me for the shot... He just started laughing and said, I think you missed that bird by two counties....

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Joseph Sheerin

Shot at a Goldeneye on Truman Lake back in the 80's.... I still remember it like yesterday.

I was shooting south of the blind coming towards us with a nice tail wind. I lined up pulled away for the lead, and just as I squeezed the trigger, it made a hard left, as only a goldeneye with a tailwind can do... Because the bird was out my end of the blind, my dad had not even pulled up his gun, and was just watching me for the shot... He just started laughing and said, I think you missed that bird by two counties....

Pat, Dad's can be blunt, but I wish I could hear mine again.

I'm glad that there is not another shooter around when my bird "zigs" when my shot "zags."

[Joe from MO]

Originally Posted by Garry L Gordon

Pat, Dad's can be blunt, but I wish I could hear mine again.

I'm glad that there is not another shooter around when my bird "zigs" when my shot "zags."

Ya dad passed in 95, and my uncle and I dumped out his ashes on a point of Thomas Hill lake 2 weeks later as sun was rising, and we prepared for one of the best days of duck hunting I had ever had. I'd had years of frustration trying to kill a sprig pintail, well guess what I did that day, and many more since. Uncle and I both limited out with very colorful bag of birds ranging from wood ducks, red heads, pintails, Mallards and blue bills. What a great day of wingshooting that was, and I couldn't help but feel my dad sitting there in the blind with us.

[Ed Norman]

I was treasurer of our local ducks unlimited chapter back in the 70's, one of the guys that was heavily involved with d.u. asked me to go duck hunting with him. I told him I would make a blind at skeegmog lake near where I lived. It was quite a nice blind, easy to find during the day not very easy to find pre dawn I put the blind on the south side of a small island of mostly cattails. As dawn came, I said oops as I was squinting into the early sunrise to my left. I remember just seeing a bird coming right at me from my left, I pulled up my 20 gauge, literally shot from the hip, the greenwing teal dropped at my feet splashing both of us. My new buddy had the strangest look on his face later we took turn poling each other around the backwater, he was poling, I was sitting up front when a mallard took off about 30 yards ahead, I thought it was to far away, he yelled shoot it, I remember giving a little extra lead, the duck was probably 40 yards by then, I think one pellet must of hit it in the head, it just dropped out of the sky and never moved. At every d.u. banquet I attended after that, I got a nice introduction from him, the two luckiest shots I probably ever took.

[Stan Hillis]

Tough question to answer.

SRH