Wow, your buddy was either very good or very lucky. If he was shooting from the hip I have to believe it was mostly luck.
I also made a very, very lucky shot once when I took a rifle shot at a flying red shouldered hawk. I was hunting rabbits in SW Florida near the eastern Myakka State Park boundary line quite a few years ago with my grandfather's single shot bolt action .22 when I heard a hawk screeching and saw him about 50 or 60 yards away diving down fast toward a deep ditch where I guess he saw a frog or something else he wanted to eat. Without hardly thinking about what I was doing, which was and still is a federal crime, I threw up the little rifle like I was mounting a shotgun and led him like I was shooting a dove with a shotgun. To my utter surprise he folded up and fell like a rock.
I became afraid then that I might get caught with the dead hawk so I threw him into a high palmetto patch and went on with the rabbit hunt. I knew none of my shooting buddies would believe me, but another guy who was with me but had been hunting a little further down the road heard the rifle shot and just managed to look around in time to see the hawk falling. Back at the office the next day he swore to everybody that what I told them was true. I bet I couldn't do that again in a hundred years, but by gollygosh I did it once and it had to be just sheer luck because I'm just an average wingshot with a shotgun.
Hmmmm, I hope the statute of limitations has expired on that federal crime or else I may get a visit from the feds.
Where is Myakka SP? I used to hunt off Jane’s Scenic Drive. A little fishing around Everglades City, Sailing around Cape Sable and Nest Key. A lot of sailing in the Upper Keys.