Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Long range whoppers and other shooting BS

The 375 Improved thread got me to thinking the wildcatters don't have a corner on the whopper market. It seems anytime a group of shooters gather there's always someone whose feats are beyond the pale.

Ran into a guy elk hunting one year. He began regaling my buddy and me of how he killed a cow elk the year before at 800 yards with his 30-06. He claimed he held just 10 inches over her back.I hadn't developed my finely honed diplomacy skills yet and asked him if he normally zeroed his rifle at 750 yards to get that kind of performance. He claimed he zeroed at 100 yards. Being fairly well studied up in ballistics I mentioned that a 100 yard zero with a 30-06 and 180 grain bullets would give a drop of roughly 20 feet at 800 yards. Of course he was shooting his uncle's special reloads and, "they don't drop much.

Was visiting at the gun counter of a large gun shop with a few fellow hunters/shooters and swapping deer hunting stories. A young cowboy joined the conversation when the topic of long range came up. "Me and mah brother we regularly shoot our deer in the head at a thouuuuuusand yards," he interjected. I suppose he drew out the thouuuuuusand to emphasize just how far a thouuuuuusand yards really is. Dang my lack of diplomacy. It was one of those rare occasions when I actually had a $100 bill in my pocket. I told him I'd put up one of those for every shot he could put in a bushel basket at a thousand yards with his deer rifle if he'd put up one for every shot that didn't make it in the basket. He replied, "I can't do that, it's a sin to gamble. But if you know your rifle you can do it." Gambling is a sin but apparently highly exaggerated hunting/shooting stories are not.

I've run into a ton of similar stories over the years as I'm sure you all have as well. This last one isn't a long range story but every bit as ludicrous.

At a local shop a loudmouth was commanding all the attention he could by telling his stories as loudly as possible without yelling. The story turned to bird hunting. He proclaimed the 20 gauge the perfect upland bird gun because, "it don't hurt the dog none like a 12 gauge when you hit em." Once again my lack of diplomacy showed like too long a slip under too short a dress. I offered to let him stand at 40 yards and I'd launch a few 20 gauge field loads his way and he could tell me if they hurt. "After all, you're a lot bigger than any hunting dog, so if it doesn't hurt them it ought not hurt you," I stated. He didn't seem at all interested in this type of research. I offered to drop to a 28 gauge or even 410. He still wasn't interested. He left in a huff while the staff and remaining customers were chuckling heartily.

I'd love to hear some of your favorite whoppers you've heard.

A former coworker used to brag about how he shot deer from 400 yards with his S&W 44 Magnum, open sights, by aiming "just over the back" 🙄

He just doubled down anytime someone called bs on it.

As someone who hunted deer with a 44 mag rifle a few years, I would have loved to have had that kind of magic ammo for it 😏

IME - American hunters, especially in the east aren't all that gifted when it comes to estimating distance. When laser rangefinders came out - suddenly a lot of 300 yard field edges became 150.

I get it - back then. Not so much now.

Anytime I hear the phrase “special reloads”, I know I’m dealing with someone with no concept of reloading or ballistics.

Range finders, chronographs and bore scopes have broke a lot of hearts.

A guest of another member showed up at deer camp with a 300 RUM AI. Yes, has said it was an Ackley Improved Ultra Mag. I asked to see some of his handloads but he only shot factory ammo. You see, during the process of firing the case forms to the sharp shouldered Ackley shape which is so much more efficient that he picks up a couple hundred fps over the same ammo fired in the original chamber.

As John Lovitz would say, yeah, that's the ticket.

When I was a sniper on our tactical team there was a guy from our corrections side of the agency who kept bragging about shooting his isued open sighted AR (Army) at 1000 yards. I asked him if he was on the Army Marksminship team and said nope he just did it for fun when he was at the Army range to qual. So after the thrid time of hearing this, I asked him to show me what he could do at our agency range, 300 yard line with an open sightes AR. He said he would bring his rifle the next time he came to the range to shoot. Never saw there again! I guess he decided not to show me what he could do. Wow I guess I scared him off.

