truck driver
Ammo Smith
- Mar 11, 2013
- 7,213
- 742
Great job and pictures Jake I'm happy the 9.3 got to see some use and get blooded.
2015 NV Bull Elk Story and Pictures
- Thread starter nvbroncrider
- Start date
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,525
- 4,786
Excellent! Congratulations!
Guy
Guy
salmonchaser
Handloader
- Dec 13, 2013
- 4,649
- 3,919
Great job, outstanding bull
cloverleaf
Handloader
- Sep 10, 2006
- 4,341
- 945
Looks like quite an adventure. Congrats! CL
- Thread starter
- #27
nvbroncrider
Handloader
- Aug 20, 2011
- 3,085
- 3
Went out with a friend 2 days before my tag opened. He had a mule deer and cow elk tag in the same unit I was hunting. We went to the southeastern part of the unit after a snow storm rolled through hiked up about 1.5 miles from where I set up camp and saw lots of critters. We had a pair of spikes and a cow about 350 yards away and had 40 elk within 1/2 mile of us plus a bunch of does foraging across the creek we were working. There was one decent bull in the group he was a 6X6 but was just a bull bedded down in the quakies. There was also a 4 point bull running with the cows. As we started to head out I spotted a nice tall and wide 3 point mulie in the draw after looking at it for a minute. He decided to take a shot @ 270 yards. He missed 3 times on that buck and was really discouraged. We climbed down and went across the creek to make sure we didn't hit him. So we continued our hike back to camp and he saw a really nice 4X4 which he missed unloaded 5-6 rounds. I was really disappointed. We had sighted in together the first of October and he shot two 1/2" groups with the rifle he was pissed to say the least but one more in and cranked it off against a rock 150 yards away it was dead on. I guess that's what you call buck fever. After getting him out I set up camp and prepare a quick dinner on the Jetboil. Then dove into my bedroll for the night. It was a balmy 10 degrees.
The next morning got up and got going went back to the same general area and saw the elk moving up the ridge. Saw a couple nice bucks including the one John had shot at the previous day. I felt confident in the critters I was seeing but wasn't seeing any bulls.
Opening day I was up at O Dark Thirty and to the draw by first light. It actually wasn't that dark with the 4-6" of snow covering the ground. As I got there I saw the 27 elk moving out of the drainage looking for higher ground and colder temperatures. I glassed the area for an hour or so and wasn't seeing any stragglers. So I decided to go west up a draw that met with the creek at the quakies. Boy did this end up being a mistake. I managed to pick the steepest draw in the valley to climb out of. The first half was a challenge finally made it to a loan tree and looked up and three cows were cutting across the slope in front of me. I stopped and watched them for a while. As they disappeared in the quakies. I started hiking up the draw again and started finding knee high snow drifts as I went. With an occasional gust of 50 mph winds. After a couple hours I finally made it to the top. Camp was at 6800 the creek was at 7200 and this wonderful hill I climbed was at 8400 ft in a 1/2 mile. Finally topped out and drifted to the north a bit as I found a spot to glass the next drainage over that wasn't the best idea either the snow was drifted deep enough there I couldn't get to the top. So I came back down the road that goes along the ridge top about a mile and found a better place to set up to glass. I glassed there for 2.5-3 hours and found 12 cows and a spike in the Blue Spruce about 2.5 miles from me and around 8600 ft. I glassed every bit of ground and didn't see any Bulls. Went a 1/2 mile further down the ridge line and glassed some more but didn't anything else. Made it back to camp about 1630 after hiking 7.5 miles that day and seeing 43 elk.
Got up the following morning and wanted to glass the draw I ended at the previous day. It was only a mile from camp. It was a lot tougher hike than it looked. Ended up being a mile and a half including some rock crawling and down on my hands and knees in the thick mahoganies. Glassed for a couple hours there and didn't see anything. I saw a lot of tracks at the top of the ridge dropping off into the next drainage and that was it.
Decided to pack up and head home. Back to the drawing board. I needed more elevation snow and colder temps or a combination of the three to make something work in my opinion.
Got home washed clothes and got re packed. Storm came in that Monday and my brother wanted to go with me so I held tight until Tuesday morning to head out. We headed to the western side of the unit where they were claiming more snow. Got there about 1500 and set up camp and headed up over a low saddle to do some glassing. Got up there and only had about 20 minutes but saw 10 cows so it was a good start.
