The unluckiest animal.

[STUMPJMPR]

When i was a kid about the age of 11 my cousin and I were harassing the cats.  I shot in the general direction with my Benjamin pellet rifle.  All of the cats fled rapidly except for one.  I dead centered him in top of the head.  My grandpa was not happy at all.

[Bubber]

I was running around with one of the engineers at the utility company I work for several years ago. We were taking lunch after meeting with the Sherrifs department in regards to a service request. We were both laying in the shade of the truck trying to take a power nap when the engineer said "look at that rabbit". A jackrabbit had hopped up within 70 feet of us and was just staring at the sight. I lifted my head, grabbed a rock the size of a golf ball and side armed it at the rabbit while still laying down. Needless to say the rock hit the rabbit, it wasn't a fatal hit and the rabbit quit the country, but a hit none the less. The engineer stared at me slack jawed. I was amazed I hit it myself but I just turned and looked at the engineer and said, "huh, guess I should have thrown it harder". I then layed my head back down closed my eyes.

Bill the engineer still talks about that.

[Moss88hunter]

A buddy of mine was had been trying to get an elusive buck on his place for a while. He had just gotten off the road and into a field when he saw the buck in a treeline across the field. So he hid himself aimed his muzzleloader and fired it shot way high and hit brush behind the buck. The buck either saw the brush move or had no idea what the loud noise was and turned and ran somewhat towards my buddy and right as it crossed the road got hit by a truck.

Evan

[jjamna]

Bout 30 yrs ago 3 of us driving down the road and came up on a good size creek and it had a lot of back water around. we were going down the road at a good click and a wood duck flew up and was flying about the same speed we were and the friend on the passenger side grabbed a single six and let er fly. The duck folded upon the crack of the shot.

[SHOOTALL]

hope the statute of limitations is up on that one !

NICE SHOT THOUGH !

[plumberroy]

In 79 or 80 I was shooting at rabbits with a bow in north central Ok,  It was cold and the ground was frooze hard A jack rabbit jump out ran about 30' and stopped as soon as I released the arrow I knew the shot was low It hit the gound about half way between me and the rabbit and skipped like a flat rock on water and hit the jack dead center of the chest killing it dead. My method of rabbit hunting at that time was, Turk my beagle (best rabbit dog to ever chase a rabbit IMHO) would chase the rabbit around I would miss it with the bow and then Flame my greyhound  would catch the rabbit ( she would watch but not chase till given the comand "catch")  both dogs gave me  a look like Damn he actually hit one
Roy

[mrloring]

While in college I worked for a security company.  The site I was working at was a state prison in the early construction phase in what used to be a cow field.  On Sunday nobody was at the job site but two guards.  While making a round in the company truck, I told the driver to stop.  I stepped out of the truck and rested on the door and shot at a groundhog that was 35 paces away with my S&W 3914 9mm.  The groundhog was partially hidden in the grass so I was unsure if i had hit it or not.  As I walked closer I saw a groundhog run over the hill so I assumed that I had missed.  I didn't miss, there were two groundhogs one ran away the other one took a 124gr Hydra-Shok to the chest.

The next day I worked night shift with the same guy.  After our shift ended(8:00AM) the other guard asked me if I wanted to stop at his cousins farm to shot his new 22LR derringer and I agreed.  After we had shot for a while he said lets walk over into this field and look for some groundhogs.  As we crested the field it was filled with Canada Geese.  He drew his derringer and fired at the closest one which was about 20 yards, he missed.  As they flew I drew my S&W 3914 9mm and fired at one in the air and it folded like a cheap lawn chair.  What a sight two security guards in uniform one 9mm, one 22LR derringer and one goose.  Needless to say I felt like John Wayne, Dirty Harry and GI Joe.  The other guy was equally impressed he thought I was some kind of sharp shooter, but I will admit here those shots were just pure luck.  At that point I had probably never shot the S&W at more than 25 FEET!


