Photography by George & Brodie Calef

For many years I spent far more days afield as a rifleman, hunting big game, than as a wingshooter. So it is not surprising that my ballistic epiphany came to me while thinking about rifles. I was considering buying a new rifle chambered for 7mm magnum, a cartridge I had always liked (with the sort of groundless prejudice riflemen are prone to) in opposition to a .300 magnum, a calibre I equally irrationally disdained. Suddenly the ridiculousness of my preference stuck me. These two cartridge cases are identical, and thus, in most practical respects so is the ballistic performance. Sure, if you load a 150-, 160- or 175-grain bullet in a .300 mag, it leaves the muzzle a little faster than a comparable weight bullet from a 7mm, but over longer ranges the 7mm projectile catches up with the .300 owing to higher ballistic coefficients. Conversely, the .300 bullet may hit a little harder because of its slightly larger diameter bullets, but the 7mm projectile will likely penetrate better owing to its higher sectional density—again little to choose between.

Photography by Hal Lauritzen

A bloated harvest moon, resplendent in all its autumnal glory, ascended ever-so-slowly over the duck marsh, as though silently tip-toeing over the cattails and bull rushes to avoid disturbing the aquatic creatures that call the marsh home. The trilling of pintails, the shrill two-toned whistling of widgeon and the seductive come-hither quacking of hen mallards permeated the pungent evening air, punctuated only by the occasional plaintiff hooting of a great horned owl.