The Worst Scope Bite in History

[Mike]

You can't fix stupid!

At a recent convocation of hunting geezers, one of my fellow fossils, whom I shall call Orest, because that’s not his name, regaled me with the following tale of woe and folly, which I pass along to you.

Orest, who is a highly experienced hunter and shooter, found himself in a camp in Alaska that was dedicated to bears, and their demise by firearm. Among his peers was a brand-new hunter and completely inexperienced shooter whom we shall call Dmitri, since that is not his name, either.

Dmitri was very wealthy, and had decided to start hunting at the top. The gun that he had built expressly for this trip was a .375 H&H double rifle, made by hand by a hand-picked gunsmith. It cost a fabulous amount of money; Orest guesses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When Dmitri took it out of its case to show it off, he put it to his shoulder, and Orest saw that the ocular-lens bell of the scope was touching his brow.

The Rest of the Story

[Truckman]

I'm guessing that a pretty nice Holland & Holland double could be bought pretty cheap when he got out of the hospital......Ben

[Mike]

I wonder if his name was Bloomberg? That would explain his irrational fear.

[Truckman]

I wonder if his name was Bloomberg? That would explain his irrational fear.

If that's his name, maybe he was invited to the bear hunt as bait......Ben

[Blue74]

All I can say is be careful when you hold it on a rest to sight it in.


The rest of the story.
I was 19 or 20 and a neighbor saw where a local range was open to hunters to sight in their rifles. I had my dad's 1947 Winchester Model 70 300 H&H with a detachable Bausch & Lomb 4X scope.

I had bore sighted it, so when the day came off we went. I had never fired it so they had me put it on the bench and arranged the sandbags to hold it. The range master (?) said to try the 100 yard target. Hit it in the second ring. What a kick. Now try the 300 yard site. Bingo just about in the same spot. But this time I was holding on tight, too tight. The scope detached and hit me above the eye and then went flying onto the ground.

We all just looked for a minute, like damn. The other thing was since it hit both targets close to the bullseye and they had many hunters waiting that was it, two shots. My neighbor never even got to shoot it.

[Truckman]

...that was it, two shots.

At today's prices for .300 H&H, who could afford more?......Ben

[Dave Grubb]

I have only been badly scoped once and it was all my fault.

I was setting up several rifles for people and testing various loads. I had just finished a heavy mag and picked up the last one for the session, a 300 Savage Mode 99....a mere light weight relative to what I had been shooting. My holding of that gun reflected my cavalier attitude toward it.....the damn thing kicked me like a mule and opened a nasty gash

[Mike]

I love my .300 Savage 99!

[Dave Grubb]

I have one in 250-3000 which was the starter for my sons and this year my grandson

[Mike]

My .300 Savage has taken a whole lot of deer. In fact, it is the only rifle I have ever used for deer.

[Dave Grubb]

It is all you need. I like that caliber. I bought a Model 99 in 300 Savage many years ago but when I shot it I couldn't extract the case from the chamber. After driving the case out from the bore I could see damage to the case. The chamber had badly corroded and pitted. The strange thing was that the rest of the gun was pristine.
I took it back to the guy I bought it from.

[Mike]

I bought mine used when I was about 19 years old. If my memory is correct, it was made in the 1930s.

[Dave Grubb]

It well may date to the 30's. The model 99 was in protection for almost 100 years in a wide range of configurations and calibers.

[mgrist]

It well may date to the 30's. The model 99 was in protection for almost 100 years in a wide range of configurations and calibers.

What's that mean Dave?

[Dave Grubb]

It means my tablet inserted the wrong word, obviously it should read production.