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The Shot You’ll Never Forget Giveaway - Enter To Win A Barrel From Rifle Barrel Blanks!

It was mid january, cold as hell, and i took this yote, offhand with a shoulder leaning against my house...in my underwear with no socks or shoes... at 238 yards.

Cheapo savage 6.5 with the scope it came with.... box stock hornady 140.

My first off hand kill, and the first time my boys got to see one up close.
Big female.

Shred
 

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Most memorable shot... one I will never forget...? Well, it was many, many moons ago. (20+ years) Head shot, well actually I put one in the left eye... of a fucking stray cat. Here's why I won't forget it... The damn thing didn't die. Oh, I've killed before. I hunted everything from dove, to squirrel, to deer. I've deployed to war 4 times, and taken out our nation's enemies... but a stupid cat... that can take a 40gr .22 to the left eye and run away to hide under my front porch? I tried to get rid of that damn thing for weeks with zero success, finally resorting to using a bullet launcher. (10/22)

POP! Cat runs off to die. (or so I thought) Hrs later I can hear it crying and moaning from under the front porch. I crawled under there from the crawl space... and the flashlight shows the reflection of ONE eye. It hisses at me in defiance. It's WAY back in a corner were I can't get to it... Shit. So... out I go to get the 10/22 again for another shot. One more in the head, and one in the chest for good measure. Silence.

The cat that survived the head shot. That's the one I'll never forget.
I hate cats. Fucker was shitting in my kids' sandbox.
 
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The first time I shot 1,000 yards, I was with some of my dad’s work buddies, totally out of my depth—no data, no idea if my rifle was even sighted in. But with their help walking it out, round by round, I eventually made solid contact, and in that moment, I was completely hooked. Since then, long-range shooting has become a passion, and now I do everything I can to get others behind the rifle, because with a little training and a whole lot of luck, anyone can hit that target.
 
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A few years back my brother, a buddy, and his two sons were shooting on my parent's property in northern IN. I showed up about 30 minutes after they had already started. We had a 6x10 steel target about 400 yds out hanging on a fencepost and I'm not sure anyone had taken a shot at it yet. I pulled out my Armalite AR-10 chambered in 308Win., laid down prone, and cracked a cold-bore shot at that steel plate....DING!!!! I know I know...not a challenging shot but the moment was cool. My buddy said his sons still talk about that day.
 
Not a gun shot, but my most memorable shot:

As kids myself (7) and two older cousins (9,12) had the idea to throw rocks at a soda can from about 5 yards away, to make it explode, naturally. As the younger kid, I was always the underdog athletically.

So, one of my cousins shook up a coke can and laid it on its side. They each took a shot and missed miserably. Then, it was MY turn.

They were each standing a few feet to my left and right. I picked up a two-hands sized rock and gave it my best toss. The Rock landed right on the middle of the can, spraying two streams of fizzing coke directly on both of their pants. Epic.

I thought they were going to beat me up or something, but they couldn’t help but laugh. This was one of the proudest moments of my life, we still laugh about it to this day.
 
I was with a buddy shooting .22 LR at some 16 oz pop bottles filled with colored water at various yardages in light winds. I hit one at about 250 yards and drained it about 2/3 of the way but it was still standing. He said, "Impress me.", so I drained it with the next shot. That gun with CCI SV can't shoot THAT good.
 
Back when I was a young PFC Dumbass I was doing some PT with the 3rd Group Mentorship program and was invited to show up to the 2019 CAPEX at Bragg on range 37. Just show off the young hopefuls and make the program look good while giving us cool things to drool over. 18C's can talk about their explodey shit for far longer than I thought possible, as a Medic I was trying to talk to the 18D and see what he had in his aid bag, but here I am learning about breaching stuff I don't know the first thing about.

Part of this was some toys to shoot. First time I got to touch a big rifle like the 2010, we were given 5 rounds and had a couple silhouttes to shoot at. The silhouettes were only like 200 yards tops so I shot what I was told to shoot at and after hitting both silhouttes in front of me a time or three there was just this moving orange stick out about 250 yards maybe (I could be lying it's been a long time) it was pretty skinny but moved at a nice constant speed.

