I finally had a chance to kill a deer with a great old classic styled rifle and even older classier cartridge yesterday eve. I've never dabbled much with the metrics, but a friend of mine is a huge supporter of the old classic stuff and its historical African continent mystique (the Brits call it the 275 Rigby), and so he finally talked me into stepping back in history. Truth be known, I really didn't fight it much, because I love stuff like that and after a little searching on GBroker last spring, I found an affordable Interarms Mark X in that great old cartridge that first hit a rifle chamber in 1892. I worked to find a load/bullet combo she liked and she really tested me at the reloading bench. I finally gave up on the flat base speer hot core bullets and immediately, she began shooting MOA groups with Speer's 145gr boat tail counterpart. It was a day and night difference in accuracy and after a bit more tweaking, it was ready to go.

I hunted with it almost exclusively all year, passing on lots of opportunities early season. The rut was a bust for me, but yesterday a wad of does showed up and it was time for her to shine. A long 133 years of history passed before my eyes through that scope as I watched that doe fall in her tracks. A great clean kill using a bullet that has been around for more than 50 years from a cartridge that has been around for over a century. It was a great time in the woods and one that I won't soon forget. All the new stuff is cool and all, but there's something almost primal in carrying a blued steel and walnut rifle driven by that bombproof mauser-styled action. And although it was really a chip-shot that was a bit under 50 yards, that old technology bullet did it's job quickly and cleanly as any of the newer offerings you'll see in the reloading catalogues. My hat's off to this old rifle and cartridge - in the eastern deer woods, there probably isn't an equal for the light recoil shootability and the terminal performance that comes from the ol 7x57.