My partner Chuck and I were in the foothills of the Alaska Range. We were snowmachining up Bonifield creek drainage, when I spotted two wolves stalking a Caribou cow and last years calf. We were on the west side of the creek, the wolves were on the other, at what I guessed to be 300 yards distance. I stopped my machine, and got my 30-06 Handi and range finder out. When I stopped the wolves continued their stalk, they had not became aware of our presence. My range finder placed them midway between 400 and 425 yards. I sat down and made the shot on the Gray one. Solid body shot, took out both lungs. The other wolf ran behind a clump of brush and stayed there. Chuck was not aware of the wolves till I made my shot. He circled around and came back to where I was. I pointed out the clump of brush where the wolf was hiding. Chuck had a Remington 660 in .222 mag. I tried shooting through the brush, which flushed the wolf out. Chuck then started shooting. Chuck shot seven of eight times as the wolf ran from one clump of brush to another. Finally as the wolf neared the top of the ridge Chuck quite shooting. I quess the wolf thought he was safe, because he quite hiding. The wolf came into the open and trotted to the top of the ridge. There he stretched, yawned, then sat down looking at us. I started teasing Chuck about the wolf knowing he was safe, all that shooting and he never even came close. I quess I hit a nerve because Chuck started turning red, walked over to me and grabbed my 30-06 out of my hands. Chuck looked me in the face and said "The army taught me to kill a man at 1000 yards with an 06, You brag about how accurate this thing is we'll just see". At that he sat down beside my snowmachine, using the backrest he sighted on the wolf. He asked me to check the yardage with my range finder. I dialed it in and saw it was just over 800 yards, I informed Chuck of this. Chuck asked me what bullet I was shooting, I told him "150gr boattail", actually it was Sierra 150gr HPBT Matchking. I laughed and told him he could not hit him at that range, up hill toboot. Chuck did some mental calculations, mumbled for a few seconds, calling me a few unprintable names, then took the shot. I was watching with my binoculars. I saw what looked like a puff of smoke, just sa the wolf which was sitting looking at us suddenly turned and disappeared.
It took us over two hours to work our way around to where the wolf had been sitting. When we neared the top of the ridge, we had to leave the snowmachines behind since the snow had been blown off. We walked the last few hundred yards, and there lay the wolf. Chuck ran over and grabbed up the dead wolf came back and shook it in my face, told me to eat my words about him not hitting it at that range. Chuck stalked off back down the hill dragging the wolf. I went on over to the spot where the wolf had been sitting, just down about 15 feet in front of the spot was a spot where a bullet had hit the rocks. Chuck had hit the wolf with a ricochet. I walked back to my machine and went down and collected my wolf. I never said anything to Chuck about hitting him with a ricochet, but Chuck noticed the bullet jacket was split and totally separated from the lead core when he skinned him later at the cabin.
