[Jeff Higgins]

I'm envious as hell of you guys - I was just in a pretty serious car wreck last week wherein some daydreaming prick totaled my beloved 1970 Beetle and, unfortunately, wreaked a good bit of havoc on my left knee... hunting season is over for me this year...

I don't want to dwell on that and hijack your thread, vash, so on to more important things like shooting and hunting. I'd like to relate a short story about dope cards and twisting turrets in the field...

Years ago an enthusiastic budding young elk hunter showed up at our range to zero his nifty new custom elk rifle. It was chambered in the then still wildcat .338/.378 Weatherby, and mounted with some high powered variable scope with target turrets. He was kind of afraid of it, and was using one of those Caldwell "lead sleds" to shoot it from. There was a range table with elevation corrections clear laminated and taped to the stock. I was shooting my M70 in .375 H&H with its 1.5-4X Leupold. There were a bunch of other guys there, all shooting this year's elk rifles and loads.

So, of course, there was the usual range banter. Turns out this guy was heading to Colorado on a guided hunt. He wanted to be sure he could tag his elk at any range. His plan was to zap it with his range finder, consult the chart, dial the scope, and neatly kill the elk. The rest of us guessed he maybe hadn't done much elk hunting...

One of the older guys proposed a little game. He had us staple targets up at 50, 100, 200, and 300 yards (just me and the new guy). We then told him he had to get off the bench and assume the field position of his choice - he went prone, I went sitting. I was using my sling, he had not even brought one along...

The old guy then proceeded to randomly call out a range for an "elk". The rule was that when the first guy fired, the other was not allowed to shoot at that range. After half a dozen range calls that all had me firing first (and putting every shot well enough on target to stay in the vitals on an elk) while this guy was reading his chart and fiddling with his scope, he was well and truly befuddled. And we had made our point...

Sight the rifle for 200 or 300 yards (your choice) and leave it there. Forget the range card. Way, way less to dick around with and get distracted by. That .257 shoots flat enough for any ethical hunting shot without all the fun and games.

Oh, and BSiple, I don't envy you with that .338. I think they have quicker, "snappier" recoil than my beloved .375's. I've always found them to be more punishing than the slightly bigger, slower round.

Anyway, good luck on your hunts, guys.