Wow! There are some great stories on this thread. Some are very close to my own,
I grew up with guns and a reloading bench, I used to sit in a chair and watch my dad reload for hours, I wasn't your normal kid that wanted to play the Atari 2600 all day. I read every book and magazine I could find about hunting or shooting.
Studied reloading manuals and Gun Digests till I wore the pages off. I was fascinated with bullet drop charts and sectional densities, etc.
My dad was the greatest shot I knew of, and that was a big circle and I wanted to be as good or better than him. I used to sit in his recliner with him looking through hunting magazines and him asking were I would hold the gun if there was a title breeze and the distance was X (something he would pull out of the hat). We didn't have fancy scopes in those days like we do now. So it was all Kentucky windage. There was always a trick and it was me having to ask which gun I would using. We had a 22-250, 6mmRem, two 270win, and two 30-06. Sobi would open up the Speer or Hornady manual and tear skim through the charts and give him my answer. Often times he would correct me and tell me about the thickness of the neck and how to use that as reference for were to hold. I love those memories.
I was pretty proficient out to 400 by the time I was in Jr. high at targets and game if it were perfect conditions.
The best scope in the house was on my dad's pre-64 270. It was a Redfield 3x9 AO and the rangefinder went to 550 yds., I killed my first elk with it on a horseback hunt with my uncle. I don't know how accurate that system really was but it was supposed to be almost at the max. I remember shaking a lot. I missed the first shot and lunged him on the second and third. My uncle had hit him in the lower hock.That was then, the proudest day of my life. I always thought 500yds was kind of the limit.
Through the years that slowly evolved.
In 2009 Montana opened the doors to wolf hunting. I had a Tikka T3 with a Burris 4x12BDC
on it. I was elk hunting and had a pack of wolves mess up a chance at a 350 plus bull. They were at 700 or so and when the elk took off the wolves stopped. I got two shots off and didn't hit squat. Ever since then I have been slowly creeping into LR hunting.
I will also add that because of this forum and some great folks on here. I have learned a plié about proper reloading techniques for LR, what kind of gear I can run for my wallet, gunsmithing skills that can be done at home, what kind of bullets and load development, etc.
Thanks Len and thanks to all you other members.
One last thing. If your not a team member yet and ya can afford it, join up. It helps with the funding and getting rid of the adds is worth it