The most unlucky animal I have dealt with was a small cottontail rabbit.  The rabbits would come into the yard but stay out of reach of the dog, this caused the dog to bark constantly.   I was probably 12 or 13 at the time.  I retrieved my BB gun to rid the yard of the bunnies.  I didn't want to kill the rabbits(my mother would be pissed), so I pumped the gun once and lobbed a BB at the rabbit.  It was about a 20 yard shot so it took watching a few shots to acquire the trajectory.  After I hit the first one all but one ran off.  I hit the last one with a one pump shot and then a two pump shot, the rabbit just flinched.   I sent a three pump shot down range and thump the rabbit fell over and started twitching.  I remember thinking there must be one heck of a difference between pumps two and three. 

[cybin]

The winter after I came home from Vietnam I went out rabbit hunting in Missouri with a Savage .22 over .410 rifle/shotgun.  The guys I went hunting with all had pump or auto 12 ga. shotguns, and gave me a hard time about my single shot. I let several shots go by without shooting, I wasn't really interested to tell the truth, when one of the guys came over to me to chat. As he approached a rabbit kicked up and started running up a small hill, I just threw the gun to my shoulder--I thought it was on the shotgun barrel-for a shotgun it was an easy shot--I pulled the trigger and the rabbit flipped--only it was on the .22 barrel. The guys eyes about popped out--and for years after that he would say the all I ever needed was a .22 rifle to shoot rabbits--it was no wonder that I didn't own a pump shotgun. He always told people that I hit rabbits on the run with a rifle.  I never told anyone before that it was one heck of a lucky shot. I shot rabbits with a .22 from time time alright, but I stalked them with snow on the ground and shot them sitting. And usually hunted them alone.

[Captain Emo]

I killed a bird with my finger once.

There were several flying and I pointed at them and said "bang".  At that moment, one flew into a power line, killing it. My sister and my neighbor Greg were astounded.

[tallpaul]

ha- while reading these I remembered a couple of classics. While over at a friends house we were messing around in his garage... I was late twenties and he a bit older. He had a broom handle with a nail in the end for picking paper etc. We were talking as a chipmonk made an apearence 20 ft away. He was gonna get an airgun and told him to sit still. I grabbed that broom handle and threw it spear style at that critter.... dead center chest shot. My buddy just said that if he did not see it with his own eyes he would not have believed it... then there was the poor grackle that happened to be in the tree when I was showin a buddy my North american arms .22 mini... yup one shot it fell to the ground as his jaw hit the ground shakin his head.... now if I could get deer and yotes to be as unlucky...

[1911crazy]

I just moved more north into the country and  i'm surrounded by horse farms.  The predators are on the rise here too.  I have yotes howling by at night, deer going by all the time and hawks of all sizes during the day looking for an easy meal.  I lost two of my cats already to yotes but thats another story.  I have bird feeders near my kitchen window so i can watch the birds feed while i eat, my house has large windows.  One day a bird flew into the window and flew away and before it could recover I seen a ball of feathers when a small hawk grabbed it right before my eyes.  I have wild america outside my windows.....We also have blackbears and fishers too.

Now my poor cats are not only threatened on land by predators the air force is watching them too(hawks).  We've seen birds with the wing span up to 4' feet so far but i'm not sure if there hawks or not but there bottom feathers are white/gray. The local news says the hawks are grabbing 10lb dogs.

[Moss88hunter]

I wouldn't doubt hawks grabbing 10 lb. dogs at all. This semester in one of my classes we were studying bald eagles at Reelfoot lake in TN and there were many documented cases of them grabbing large fawns. Birds of prey are very interesting animals.

Evan

[corbanzo]

I had a good one over christmas.  We were heading back to the house from town, and went to unlock one of the gates, at the gate, there was a ruffed grouse, which are really uncommon in this area.  Now the wierd thing was, he didn't fly away.  I was out of the truck, looking down at him, at about five feet away, so I hunched down, and got closed, till I was about two feet from him, stretched my hand within about 10 inches, and you could see him start to be cautious.  I lunged, and grabbed him and we threw him in a box.  We named him dinner, that was the freshest grouse I've ever ate!  It turns out that someone in the area had been raising them and this one had escaped, to my pleasure. 


