I am enclosing a picture of my Marco Polo Sheep that I took in Tajikistan, Russia on November 22, 1999. It was taken with the fantastic 340-caliber rifle you made for me. The rifle is also shown in the picture. The right horn is 57 inches and the left horn is 58 inches with 16-inch bases.

I suppose the rifle performed satisfactory in view of the fact that is was a one-(1) shot kill at 800 plus yards. Yes, I said 800 plus yards. Naturally there had to be some luck at this distance.

I was approximately 1/3 way up one mountain with a valley between the mountain I was on the next mountains. I spotted the ram and 6 ewes approximately 2/3 the way up the mountain on the other side of the valley. I have a Bushnell 800 Range Finder but was unable to get a reading on the ram. I came approximately 1/4 way down the mountain the ram was on and could get reliable readings at 780 yards and 790 yards on different colored rock formations, however where the ram was located on the mountain was over 800 yards and the Range Finder would not give me a distant readings on the ram or any different colored rock formations. I was in a prone shooting position with the rifle resting on my coat. The ram was at a 45% degree angle, therefore I elevated the cross hairs at what I believed to be about 3' feet above the rams front shoulders or about the body thickness of the ram. I squeezed a round off and hoped I had estimated correctly. According to my guide, the ram slumped forward and almost went down after the shot, however the ram and ewes ran over the top of the mountain. We then started a stalk up the mountain where I had shot at the ram. We found a good blood trail of which did not appear to be a flesh wound. After we topped the mountain we saw the ram standing on the mountain peak of which was several 100' feet vertically straight down.

My guide and I decided not to shoot the ram again, as there was a danger it would fall down the vertical side of the mountain and break a horn. We decided to go back to camp and get extra help and a tracking dog and return in a few hours.

This we did and when we returned we found the ram dead approximately 200 yards from where we had last seen him standing on the mountain. That's my sheep story with the great 340-caliber rifle you made for me.

Sincerely,

Joe B. Owen