For Christmas this year I purchased a rifle for my ten year old daughter Renee. It is her first big game rifle, all previous shooting having been done with her pink .22 Savage.

Fellow AR member Mark Young offered up the perfect first rifle. It is an early 90s Remmington 700 mountain rifle in a Pacific Research stock topped with a Leupold 2.5x8 scope in S&K mounts. Total weight is 6.5 pounds. Best of all it is chambered in the classy 257 Roberts.

The rifle was lost for almost two months in shipping. Both Mark and I were crushed! When it finally arrived out of the blue we were ecstatic. I'll never forget the call when I told Mark that the missing rifle just appeared at my FFL dealer after Fed Ex had told us for weeks: "sorry, sometimes things get lost..."

The beautiful Pacific Research stock is too long for Renee so fellow AR member tsturm gave me a M700 youth stock. I ended up cutting it down to a 10.5 in
LOP.

I had a some brass and bullets but I was having trouble coming up with powder and primers. I finally broke down and borrowed some from my girlfriends father. He has enough of everything to outfit a small army and he is always offering me anything I need so it worked out well. Plus I have been giving his family half of each caribou we get, so I didn't have to feel too guilty.

I loaded up some 87gr Sierras with 37gr of Varget for starting load for Renee. Velocity should be in the 2800-2900fps range.

I hadn't gotten the recoil pad fitted on tsturm's cut down youth stock yet but Renee was raring to head out and try out her rifle. So as soon as the ammo was loaded so we took it out just as we received it from Mark. As you can see Renee did pretty well kneeling with a rest. If you look closely you can see two bullet holes:



On Easter Sunday I had tsturm's shortened youth stock fitted(10.5 inch LOP) so we headed out in the afternoon looking for caribou. The weather has been warming up and I have been concerned that the snow will melt and we won't be able to use the snowmachine which with bring our hunting to a halt for quite a while. On this trip I really wanted to secure two caribou. I figured one for us and one for my girlfriend's family and we would be set for some time.

On our way out we shot a group to see where the rifle was shooting in the new stock. The bullets landed into a group just over and inch. The group was centered three inches above the bulls eye.

We headed North almost as far as you can travel before hitting the Arctic ocean. For the first time in a long time there were just no caribou to be found. The weather was great so we continued to cruise and search. Finally we found a group of four caribou and we were able to get up on a low plateau where we were somewhat hidden. I figured that we would close the gap to 150 yards and I would get Renee set up for the shot.

Before we were within 250 yards the caribou saw us and slipped into a fold. I expected to see them pop up running away from us but before I knew it they appeared 150 yards in front of us on the plateau. They had actually came in for a closer look. Caribou.....

Before I had any chance to get Renee set up the caribou were headed out into the open. The had passed down wind and were completely spooked. We tried to close the distance but they kept taking off when we got to within 300 yards.

I could see that they weren't going to cooperate so I asked Renee if she minded if I used her rifle to shoot one or two. She said that would be fine. We were able to get closer by walking past them in a direction that would angle us closer.

I ranged them and the group was 297 yards away. I felt that it was too far for a rifle that we had never shot past 100 yards but I was prone and had a dead solid rest. I knew that it was unlikely that we would get closer.

I held on the first caribou that presented a clear broadside shot. I squeezed and as the rifle fired the shot felt good but none of the caribou appeared hit. I could have sworn that I heard the bullet hit but all four caribou looked unharmed and as they milled around some when back to feeding.

As soon as another stepped clear I took the same aim just behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Before the gun went off I saw a caribou fall over kicking. The rifle fired and I heard a solid "whap" and the caribou that I was aiming at took off in a death run, before falling about 75 yards further away.

I was confused and then I realized that the first caribou I shot had stood, appearing unhurt, and then fell just as I fired at the second. I've never seen an animal appear unhit and then suddenly fall after 15 or 20 seconds.




Upon breaking down the caribou I found that my shots on both caribou had entered the rib cage very low, just above the brisket. Both had nicked the bottom of the heart just above the sternum and left a groove. On the second caribou the bullet hit the upper atrium just the above the valve and exited completely.

On the first caribou the bullet hit about an inch further back, below the valve and in the more solid portion of the atrium and made it through the offside rib cage but didn't exit. Unfortunately I failed to find that bullet. Also, when I went in to remove the heart from this caribou the pericardium was intact and had filled with blood. It was slightly smaller than a football. I'm still confused as to how it could be filled like an over filled water balloon after the bullet had passed through it and hit the heart and then exited.


Maybe the slightly different part of the heart that was hit accounted for the difference in the caribous' reaction to taking the bullet?






As I cut up the caribou in the long Arctic twilight Renee sang some religious songs that she learned in honors choir. I'm not a religious person but it was a moving way to end our Easter.


Anyway the freezers are full so we are going to take all the time we need to get Renee her first caribou. She is chomping at the bit to go. We are both convinced that the rifle Mark sold us is magic. I mean really, an 87gr bullet at 2800fps at 300 yards and we get two one shot kills? That has to be magic, right?

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing your Easter with us.

I'm pulling for Renee to connect.

Jeremy

Lucky Girl!!!

Jason,

Glad I could be of assistance. I expect that little rifle will do Renee well for years to come.

Mark

I bet those two taste fantastic.


I do not know why KY will not at least open Turkey season on Easter weekend.

I could take Good Friday off and hunt all weekend.