For me: I grew up on a farm and no one in my family hunted or done much shooting. I hunted with a Winchester 1300 & slugs from age 13 to 18 by myself and didn't know anything. Never hardly saw deer and never killed anything. @ 18 years old I bought myself a 35 rem marlin 336 that I saw no reason why I couldn't hit the moon with it, seriously, lol. Had an lot older fellow help me sight it @ 100yds. Finally got a shot at a deer about 300 yards away with the old 35 propped up on a hay bail. Made three shots and the deer still just standing there. I didn' even know to try & hold over, I thought the old 35 rem was a Lazer I guess. Lol, funny I was that green. I was so disgusted. If I would have killed that deer I would have never had the determination that I needed to learn what I should know about shooting at longer distances. It took my failure to motivate me to learn more. Now I'm glad that deer was 300yds away and I missed it. Wouldn't have learned much if it would have been 50yds away and I would have hit it.
1977 I was 5
3x9x42 bushnell scope on a post 64 30-06 model 70 named big boy.
I started reading Elmer Keith, jack o'Conner, learning about ballistics...
All these guys in magazines (but keith) were afraid and incapable of hitting an 18" elk beyond 400 yards!!!
Of course my papa, uncles and mentors were WWII vets, loggers, ranchers
I saw them shoot running deer at 200+ paces
Just like they did men at far off places like tarawa, solomens, mindanao, wake, incheon, Normandy and french and german names I still cant spell!!!
Needless to say at basic training when I was hitting torso targets at 600 meters with an m16a2 WITH PEEP SITES!!!
I KNEW THE FIELD AND STREAM AUTHORS WERE IDIOTS!
THEN
5 of 5
With a mark 248 in Kurdistan with 6" rocks across canyons and valleys
THEN
I got home and learned EVEN MORE about efficient long range bullets
Horus reticles
...............
Next thing you know
Mid 90s built my first fast twist 30" barrel 300win long loaded with 220smks and ssllloooowwww powder
248markII
reinvented for western oregon clearcuts and northeast Washington valley's
A long range hunters journey over 20 years...
But
Those ww2 Korean war gen loggers were shooting roosevelt elk and blacktail deer at 1000 yards without laser range finders back in the 60s and 70s
Know how?
EXPERIENCE
and they had known a great gunsmith and preacher of the rifle...
AND ITS TRUE CAPABILITIES
PO ACKLEY OF ROSEBURG OREGON!!!