Translation from Portuguese to English

[Sérgio Penna]

Hi there, I need to translate a Brazilian expression into English. If I were to translate it directly it'd be: Shot at what he saw, hit what he didn't see...
Well, that means someone did something with one intention and ended up getting a better result than he expected. I thought about idioms with the words aim, reach, crop, etc.... but so far my dictionaries haven't given me a good answer...

Can you help me....

[Tdol]

I can't think of an exact one, but here are a couple that are slightly related:

http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...up+trumps.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...n+a+while.html

[Sérgio Penna]

I guess COME UP TRUMPS is closer to what I wanted. Someone else sent me HE AIMED AT A DOE AND HE GOT A TROPHY BUCK. I'll check that out too. Thanks a lot.

[David L.]

I like your translation of the Brazilian saying. I think English could well adopt it!

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by Sérgio Penna

I guess COME UP TRUMPS is closer to what I wanted. Someone else sent me HE AIMED AT A DOE AND HE GOT A TROPHY BUCK. I'll check that out too. Thanks a lot.

That's new to me.

[riverkid]

Originally Posted by Sérgio Penna

I guess COME UP TRUMPS is closer to what I wanted. Someone else sent me HE AIMED AT A DOE AND HE GOT A TROPHY BUCK. I'll check that out too. Thanks a lot.

I doubt that you'll be able to check this one out, Sergio, as I made it up on the spot.

My guess is that there is an idiom that matches what you want but our grammatical brain simply doesn't work this way. When we have to "think", actually, consciously think of some idiom, some language structure, we are often all but lost, but when the situation demands an idiom, more often than not, our internal grammar produces it.

Perhaps an illustration that language is natural, not learned.