goodgrouper
Well-Known Member
I told a dear friend of mine who can't type very fast that I would tell his story here so it would save him the pain of single key stroking for hours! He is a member of LRH and visits about everyday but seldom leaves a post. It is 7mmRHB.
I met 7mmRHB about 8 years ago at the range. I was breaking in my new custom .223, and he was working on a friends rifle. I saw him off and on for the next couple years, but didn't really know him until I took a job at the local gunshop.
Through 2000 to 2002, he would come in and get powder and bullets quite often for his .22 hornet. After some time, when he trusted me not to laugh in his face, he started telling me wild stories of shooting prairie dogs with his .22 hornet at 300 yards. While I found it somewhat hard to believe, I never doubted his stories as I had never known him to be dishonest in the least.
Through 2003, he started telling me of 400 yard plus hits with the old hornet. That is a looong way for a case that holds something like 15 grains of powder! I still never said, "bull" or anything, but at that point, I had to see it to REALLY believe it. So, last February we went shooting. We set up a 9" diameter gong at 500 yards-another 1/5 the distance that I thought was far for the caliber. This was going to be good I thought. The fog settled in all around us, but did not impede our view of the gong. We knew with fog in the air that wind was nothing. I set up my spotting scope while he got the gun ready. After dialing in about 200,000 clicks, he proceeded to ping the gong shot after shot after shot! I was blown away. We had several other people there too that were as shocked as I was. After hitting the gong with super regularity, he asked if anyone else wanted to shoot it. I jumped at the chance. I then proceeded to shoot 9 or 10 shots, all of which hit the gong! Then I passed it off to the others and they hit it just about every shot too!
Needless to say, this little outing started to get the old wheels upstairs turning. If you could put every shot on a 9" gong at 500 yards with a hornet, why not adopt that "can do" attitude to every range, and do it with guns that are just adequate to get the job done. In other words, don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito. If you can dump a rockchuck at 600 yards with a .223, then why burn the barrel on your .22-.250? Save it for the 750 yard stuff. Or even better, get a fast twist .22-.250 and shoot chucks at 1000 yards against the guys using .30-.378's. That always dazes the big macho guys shooting those huge thirties at 1000 yards when someone shooting a .22 caliber gun plinks the gong just as many times as them!
Anyway, 7mmRHB wanted to see what the thoughts and feeling were on his 500 yard hornet among long range hunters on this forum so I told him I would type this. Hope it was fun reading. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
--goodgrouper
I met 7mmRHB about 8 years ago at the range. I was breaking in my new custom .223, and he was working on a friends rifle. I saw him off and on for the next couple years, but didn't really know him until I took a job at the local gunshop.
Through 2000 to 2002, he would come in and get powder and bullets quite often for his .22 hornet. After some time, when he trusted me not to laugh in his face, he started telling me wild stories of shooting prairie dogs with his .22 hornet at 300 yards. While I found it somewhat hard to believe, I never doubted his stories as I had never known him to be dishonest in the least.
Through 2003, he started telling me of 400 yard plus hits with the old hornet. That is a looong way for a case that holds something like 15 grains of powder! I still never said, "bull" or anything, but at that point, I had to see it to REALLY believe it. So, last February we went shooting. We set up a 9" diameter gong at 500 yards-another 1/5 the distance that I thought was far for the caliber. This was going to be good I thought. The fog settled in all around us, but did not impede our view of the gong. We knew with fog in the air that wind was nothing. I set up my spotting scope while he got the gun ready. After dialing in about 200,000 clicks, he proceeded to ping the gong shot after shot after shot! I was blown away. We had several other people there too that were as shocked as I was. After hitting the gong with super regularity, he asked if anyone else wanted to shoot it. I jumped at the chance. I then proceeded to shoot 9 or 10 shots, all of which hit the gong! Then I passed it off to the others and they hit it just about every shot too!
Needless to say, this little outing started to get the old wheels upstairs turning. If you could put every shot on a 9" gong at 500 yards with a hornet, why not adopt that "can do" attitude to every range, and do it with guns that are just adequate to get the job done. In other words, don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito. If you can dump a rockchuck at 600 yards with a .223, then why burn the barrel on your .22-.250? Save it for the 750 yard stuff. Or even better, get a fast twist .22-.250 and shoot chucks at 1000 yards against the guys using .30-.378's. That always dazes the big macho guys shooting those huge thirties at 1000 yards when someone shooting a .22 caliber gun plinks the gong just as many times as them!
Anyway, 7mmRHB wanted to see what the thoughts and feeling were on his 500 yard hornet among long range hunters on this forum so I told him I would type this. Hope it was fun reading. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
--goodgrouper
