No Doubt At All

It’s just about one more trip around the sun for me, as we approach that most special of all holidays; my 74th Christmas, as it turns out, and by no small coincidence, my sister’s 77th, a fact longtime readers already know.

We share the same Christmas Day birthday, and we’ve both been listening to Christmas songs for almost the past two months, which is some kind of torture.

It has definitely been an eventful year, with some good hunting tales and a couple that weren’t so hot. But I confirmed the mountains are still steep — and getting steeper — the campfires are still warm even when shared with ghosts of seasons past, and bacon sizzling in a cast iron skillet still smells and tastes as good as it did decades ago.

Late last month, I stumbled across something on Facebook which seemed to bring so many things into perspective. I don’t know who the author was, but the holiday season message is by far the most poignant thing I’ve read in some great while. It just might be the “golden rule” of the holiday season.

“Someone you know,” the statement read, “is preparing for their first Christmas without their husband, wife, mother, father, brother, sister, daughter or son. Others are preparing for their last. Regardless of the specifics, remember that this season of joy is often times a season of sorrow for many. Be kind, be generous, give love, give help; if nothing else, just don’t give people a hard time.”

Take time to call your pals. I’ve got an old newspaper friend whose birthday is Dec. 24, and we always try to spend a few minutes on the phone. A couple of years back, he shared details of a misadventure involving a mule deer buck he shot with a muzzleloader that left me laughing hysterically because nobody could make up such a tale. There was a buck I conked near his house on a different occasion which led me to believe in Zombie deer. I shot that buck with a rifle and a handgun, and the doggoned deer just would not stay shot! Where was Elmer Keith with his .44 Magnum when I really needed him?

Remind your family you love them and keep them close.

I plan to spend at least part of Christmas at the loading bench, putting together ammunition for my vintage Colt Diamondback. I recently rediscovered this sixgun has a particular fondness for a 125-grain JHP ahead of a dose of HP-38, and I now have about a hundred polished empties awaiting my attention.

If you must play “last-minute-Santa” to someone, get ‘em a box of ammunition or, better yet, a subscription to American Handgunner or GUNS (or both!) for 2024.

About Elmer’s Long Shot

Speaking of Elmer, it seems like every couple of years, the discussion about Keith’s much-debated 600-yard shot on an Idaho mule deer buck with a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum pops up anew. This time around, it was courtesy of retired Texas Sheriff Jim Wilson. At least nowadays the prevailing wisdom is that the late Mr. Keith did, indeed, make that shot.

I dug out my copy of “Hell, I Was There!” and turning to Page 199, one finds Elmer’s account, which to me has always seemed plausible. After all, we’re talking about a fellow whose long-range prowess with a handgun was widely known and attested to by too many reliable people to be the kind of silliness one hears from barstool braggarts.

Keith was hunting in the fall of 1954 with a fellow named Paul Kriley, who flanked a couple of big bucks somewhere near the Keith ranch. He plugged one with a .300 Magnum, and Keith — armed with the .44 fitted with a 6 ½-inch barrel — opened fire on the wounded animal. Here’s what he wrote: “I held all of the front sight up, or practically all of it, and perched the running deer on top of the front sight and squeezed one off. Paul said, ‘I saw it through my scope. It hit in the mud and snow right below him.’”

Keith readjusted his sight picture by holding “all of the front sight up and a bit of the ramp, just perched the deer on top. After the shot the gun came down out of recoil and the bullet had evidently landed. The buck made a high buck-jump, swapped ends, and came back toward us, shaking his head. I told Paul I must have hit a horn.”

Kriley fired another round at an estimated 500 yards but missed. Keith went back into action, explaining, “I got on the old buck again with all of the front sight and a trifle of the ramp up. Just as I was going to squeeze it off when he got to the ridge, he turned up it just as the band of deer had done. So, I moved the sight picture in front of him and shot. After an interval, he went down and out of sight.”

Kriley and Keith found the deer dead, took it home and hung it in the garage. Several days later, after determining Elmer had hit it once in the right jaw (exiting at the nose; this was the 600-yarder) and a second time high in the ribs — passing through the buck — Keith’s son, Ted, discovered part of a jacket from the Remington .44 Magnum bullet just beside the exit wound.

Called a Liar

I never met Keith, who acknowledged he had been “called a liar ever since” for reporting this incident. People can make up all kinds of stuff, but you cannot fabricate bullet wounds or bullet jacket fragments.

I couldn’t resist mixing into the online conversation, since having shot at long-range targets and seen others do it at the Elmer Keith Memorial long-range handgun shoot, I know it is possible to hit a deer-sized target at approximately 600 yards.

An accurate shot at that distance is no small feat, but it is credible considering the well-known skill of the shooter. And I noted in my comment to Wilson, “Would you ever stand 600 yards away from Keith and challenge him to shoot at you? I sure as hell wouldn’t!”

Apparently, I’m not the only person who thinks this way, proving that smart minds think alike!

Mailbag

I’m still getting reactions to my column earlier this year which mentioned my portable target stand made from PVC pipe. This time around, a reader provided interesting details.

“I would like to comment on the PVC target stand Dave Workman described in more than one of his columns. I have made one of larger diameter PVC and left the uprights shorter and open at the top. I insert wooden pieces on the uprights to which I attach targets. If (when) I or another shooter miss the paper and hit the upright, it is easily and cheaply replaced. I have used 2×2 lumber, but cheaper still, 4 foot lathe. In the field one could even scrounge up a fir bough in a pinch. Targets can be taped, clamped, or stapled to the wood, whereas staples can’t be used on PVC. As a volunteer at my range, I have learned that anything down range will eventually be shot, so I plan for that eventuality.

Scott Morris
Washington State

Dave replies: Scott, thanks for the details and the images you sent. There is no good reason for anyone to be without a reliable target stand, and your design is certainly as reliable as mine. These things are inexpensive, portable and practical. Good shooting in the year ahead, and please accept my best wishes, on behalf of all my colleagues, for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thanks so much for reading American Handgunner and GUNS Magazine online!

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