Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Biggest BS story!

I was reminded a while back of a story told, and claim made by my uncle and his good friend when I was a child and they were in their late 20's, were very much outdoorsmen, and heavy drinkers.
One of them got a 220 Swift, and then proceeded to shoot it at everything he could, extolling its miraculous powers. This went on for years, but one claim stands out: a one-shot kill on a bull elk at 700 yds. That is the story that they spread, that the Swift dropped the elk like lightning at a paced off 700yds. 50 gr factory ammo was used, Remington, IIRC.

There you go. I think about that story once a week or so, and chuckle. What do you have that beats it for outlandish BS?

Before laser range-finders, in probably 80% of the stories of long shots on Montana big game the range was 700 yards, and the .22-250 ranked near the head of the cartridges involved.

Haven't heard nearly so many of those stories since LRF's appeared.

A 'customer' once told me of his custom 1886 winchester in 45-70�it would shoot 4inch groups at 1100 yards ( I don't know why it wasn't the customary 1000 yards , but I digress�)
When asked by my compatriot if he was shooting black powder in it, he retorted " No, Im using that new white powder�"








Yes, we know what you are putting up your nose, but were curious as to what you used in the gun�.

And then there was the guy who shot a coyote at a measured 900 yards with his Ruger No.1 chambered in�..




wait for it�..



" .300 H&H Weatherby Magnum Improved"



After 20 years behind the gun counter, Ive got a million of them�.

Just had a lad on a caribou hunt a couple days ago saying he was passing on 1000 yard shots with his 338WM... Only thing was the longest range you could see was under 400. The LRF really changed his mind about how far away stuff really is...

Hey my neighbors kid brought over his new Weenchester 223 WSSM and told me he could shoot a jackrabbit in the head offhand at 600 yds with it. I asked him to hand it to me. Nice looking wood and blued steel....did I mention I was washing my muddy truck at the time and had grimy, sandy soap covered hands. I looked that rifle over real good and handed it back to him.

I thought he was going to cry..

That was mean.

Had a fellow come in to the gun shop I worked many years ago who, after hearing a customer and me discussing the unlikeliness of one braggart's 800 yard coyote shot, interjected, "Well me and my brother, we regularrrrly shoot our deer in the head at a thooooousand yards." I pulled out a $100 bill, put on the counter and told him I'd put up one of those for every shot he could put in a bushel basket at that distance if he'd put the same for every shot that failed to land in the basket.

He replied, "Now sir I just ain't a bettin' man, but ifn you know yer rifle you kin do it." I responded that we could take the money off the table and that I'd happily pay someone to measure off and certify 1000 yards, but I'd really like to see the shooter who could hit basically a grapefruit regularly at that distance with a factory rifle, or even a custom one for that matter.

He declined to demonstrate his skill. I chalked it up to another of those blowhards who couldn't judge 100 yards let alone 1000. I put him in the same category as the guy who tried to convince me of his 500 yard kill on a huge bull elk with an SKS and the old 130 grain hollow point ammo. Or the gentleman who claimed he made a kill on an elk at 800 yards with his 30-06 and only had to hold 8" over its back. Hmm, must be using a 650 yard zero.

They walk among us...

Two immediately come to mind, one long ago, the other last week in San Diego;

Years ago I worked with a guy who claimed his Dad was the Marshal in Casper, WY. Said his Dad was ambushed in front of a bar one night by a bad guy carrying a 12 ga shotgun loaded with slugs. Said bad guy shot his Dad in the middle of the back from about ten yards, but the sheepskin coat his Dad wore stopped the slug. His Dad whirled around (his words) and dropped the bad guy with one shot from the hip with his .38-40 Colt Peacemaker.

Last week I was standing in a bar in the Gaslamp District of San Diego and a guy standing next to me started talking about guns and how a .45ACP would instantly drop an assailant just by shooting him in the leg. Said assailant would be completely out of the fight. It was too much gun for the guy in the bar, that's why he carried his 9mm Makarov that had been bored out to .380. It always ended the fight with just one shot without the extreme damage that the .45 caused.

Ed

Please share more! Did the guy specify the Ackley Improved, or the RCBS version? One of them had a swirly on the shoulder I believe.

After about 30yrs on the other side of the counter, I have a few myself...

No offense, wish I could find a guy behind the counter around here that had a little knowledge but wasn't a total prick! Either idiots or know-it-all [bleep] in 98% of my experiences.

I don't know if mine will beat yours but years ago, pre LRF, my bud and I were hunting elk in the Big Horns. One evening we had supper in some inn and my bud who can engage a turnip in conversation started up with a young local who in the course of a steak and a beer declared he could hit a running deer in the head at eight hundred yards with his '06. Pffft. Outside of that he was a friendly, engaging young fellow.

The next day, our last, we met him off a road again and invited him for lunch on a rocky outcropping over looking an open drainage. At the bottom was a boulder the size of a Volkswagen Bug. A friendly challenge broke out to hit the top edge of the big rock. His shots hit several feet in front of the grey boulder. We stepped it off at three hundred sixty some yards.

So much for range estimation.

Well, if this 243 did it, then the story may be closer to the truth than you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY0w1c-gf18

Sometimes law enforcement officers have some interesting takes on ballistics.

I used to go in weekly for allergy shots to an allergy clinic. The receptionist was married with a 12 year old son. The dad and kid were deer hunting and puled the standard stupid fence trick which ended up with dad taking a bullet through the right cheek of the butt, fortunately not striking any bone, but at 10 feet still a gruesome wound. The receptionist was telling me this story and that the investigating officer told her he was lucky it was so close because the bullet hadn't had a chance to get to its full velocity yet. Apparently he felt the dad would have been more severely injured had he been 200 yards away when that bullet had a chance to get a full head of steam. And they gave him a badge and a gun.

Then there was this time of "experienced" fellas preaching the virtues of the 7 X 57 mauser on them new fangled computers.

Even JOC knew it wasn't for real, relegating it to women.

That was mean�

I hope you are being sarcastic.

Reminds me of the time the fishing was so good, we had to hide in the cabin just to put the bait on the hook.

A fella told me he's getting 3300 fps 180 sp Remington 3006 3x9x40 Nikon hits a pop can every shot at 700 as fast as he can cycle the bolt and reload 22in. Pencil barrel....