The year I planned on having my new wife shoot her first Dall ram with a .45 Seneca, I learned it's best to be sure one has the powder along.
She had to shoot her ram with a .270, instead, at 35 yards.
On my first sheep hunt (solo) 3 years before (same place), I ran into two scruffy guys decked out in new LLBean Safari outfits, carrying brand new .300 Weatherby's. I figured them for drug dealers, who had just scored big, decided they were hunters, and hit a gun store....
They asked what I was carrying and I said ".243" Remington 700"
"Huh. I never heard of that!"
"Well, I gotta go now!"
We were 6 miles in, on an 18 mile OW trek to the sheep mountain, and they were coming back, having failed to navigate around a peak in between at 11 mile. They tried to sidehill around it, instead of following the heavily used game trail up the spur ridge and over. 1,000 foot elevation rise was just too much, for someone dumber than a caribou.
Damned near killed me packing my full curl over that thing in one load, so maybe they were smarter than I at that.... Three times in 3 successive years, including our honeymoon.
I wish I was young enough to do it again! The hunt- not the forgetting the powder. I can probably still do that if I concentrate.
