I don,t remember the exact year now but I well remember Jack was always kidding me about using a damn CANNON on my elk hunts AS I had been using either my 340 wby or 375H&H carbine for several years on these yearly Elk hunting trips,
now that 375 H&H carbine or 340 wby rifle had killed all the deer, and Elk rather decisively, and he had never shot my rifles the first few trips ,but both the SAKO and WBY ,had never been all that impressive in how effectively it had done so,in his opinion.
but as Jack had stated many times , he had used his 30/06 for decades, with almost boring and totally predictability,.... deer he shot would be hit,
and the deer would run off, and require a short tracking job,
when hit with his 30/06.
now the bullet does ALL the work in any rifle shot,
as thats what impacts the target, and where you hit is more important,
to the result than what rifle you use
(within reasonable limits of course) and as far as the games concerned,
a good shot with a 270 win or 30/06 can sure put down game, very reliably, if the shooter knows the games anatomy,
and if you either don,t place the shot in the vitals or use a projectile that expands too slowly to do much damage before it exits ,
or one that expands to rapidly to penetrate to the vitals you will frequently see the game run off before dropping,
it has very little to do with POWER ,VELOCITY ,CALIBER, or the head stamp on your case brass ,
whats important is your precise and exact shot placement, knowledge of the anatomy of the game and selecting the proper projectile for the intended application,
but having a larger caliber bullet of decent weight that expands reliably and penetrates deeply and dependably sure increases the odds youll get rapid results.
and having an accurate rifle is a huge boost to any hunters confidence
Jack purchased a browning A-bolt rifle several years ago, in caliber 375 H&H,
now the calibers rather large compared too what many guys use,
and not necessarily needed on north American big game,
but with proper hand loads it can be and is an excellent choice.
he complained that the rifle was heavy to carry but he also admitted the mass reduced the effect of recoil and the rifle was very accurate!
the 375 H&H and 340 wby are closely matched in power and not far apart in trajectory,as the 340 throws a 250 grain at 2900 fps while the 375 H&H throws a 270 grain at about 2670 fps
when he first bought it accuracy sucked,we traced that to a badly bedded action.
a quick trip to the local range with his new toy gave me a good idea why the previous owner was willing to sell so cheaply, it would barely keep a 6" 100 yard group off the bench,
100 yard bench rested groups ran in the 6" range but the targets had that tell tale, twin group indicator that either the bedding or scope mount was the cause.
we checked the bedding and it was obvious that needed to be re-bedded,and we carefully cleaned the barrel, so we used a dremel to partly cut out the area behind the recoil lug and embed a stainless steel bolt and washer after careful measurements and cutting the required area and use of epoxy bedding material was used.
we also piller bed the action bolts bosses,then we did a good bore cleaning , new scope mounts were installed,and a 4x Leopold scope
accuracy improved dramatically with new action bedding
well Jack stopped over Last night as he had to visit some old work pal in miami and stopped by here to B.S. and we got to talking about his old browning 375 H&H A-bolt rifle. and one of the hunts he had been on. now you don,t need a 338 win-375 h&h power but the 250 grain and heavier bullets do a very effective job.
We had driven out to Franks in woodland park Colorado and spent the evening before, the day before ,the season opener sleeping in his living room, we spent that day before the season opened driving out and setting up camp near grizzly creek.
It was the usual mad rush of trucks up the dirt logging roads into the mountains but as usual the further we traveled into the mountains the less traffic we had for company and by about noon we were virtually alone on remote logging roads that had obviously seen very little use in recent years.
We set up our 8 man tent well off the road under some mixed conifer and aspen.
there were 5 of us that year, Frank, Al, Jack ,Ron,Sal and I, the area we had selected had been selected mostly because we knew from previous years that as soon as the season opened a good bit of hunting pressure in the three lower canyons that fed into this upper drainage would over the next couple days produce a more or less rather consistent stream of elk fleeing the lower drainage areas and traveling up and over a ridge we planed to be sitting on and spread out on at strategic spots so we could in theory intercept them.
