Hi,
The handle is short for Frank's Gopher Service a handle I have used on other forums. I was thinking about Berger VLD bullets and googled that and was directed to the discussion here comparing Barnes TSX and Berger VLD. I thought the points made were very good and resulted in reminding myself of the velocity factor in bullet performance that was verified in my experience and this will perhaps lead me to a modified approach to selecting hunting bullets.
Butte is in Montana and sits by one of the largest holes in the ground in the world thanks to the worldly need for copper and the corporate drive for efficency.
I shoot a pre 64 model 70 Featherweight that my father bought me many years ago. It shoots very well but the trigger requires gorilla pressure and it has the original bedding so that is a project I hope to take on this year. I have migrated from Sierra 165s to Barnes 165 TSXs because of the one hole groups I have shot. But I think maybe I am shooting an excessively high velocity and can easily come down a bit in velocity.
Keeping in sync with the mission of this forum, I will relate a long distance shot I made while in high school in the early 1960's. I was hunting with another friend named Frank in the Bridgers north of Bozeman on a snowy, November day. We were on the ridge of a large canyon. Frank spotted a mule deer doe lying under a tree on the far side and suggested one of us should try a shot. He said " You will only waste a bullet if you miss." That took the pressure off of my 16 year old mind and it became a mission. I settled into some rocks and began bringing the Model 70 onto the deer. I asked Frank where I should hold and he said he was thinking on where to hold on the tree behind the deer. No conversation of how far it was was made because we both new it was a long darn way! So I adjusted my hold onto the tree above the deer. Talk about squirming around. I couldn't the hold I wanted. I had to shoot slightly up hill and the rocks would not give me enough elevation to let me get my stock high enough for my head to see though the old Weaver KV scope. I would take a breath an hold and the crosshairs would be moving all over or too low. Finally after squirming around about 2-3 minutes I thought I had a hold I could use and squeezed a shot off. I looked up and Frank says " I got tired of waiting for you and I was about ready to shoot. Did you hit it?" I looked at the deer through the scope and its head was down. I said I think so. I got up and the next time I looked across the canyon the deer was gone. We could see a dark slide mark where the deer had been and imagined it had died and slid downhill. We figured I would stay back and guide Frank if he could not find it. He had it dressed out by the time I got to the deer. The bullet hit the animal at the base of the neck; I had aimed behind the front shoulder. The distance was in the 500+ yard range. I figured I aimed about 1.5 body widths high.
There you go. Hope to enjoy my time on the forum and learn new things.
Frank
The handle is short for Frank's Gopher Service a handle I have used on other forums. I was thinking about Berger VLD bullets and googled that and was directed to the discussion here comparing Barnes TSX and Berger VLD. I thought the points made were very good and resulted in reminding myself of the velocity factor in bullet performance that was verified in my experience and this will perhaps lead me to a modified approach to selecting hunting bullets.
Butte is in Montana and sits by one of the largest holes in the ground in the world thanks to the worldly need for copper and the corporate drive for efficency.
I shoot a pre 64 model 70 Featherweight that my father bought me many years ago. It shoots very well but the trigger requires gorilla pressure and it has the original bedding so that is a project I hope to take on this year. I have migrated from Sierra 165s to Barnes 165 TSXs because of the one hole groups I have shot. But I think maybe I am shooting an excessively high velocity and can easily come down a bit in velocity.
Keeping in sync with the mission of this forum, I will relate a long distance shot I made while in high school in the early 1960's. I was hunting with another friend named Frank in the Bridgers north of Bozeman on a snowy, November day. We were on the ridge of a large canyon. Frank spotted a mule deer doe lying under a tree on the far side and suggested one of us should try a shot. He said " You will only waste a bullet if you miss." That took the pressure off of my 16 year old mind and it became a mission. I settled into some rocks and began bringing the Model 70 onto the deer. I asked Frank where I should hold and he said he was thinking on where to hold on the tree behind the deer. No conversation of how far it was was made because we both new it was a long darn way! So I adjusted my hold onto the tree above the deer. Talk about squirming around. I couldn't the hold I wanted. I had to shoot slightly up hill and the rocks would not give me enough elevation to let me get my stock high enough for my head to see though the old Weaver KV scope. I would take a breath an hold and the crosshairs would be moving all over or too low. Finally after squirming around about 2-3 minutes I thought I had a hold I could use and squeezed a shot off. I looked up and Frank says " I got tired of waiting for you and I was about ready to shoot. Did you hit it?" I looked at the deer through the scope and its head was down. I said I think so. I got up and the next time I looked across the canyon the deer was gone. We could see a dark slide mark where the deer had been and imagined it had died and slid downhill. We figured I would stay back and guide Frank if he could not find it. He had it dressed out by the time I got to the deer. The bullet hit the animal at the base of the neck; I had aimed behind the front shoulder. The distance was in the 500+ yard range. I figured I aimed about 1.5 body widths high.
There you go. Hope to enjoy my time on the forum and learn new things.
Frank
