I'll tell two stories, one of which is pretty ugly but they both illustrate my own stupidity in attempting long range shots.
About ten years ago I was hunting deer in late december on the south end of Kodiak island. I was using a hyper-accurate .243 that I had entirely too much confidence in - using 100 (105?) gr federal "Classics".
Spotted a deer lying right on the crest of a ridge above us and watching us. The terrain was totally open and there was no way to approach closer without him nipping back over the ridge.
I layed down and using a frame pack for a rest put the cross hairs between his ears figuring no matter the bullet drop it would be a neck shot since the neck was perfectly verticle - right.
At the first shot he jumped up obviously "hit" and began trotting down the hill more or less towards us and I began firing away with no apparent effect - I don't know how many shots I fired but I did reload so...5-8 shots before he dropped.
I didn't pace off the distance but it was a LONG ways up there. Gray sky, white ground, brown deer - no visual cue at all to distance. When we dressed him it was obvious that none of the bullets had expanded, just punched through like fmj's. The initial shot did punch through the meat of the neck and the other shots (3 or 4) just hit him randomly all over - stupid. Started reloading premiums and foregoing long shots after that.
Several years ago I flew into the mulchatna to hunt caribou with two friends. Residents can take up to 5 caribou but because of weight limitations, we only planned on two apiece.
We were sitting in a valley that funnelled caribou right past us and had only been seeing bands of cows with a few young bulls until late evening when a band of really big batchelor bulls came in on us. We let them get within two hundred yards and began knocking them down. They milled about for a moment, making good targets and then retreated back up the valley. My partners had taken two each and I had only taken one. I was shooting a 7mm Mauser and didn't trust it much beyond the range we had shot at so when those bulls began making an arc around us at long range I was just prepared to watch them go - BUT, a really HUGE bull came out of the back of that herd and took the lead and were watching him through our scopes and my partners were egging me on and I was getting excited but refused to shoot at that range with that rifle.
So, one guy grabs my rifle and shoves his .30/06 in my hands and INSISTS that I shoot him. He's got a bi-pod and I know he's using good ammo so my adrenaline gets the best of me and I get prone, put the cross hairs about three feet in front of the running bulls nose and squeeze off a shot - and its like a train wreck! The bull flips completely over his nose in the most dramatic fashion possible, turf flying up, legs waving in the air, everything except smoke and flames.
The bullet had broken both his front shoulders and his own weight and momentum had flipped him ass over tea kettle. We paced it off as 355 yards - a running shot too. I'll admit I just got lucky, my lead was just a guess and I could have hit him anywhere or not at all. A tremendous bull though, probably 600 hundred pounds and the rack is just short of B&C
Whenever I get cocky about that shot I just think about that bullet riddled little buck in the snow and get over it.
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Keith
The Bears and Bear Maulings Page:
members.xoom.com/keithrogan