mark,
Great story!
The first full-time job I ever has was what in Montana then was called "pisser" (meaning a green kid) on a ranch south of Forsyth. I worked for a father-son team I worked for (mostly the son, as the father had semi-retired to town, 13 miles away), and the father had a Savage 99 .300 that he'd used since the 1930's. He'd recently turned 64, and finally decided to get a scope mounted, a 2-1/2X Weaver. The fall before I started working for them, he'd dropped a mule deer buck at what "everybody" estimated at 500 yards.
His 27-year-old son had the same scope on his Remington 721 .270, which shot a lot flatter but didn't kill any better. The son called the .300 99 "the blooper," because it didn't shoot as flat. In fact he called most cartridges bloopers--other than the .270, of course.
