I'm hopelessly Neanderthal, practices which I learned from my dad on the ranch in the Oregon big empty.

Out on the rimrock table top early mornings when the air was cool and still with targets set out to 400 yards, 50 yards intervals after 200 yards.

Make the shot strings, then hike out to measure the load results and write 'em down for comparison later.

Both the second and now third generations shake their heads at 'ol uncle Puddle's routines now done in the foothills of where I now live.

But they readily admit that "he's darn deadly out to 400 yards or so...."


It's you and the bullet, and all the rest is secondary.