Back when I was in high school, there were some kids, probably in the 11 or 12 yo age, spouting off at the mouth, being kids that age, as they walked past the house.  So I calmly walked into the house, got my red rider, and went back out to the front steps.  They saw the gun, and ran to what should of been safe range, about a seventy yards away.  I popped a shot off, and hit one of them right in the tender spot in the back of the thigh, "OWE!"  I didn't know a red rider could still have enough energy at that distance to cause pain. 


Another time as a kid, we were out shooting our wrist rockets at seagulls down by the pavilion, (sorry, I know nobody knows where that is... but it's a pavilion, by the water, where people have bbq's in seward)  There were a group of them on the rocks, and we were pretty far away, so weren't hitting much.  Well they started to fly, so I let a rock go, out in front of them, we were about 40 yards away at this point, and heard a small "whack!"  The rock hit the lead gull smack in the head.  I saw his heard throw, his flight bobble, but he just kept on flying.  Didn't have the energy to do much damage at 40 yards.

[1911crazy]

I wouldn't doubt hawks grabbing 10 lb. dogs at all. This semester in one of my classes we were studying bald eagles at Reelfoot lake in TN and there were many documented cases of them grabbing large fawns. Birds of prey are very interesting animals.

Evan

I only seen the wing span of the larger bird so far as it few away from my back yard thru the trees.  My neighbors talk about it all the time.

The smaller hawks sit in the tree tops nearby waiting for the smaller birds.  I can tell when a hawk is nearby the smaller birds hug the trees and don't move at all they freeze.

[flutedchamber]

When I was 12 my brother bought a S&W K-38 pistol.  We were shooting lead reloads from the store and getting miserable results at 25 feet.  No knowing if it was the pistol or the reloads we shot until we were out of ammo.  The ammo was so poor that we had 2 misfires out of 100 rounds. 

We called it quits for the day and were walking inside when a blackbird flew over us and landed in the top of an oak tree, about 60 feet away.  I said "watch this" and took one misfired round and put it in the revolver, aimed at the bird with one hand and fired double action.  Well, the gun went bang this time and the bird fell.  The wadcutter didn't leave much of it's head behind.  Now over 40 years later that had to be my luckiest shot ever.

[IOWA DON]

This just happened a few days ago. I had a mole trap set. One of the scissors type. It had been in the same place for two days and I decided to move it. I set it off with a stick because I did not want to carry it cocked and ready to go off and maybe cut off a finger. When I pulled it out of the ground there was a freshly killed mole in it. What was the chance of that mole being there exactly when I tripped the trap?

[charles p]

Last year while hunting over corn bait in NC, I had a rabbit, a squrill, and a dove, perfectly lined up at a corn pile.  No, I didn't ake the shot.

About 25 years earlier I shot a doe with buckshot.  She was standing in broom straw.  I actually shot through her and killed a second one also.  Never even saw the second deer.

[hillbill]

one time while running a road grader on a semi remote road, i had a jackrabbit run up out of the ditch, without thinking i pitched a lug wrench at him, the boomerang l shaped type. killed him dead. try to git yur buddys to believe that!

[ttank0789]

Both of these stories involve my dad's friend Eddie from when my dad lived in Arkansas. Both were told to me by him as this was before my time (Early '80s)
Story 1: My old man, Eddie, Eddie's dad and maybe some others were pheasant hunting.  Eddie's dad had a really good bird dog that he brought with them.  The land they were on had a big roll to it so Eddie and his father couldn't see each other, but my dad could see Eddie. The dog was on point so Eddie went to flush the bird. The safety was broken on the shotgun he was carrying and Eddie tripped and the gun went off, shooting the dog in the back of the head.  When Eddi's dad yelled "Did you get him?"  Eddie replied "Yea, I got him!"

