But, did he really shot a mule deer from 600 yards away?
Elmer Keith began experimenting with heavy .44 Special loads in the 1920s, first firing them in Colt Single Actions, and later, in the S&W .44 Special First Model Hand Ejector (Triple Lock Target). Factory .44 Special cartridges before WW2 drove a 246-grain lead, round-nosed, cup-based bullet at 770 fps with 6 grains of Infallible or 5 grains of Bullseye, as measured from the solid 6-inch industrial test barrel. Actual revolver velocity of WRA-headstamped loads assembled in balloon-head cases, which I’ve chronographed, was just shy of 700-fps from my S&W Model 29-2 with 4-inch barrel. While accurate, the LRN ammo lacked knockdown power for big game hunting or self-defense, because they frequently tumbled when penetrating soft targets. Keith wanted substantially greater energy, with deep, straight-line penetration to be able to shoot completely shoot through elk, moose or bear from any angle. His experiments and adventures are described in great detail in his book Sixguns (1956).
Keith’s load development was a multi-pronged approach combining extensive experiments in cast bullet design with pressing the design limits of existing guns and powders. The Keith bullet we know so well today culminated in the Ideal #429421 which appeared about 1928. This long-nosed, semi-wadcutter with large meplat and full-diameter front driving band above the crimp groove, carried up better at long range than his earlier parallel-sided, bore-riding, blunt-nosed Modern Bond designs. The #429421 gave Keith the long range accuracy and deep penetration he sought. Using heavy loads of SR80, he was able to reach 1150 fps from the 6” barrel .44 Special Triple Lock. When Hercules #2400 came out in 1930, 18.5 grs in balloon-head cases or 17.5 in the “new” solid head cases allowed him to reach 1200 fps.
While Keith pressed Remington to produce the heavy .44 load, he also urged Carl Hellstrom at Smith & Wesson to build the revolver for it. The S&W .44 Magnum Hand Ejector was announced in December, 1955. Serial number S130942 was shipped to Julian S. Hatcher, technical editor of American Rifleman. General Hatcher's review appeared in the March 1956 issue. Keith noted in Sixguns that his 22 grs. of #2400, using standard primers and Ideal #429421 extracted easier, showing less pressure than factory Remington and Western Super-X loads. The .44 Magnum was an immediate success among hunters, its popularity being vigorously promoted by shooting press. In 1962 Bob Petersen wrote in Guns & Ammo about a successful Alaskan brown bear hunt. Keith's monthly magazine columns carried further exploits...
In 1957 the .44 Magnum Hand Ejector was designated the Model 29 and a 4-inch barrel version was also introduced. While a few gun writers of the period wistfully referred to the 4-inch Model 29 as a “police” model, it is more correctly referred to as the outdoorsman’s “packing” pistol.
While a few individual highway patrol, SWAT and conservation officers in Western states may have bought them, the 29 was never seriously considered for law enforcement issue at department level, because the guns were too expensive, too heavy and too powerful. S&W never made a fixed sight .44 Mag revolver or a lower finish version like they did with the popular .357 Model 28 Highway Patrolman. Remington’s Medium Velocity load at 1000 fps leaded rather badly, but was an attempt to offer a full-case length .44 Magnum load which was gentler on the gunner, with adequate power for most purposes, though not specifically for LE.
Because no police department was about to buy contract quantities of Model 29s, there couldn’t have been any serious law enforcement involvement in the Remington Medium Velocity load. Until the Dirty Harry series of Clint Eastwood movies came out in the 1970s, fueling an insatiable consumer demand for .44 Magnum Model 29s, driving retail prices through the roof, Remington resisted production of a lower-powered .44 Magnum load. The round-nosed .44 Special was felt adequate and made the 41-1/2 oz., 4-inch barrel Model 29 manageable to fire in double-action. The perceived “need” for a Medium Power .44 factory load was mostly marketing hype intended to sell more ammo to non-hand loaders, by offering a less punishing load to the growing crowd of aspiring macho wannabes wanting the “Big Gun.”
Before the mid-1970s most states in the lower 48 states didn’t allow handgun hunting, so the uses for Thor’s Hammer were limited until metallic silhouette shooting came along. Only a few of my .44 toting buddies stayed with silhouette shooting because it soon became overtaken by the “gamers.” Instead, outdoorsmen in the West began to develop field packing loads for their .44s which were sensible, but still potent (typically a 250 grain bullet at 1000 fps) so that follow-up shots could be fired quickly (double-action training), emulating Keith's original .44 Special loads.
