Shooting Rocks! - Larry Weishuhn

The 3-inch in diameter rock just to the left of the 100-yard target exploded. “You missed the

entire backstop!” blurted my appointed bear guide.

“Oh no! Let me try another shot, I must have flinched really badly!” With that I levered in

another 300-grain Hornady Soft-Point cartridge. Took careful aim and watched as a 2-inch in

diameter rock turn to tiny pebbles just to the right of the target.

“You missed the entire backboard!” commented my now exasperated guide. “You got another

rifle you can hunt with? If not, you can use one of the camp rifles.”

“I must have really flinched, or maybe the scope is just way off!” With that I laid my rifle on the

bench, and simply loosened both scope caps a bit, making no other adjustment. Out of the

corner of my eye I watched the guide wagged his head in a negative manner. Said I, “That

should help! I made some scope adjustments!” By now I was certain my guide thought his

hunter was a complete idiot.

“Sam, would you mind standing right behind me and watch for what I’m doing wrong!” I

suspect he also probably thought that was likely the safest place to be around this guy!

I levered in another Hornady round. Two more remained in the tubular magazine. With that I

hollered “Fire in the Hole!”, then shot at the proper target. The bullet took out the small “x” in

the bullseye! No sooner had I shot and worked the lever, I fired a second and then levered in a

third shot. The three bullets created a three-hole clover-leaf in the exact center of the target.

“Looks like my adjusting the scope worked… I think she’s ready for bear!”

I turned to look at Sam who was now slack-jawed! It took him a few moments, “You were

messing with me all along weren’t you!”

“Yes Sir! I like making big rocks into smaller rocks and pebbles!” I responded. “This .45-70

Govt. lever-action, shooting Hornady ammo is one of the most accurate off-the-shelf rifles I

have ever owned!”

Three days later I shot a 7-foot 2-inch squared bear with a skull that just missed the all-time

Boone and Crockett record book. Hit squarely through the lungs the big Saskatchewan bear ran

only about 50-yards.

A couple of years later I was on a mule deer hunt in far northwestern Colorado, this back when

one could buy deer licenses over the counter. I got really lucky and shot a monstrous 180-class

3x3 (whitetail looking) with short browtines, the first morning of the hunt. At the time I was

using a .270 Win, shooting Hornady 130-grain pointed soft-point ammo. The rifle was superbly

accurate with that load. I shot my buck at just shy of 400-yards. Sighted-in 1 ½-inches high at

100-yards I knew my bullet would drop 24-inches at 400-yards. This long before adjustable

scope turrets. My scope at the time was a Leupold 3x9 variable with duplex-crosshairs. At 400-

yards the distance between where the heavy vertical crosshair became smaller and where the

vertical and horizontal crosshairs intersected was 24-inches. In shooting my buck, which I

“guesstimated” at 400-yards, this again before there were such things as rangefinders, I placed

the vertical crosshair post where thick turned to smaller in the center of his broadside shoulder

then pulled the trigger. There was a very slight breeze directly in my face. I did not worry

about wind drift. At the shot, the buck dropped in his tracks.

My buck hung in the barn to cool I had time to call coyotes but also shoot rocks. I learned back

when I was a youngster growing up in the Zimmerscheidt Community of Colorado County,

Texas there was season nor bag limit on rocks!

Back during those early days .22 rimfire shells were not always easy to come by. I had to save

for months to be able to buy a box of 50, even though it only cost from fifty to seventy-five

cents a box. We were in the cattle, chicken and hog production business. As a result we had

meat to eat every day, and were not dependent upon what we could shoot. That thankfully

allowed me the luxury of shooting at rock at both distance near and far. Now far for my

Remington Model 33 single-shot back then meant something a whole lot different that it does

today. Shooting open-sight long distance back then was an extreme 100-yards.

These days using my Mossberg 7mm PRC Patriot Predator rifles, topped with either Stealth

Vision’s a 3-18x44 SVT or 5-20x50 SVL shooting Hornady’s Precision Hunter 175-gr. ELD-X

ammo, I think nothing of shooting at rocks at 1,000 to 1,200-yards, when my “bullet budget”

allows.

Shooting at rocks, which I also do with my Rossi R92 in .44 Mag and R95 .30-30 Win, open-

sights, using appropriate Hornady rounds is great fun as well. So is using my Taurus Raging

Hunter .357 Mag, .44 Mag and .454 Casull revolvers

In most instance I try to quickly estimate the distance to the targeted rock, then hold

appropriately if shooting open sight. Then after the shot range the distance with my Stealth

Vision ED Range Finding Binoculars to see how close I was with my estimate. I do somewhat

the same when shooting my scoped Mossberg rifles, but there I estimate the distance, then

range it with my Stealth Vision binocular to see how close I was, make the appropriate turret

adjustments and shoot.

While I enjoy shooting at steel targets, I also like to see something happen. This is one of the

reasons I save one-gallon plastic milk jugs. These milk jugs too are a bit smaller than most vital

areas of the animals I hunt. Filled with red-dyed water, if I can break them, regardless of the

distance, I know I could and would cleanly and humanely kill the animal I might be shooting at

in the future. The same is true for shooting rocks, 4 to about 6-inches in diameter. Like the milk

jugs, I know immediately if they were hit or not. As with any type of shooting or hunting always

make certain of what is behind your target.

Rock shooting season is indeed open! May be impossible to eat what you shoot, but then too,

think about all the taxidermy fees you’ll save.