Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Elmer Keith 600-yard mule deer

Didn't want to interfere with the .45 Colt-on-elk thread, so posted this for those who might want to know why Elmer Keith claimed to have shot at a wounded mule deer buck a long way off with a .44 Magnum revolver, instead of just walking up and finishing it off:

Paul Kriley and I hunted up Clear Creek on the right side where it is partly open bunch grass meadows and partly patches of timber. We hunted all day, and although we saw several does at 80-90 yards, one at 60, that I could have killed. We passed them up, as I wanted a buck. Toward evening we topped out on a ridge. There was a swale between us and another small ridge on the side of the mountain slope about 300-400 yards away. Beyond that, out on the open sidehill, no doubt on account of the cougar, were about 20 mule deer, feeding. Two big bucks were in the band, and some lesser ones, the rest were does and long fawns. As it was getting late and the last day of the season, I wanted one of those bucks for meat. Being a half-mile away, I told Paul, “Take the .300 Magnum and duck back through this swale to that next ridge and that should put you within about 500 yards of them. I’ll stay here (the deer had seen us), let them watch me for a decoy.” Paul said, “You take the rifle.”
“I said, how is it sighted?”
He said, “one inch high at a hundred yards.” I told him to go ahead because I wouldn’t know where to hold it. I always sighted a .300 Magnum 3 inches high at a hundred and I wouldn’t know where to hold it at 500.
I said, “You go ahead and kill the biggest buck in the bunch for me.” Paul took off, went across the swale and climbed the ridge, laid down and crawled up to the top. He shot. The lower of the two bucks, which he later said was the biggest one, dropped and rolled down the mountain. I then took off across the swale to join him. Just before I climbed up the ridge to where he was lying, he started shooting again.

When I came up on top, the band of deer was pretty well long gone. They’d gone out to the next ridge top, turned up it slightly and went over. But the old buck was up following their trail, one front leg a-swinging. Paul had hit it. I asked Paul, “Is there any harm in me getting into this show?” He said, “No, go ahead.”

I had to lay down prone, because if I crawled over the hill to assume my old backside positioning, then the blast of his gun would be right in my ear. Shooting prone with a .44 Magnum is something I don’t like at all. The concussion is terrific. It will just about bust your ear drums every time. At any rate Paul shot and missed. I held all of the front sight up, or practically all of it, and perched the running deer on top of the front sight and squeezed one off. Paul said, “I saw it through my scope. It hit in the mud and snow right below him.” There was possibly six inches of wet snow, with muddy ground underneath. I told him “I won’t be low the next shot.” Paul shot again and missed with his .300 Magnum. The next time I held all of the front sight up and a bit of the ramp, just perched the deer on top. After the shot the gun came down out of recoil and the bullet had evidently landed. The buck made a high buck-jump, swapped ends, and came back toward us, shaking his head. I told Paul I must have hit a horn. I asked him to let the buck come back until he was right on us if he would, let him come as close as he would and I’d jump up and kill him. When he came back to where Paul had first rolled him, out about 500 yards, Paul said, “I could hit him now, I think.”

“Well,” I said, “I don’t like to see a deer run on three legs. Go ahead.” He shot again and missed. The buck swapped ends and turned around and went back right over the same trail. Paul said, “I’m out of ammunition. Empty.” I told him to reload, duck back out of sight, go on around the hill and head the old buck off, and I’d chase him on around. Paul took off on a run to go around this bunch-grass hill and get up above the buck and on top. He was young, husky, and could run like a deer himself. I got on the old buck again with all of the front sight and a trifle of the ramp up. Just as I was going to squeeze it off when he got to the ridge, he turned up it just as the band of deer had done. So I moved the sight picture in front of him and shot. After an interval he went down and out of sight. I didn’t think anything of it, thought he had just tipped over the ridge. It took me about half an hour to get across. When I got over there to the ridge, I saw where he’d rolled down the hill about fifty yards, bleeding badly, and then he’d gotten up and walked from the tracks to the ridge in front of us. There were a few pine trees down below, so I cut across to intercept his tracks. I could see he was bleeding out both sides.