According to the story, the 600 yard shot on a mule deer was done in front of several witnesses. Elmer's "Hell, I Was There" relates that story in some detail, IIRC.Originally Posted by TiroFijo
But, did he really shot a mule deer from 600 yards away?
And a shot like that with an iron sighted revolver is absolutely possible.
Read up on the "Shootist Holiday" for details. This article talks about the beginnings of the event(s):https://shootists.org/letter.htm
Not certain they do those shoots anymore.
Jim Taylor, one of the shootists mentioned in the article used to be a neighbor of mine and I shot .44 Magnums and .45 Colts with him many years ago, and one year Paco Kelly (also mentioned in the story) was visiting Jim and I had the opportunity to accompany both of them on a mule deer hunt in southern AZ. We all carried revolvers on the hunt. Unfortunately, we never saw any mule deer bucks, so I have no stories to tell from that trip.
Jim occasionally wrote articles for "The Sixgunner", a periodical published by J.D. Jones. (I had an article about a wild boar hunt in Tennessee published in the same periodical, describing my hunt near Tellico Junction in 1990 with my Ruger Super Redhawk).
Wayne Baker from Freedom Arms occasionally gave Jim one of his Freedom Arms revolvers on loan and asked Jim to write a story about it. That was my first introduction to the Freedom Arms fine line of revolvers, as Jim would offer to let me shoot whatever version he currently had in his possession.
Bottom line: I completely believe that Elmer Keith made the shot on the mule deer, and certainly am confident that while such a feat would not be easy, it is far from impossible, and many of the folks who participated in those Shootist Holidays could prove it.
Brian Pearce replicated the 600 yard shot, using a stationary deer silhouette target and an early 44 Magnum with 1950s vintage Remington ammunition, for an article in Handloader Magazine some years back.
According to him he did, but he was a well known bull shipper around town according to those that knew him personally. The more or less accepted bullet energy to kill a deer is 1000 ft/lbs. At 600 yds this bullet has about 370 ft/lbs of energy and bullet drop would be in the neighborhood of 26 ft. and 2 seconds in flight.But, did he really shot a mule deer from 600 yards away?
Last edited by Borderland; 05-27-2021 at 03:38 PM.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
Jeff Cooper wrote of the sheriff who was an adamant revolver man, no interest in the automatics that Cooper and most of his friends were wringing out. So they found him a clean .44 Special and loaded him a case of SWCs.
There was a deputy here who carried a .44 Magnum. But when it came time to qualify, he borrowed my friend's Python.
Everybody goes on about the shooters of the day promoting a .41 Magnum as a police revolver, but it turned out to just be a slightly attenuated .44.
Code Name: JET STREAM
I'm sure it is possible... probable is quite another thing
How many rounds before Pearce could get a hit? IIRC, Keith claimed he hit the deer on his second shot, and again once more with the third shot while the buck was moving... all this with his friend spotting for him only in his first shot through his rifle scope, and of course no range finder or other means to measure distance.
Having spent more than a little time with a .44 Magnum, as well as an old Metallic Silhouette shooter, I find Elmer's story *plausible* and I'll leave it at that. I've made shots of similar improbability and if they were skill or luck I'll never tell and they were all things I'd never want to have to try twice.The uncle of an old Navy shipmate was from Idaho and a hunting buddy of Elmer Keith. From the stories he related, Elmer struck me as a man I would have liked to shoot with and also would have probably broken his jaw on more than one occasion. If nothing else, the shooting world used to be full of characters like Keith. You may not have invited them to Sunday dinner, but they were entertaining as hell. Society no longer seems to have tolerance for their type and that's a real shame. Ross Seyfried and John Taffin had more influence on my love of the .44 Magnum than Elmer Keith ever did.
When my arthritis can handle it, an afternoon at the range with this one and a box of 240 grain SWC's over 9.0 grains of Power Pistol is still a favorite.
We may lose and we may win, but we will never be here again.......
The story I read was it was already wounded by his rifle hunter and they chased it a ways trying to get it killed. I was thinking it was his third shot but either way, I doubt I’d ever attempt it and I sure wouldn’t write about it.
As he said he made the shot and was called a liar ever since.
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