I owned and loved a Number One RSI in 7X57 for many years. I loved the short little rifle and it was pure death on mulies and elk.
Late one fall, I discovered a slight disadvantage to the shortness. All of our paid hunters got their elk and they'd left by way of the jet boat down the Snake.
Hell's Canyon was so glorious then; nimrods gone, elk everywhere and it was time for us camp help, guides and wranglers, to kill our elk.
At daybreak, Karen and I were sitting behind a log that was on top of a pass that the elk used a lot; between Temperance Creek and Yreka Creek, if you know where that is.
Anyway, I layed my new Eddie Bauer down vest on top of the log and my pretty little Number one atop that. After a bit, a really decent little 6X6 bull came along, stood in the trail about 100-yards out, and he was begging to be killed.
So, I put the crosshairs under his ear and pulled the trigger.
AND THE FIELD OF THE SCOPE TURNED WHITE.
I heard Karen say, "What the Hell???"
Apparently, I put a Hornady 139-grain Interlocked Spire Point through several inches of my brand new down vest and there were feathers everywhere ... all over us, all over the log and downrange, too.
The bull elk??? Deader than a mackerel. Apparently, several inches of down vest immediately in front of the muzzle didn't deflect the bullet in the slightest.
The Eddie Bauer down vest? Total loss.
I'll make that trade any time. A nice, handy rifle and a sincerely dead bull elk for a silly Eddie Bauer down vest ... great trade.
Blessings,
Steve