Lots of "blue sky" and "tall tales" among shooters until challenged.

BTW, swaplord has a pile of "go large" wildcats. I personally have no use but am intrigued non the less.

You mean you're not "ghosting shit" with a 338 Megawank or a 416 Hamsplitter?

That's the best one yet that I've heard or even read about.

AI efficiency must be truly amazing

Not yet.......

But it does sound fun!

While buying handloading components at sportsmans warehouse, Meridian,ID. a guy named Ready told me that he killed an elk at 700 yards. I asked what rifle he did it with, a borrowed 30-06 pump. ? . That's all he knew. I asked if it 'ranged' exactly 700 yards? he gave me an annoyed look and told me he was really good at guessing distance. .

What bullet did you use? He said he only had 4 rounds, 2 regulars, 1 round nose, 1 hp. First shot he used the hp, hollow point. Me] did you dial the yardage or hold over? I held right at the top of its back and hit it. Then shot a 'regular' and it was a dud, shot again and missed, down to 1 round, ran after the wounded elk and finished it off with the round nose.

Another fellow I had a gun conversation with told me of his grandpaw shooting and striking matches that were taped to a fencepost out to 500 yards. Lit 5 matches 100 - 500 yards with 5 shots. I said WOW those old timers knew how to shoot and went on about my business.

Ever notice that when people know you know your stuff about firearms and ballistics they start trying to impress you ?
A guy I knew heard me talk about custom rifles I owned, all the sudden he knew ALL ABOUT custom rifles, told me of a Mossberg that came from the factory a '''custom rifle''' LAF

416hamsplitter LOL

Mathman>funny.

Had a friend that owned a small archery shop that would brag about some feat he did. Every time I'd call BS and put some money down he would turn around a do it. Guess it's not BS if you can do it. Didn't take me very long to quit calling him out.

Took me a long time to not follow up with the BS’ers. For a while it was fun to let them verbally hang themselves. Now I don’t have time nor the patience. Some of the worst ones are the sales idiots behind the counter.

GreggH

Years ago I used to take some guys from work to my range. It was amazing how many scopes were "broke " or loose or I brought the wrong ammo stories I heard.

One guy who could bust milk jugs @ 800 yards with an iron sighted thutty thutty off the hood of his truck could not hit a Redfield sight in target off the bench at 300 yards. I mean literally couldn't touch it. This was with a stainless model 70 Classic in 30-06. I shot just under MOA with the rifle @ 100 the same day. He put the rifle in the case because the "scope must be broken".
I had a life sized paper deer target and some of those guys couldn't hit that @ 200 yards off the bench. Ol' "Bucky" the target closed a lot of mouths.

The best was to blow up balloons to about the size of a soccer ball and watch guys shoot a whole box of ammo and never bust a balloon off hand @ 100 yards.
Those experiences led me to saying most rifles are way more accurate than the person pulling the trigger .

Local range had a 200yd silhouette league. "No-Magnums" unless you loaded down to under 3K FPS. Someone unaware of the no-magnum policy shows up w/his rifle and some handloads. Doesn't know velocity so the guy who'd organize the matches says:

"Shoot one of the rams and we'll take a look at the target damage".

10-12 shots later he hadn't hit a ram yet.

"Let him shoot." is all that was ever said.

This isn't long range, but I did have two fellas out last June to shoot their new rifles. 6" groups at 100 yards from the bench were the norm. Both said they are better shots at game than paper.

Funny how most people are able to separate the truth from the BS when they hear it. Some people just cannot turn off the BS!

A coworker said his dad bought a 7mm SuperBoomer of some sort, "Sumbitch shoots so flat the bullet never drops!" Sounded dangerous to me, bullet could circumnavigate the globe and hit you in the ass.