Got to Wyoming middle of the afternoon with plenty of daylight left in the day and unloaded my horse. Left him at the ranch to rest up after the long drive and drove up the mountain with the rancher to drop off my gear at the base camp. While coming back down the mtn. we spotted a nice group of elk about 1 1/2 miles away grazing on the far edge of an open park. Decided to give it a try. Walked across the mtn mostly out of sight and arrived at the park in about 30 min. Checked the wind-blowing downhill- and decided we couldn't skirt above this group so we just walked straight at em. Crawled as close as possible and then set up for a long shot. My guide ranged 'em at 232yds and handed me a set of bipod shooting sticks. I'd practiced at home at 200yds with this Leverevolution ammo and just according to ballistics on the box, found it to print 4" low at 200yds. so I thought it would work.. I held on the upper 1/3 of her chest and squeezed one off. Heard that "WHAP" sound and she went down like a bowling pin! She was facing uphill at the shot and then struggled to gain her feet and travel downhill but kept struggling and falling. I was busy watching when my guide reminded me to shoot again. So I held in about the same spot and hit her a second time from the other side. She was down for good, then. After the adrenaline rush wore off, we went over to check her out. The first bullet passed completely through her chest breaking the offside shoulder. The second one quartered through her chest and broke the other shoulder and lodged under the hide. Checked it after I got home and it weighed 75% of the original 325 gr. Saved the hide, salted it down and dent it to a tanner in Denver. It will later become a set of chinks with elk ivories mounted in the conchos. We quartered the meat and bagged it in game bags and spread it out to cool. Rode up the next morning early and packed out with mules and horses. A month later sniped a whitetail doe at 230 yds last week with just a single shot through the base of the neck- like they say in Texas,"She got dead"... I'm just thrilled at how this ammo performed even at long ranges and reloading might become unneeded for hunting loads in this rifle in the future..BTW I shoot a 1895 45-70 Ltd V Cowboy model with a 2-7X Compact scope. Everybody in camp was really suprised at how this "old timer" performed. I stayed in camp another 2 1/2 days and helped packout other elk for other hunters. Had A Ball!!
Snuffydvm Ain't nothing better than ridin a good horse through new country- Gus Mcrae, Lonesome Dove
