After several weeks of shooting, Doc finally had his load; 75 grains of IMR 4831, a 400-grain Woodleigh bullet and the Dacron filler to hold the powder against the primer. It was now August, 1996. The load and gun tuning had taken a full year. Doc began the next step in the handloading hunter’s quest for a perfect shot - practice. Every weekend Doc would join his friends (known locally as the Middle Arkansas Rottweiler Retriever and Boilermaker Drinkers Social Club, Canon City Chapter), at the range. Doc would take his position at fifty yards and shoot offhand.

“I had the gun tuned, the load tuned, now it was time for me to fine-tune my shooting,“ Doc said.

Lynn “Doc” Greenlee with leopard he took on third day of hunt. Although he loaded the ammo Doc used a .416 to kill the leopard. (Photo by Ken Moberg).

Doc knew that he would take the gun on his next African hunt. He wasn’t sure when or what the game would be, but he’d have the gun. When he thought about the gun and the load he’d perfected, he day-dreamed about hunters of the past. He marvelled at their ability to stand in place and shoot dangerous game from the offhand position.

“With this gun,” Doc said, “I knew I wanted to shoot my game the same way. It is traditional.”

Through the fall of 1996, Doc practiced until cold weather and bird hunting season sent him in another direction. In the spring his practice resumed. Each week he would sit at his reloading bench and load twenty rounds of .450/.400 ammunition. On Sunday morning he went to the range. Another year passed. Finally, in 1998, the hunting opportunity he’d been waiting for materialized.

“"Alex Strauss offered me a Godfather hunt - you know, one you can’t refuse.”

The hunt was for elephant in Zimbabwe, along the Limpopo River.