Having some rounds left I confirmed with the guy behind me I was good to shoot at that and picked a wind hold in whatever scope was mounted on top of this thing. It was moving left to right and bright orange, no wind so it was just getting lucky with the speed, fired my shot and whiffed just a little behind it. No big deal I'll get it with my last round. I had two left when I started so I had another shot. I wait for the target to go back all the way left and start the return trip to the right-hand side, and I'm tracking it all the way. My hold is good, I can feel it. This is the one. I slowly break the trigger; it's a perfect pull, and I follow through nice and smooth just like shooting skeet.

You know that feeling when it's just right? It's a hit and you know it right as you break that trigger? Yessir. She was a beauty.

*click*

The loudest sound in the world.

Fuck. Guess I didn't have two rounds left after all.

That was my first experience with anything bigger than an M4.
 
Barbour Creek Long Range Hunting School, advanced class, day 2. Leading edge of a nasty storm. Went from a perfectly still morning to 25-35 mph swirling, fishtailing gusts in no time flat. Made a wind call and laid in position for over four minutes waiting for the conditions to replicate. Hit a 10x12" "kill zone" swinger at 1140 yards. Elevation correct, 2" left of dead center. Held 11 feet into the wind.

I've made plenty of longer shots, but that was my best result ever in uber-challenging conditions. All my spotter said was "Betcha can't do it again..."
 
During the 2017 Thunderbeast/Burris Team challenge I had to stand up for a shot in one of the field stages since a bush was in the ideal position. I had my LMT MWS with 16" barrel with an IOR 2.5-12 (I know, it is LONG gone). I managed to hit the 4" diamond gong at 200 yards standing & unsupported. It only took 3-4 shots but I made the impact! I asked the R.O. mark it as a standing shot, but he never did....:confused:

I also managed to lob a 9mm & make impact with a 2/3 IPSC plate at 300 yards and a Staccato. Only took half a magazine, though.
 
A few years ago I was at my local range, getting data and running a little practice with my kid (12 or so at the time) in preparation for a PRS Rimfire match. While we were hanging our steel on the 300 yard berm my kid found a chicken egg laying behind the target board post. He put it on top of the post, balanced by 2 protruding drywall screws.

We went back to the firing line, did our 50 yard zeroes (.22 LR), data confirmation at 100, 220, and 300, and some various different practice drills. When we were down to about 20 rounds each, he asked if I wanted to try for the egg.

Of course!

The plan was that we would alternate back and forth, and that I would take the first shot (spoiler, I did not hit it on the first shot).
I added about 0.3 right to my wind call for the first shot so the impact would be in clean sand for a good wind call.
His first shot was just off, as was my second.
On his second shot, the egg exploded.

It wasn't my shot, but it's my favorite shot.
12 year old kid, .22 Long Rifle, in real world conditions, connected with an egg at 300 yards.
I'll remember that shot with joy and pride like no other.
 
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When I was a young teenager my dad and I were sitting on a creek bank deer hunting. A huge buck showed up about 60 yards away. My dad let me take the shot with my model 94 30-30 and he went down! My dad then started shooting, I guess so it wouldn’t get back up. He shot both antlers off. It had a nice rack and would have been trophy material otherwise, LOL. RIP dad, I sure do miss being able to hunt with you.
 
Took a prairie dog at 169y with a Savage MKII 22 LR. First shot, clean in the side of the head with Federal blue box super sonic lead round nose.

Entered the side of the head but did not exit. Shooting prone/bipod off an old grain silo concrete pad over grown with tall grass over looking a cornfield from an elevated position. Perfect hide spot.
 
It was the first time my sniper partner and I ever competed in the Winston P. Wilson sniper competition that the Army puts on every year.

We’d checked out an M2010 300WM sniper rifle from the armory, zeroed it and flown all the way to Arkansas with it. On the third day of the week long competition our first stage of the cold December morning was to remove our rifle scope, replace it, and take one shot at 100 yards to cold bore re-zero on an ace of spades playing card. Everyone on the line was moaning and groaning…and we were sweating, worried that we were about to lose our zero for the rest of the competition. Luckily, even as new shooters, we were diligent about torquing all of our screws to spec.

So we popped it back on, got behind the gun and BAM…completely missed, and our zero was off the rest of the competition…

Not really, I drilled the ace of spades dead center and completely surprised both myself and my teammate. Our excitement was so over the top you’d have thought we won the Super Bowl. It was a fun time for two new snipers and a great memory with a life long friend. And, I learned a valuable lesson, consistency in everything leads to peace of mind and a higher chance of success.
 
2023 in October 22th, i was on a wood grouse hunt with my son.
I had my Tikka T3 Varmint Stainless 24" barrel rifle, that was on a KRG Whiskey-3 Gen 6 chassis and spiced with Total Hunter OIC-1 forend.
Scope was Zero Compromise Optic ZC420 on Audere Adversus mount.
I do handload all of my ammo, like everyone who want´s the best for them guns.
So i was on the hunt, and i did spotted a black grouse on top of the pine tree, the distance was on Leica Rangemaster CRF-2400R rangefinder 490-meters, that is about 535-yards.
If you have not seen a black grouse, the leather area on this bird is about 4-5".
I did lay my rifle on a sand embankment, i did dialed to my scope 2.8 MRAD of elevation.
My handloaded 123gr Lapua Scenar leaves the barrel about 2,887 fps.
First round to the chamber, no wind at all, so i did take the bird straight to my ZComp reticle center, few gentle breath, then the lungs empty, light pull of the trigger and PEW!
Bird was looking in both side of it, that wtf was it!
So i took 0.1 MRAD more elevation, i thought that it might go under the bird.
Second Lapua Scenar to the barrel of Tikka.
I did took few relaxed, long breath, and same thing, one big breath, and lungs empty, you have that "action" that you know when to work.
So now it was that time, i did pull the trigger and i did saw that the bird did fall off of the top of the pine tree, YES!!!
I did it, it was and has been my record of taking out the black grouse.
But that was the easy part, then started the finding the bird, this meat on this black grouse is very delicious.
From the shooting place the way to the bird did looked easy, but the terrain was everything else than that.
There was a swamp on the area, like half away on the place, but it was very wide.
Lukily on this time in Finland, we have night frost, but i do weight about 260lbs, add the clothing, gun etc, it is easily 40lbs more.
So me and my son started to go over the swamp, we did add wood stick´s under our steps, it was like insaine mission imbosibble task :D
One wrong step, and you might be on a swamp, that has not bottom.
But the bird was must to find, i do not hunt, that i do kill the prey, but not get it, and in this situation, it is a food.
Always, always do respect the game!
It has given the life of it to you, same thing to other people, do treat another person as you would like to be treated.
But back to the hunt, after 2 hours looking, we did find the bird, because when looked the place, where to shot was taken, we did not
knew the swamp, and we did get off the place, where we did expected the bird to be.
But the end of the hunt was succes, we did find the bird, it was under the tree i did take the shot.
I did get a second bird at the same trip, this came about 180-meters, about 200-yards.
So this was, and is my best hunting memory.
You may look this picture, that male black grouse is not that big bird :)
Take the weathers off, the bird is not that big, but the meat is delisious.
IMG_20250606_205948.jpg
 
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At age 12…40 years ago, it was my first deer season to be able to carry a gun and walk/hunt by myself. With a pocket full of candy bars, gum and Band Aids from my Grandma…the hunt was on.

Even though I was a pretty big kid, the right of passage gun for a first season hunter in our hunting party, was a break action single shot .410 shotgun with slugs.

In the middle of a deer drive, I jumped up on a large rock pile, to get a better view. My dad said I could shoot at a coyote or rabbit for practice, if it was in a safe direction. Well, low and behold…a rabbit pops up around about 20-30 yards out. I take one shot…miss. Second shot miss. But when I’m done loading the fresh .410 slug, and snap my wrist upward to close the break action, I slammed the end of the barrel up against a rock…and the rifle sight was broken off.

Sitting there, pondering the ass chewing I was going to get from my dad, for breaking the rifle sight off of the barrel on my first deer drive…I came up with a plan…I would use the gum in my mouth and put it on the end of the barrel and shape it into a triangle. Then I wrapped one of the Band Aids in my pocket around the chewed on piece of gum…and I was back in business, with a brand new front sight on the end of my barrel. By then, the rabbit was gone, as an unwilling target for my attempt to enter the “MacGyver Hall of Fame” with a chewed up piece of gum and a Band Aid, as a front sight. With one quick test shot on a dead tree, a smile was back on my face…

The next deer drive, as I’m walking up to a small thicket, a smaller 6 point buck jumps out about 40 yards out. With a clear shot all around, I put my lead on the small buck and pulled the trigger… Oh my god…I hit him!

My uncle hooks around and walks up to the buck, who is on the ground and barely alive…and he puts a 12 gauge slug, right into it’s head. There goes the tiny 6-point rack of the first buck I ever shot.

At the end of the deer drive everyone congratulates me on my first deer…and then I showed them the piece of chewed up gum, and band aid I have as a front sight…

…Then the laughing and back slapping went into overdrive…

I’ll never forget that day.
 
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We’re giving away a free rifle barrel to one lucky shooter—and all you need to do to enter is share a story.

We know there are a lot of different shooters out there, so the winner has their choice of barrel from https://riflebarrelblanks.com/

How to Enter:
Tell us about the best or most memorable shot you’ve ever taken.
Whether it was a perfect bullseye at 1,000 yards, a successful hunt after hours in the woods, or a lucky shot—we want to hear it! Bonus points if you’ve got a photo or video too :)

Reminder: Supporters get extra entries!
Everyone has the chance to win, but we want to give back to everyone supporting the Hide. If you’re a Supporter and enter the contest, you’ll get 10 extra entries. If you’d like a better chance of winning, subscribe here!

Contest runs from May 29th through June 13th and we’ll be announcing the winner live. Good luck everyone!
Did load development on my first ever centerfire rifle (Winchester model 70 Coyote light in 22-250). Loads came out to a 40gr VMAX with 35.1gr of Varget and shot a little under .5 at 100 yards. The farthest my home range goes out to is 250 yards. Was doing some playing around and noticed a small grackle out at the end of my range and tried to hit it just for fun. As a little kid not being able to control recoil, I didn’t see the hit through my scope. I ran down range and found feathers and a foot.
 
We’re giving away a free rifle barrel to one lucky shooter—and all you need to do to enter is share a story.

We know there are a lot of different shooters out there, so the winner has their choice of barrel from https://riflebarrelblanks.com/

How to Enter:
Tell us about the best or most memorable shot you’ve ever taken.
Whether it was a perfect bullseye at 1,000 yards, a successful hunt after hours in the woods, or a lucky shot—we want to hear it! Bonus points if you’ve got a photo or video too :)

Reminder: Supporters get extra entries!
Everyone has the chance to win, but we want to give back to everyone supporting the Hide. If you’re a Supporter and enter the contest, you’ll get 10 extra entries. If you’d like a better chance of winning, subscribe here!

Contest runs from May 29th through June 13th and we’ll be announcing the winner live. Good luck everyone!
 
My most memorable shot:

Late May of 2004, Al Anbar Province Iraq, just southeast of the dam on the Euphrates River near Fallujah. Outside of some village on the outskirts I never learned the name of and wouldn’t be able to spell properly at any rate.

Equipment: M16A4 made by FN, wearing a privately purchased Aimpoint Comp M3 in an A.R.M.S. mount. Like any M16 it had a 20” chrome lined barrel, slinging an unknown lot of M855 green tip. Fun fact this was the only brand spanking new M16 I was ever issued a few months before my unit deployed to Iraq.

We were enjoying a nice day of providing security for an intel team with their interpreters, basking in the sun and enjoying the humidity right near the river during the early part of the day. The locals of course were overjoyed by our presence and stared at us in silence wherever we went. I guess this is how they show hospitality in that area.

After this nice stop to chat with the locals we mounted back up to move on to a new and exciting village, so our intel guys could win some hearts and minds, and our docs could hand out candy and bottled water to kids. Evidently the residents of our next stop had been informed about our imminent arrival, and decided to celebrate with fireworks: setting off a very large firework near the last 7 ton in our little unit and taking some pot shots with poorly aimed RPG’s and AK’s. Fortunately their timing for the roadside firework was off and no Marines were injured.

We can’t say the same for our hosts, who decided to try to un-ass the area by hopping in their little cab over pickup truck. Pretty much everyone in our reinforced platoon and heavy guns section…. thoroughly ventilated them and their truck.

Now that we had much to discuss with the locals we decided to stop and dismount. A fine time to get down off the elevated road and make oneself a smaller target for pot shots coming from the nearest structures in town. Being in the lead 7 ton we were kind of left with not much to do aside from holding what was now our left flank, as the lead gun truck had circled back to provide .50 cal fire to the rear of the element more actively engaged.

Enter my most memorable shot. A white 60 Series Toyota Land Cruiser comes driving down the road towards us maybe 450 to 500 yards away. We had the plenty of time to see it and pass on that a vehicle was coming. We are told to keep an eye on it, most of the time Iraqi’s would take a hint and not drive to the sound of gunfire.

This particular joker didn’t take the hint. So at around 300-250 yards I decide to give him some warning shots in the radiator and my fire team follows suit. I know for a fact we were getting hits because we could hear bullets whacking steel. Not much time to let it sink in because this guy is moving fast enough to really compress our decision making.

Inside of 200 yards I decide to try to engage the driver, I probably couldn’t replicate this shot in 1000 attempts. Vehicle is now slightly quartering negotiating a slight bend in the road, closing at an angle left to right. Sun on the windshield glaring enough I can’t make out a distinct target. Our First Sergeant in the civilian world was an Arkansas State Trooper on a SWAT team, he had made it a point to instruct all of us on techniques for shooting into auto glass. Fun fact ladies and gents when shooting into auto glass aim higher than you normally would because the angled windshield will deflect the bullet down after it penetrates. I actually remembered to tell myself to do this. I fired one round at where I thought the driver would be, trying to lead the truck a bit, and then tried to shoot the front seat passenger if there was one.

After my second shot the vehicle came to an halting stop rolled forward a bit, stopped again, then slowly started backing up. Three individuals then exited and ran directly away from us. The truck rolled backwards off the elevated road and out of sight.

After we got done exchanging further pleasantries and waited for EOD to link up and dispose of some naughty toys we subsequently found, the EOD guys checked out the Land Cruiser once declared safe, we tossed it for anything of intel value (none to be had). I managed to put a round right in the driver’s face. Missed the front seat passenger, who I assume got on the brakes and put the rig in reverse before bailing out. There were two exit holes out of the rear glass maybe 6” apart on n the passenger side; one a nice clean round hole the other an oblong hole. The bullet was tumbling after hitting its mark.

To this day I question my decision to take those shots, but vehicle borne IED’s were a constant threat. Over 20 years have passed and I still contemplate this. Another fun fact, this was my last fight and occurred about 2 days after my enlistment would have otherwise expired.
 
My most memorable shot had to have been my first nice buck. I was in the stand with my pops and his friend and they’re drinking and holding back their laughs as I’m shaking like a leaf trying to find the deer in the scope. Once I finally find the deer in my pov, he walks behind a doe. I was breathing so hard that i couldn’t even keep the cross hairs on em. Finally, the deer stepped out and I got back on em when he started fighting a younger buck. I knew with how shaky I was I had to wait for em to quit moving or I’d have a better chance of hitting the feeder. Watching them two brawl on the plot was like a movie. After he chased the young buck off the plot, I finally got back on em. I remember circling around him until I got steady enough to be in the kill zone. I held my breath and pulled the trigger. DROPPED HIM in his tracks but scoped the hell out of my eye. After getting the deers blood on my face I’m not sure who came out on top with more blood but most memorable for sure!