Next morning got up @ 0700 figured my brother needed a little extra sleep after getting off his night shift. We made our way up the hill and started glassing we didn't see anything but I wanted to check out the corner down the creek as it looked appealing to me. As we closed in on a corner and got into the rocks we stopped and I saw a bull at 600 yards laying out in the open so we hiked a little further up to a nice snow barren rock outcropping to get some glass on him. I got set up and started looking. That bull was broken up but adjacent to him was another bull laying under a mahogany. One look through the spotter and I knew he was a good solid bull. Matt didn't agree with me but I knew he was a shooter. We watched them for 20 minutes and looked around making sure there wasn't another in there. We packed up and headed Northwest around the bend in the creek below us and started climbing down the rock face. After 2.5 hours and a 1.25 mile hike we made it down across the creek and up the other side. We had closed to 300 yards when Matt saw the bull. Dropped our packs grabbed the rifle and set up. I didn't like it and there was a saddle in front of us we could drop in and gain some more ground. We came up the side of the hill and laid down under a couple young mahoganies and I set the 9.3 up on the bipod. We ranged him at 220 yards across another drainage browsing on the mahoganies. He was quartering to me as I peered through the scope making sure there wasn't anything obstructing the shot. I knew my dope was 2.25MOA at 200 and 4 at 250. So I dialed up 2.75. Matt was urging me to shoot but I didn't like it so I waited. The bull then faced us and I knew I could punch through but I didn't want to take a chance. The wind hadn't blown all day and he had no clue we were there. Waited what seemed like an eternity and finally he gave me the shot I wanted a broadside with his left side showing. I got behind the rifle and asked Matt if he was ready. He said he was and I centered the crosshairs mid body behind the shoulder one last breath and I squeezed the trigger. Boom. The rifle belted me and settled I racked the bolt. Thwack. Matt asked did you hit him? I shouted did you hear the Thwack?!?! The bull disappeared in the Mahogany and then reappeared just to the left moving from left to right about 20 seconds later. He was hurt and hurt bad. As he cleared his right shoulder facing us I shouldered the rifle again. He took another step and paused. Crack I let another go. Thwack. Hit him a second time. Rifle set down as I grabbed the bolt he took 3-4 steps and crashed down. He waited for a couple minutes and saw his buddy blow out followed by another 6X6 broken tined bull. They had no clue what happened moving slow and looking for the cause of the commotion. Matt went back and grabbed our packs as I watched. 5 minutes later we got loaded up and started the 220 yard hour hike up to the bull. Straight down 300 ft then across a runoff then up 300 ft on the other side. Fighting knee high snow as we went. Got up to the area and Matt said I have no clue where he is. I asked is there blood? He replied Not a drop. I asked where's his tracks. As I finished the last 10 feet up to the plateau. He smirked as the bull had managed to squeeze between a pair of Mahoganies and fell over at the base of the granite slab in front of the trees. He had gone ten yards from the initial shot.
Then the work began!
I'm really happy with how everything worked out. I learned a ton and enjoyed every minute of it. But the downside is I can't draw a bull tag for 10 years and I'm totally hooked on elk hunting. They are an incredible animal that can take an enormous amount of punishment before giving up the ghost. I was amazed at how easy I was able to slip in on him as my previous observations have said otherwise. It was a truly humbling hunt and I'm awfully proud of taking such a fine creature. I have a newfound respect for them and hope I get an opportunity to take another one next year.
The next morning got up and got going went back to the same general area and saw the elk moving up the ridge. Saw a couple nice bucks including the one John had shot at the previous day. I felt confident in the critters I was seeing but wasn't seeing any bulls.
Opening day I was up at O Dark Thirty and to the draw by first light. It actually wasn't that dark with the 4-6" of snow covering the ground. As I got there I saw the 27 elk moving out of the drainage looking for higher ground and colder temperatures. I glassed the area for an hour or so and wasn't seeing any stragglers. So I decided to go west up a draw that met with the creek at the quakies. Boy did this end up being a mistake. I managed to pick the steepest draw in the valley to climb out of. The first half was a challenge finally made it to a loan tree and looked up and three cows were cutting across the slope in front of me. I stopped and watched them for a while. As they disappeared in the quakies. I started hiking up the draw again and started finding knee high snow drifts as I went. With an occasional gust of 50 mph winds. After a couple hours I finally made it to the top. Camp was at 6800 the creek was at 7200 and this wonderful hill I climbed was at 8400 ft in a 1/2 mile. Finally topped out and drifted to the north a bit as I found a spot to glass the next drainage over that wasn't the best idea either the snow was drifted deep enough there I couldn't get to the top. So I came back down the road that goes along the ridge top about a mile and found a better place to set up to glass. I glassed there for 2.5-3 hours and found 12 cows and a spike in the Blue Spruce about 2.5 miles from me and around 8600 ft. I glassed every bit of ground and didn't see any Bulls. Went a 1/2 mile further down the ridge line and glassed some more but didn't anything else. Made it back to camp about 1630 after hiking 7.5 miles that day and seeing 43 elk.
