Bull Elk - Take the shot?

[PJGunner]

I probably would shoot the one in the first picture. From what I see the stuff covering up the target area is quite close so my .35 Whelen with my pet 225 gr. Barnes TSX load would be called upon to do the job.
Same gun and load for elk #2, no doubt in my mind. :grin:
Sometimes those big boys don't give you any time to make any kind of decision.
Paul B.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I said I'd shoot him on the first picture. I would just want to see what it looked like through my 4x scope, but I too feel the bull presented in the first pictures is a good shot. My decision still would be what it looked like through my sights (either scope or open) when I was actually standing there on the ground. It's hard to say with certainty just looking at a picture, but I agree with you ......shoot that bull!
David

Sorry I missed that David. I think a shot right between the lookers would anchor him pretty fast too. It's not nearly as high of a percentage shot as a body shot but pretty much if you hit him it would either knock him silly, enough for a follow up shot, or kill him stone dead. After looking at the first picture again it's not nearly as harsh of a angle as it first looked like. Clip the close side shoulder, take out the close side lung or heart, and exit in front of the far side hind quarter.

 

[sask boy]

Scotty it would be a honor to have you stay with me & the Mrs. If I could figure out a way to get you on a Elk, Moose or Bear hunt it would be done my friend. Now if you were just a CANUCK :mrgreen:

Blessings my Friend
Dan

 

[Greg Nolan]

No sweat. Two miles from camp, HMMMM. Shoot him in the rear foot and herd him back towards camp and finish him off as he runs by my pickup. :wink: OR Take him in the shoulder with either the 375 RUM 260 gr or the 416 Rem. 350gr. Swift A-Frame in the first picture. The brush is right up next to him so even if the bullet deflected it won't be but a couple of inches off. It's the deflections a longer distance from the animal that can cause a problem.
Those are some awsome pictures. Thank You for sharing
Greg

 

[Guy Miner]

Good stuff all.

Those are both photos of the same bull. He'd barely moved between photos, my wife and I just got closer and he kept browsing. It was pretty cool. Here's a couple more of him. Pretty good Roosevelt bull.

The light was very dim in the heavy forest that day, so the photos didn't come out as good as I would have liked. My little point and shoot pocket camera does okay in bright sunlight, but not so well in darker situations. Glad everyone enjoyed the photos and the discussion!

Guy

 

[Greg Nolan]

Awsome pictures Guy 8)

 

[SJB358]

Very awesome pictures Guy! I can almost taste them loins cooking on a fire now! Man, they look so tasty standing there!

 

[DrMike]

It never ceases to amaze me how unalarmed they can be at this time of year.

 

[alaska100]

I was wondering when someone would choose the handgun option... :grin:

This seems like a perfect situation for a big bore handgun, or a big bore lever action rifle...

I agree with the big bore lever, for me it would be a 45/70, as stated in my previous post. I am not that good with a handgun so that dont work for me.

I was surprised that only 4 or five people picked the 45/70 lever, it would seem like good medicine in that situation, however if you add in the two or three that mentioned the 416 ( rem and rigby ) then actually quite a few choose a big bore.

Great pictures, I hope he is still there for you when the season opens

 

[Guy Miner]

Wise bull that he is, he's safely living in a no-hunting area - which may explain why my wife and I could get so close...

 

[onesonek]

Yeah, and those older smarter one's,,,,just seem to know when hunting season opens also.
We don't have Elk here, but down here in the agricultural part of the state,,,,when Whitetail hunting season comes around, you can see them head for and lay down in the middle of a plowed section on high ground. There's little chance of getting up on them, unless you have a fence line cross wind to them. Once in awhile if the are in a dead furrow, and if it is cross wind also, we have crawled up on them,,,but it's a long time crawling.
I haven't hunted the rainforest of the NW, but imagine those Elk head for the toughest country they know.
If it's like some other rainforest I have been in, it be ugly I'm sure.

 

[FOTIS]

He is a dandy!

 

[JD338]

I was wondering when someone would choose the handgun option... :grin:

This seems like a perfect situation for a big bore handgun, or a big bore lever action rifle...

I agree with the big bore lever, for me it would be a 45/70, as stated in my previous post. I am not that good with a handgun so that dont work for me.

I was surprised that only 4 or five people picked the 45/70 lever, it would seem like good medicine in that situation, however if you add in the two or three that mentioned the 416 ( rem and rigby ) then actually quite a few choose a big bore.