Story 2: Eddie finally got the shotgun fixed and was sitting on his front porch after just getting in back from the gunsmith when the local game warden, and life long friend, stopped by. He said that he was glad Eddie finally got the gun fixed and told him to shoot it into the tree in his front yard to see if it worked.  When Eddie shot, a hawk fell out of the tree.  And I believe he got a fine.

[ttank0789]

I just remembered a couple more haha.
About 4 years ago two of my friends were in the woods hunting or doing something, I can't remember exactly what. They saw a woodchuck and either they shot at it and missed or spooked it somehow but it ran into a hole. When my friends got to the hole it was filled with water and bubbles were coming up. Then the bubbles stopped... I guess he picked the wrong hole

One of those two friends was in his deer stand 2 years ago when a squirrel went to jump from one tree to another. But it missed the branch and plummeted at least 20 feet to the ground.

 

[trotterlg]

A few years ago I was on a Cruise Missile test at White Sands in NM.  This particular test was a bunker penetration test, the missile basically comes straight down, the parts of the airframe splatter on the concrete roof and the penterator part goes down a long ways into the ground and does it's thing.  Things go really well, the missile hits where it is suppose to and all my cameras run, life is good.  I also have a video camera that runs for 4 hours on it so I get every thing before and after the event.  When I get the high-speed film back, just before the event, there is a Crow sitting on a witness panel, (a large sheet of plywood that are spaced around the target to see how many pieces of things poke holes in them).  Now the fun starts, about T- 3 seconds the Crow thinks something is wrong and takes flight, gets about three flaps in when the missile does it's thing, a fist sized piece of metal takes the Crow out in mid flight, just a puff of feathers and things go out of sight.  Now the funny part, when I look at the long video which covers a lot more area, I see the whole event, but then about 5 minutes later a Coyote runs in and eats the dead crow parts, seems they have learned that, on a test range, that a loud bang usually means there is lunch laying on the ground, so they just run to the noise and smoke and chow down.  That is about the most fun I have ever had in the Desert.  Larry

[myronman3]

i went to a house that lightning struck, and on the wire coming up to the nid there was a cooked mouse.  evidently he had been at the wrong place at the worse possible time.   

[ttank0789]

A guy I graduated with, and his entire street was woken one night by the sound of a big explosion. When they went outside to look the transformer on the telephone pole was sparking and there was a cooked squirrel on the ground

[mrbigtexan]

hearing about ya'lls wrist rocket made me remember when i was about 10 or 11, my friends older brother was bullying us around and i had my wrist rocket with me. he took it away and was picking up rocks and shooting them at a sack about 50 feet away. i kept trying to get it back from him and he would'nt give it back. after about 10 times of shooting it and missing he asks me how to aim it and i tell him to stick his thumb up and aim right over it. he pulls this rock way back and is looking right over his thumb and releases it. all of a sudden he's hopping around with his hands cupped together howling like an indian going on the warpath. he took off running towards his house faster than i ever seen him run before. i kept my distance from him for awhile

[BuckLoner]

  My wife and son were driving down a dirt road that runs through Stoney Hollow . My son just happened to notice a cat that was caught on an old barbed wire fence . The cat was still alive but a bit tore up and bloody .My son walked the 20 yards off road to the fence and finally was able to set the cat free . Although cut and bloody , the cat hissed at my son as it ran away through the weeds. About 1 hundred yards up the road , the road curved 90 degrees and cut the field the cat ran off though . My wife makes the turn just in time to see a red fox jump the cat my son had freed only minutes before , kill it , and snatch it up and run off into the weeds for supper.
              >   The lesson here   <  Sometimes it is hard to tell when you are better off being hung up in one mess , when you cant foresee whats lays in store for you

[BuckLoner]

