Well i wasent really expecting it was, as there are so many places looking like that in the n/c region.
But a bit of a story if i may.
In the fall of 1955 i was 20 years old. I was part of a small group who hunted the n/c region using the driving method for hunting deer. I had a model 141 Rem pump in 35 rem, with no scope.
We had finished our drives for that day and were heading back to camp about 10 miles from where we were. We started down the valley on the road i mentioned, and didnt go far before we had to stop.
There were several cars blocking the road, and we noticed a guy laying prone on the road shooting across the valley. So we got out and joined the others standing there watching. At that point he had been shooting awhile, as there was brass laying on the road. A few more shots and he stopped and stood up, saying nothing. But there were 2 other guys standing nearby also watching thru spotting scopes. When the guy stood up one of them asked if he was finished shooting. He just nodded that he was, and then they asked if he minded if they shot. He was picking up his brass and said go ahead and shoot if you want.
One of those 2 guys went to their car and removed the back seat cushion from the car and layed it on the road. He then got his gun out which turned out to be a model 70 Win in 270 with a Unertle target scope on it. He laid down on the road with the gun resting on the car seat. His buddy was watching him shoot thru a spotter. I cant say how he made the shot because i wasent really listening. But on his third shot he killed that buck. That was the very first long range shot i ever witnessed happening. I remember asking how far it was and he said right off that it was 700 yards. There was no rangefinder there, but they no doubt knew the distance.
Well that incident changed the way i thought about the way we were going about deer hunting.
But it was a decade later untill a small group of us broke away from the group and started glassing fields and other places offering shots up to about we guessed to be 400 yards.
But in the late 60s a group of guys moved into the area and changed everything.
They were limiting out on bucks every year, and after about 3 years guess who made it a point to meet those guys.
So by the very early 70s i had a Barr & Stroud military rangefinder, and one of the first places i took it was to that spot on that road i has witnessed my first long range shot. And guess what, the guy was right on the money with what he had told me back in 1955. I never saw that guy again after that day, but i later found out who he was and became very good friends with several of his relatives, all from Pittsburg.
But the the biggest part of the story is that 50 years later, almost to the day of that shot, at 70 years of age, i killed my first and only Pa black bear with a first round hit without ranging it in almost the exact spot that guy whoes name is/was Ray Diamond killed that buck.
My bear dressed out at 238# and i used a 7x300 Wetherby on a 700 action with a 162 gr Hornady match bullet. My scope was a Leupold VX3 3.5 x10 with a custom multi dot reticle by DIck Thomas of Premier reticles. There were no dials on the scope. I shot from a portable bench from a lookout above the road created for that purpose.