Great pictures, I hope he is still there for you when the season opens

I would agree that those shots are made to order for a 45-70. I considered it but chose my 338 because you know you would get the classic broad side shot at 300 yds. :mrgreen:

JD338

 

[Elkman]

On the wet side, ( Western Oregon and Washington) I would have been carrying the Whelen. I also would have wanted to see the sight picture thru the scope on Shot one. Me thinks however that a dead elk would have been the result of either opportunity. I did like the comment about stepping to the left, with the rifle up cheek on the rifle, unspectiing elk,a slow step to the left would have changed the picture. I love these discussions.
thanks Guy for posting. !!

 

[Mountain Goat]

Since the western side of Washington and Oregon only yield opportunities at a legal bull about every 11 years or so on average, I'd not let a little fern prevent me from attempting to eat backstraps that I've so craved for the past decade! Sure, I'd like a better shot than pic #1, but I'd rather not wait another 10 years to compare. I'm shooting that bull in either pic.

I'd be carrying my Rem 700 SS 300SAUM with a 2.5x10 Elite 4200 shooting the 168TTSX. If I knew ahead of time that my shot would be 25 yards, I'd be tempted to carry Grandpa's old Savage 99 in 300 Savage. I've shot many blacktails with that and its taken cow elk as well. The 180gr Speer MagTip would certainly fill the pack frame with meat. The old Stith scope has the field of view of a drinking straw and the clarity of the Obama administration's policies.

 

[Oldtrader3]

With "wet side" odds for elk being what they are and considering that they never were very high, the odds that is, I still like the .338's and 250 grain bullets, even at 25 yards or more for anything bigger than a cow elk. In my experience here, the presented shots here never were all that great for angle or clear shooting, not through the bracken and devil's club where these elk typically live!

 

[SJB358]

I still like the .338's and 250 grain bullets, even at 25 yards or more for anything bigger than a cow elk.

I am with you Charlie. I want thump, whether up close or out at the fringes. I know the smaller bullets get it done fine, but I feel better at night with the 338/35 cals!

 

[onesonek]

There is the other aspect being brought other than presented by the OP,, and that is longer range. And that's a good thing for discussion as well.

Now again not having hunted in that region, I ask those that are there or hunted there. What is the typical range of shot taken. I know one can decide to hunt the new growth clear cuts. But I have to suspect,,,after the first day or two, they will be in deeper cover, requiring a Still Hunting technique??? If one is to continue to hunt there clearings or possibily meadows (don't know in what terms they exist in that country???), then something with more range would be desired. Yet with bullet construction able to stand up to the higher velocity impacts if needed on close range oppritunities. Hence, a NPT would be my choice in something of .30-06 class or more. Then too, I suspect there is quite some difference's between hunting the east or west side of the climate regions.

 

[Oldtrader3]

It depends here in Washington a great deal on whether you are hunting Roosevelt elk on public land or on private land as far as how far a shot is going to be around here. Also sometimes you get a shot in a powerline access cut or clear-cut, forest section. Shots then can be out to a couple, hundred yards.

Most of my Roosevelt elk hunting has been either in the Olympic Rainforest or in the western drainage of the cascade foothills, west of Snolqualimie crest or in the foothills of the Cascades around Darrington. Except for clearcuts, most of the sightings and shots that I have had were measured in feet in the rainforest and certainly less than 80 yards everywhere else in the heavily forested western slope of the Cascades. The elk that I have seen in the Olympic rainforest were typically 30 yards or less because you normally will not see them further because of thick vegetation, rain, mist and heavy ground fog.

I also hunted elk quite a bit in eastern Washington and in Utah where it was typical RM elk country and the shots could be to 400 yards. For that, I used a .338 Win Mag or .340 Weatherby. Almost all of my western Washington rainforest hunting was with a .338 Win Mag or .300 H&H. I lost a Roosevelt elk years ago to a 175 gr factory, 7mm Rem Mag Corelockt which blew up on the shoulder at about 60 yards. That incident has greatly shaped my thinking about shooting elk while using small magnums and factory bullets.

The last Roosevelt that I shot was a western 4-point at 80 yards at the edge of an open wetland with a 180 grain, .30-06 and the animal only went about 40 yards. Another of my issues in the rainforest is tracking in darkened, rainy, deep green forest which does not show blood trails very well. I like to kill them fast and not track much, especially not on wet moss in the rain.

I guess I am like a Boy Scout and like to-be-prepared, so I tend to carry a bolt action magnum rifle with 3-10 scope, set at 3X (i.e. my .340 WM). This pretty well covers any situations that I might run into.

 

[bullet]

Man I am ready for hunting season and that is a dead elk with any of my big game rifles, just a dead elk. Yep, I am so ready for hunting season to begin again. Thanks for the pictures Guy. Took me a while to read this thread but it got my adrenaline going, GOOD THREAD :mrgreen: