When I was in my late teens I used to do a lot of hunting with a boy named John Simmons. He used an old 20 gauge single barrel that had been blown up at the muzzle then sawed off so it had absolutely no choke. He was a good shot, and I've seen him kill a lot of game with that old gun. Two particular shots he made come to mind. One was a dove he killed while we were out rabbit hunting. I don't know what even possessed him to shoot at the bird but it was so far away that it was just short of a speck flying over the next field. He raised the gun, threw a long slow lead on it, fired, and it fell dead. We paced it off as best we could and it was something like 100 steps. Just luck of course, a Golden BB for certain, but he did kill it. Another time we were shooting starlings coming into roost. He fired once into a bunch that were flying over at about 40 yards and killed eleven, most of them falling dead. I've shot starlings doing the same thing a 100 times and never killed over two or three at a shot.

Flighting geese in Aberdeen, Scotland I saw the guide (Ian Robertson) kill birds on a regular basis at 70+ yards. He shoots a Browning automatic, with 3 inch Winchester #4 shells. To knock them down that far you've either got to break a wing or hit them in the head and he can do it. He shoots the #4 shot because he says with more pellets you've got a much better chance for a head shot. We were shooting 8 gauge guns and couldn't do what he did with a 12 gauge.

As far as my personal best shots:

I killed a mallard drake on a driven duck shoot in England with a double 4 bore at something like 70+ yards. I'd have never fired at one so far but the owner of the gun was standing with me coaching on that the big gun would do.

Back in my goose guiding days, I killed a goose with an old Richland double 10 gauge at 74 steps. My paid hunters had fired on it and lightly hit it but the bird wasn't coming down. I figured I'd better throw some shot just to see if I couldn't get it on the ground. I grabbed up my gun after they were empty, fired one shot, and folded it. Only after I'd crawled out of the pit did I realize how far away it was. They were impressed. I know when to quit as well, I never raised my gun again that day.

Nothing too great, but still fun memories.

Out there at the crossroads molding the devil's bullets. - Tom Waits