Bob Smith – Hunter, Gunsmith & Long-Range Specialist
Published: April 2026
“A heavy bullet with a good BC does not lie in the wind. A fast twist stabilizes what a lighter bullet would have already lost. And a magnum gives you a velocity reserve that distance cannot eat up. That is not a philosophy. That is physics.”
Bob Smith
Hunter, Gunsmith & Long-Range Specialist
Hunter – Handloader – Gunsmith – Wildcat Cartridge Developer Soviet Moldova → Northern Nevada, USA
Focus: long-range hunting, wildcat cartridge development, experimental and new cartridges, gunsmithing, elk, mule deer, pronghorn, black bear, rock chuck, varmints
A Note on the Name
Bob Smith is a working pen name. His legal name is Vasile Bejenari – Moldovan-Romanian in origin, and genuinely difficult for most English speakers to pronounce correctly. After hearing enough attempts, he made a practical decision early in his time in the United States: pick a name that works for everyone. Bob Smith works for everyone. It stuck.
The Short Version
Bob has been hunting for more than 30 years. Moldova gave him the start – field craft, a shotgun, and the Soviet system’s hard limits on centerfire firearms for civilians. The United States gave him everything else: unrestricted access to centerfire rifles, the freedom to experiment with cartridges and chamberings, a gunsmithing practice, and the wide-open terrain of the Great Basin in Northern Nevada, where a 400-yard shot is not an unusual opportunity – it is a routine part of the season.
At myreloading.com, Bob covers modern and experimental cartridges, long-range hunting, and the practical side of gunsmithing. He also writes for Pro Hunter Tips.
The Approach: Order It, Test It, Improve It
Bob does not wait for something to show up in a published manual before he forms an opinion about it. When a new powder hits the market, he orders a jug. When a bullet with an unusual profile or a genuinely interesting BC comes out, he gets a box and runs it over the chronograph. When the industry starts discussing a new wildcat, he is already looking at the case and thinking not about whether to try it, but about what to change to get more out of it – and he may already have a custom reamer on order before most people have finished reading the first forum post.
This is not impulsiveness. It is a methodology built on being a working gunsmith. Bob does his own barrel work and chambering. When something does not perform the way it should, he does not shelve it. He finds out what is wrong and fixes it. His articles are not a summary of what someone else tested. They are a documented process from raw components to a verified result at distance.
Wildcats and Cartridge Development
Wildcat development is a natural extension of gunsmithing for Bob. When you understand chambering from the inside out and can order a custom reamer to your own spec, the line between a factory cartridge and a custom one becomes easy to cross.
Bob has developed and tested custom chamberings built around specific hunting applications – a particular distance, a particular terrain, a particular animal. Not because the factory option was unavailable, but because he knows exactly where the factory option stops delivering and knows how to push past that point.
Heavy Bullets, Fast Twist, Magnum Cartridges
Bob’s handloading and build preferences follow directly from where and how he hunts. The open sagebrush flats and long canyon systems of the Great Basin demand real performance at 400, 600, and 800 yards. Heavy bullets launched fast and stabilized properly get there with retained energy and predictable drift. Magnum cartridges are not a statement – they are a tool chosen for a specific job in specific conditions.
In the Field
Northern Nevada is home base. The Great Basin: open country, long ridgelines, game that can disappear into the terrain at distances that challenge every component of the system – the cartridge, the rifle, and the shooter. Bob hunts mule deer and pronghorn here regularly, and works coyotes and prairie dogs at 300-500 yards in the off-season to keep his wind-reading and trigger discipline sharp. Time on a prairie dog colony is some of the best long-range practice available.
California brings a different set of hunts. Black bear in the mountain ranges means denser timber, closer shots, and a quarry that demands careful shot placement and a bullet built for deep penetration. Rock chuck – the yellow-bellied marmot – is a precision target that requires both accurate range estimation and clean terminal performance. Elk adds the other end of the spectrum: a large-bodied animal at distance where cartridge selection, shot placement, and bullet construction all have to be right at the same time.
What Bob Covers at myreloading.com
- New and experimental cartridges – technical assessment of what a new round actually delivers, and where the marketing diverges from the chronograph
- Wildcat development – documented process from concept to field result, including chambering specs, load development, and performance data
- Gunsmithing and barrel work – firsthand: twist rate selection, chambering, custom builds for specific applications
- Long-range hunting – cartridge, barrel, and bullet selection for the real distances of Great Basin hunting
- Tests and comparisons – powders, bullets, components; a high volume of testing with honest results
His hunting and field craft writing also appears at Pro Hunter Tips.
Quick Facts
| Legal name | Vasile Bejenari |
| Hunting experience | 30+ years (Moldova, Europe, United States) |
| Handloading experience | 20+ years (centerfire cartridges – from arrival in the US) |
| Primary hunting | Mule deer, pronghorn – Northern Nevada; black bear, rock chuck – California; fox, coyote, prairie dog |
| Specialization | Wildcat cartridges, long-range hunting, gunsmithing |
| Preferences | Heavy bullets, fast twist, magnum cartridges |
| Approach | Experimental: order it, test it, find out what to improve |
| Gunsmithing | Yes – barrel work, chambering, custom builds |
| Projects | myreloading.com, prohuntertips.com |
| Languages | English, Romanian, Russian |