I'm not selling anything, but I had nothing to lose either.
I happen to believe Keith. I have seen some pretty amazing shots in my life, by my own Dad. He took an elk at what had to be 800 yards across a canyon. If I hadn't seen it, I would have never believed it. The gun? An old, beat up Remington 760 pump loaded with the ridiculously fragile 1960's era Winchester Silvertip 180 sp grain ammo. It took 3 shots. At the 3rd shot the elk just laid down. It was dead by the time my Dad and uncle got over there... which actually took quite awhile.
I asked Dad how far that was and he said I'm not quite sure. He just lobbed those rounds over there, adjusting as he fired, and hit that elk solid on the 3rd shot. It didn't run. It just looked around to see what the noise was.
Same as a mule deer I shot at about 400 yards across a canyon in the Juniper area in SE Oregon, down near French Glen, OR. Mine only took 2 shots. I had a M77 Ruger with a 3x9 Leupold scope and I knew exactly what my handload was doing. Dad only had a crappy 4x scope of some brand I never heard of. I could never get the eye relief to even see through it myself. Of course, he was a crack shot in the Navy, too, but I only knew that from talking to his friends and our relatives. He never bragged about it. And he grew up hunting and got in trouble all the time for skipping school to go hunting.
We didn't have laser range finders back then. We joked and called it Kentucky windage.
IIRC, Keith's final shot on that mule deer was taken as the deer topped a small ridge or something and was not moving when it was hit. I'd have to go back and read the story again at this point to be sure.
I happen to believe Keith. I have seen some pretty amazing shots in my life, by my own Dad. He took an elk at what had to be 800 yards across a canyon. If I hadn't seen it, I would have never believed it. The gun? An old, beat up Remington 760 pump loaded with the ridiculously fragile 1960's era Winchester Silvertip 180 sp grain ammo. It took 3 shots. At the 3rd shot the elk just laid down. It was dead by the time my Dad and uncle got over there... which actually took quite awhile.
I asked Dad how far that was and he said I'm not quite sure. He just lobbed those rounds over there, adjusting as he fired, and hit that elk solid on the 3rd shot. It didn't run. It just looked around to see what the noise was.
Same as a mule deer I shot at about 400 yards across a canyon in the Juniper area in SE Oregon, down near French Glen, OR. Mine only took 2 shots. I had a M77 Ruger with a 3x9 Leupold scope and I knew exactly what my handload was doing. Dad only had a crappy 4x scope of some brand I never heard of. I could never get the eye relief to even see through it myself. Of course, he was a crack shot in the Navy, too, but I only knew that from talking to his friends and our relatives. He never bragged about it. And he grew up hunting and got in trouble all the time for skipping school to go hunting.
We didn't have laser range finders back then. We joked and called it Kentucky windage.
IIRC, Keith's final shot on that mule deer was taken as the deer topped a small ridge or something and was not moving when it was hit. I'd have to go back and read the story again at this point to be sure.