Just before I got to the top of the ridge, I heard a shot up above me and then another shot, and I yelled and asked if it was Paul. He answered. I asked, “Did you get him?” He said, “Yes, he’s down there by that big pine tree below you. Climb a little higher and you can see him.” Paul came down and we went down to the buck. Paul said the buck was walking along all humped up very slowly. He held back of the shoulders as he was quartering away. The first shot went between his forelegs and threw up snow. Then he said the buck turned a little more away from him and he held higher and dropped him. Finally we parted the hair in the right flank and found where the 180-grain needle-pointed Remington spitzer had gone in. Later I determined it blew up and lodged in the left shoulder. At any rate I looked his horns over, trying to see where I’d hit a horn. No sign of it. Finally I found a bullet hole back of the right jaw and it came out of the top of his nose. That was the shot I’d hit him with out at 600 yards. Then Paul said, “Who shot him through the lungs broadside? I didn’t, never had that kind of shot at all.” There was an entrance hole fairly high on the right side of the rib cage just under the spine and an exit just about three or four inches lower on the other side. The deer had been approximately the same elevation as I was when I fired that last shot at him. We dressed him, drug him down the trail on Clear Creek, hung him up, and went on down to the ranch. The next day a man named Posy and I came back with a pack horse, loaded him and took him in. I took a few pictures of him hanging in the woodshed along with the Smith & Wesson .44 Mag.

I took him home and hung him up in the garage. About ten days later my son Ted came home from college and I told him, “Ted, go out and skin that big buck and get us some chops. They should be well-ripened and about right for dinner tonight.” After awhile Ted came in and he laid the part jacket of a Remington bullet on the table beside me and he said, “Dad, I found this right beside the exit hole on the left side of that buck’s ribs.” Then I knew that I had hit him at that long range two out of four times. I believe I missed the first shot, we didn’t see it at all, and it was on the second that Paul said he saw snow and mud fly up at his heels. I wrote it up and I’ve been called a liar ever since, but Paul Kriley is still alive and able to vouch for the facts.

Elmer Keith

From the book "Hell, I was There"?

Love that story. Thanks for bringing it back out.

It was quite likely that he could do it. He used to practice daily with 45ACP produced at his Armoury during WW2. Supposedly one of the Brass came in and told him that his guns weren't up to spec. He grabbed one on the assembly line went out to the range and proceeded to hit targets out to 300 yards. He spent much of his youth shooting handguns in the field so it is not as farsighted as would be thought.

I shot a mulligan moose near a pond that was alongside of the Denali Highway when I was in high school. It was at about 150 yards and I had a key marked line on the gun and aimed it above the shoulder. It hit the moose in the shoulder and through the heart and completely knocked him over. It was very early in the morning (4:30AM) and I was very well versed with using the Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Rem Mag with Garrett style harden lead 325 grain bullets at 1350 FPS. I had DLPed a Grizzly earlier that Summer with it. I has also shot several owls and foxes that had attempted to kill our chickens. I didn't have a rifle on me and the little bull was in the right place to butcher(out of the water on a flat).

I don't claim to be a great pistolero. I would have shot it with a rifle everytime if I had one present. But it was the right tool in the hand and the right opportunity and I bet that was Keith's take on it.

Nice story. I enjoy reading tales from the wild.

An old retired bush pilot friend was telling me about flying Elmer Keith out hunting and how they had landed on ice in NW Alaska where there were several caribou.
The pilot said Elmer did kill a caribou at some extreme range with his handgun as told in one of his books.

Don't how "extreme" the shot was on the caribou, but it was with an early .41 Magnum. As I recall the range was maybe 150 yards--thought that's still pretty long with a sixgun.

I believe the story is in HELL, I WAS THERE! Might check and see if I can find it.

Elmer must have had a laser range finder to know that 600 yard distance and then write about it.