 My best friend and i were doing some night fishing at a lake out in the middle of no-where . The fishing dot slow so , to pass the time , we took turns catching frogs using a flies fied on our rods. We took turns and had a blast working our way around the lake . It was Jeff`s turn as I held the coleman lantern. He teazed that bull frog to no end and it would not take the fly . Finally , in desparation ,Jeff started to bounce the fly on the frogs nose . FINALLY the frog took the fly . Jeff started picking the frog up out of the water as it held onto the fly/line . The darn thing kept coming ! The reason why .... we didnt see this but , a snake had almost all of the frogs back legs in its mouth . Jeff was backing up as he lifted the froh up , in the instant we realized that there was a snake on the frog . Jeff dropped his rod , the frog let go of the fly , the snake let go of the frog and the frog made 2 big jumps , the second jump it hit Jeff on his stomach .  Jeff let out a yell I cracked up laughing . we both laughed so hard we cried .He turned white as a sheet when that big bull-frog hit him . Damn near the funniest thing I ever wittnessed

[hunt-m-up]

Mine would be the poor rabbit in the cattleyard. When I  was a kid the dog was always jumping rabbits and chasing them around, but seldom did he do much catching.
This particular day when I was 14-15 I happened to be working on a tank float on an IA hydrant in the cattleyard and he got started on one. The rabbit made a big circle in the yard with the dog right on his butt. I had just enough time when they got about 10 yards from me to throw the pliers in my hand. They opened like a boomerang and caught the rabbit good enough to knock him silly so the dog could nail him.

At about the same age, second place for me would be the badger the dog caught out in the open pasture and backed him into a shallow hole long enough for me to thump him on the head with a length of steel fence post.

[troy_mclure]

great thread!
ive got 2

first was back when lawn darts were still popular, i was out in the yard throwing the darts in as high as an arc as i could and getting them in the ring. i stumbled as i threw the last dart and it came down in a bush. when i pulled the dart out there was a chipmunk still impaled on it!

the second i was driving thru some pretty wooded roads. i had been seeing squirrels leaping thru the trees over the road all day. out of the corner of my eye i see this squirrel take a leap, arcing right into my windshield.

[Travis Morgan]

Your Wrist Rocket story reminded me of an experience indoors.

I was a kid--7 or 8 or 9 maybe.  Two of my older sisters were on one of our beds--we had more beds than chairs in our house--with their backs up against the headboard.  One was reading the paper and eating an apple.  The other was similarly engaged.  I was sitting on the lower end of the bed fooling with my beany/ie flip.  (A beany/ie flip predates the Wrist Rocket and was oftentimes incorrectly called a slingshot and oftentimes called another name left over from a more racially insensitive time in our history. To make a beany/ie flip, one found a nice fork in a limb, cut it out, whittled off the bark, carved a grove around the two top ends, affixed two strips of stretchy rubber cut from an innertube, and made a pocket for a rock/marble, steely/ie ball from an old shoe tongue.  A weapon fit for the king of your block.  Such constructions would be impossible now: everyone knows that a kid with the necessary pocket knfie is bound to hurt himself or someone else.)  Seeing a carton character on the back of the paper that my sister was reading, I, without thinking it through, let fly with my flip.  The rock penetrated the picture, broke the lens of my sister's glasses, and impacted her eye.

At that moment, she was the unluckiest....

There was no serious and/or lasting injury--except to my sensibilities:  I, scared and worried about my sister,  started to cry and laid face down across a kitchen chair which happened to be in the bedroom.  My widowed mother walked past--I'm sure that she was probably more concerned with how she was going to pay for my sister a new set of glasses than anything else--and slapped me once across the butt with a belt.  That was one of only three or four times that I remember her ever hitting me--not to say that I didn't need hitting more than that.  There was that time that she used the flat side of a butcher knife.  I stayed awy from her in the kitchen after that.

BTW, I've known two men in my life that, as grown men, hunted with such a beany/ie flip, and both were deadly.  One, when he took his big, long-legged Coyote and Jack Rabbit dogs out, always carried one in his hip pocket.  If he saw a squirrel or a cottontail, it was supper.

Check out this ol guy!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ieWrWLjii0