Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles A Girl, An Elk, A 243 Win/105VLD and 688yds makes elk steaks

Jumping to conclusions again I see

Boy lots of tight panties in here. MM has the best response so far, the one pulling the trigger is almost always the least experienced shooter, it is the spotters job to be ranging, reading wind and making the correct calls. The physical act of shooting a moderately heavy rifle from the prone is not some super athletic skill set.

I have a friend that I consider a poor shot, does not practice, has no idea of how to obtain a solid field rest and if he hits an 8" paper plate at 200yards 50% of the time with his rifle I would be suprised. While playing on the ranch he was impressed the way I was splattering stuff with my .243 running the 115Dtac and wanted a try. He dry fired a few times and then using the called comeups and windage hold he wiped out a crow at 435 yards and a second one over 550. Two one shot hits on something smaller than the vitals of that elk.

My brother in law is in his 30s and his last shots fired were from an air rifle in boy scouts. Set him up at the range and put him on a 6" plate at 400yards, had him dry fire a few to understand the concept of a trigger press, gave him a wind read and he pops the plate 2 for 2. He looked at me and said "so what is so hard about that", he switched to the 600yard plate I told him to guess on external ballistics and I let him chase his tail in a switching cross wind for a half dozen rounds before he looked over and said "I get it now". He quickly understood that the knowledge was far more important than the physical skill. I have coached a lot of new shooters over the years and if they willing to listen they can have fabulous results. When I got that particular .243 up and running I put it on paper at 100 with 3-4 rounds then jumped right to 1000yards on a plate. The next three rounds were under 8"and a little bit high because of a software problem, I did not compensate for the uphill shot and the 1000yard plate should have only needed data for about 970. Went back to 200yards and followed my JBM results and built a data table to 1200yards. I was blessed to have a very light 6 o'clock wind and from 200 yards out to about 1050 I would not have had a single round off of a 10" target.

For me ethics is a sum of whole. If the hunter had no experience behind this rifle, no knowledge of proper comeups and holds then slinging lead from any caliber at any distance is unethical. As it was shown here the physical component was solid as well as the information required to make the shot. Never met JB in my life but I think if he was looking at a shooter that could not get comfortable, was not sure of themselves or had a good dose of buck (bull?) fever he would have waved off the shot and looked for a fourth setup.

It is possible that me calling her a �girl� in the title of the thread is somewhat misleading but it made me smile.

I think I already explained I feel pretty proud of how that all worked out.

It is possible that me calling her a �girl� in the title of the thread is somewhat misleading but it made me smile.

While this might have been her first big game animal she owns her own bird dogs and hunts upland game most every weekend.

The elk was hauled out of the hills in the back of her 1 ton dually truck. She owns a string of horses (including one of the better mannered stud horse I have ever been around) and tack (including pack saddles) and regularly rides alone in the exact area in which she killed the elk. She was ready to saddle up and pack that elk out of any hole it could find.

She owns her own .300 WSM.

She works 12 hr shifts in the QC dept of a company that makes cancer medicines and only has the weekends to hunt.

I did not �let� her shoot that elk. I simply told her what the gun would do and she made the decision understanding exactly what could go wrong.

What really makes me smile is how she performed so well in a situation that has a few, just a few, of you guys stumped.

An impartial observer might draw the conclusion her stellar performance has damaged a few fragile egos. I mean if a �girl� can do it ???

An impartial observer might draw the conclusion her stellar performance has damaged a few fragile egos. I mean if a �girl� can do it ???

So thick skinned that a bow with 2 FPE can't take them down...right...let alone a 45-70...@ 20 yds....chit better have a howitzer @ 50 to make it sporting....laffin

do it or STFU

Not that [bleep] again, better stop showing MMA, boxing, PBR, NHRA and many others before some idiot goes out and tries it.

People do need protection from Pabst Blue Ribbon.

never will agree with that type of shooting on video because it breeds copy-cat shooting with people who have no buisness doing it.

(information you intentionally left out to spark up controversy?).