Got up the following morning and wanted to glass the draw I ended at the previous day. It was only a mile from camp. It was a lot tougher hike than it looked. Ended up being a mile and a half including some rock crawling and down on my hands and knees in the thick mahoganies. Glassed for a couple hours there and didn't see anything. I saw a lot of tracks at the top of the ridge dropping off into the next drainage and that was it.
Decided to pack up and head home. Back to the drawing board. I needed more elevation snow and colder temps or a combination of the three to make something work in my opinion.
Got home washed clothes and got re packed. Storm came in that Monday and my brother wanted to go with me so I held tight until Tuesday morning to head out. We headed to the western side of the unit where they were claiming more snow. Got there about 1500 and set up camp and headed up over a low saddle to do some glassing. Got up there and only had about 20 minutes but saw 10 cows so it was a good start.
Next morning got up @ 0700 figured my brother needed a little extra sleep after getting off his night shift. We made our way up the hill and started glassing we didn't see anything but I wanted to check out the corner down the creek as it looked appealing to me. As we closed in on a corner and got into the rocks we stopped and I saw a bull at 600 yards laying out in the open so we hiked a little further up to a nice snow barren rock outcropping to get some glass on him. I got set up and started looking. That bull was broken up but adjacent to him was another bull laying under a mahogany. One look through the spotter and I knew he was a good solid bull. Matt didn't agree with me but I knew he was a shooter. We watched them for 20 minutes and looked around making sure there wasn't another in there. We packed up and headed Northwest around the bend in the creek below us and started climbing down the rock face. After 2.5 hours and a 1.25 mile hike we made it down across the creek and up the other side. We had closed to 300 yards when Matt saw the bull. Dropped our packs grabbed the rifle and set up. I didn't like it and there was a saddle in front of us we could drop in and gain some more ground. We came up the side of the hill and laid down under a couple young mahoganies and I set the 9.3 up on the bipod. We ranged him at 220 yards across another drainage browsing on the mahoganies. He was quartering to me as I peered through the scope making sure there wasn't anything obstructing the shot. I knew my dope was 2.25MOA at 200 and 4 at 250. So I dialed up 2.75. Matt was urging me to shoot but I didn't like it so I waited. The bull then faced us and I knew I could punch through but I didn't want to take a chance. The wind hadn't blown all day and he had no clue we were there. Waited what seemed like an eternity and finally he gave me the shot I wanted a broadside with his left side showing. I got behind the rifle and asked Matt if he was ready. He said he was and I centered the crosshairs mid body behind the shoulder one last breath and I squeezed the trigger. Boom. The rifle belted me and settled I racked the bolt. Thwack. Matt asked did you hit him? I shouted did you hear the Thwack?!?! The bull disappeared in the Mahogany and then reappeared just to the left moving from left to right about 20 seconds later. He was hurt and hurt bad. As he cleared his right shoulder facing us I shouldered the rifle again. He took another step and paused. Crack I let another go. Thwack. Hit him a second time. Rifle set down as I grabbed the bolt he took 3-4 steps and crashed down. He waited for a couple minutes and saw his buddy blow out followed by another 6X6 broken tined bull. They had no clue what happened moving slow and looking for the cause of the commotion. Matt went back and grabbed our packs as I watched. 5 minutes later we got loaded up and started the 220 yard hour hike up to the bull. Straight down 300 ft then across a runoff then up 300 ft on the other side. Fighting knee high snow as we went. Got up to the area and Matt said I have no clue where he is. I asked is there blood? He replied Not a drop. I asked where's his tracks. As I finished the last 10 feet up to the plateau. He smirked as the bull had managed to squeeze between a pair of Mahoganies and fell over at the base of the granite slab in front of the trees. He had gone ten yards from the initial shot.
Then the work began!
I'm really happy with how everything worked out. I learned a ton and enjoyed every minute of it. But the downside is I can't draw a bull tag for 10 years and I'm totally hooked on elk hunting. They are an incredible animal that can take an enormous amount of punishment before giving up the ghost. I was amazed at how easy I was able to slip in on him as my previous observations have said otherwise. It was a truly humbling hunt and I'm awfully proud of taking such a fine creature. I have a newfound respect for them and hope I get an opportunity to take another one next year.
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 36,960
- 5,174
Fantastic account of a great hunt, Jake! Again, congratulations on a superb execution of your plan.
Greg Nolan
Handloader
- Nov 25, 2004
- 2,143
- 18
Great Nevada bull Jake. Well done man!! 
truck driver
Ammo Smith
- Mar 11, 2013
- 7,213
- 742
Jake that sounded like a ball and I was with you every step of the way and almost felt the recoil from the rifle. Thanks for sharing.
- Thread starter
- #32
nvbroncrider
Handloader
- Aug 20, 2011
- 3,085
- 3
Thanks guys for everything.