The Flaw in the plan was that the Elk were smart enough to time the majority of the travel under the cover of darkness unless forced to do other wise.
that and we obviously could not cover every potential side canyon, or escape route out of three different major drainage's.
first light found SAL and frank and Al still in camp making coffee and breakfast and Jack and I well up on a ridge easily 2 miles up along a long abandoned logging road , where we spaced ourselves about 400 yards apart to watch a clear cut that was mostly grown back with raggedly inter-spaced 5-9 ft tall conifer.
after several hours of seeing several groups of very nice mule deer ( Id skipped the license for deer that year)(naturally Id see several great deer) we had seen no legal elk yet.
I saw Jack lay his rifle on his back-pack and look through his scope, I looked down into the clear-cut where he was looking but could not see anything moving, I continued to watch..
IT was rather obvious Jack could see something but as we had been seeing small groups of mule deer and Jack did not seem to concerned I at that point assumed it was either deer or maybe a cow elk or possibly one of the guys from camp hunting up the clear cut.
at around noon, Jack walked over and said he had seen a small spike elk earlier but nothing legal to shoot, we sat and talked and ate a few snacks we had in our packs and were getting board.
Jack noticed movement down the clear-cut and used his Steiner field glasses ,it was a barely legal bull elk, but still a nice 4x4, Jack debated for a few seconds then decided that any elk that was legal on public land was worth taking as average success in that area was near 20%, and he was rather reluctant to take a chance at going home with an empty meat cooler that year!
he rested his new browning rifle over his back-pack, and took careful aim, I judged the range to be only about 120 yards, (keep in mind Jacks an excellent shot) as he fired the elk spun and ran, Jack slapped the bolt,handle up, back then forward,cycling it, with practice all complete as the rifle recoils and as the rifle fired, the range was now at about 150 yards,as he was getting the second sight picture,from a sitting position, the elk went nose first into a stump, spun sideways, and slid down slope a bit obviously, dead,almost instantly as the second shot sounded,...on inspection there was a single hit in the rear upper ribs .on the left near the spine traveling downward and exiting the right chest , obviously the first shot was a total miss....we got to harass jack about that for days.
Jack of course blamed, the missed shot, on my crappy hand loads, until I reminded him that HE hand loaded his own 375 H&H ammo that year!
and we had the rather unusual experience of packing meat out in a mostly down hill direction, along what could almost be described as a trail, vs across a long steep upward slope ,one of the very few times that ever happened!
a lot of that area looked similar to this picture I found
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/jacks-newly-tweaked-375-h-h.4459/#post-11712
now that 375 H&H carbine or 340 wby rifle had killed all the deer, and Elk rather decisively, and he had never shot my rifles the first few trips ,but both the SAKO and WBY ,had never been all that impressive in how effectively it had done so,in his opinion.
but as Jack had stated many times , he had used his 30/06 for decades, with almost boring and totally predictability,.... deer he shot would be hit,
and the deer would run off, and require a short tracking job,
when hit with his 30/06.
now the bullet does ALL the work in any rifle shot,
as thats what impacts the target, and where you hit is more important,
to the result than what rifle you use
(within reasonable limits of course) and as far as the games concerned,
a good shot with a 270 win or 30/06 can sure put down game, very reliably, if the shooter knows the games anatomy,
and if you either don,t place the shot in the vitals or use a projectile that expands too slowly to do much damage before it exits ,
or one that expands to rapidly to penetrate to the vitals you will frequently see the game run off before dropping,
it has very little to do with POWER ,VELOCITY ,CALIBER, or the head stamp on your case brass ,
whats important is your precise and exact shot placement, knowledge of the anatomy of the game and selecting the proper projectile for the intended application,
but having a larger caliber bullet of decent weight that expands reliably and penetrates deeply and dependably sure increases the odds youll get rapid results.
and having an accurate rifle is a huge boost to any hunters confidence
Jack purchased a browning A-bolt rifle several years ago, in caliber 375 H&H,
now the calibers rather large compared too what many guys use,
and not necessarily needed on north American big game,
but with proper hand loads it can be and is an excellent choice.
he complained that the rifle was heavy to carry but he also admitted the mass reduced the effect of recoil and the rifle was very accurate!
the 375 H&H and 340 wby are closely matched in power and not far apart in trajectory,as the 340 throws a 250 grain at 2900 fps while the 375 H&H throws a 270 grain at about 2670 fps
when he first bought it accuracy sucked,we traced that to a badly bedded action.
a quick trip to the local range with his new toy gave me a good idea why the previous owner was willing to sell so cheaply, it would barely keep a 6" 100 yard group off the bench,
100 yard bench rested groups ran in the 6" range but the targets had that tell tale, twin group indicator that either the bedding or scope mount was the cause.
we checked the bedding and it was obvious that needed to be re-bedded,and we carefully cleaned the barrel, so we used a dremel to partly cut out the area behind the recoil lug and embed a stainless steel bolt and washer after careful measurements and cutting the required area and use of epoxy bedding material was used.
we also piller bed the action bolts bosses,then we did a good bore cleaning , new scope mounts were installed,and a 4x Leopold scope
accuracy improved dramatically with new action bedding
well Jack stopped over Last night as he had to visit some old work pal in miami and stopped by here to B.S. and we got to talking about his old browning 375 H&H A-bolt rifle. and one of the hunts he had been on. now you don,t need a 338 win-375 h&h power but the 250 grain and heavier bullets do a very effective job.
We had driven out to Franks in woodland park Colorado and spent the evening before, the day before ,the season opener sleeping in his living room, we spent that day before the season opened driving out and setting up camp near grizzly creek.
It was the usual mad rush of trucks up the dirt logging roads into the mountains but as usual the further we traveled into the mountains the less traffic we had for company and by about noon we were virtually alone on remote logging roads that had obviously seen very little use in recent years.
We set up our 8 man tent well off the road under some mixed conifer and aspen.
there were 5 of us that year, Frank, Al, Jack ,Ron,Sal and I, the area we had selected had been selected mostly because we knew from previous years that as soon as the season opened a good bit of hunting pressure in the three lower canyons that fed into this upper drainage would over the next couple days produce a more or less rather consistent stream of elk fleeing the lower drainage areas and traveling up and over a ridge we planed to be sitting on and spread out on at strategic spots so we could in theory intercept them.
The Flaw in the plan was that the Elk were smart enough to time the majority of the travel under the cover of darkness unless forced to do other wise.
that and we obviously could not cover every potential side canyon, or escape route out of three different major drainage's.
first light found SAL and frank and Al still in camp making coffee and breakfast and Jack and I well up on a ridge easily 2 miles up along a long abandoned logging road , where we spaced ourselves about 400 yards apart to watch a clear cut that was mostly grown back with raggedly inter-spaced 5-9 ft tall conifer.
after several hours of seeing several groups of very nice mule deer ( Id skipped the license for deer that year)(naturally Id see several great deer) we had seen no legal elk yet.
I saw Jack lay his rifle on his back-pack and look through his scope, I looked down into the clear-cut where he was looking but could not see anything moving, I continued to watch..
IT was rather obvious Jack could see something but as we had been seeing small groups of mule deer and Jack did not seem to concerned I at that point assumed it was either deer or maybe a cow elk or possibly one of the guys from camp hunting up the clear cut.
at around noon, Jack walked over and said he had seen a small spike elk earlier but nothing legal to shoot, we sat and talked and ate a few snacks we had in our packs and were getting board.
Jack noticed movement down the clear-cut and used his Steiner field glasses ,it was a barely legal bull elk, but still a nice 4x4, Jack debated for a few seconds then decided that any elk that was legal on public land was worth taking as average success in that area was near 20%, and he was rather reluctant to take a chance at going home with an empty meat cooler that year!
he rested his new browning rifle over his back-pack, and took careful aim, I judged the range to be only about 120 yards, (keep in mind Jacks an excellent shot) as he fired the elk spun and ran, Jack slapped the bolt,handle up, back then forward,cycling it, with practice all complete as the rifle recoils and as the rifle fired, the range was now at about 150 yards,as he was getting the second sight picture,from a sitting position, the elk went nose first into a stump, spun sideways, and slid down slope a bit obviously, dead,almost instantly as the second shot sounded,...on inspection there was a single hit in the rear upper ribs .on the left near the spine traveling downward and exiting the right chest , obviously the first shot was a total miss....we got to harass jack about that for days.
Jack of course blamed, the missed shot, on my crappy hand loads, until I reminded him that HE hand loaded his own 375 H&H ammo that year!
and we had the rather unusual experience of packing meat out in a mostly down hill direction, along what could almost be described as a trail, vs across a long steep upward slope ,one of the very few times that ever happened!
a lot of that area looked similar to this picture I found
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/jacks-newly-tweaked-375-h-h.4459/#post-11712
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