I always believed Keith after years of reading Guns and Ammo. Jeff Cooper was the other writer I always read. I knew he was man, but he seemed above human in thought. I still miss both writers. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

I grew up reading Elmer when I was a boy in Iowa. Fortunately my Dad sold his shop and moved us to Alaska in 1965 so I could eventually get my own .338 Win. Mag. and S&W .44 Mag. and good cigars. Thank you Elmer once again for the stories. If Elmer said it happened that is good enough for me.

Next time I am in Idaho and some one can show me where the shot was made I will laser range find it. Once I verify it if some one will loan me a .44 and furnish the ammo I will devote and afternoon to trying to hit a like size target and share the results here. Bring lots of ammo if I'm doing the shooting.

I should pull out my old "Hell, I was there" book and read it again. Elmer did some hunting in the Slana River area about the time we started building my parents home by the Slana River. Oh Lord, how I miss those days and the freedom and listening to the old guides stories. Bill Alice, Don DeHart, Doc Taylor, Bud Conkle, Maynard Perkins, Duncan Gilchrist, Keith Johnson, Roy Biffel and the old guide from England, Harry Boyden was still alive down the road. So sorry I was to stupid young to go meet and talk to him.

I better strap my S&W .44 Mountain Gun on and have a cigar.

years upon years in the open west, gauging distances and shooting untold thousands of rounds, Yeah he had a laser range finder, his eyes and brain.

deerstalker,

Keith also did a LOT of target shooting, at ranges out to 1000 yards, from the time he was a teenager, including competing at Camp Perry with the Idaho National Guard team.

He also was indeed very good with a sixgun. Ross Seyfried knew Elmer pretty well, and not only handloaded and shot with him, but hunted with him some. He told me about Elmer killing a porcupine at somewhere around 80 yards with whatever sixgun he was packing at the time, one-handed from the back of a horse. The thing that impressed Ross (who is a very good handgun shot) is Elmer took the shot, then just holstered his gun--because he knew the shot was good.

From a friend who hunted with Elmer near Glenwood Springs, Colo. Around camp my friend saw 2 hawks flying well above camp and circling. He challenged Elmer to try a shot. With a 4" barreled 41 Magnum the first shot missed. My friend made a snide remark then Elmer fired 2 more shots and killed both. My friend has a picture of himself giving Elmer a haircut in a tent on this elk hunt.

MD, nice to see this reliable info. published about Elmer.. I don't think most have any idea how many thousands and thousands of rounds of pistol ammo he fired in his life time.. When he was in Durkee, Ore. he did a lot of long range stuff at an old outhouse.. There will never be another Elmer.. He sure was one of a kind.. Thanks for the good report on his mule deer.. I always felt he never got the respect due .. He was a fantastic shot with rifle , shotguns, or pistols..

I met Elmer in the Peterson magazine booth at the Shot Show, not at all like I'd imagine he'd be after reading many of his magazine stories. He was rather quiet and softspoken, quite the gentleman I regret not getting him to autograph one of his books when I had the opportunity.

I think Elmer wrote something about becoming good at long range shooting with a colt saa. He spent a bunch of time herding sheep and he would fire his pistol in front of the lead ewe to steer her in the desired direction. The book “Hell I was there” should be required reading, before joining the campfire. The story about the bully is without a doubt my favorite.

I think the moral of that story is, if you come across an old outhouse in your travels, don’t use it, step behind some bushes.

Thanks Mule Deer ! Always enjoyed reading Elmer’s books and articles.

I wanna hear more about the shot from the 300 Win Mag that blew up on the shoulder, then the 44 mag went almost all the way through it at 600 yards. 😁😁

Not much story to tell early jacketed bullets didn't all ways hold together well and some came a part easier than the good bullets we enjoy today. ELMER cast most of his bullets with 1 in16 tin to lead ,he said it was the best alloy for the44mag. That day he was using some pre_production Remington 240 gr jacketed ammo that Remington sent him. Read Hell, I was there and you might learn a few things. MB