I'd say this was a contact shot rather than a point blank shot. Impossible to miss when the gun is touching his chest.
Quite likely. That might explain some of the potency of the shot. In a contact shot, a lot of high pressure hot gases are injected into the body cavity. It does a lot damage in milliseconds.
I like to encourage people to train. Taking just a tenth of a second more per shot can give you a tremendous increase in accuracy.
It is also a lot of fun to try different situations, positions, positions of targets, etc. It gives confidence.