I dont have much to contribute to the conversation.
EK and PO are very misunderstood by todays gun crank. Both men wrote primarily for magazines. The articles are hard to find. Neither man advocated high pressure handloads to the extent attributed to them.
EK wrote in his Elmer Keith Says: column for the October 1957 issue of Guns magazine: Reloading the 44 Magnum. This is is a very good article and worth reading today. In the article EK speaks of shooting to 600 yards.
In the February 1959 issue of guns Magazine EK wrote Pressures and Velocities of Keith 44 Magnum Handloads. A very good article on hand loading the .44 Magnum. He aslo wrote of the 600 yard shot and pretty clearly indicates the shot was taken with a 6 1/2" barrel S&W.
Guns Magazine February 1959
Elmer Keith Says:
Pressures and Velocities of Keith 44 Magnum Handloads
I have killed three deer with the .44 Magnum cartridge, one at 20 yards head shot through brain from 6 ½” S &W, one at 25 yards (another brain shot), and one at over 600 yards, hit once in the right jaw, then hit again broadside through both lungs and out as the deer turned broadside up the mountain. The deer was hit first by a rifleman using a .300 Magnum. I shot at such crazy long range only to help stop a wounded animal. My first shot was low, my second shot also low at the bucks heels, but the next two shots, fired with a higher hold, stopped him. Even at such extreme range, the big sixgun slug, Remington factory load, cut a .60 caliber hole through the deer.
Last edited by william_iorg; 03/17/20.
