The guy who taught me how to reload had a few kickers to reload for a couple of his customers. The instruction I got on how to reload was free, but i "got" to do the sighting-in.....
He had me shooting all sorts of stuff up to the 375 H&H and 458 Win which i thought were the "King Kong" cartridges of the world. Then i shot a 404 Jeff for someone going on a safari. That lit me up pretty good. I don't remember the rifle brand, but it punched hard.
He had me shoot some loads out of his personal rifle for a moose hunt he had planned. His rifle was a 338 Win mag in a Ruger 77. He gave me the box of cartridges with a smile. I suspected nothing.
I loaded some cartridges in the mag and touched the first one off. I instantly saw stars. My trigger finger felt smashed and i immediately checked around my eye for blood convinced i was "scope-eyed". The old man was chuckling. I finished off the few rounds in the mag and that was all i could take. I was shoulder-bruised for days and trigger finger was black and blue from the trigger guard.
All my shooting for him was from the bench so i got the full "brunt of it".... Incidentally, the old man had bursitis in his shoulder which i then understood the cause...
