Long time ago I sat on a ridge with a good buddy as evening came on and he took a shot at a young mule there.

Now this was toward the end of the season and his family needed meat and he just wanted to get a buck and he kind of pushed his limits.

He shot a little further than he should have.

He hit the buck but just below the brisket line and took out one leg and the buck

started dashing for cover across this wide open ridge, hoping to crust over and drop into thick timber

on the other side.

I was also packing a rifle and had a tag and at that point we knew this buck just needed to be stopped and after a couple of

seconds he kind of desperately said I can't find him on my scope. Shoot him if you can.

Well, I was prone on a good rest and following this buck in my sights, at this point we later ranged it the buck was

550 yards about and running across the mountainside and I was shooting an iron-sided rifle. It was a

30 out six. A 1903 Springfield that had been rebarled with a very good barrel and fit with match quality sites.

It actually was used long ago at Camp Perry for competitive shooting in the national matches.

And I knew the rifle really well. I had a very accurate

hand load worked up, firing a 150 grain nozzler ballistic tip bullet, and, well well when something's wounded and heading for tall

timber and evenings coming on you just try and get another shot into it right

so I fired and I hit oh geez six or eight feet behind that buck

Because he's running right he's a long way off

racked another shot in and fired again, adjusting my lead considerably further forward and hit

right behind his tail.

But a third cartridge in swung the lead another two or three feet and squosed

the trigger a final time and hit that buck hard dropped him. Many years later I was shooting another old rifle

a pre-64 model 70 Winchester chambered in 270 and a young friend of mine borrowed the rifle and asked me to take him hunting and took a shot at a small four-point buck starting up into the foothills of a mesa,

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