Craig Sylvestor's 2008 Utah bull taken at 851 yds

[hightopoutfitter]

Craig Sylvestors Southern Utah 7X7 , 340 bull taken at 851 yards.

After passing up on several great bulls 340-375 Craigs hunt was cut short. On Monday 9-15-2008 at about 8:30 pm as we were coming off the mountain after an exciting evening hunt Craigs dear friend Craig Cherrington was riding a horse in front of me and suffered a heart attack. Craig "Cherry" Cherrington passed away in our company
there on the Mount Dutton horse trail.

Craig Sylvestor went home for 5 days during his Limited Entry bull elk hunt to honor his friend at the funeral. After taking care of things and mentally re-grouping Craig returned to camp.

On Sunday 9-21-2008 at 1254 pm Craig Sylvestor harvested "Sawtooth". Sawtooth had control of some cows and was battling with another smaller bull. They were screaming at each other. There bugles echoed up and down the canyon.

We were able to catch the fight on tape. Craig's and Jay Simon ranged the at bull 760 yards and after several shots the bull was hit.
The bull was moving around up the hill across the canyon. We had 20-30 mph gusting crosswinds.

The bull finally gave a good broadside shot at 851 yards.Craig dialed in 11.75 minutes of angle on his Leupold VX-3, 6.5-20X40mm Scope. The 30-378 Weatherby with the 180 grain Nosler AccuBond at (3410 fps/muzzle) hit the bull and put him down for good. Jay Simon caught the shot on video. All Craigs pre hunt shooting practice paid off big.

This great bull was a 9X7, 370-385 inch bull in 2007. He gets his name because of his bladed beam. His points look like a dull sawblade at the end of his beam.
He has tremendous mass and he was a bull that I tried to harvest during my Late Dutton hunt in 2007.

In 2008 the bull went downhill and is now a 7X7 at 341 inches. He is a great trophy and I was proud to see him harvested by such a man as Craig Sylvestor.
Congratulations Craig!! I know Cherrington watched that big bull hit the ground!!!
Craig Sylvestor Jr.(SLC,Ut.) , Kevin Christensen (Richfield,Ut.) and Mike Carter (Pleasant Grove,Ut.) all helped with the hunt on 9-21-08. Thanks guys!

 

[JD338]

Amazing bull. Sorry to hear about your friend. I bet he was still there on that hunt. Thanks for the story and picture.

JD338

 

[froggy]

Too bad about "cherry"
I bet he would be glad he finished the hunt without him.
I had an uncle that passed away on a mountain in Siberia hunting sheep. Hunting was a true passion for him so it seemed fitting even though he was only 57.
Very nice bull. That is some long shootin, especially in the wind. Was it impossible to get close, or do you just like long range hunting?

 

[hightopoutfitter]

We couldn't get in on the bull because there was a big canyon between Craig and the bull. He was starting to push his cows up and over into the next one. It was a now or never situation. Craig was confident in his abilities and equipment.

 

[Powerstroke]

Definately sorry to hear about your loss........

That is a beautiful bull that I'm sure will be treasured for a lifetime !!

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

Congrats on the nice bull.

20-30 mph winds and shooting 750+ sounds like trouble to me. The best shots in the world would have trouble doing that...

I"m not at all against LR hunting, but I know that taking shots at that distance with that kinda wind is not a very smart thing to do...

 

[froggy]

Yeah, I'm sorry but I've got to agree with remintonman on that. I know my limits, and I know there are others that have much longer limits than me, but gusty winds don't go well with long range shots. Especially for big critters like elk. I don't care how big the gun, you still need to hit the vitals. But you got him down, so I'm not trying to be overly critical. Just realistic. Sometimes you just gotta watch run away and try again. Or at least that's what I end up doing most of the time. :?

 

[FOTIS]

Phenomenal ! :wink:


Thanx for sharing.

 

[SakoSteve270wsm]

hightopoutfitter,

Sorry to hear about "Cherry"

Congrats to Craig on a great bull .

 

[J300UM]

Awsome bull!!! Congrats to Craig! Thats too bad about Cherry... On the other hand, I cant think of a better place to take my last breath. I can only pray that I can be that lucky when my time comes. In the mountains, on a hunt, and in good company.

 

[taylorce1]

Sorry to hear about his friend, but I have to agree about not finding a better place to be called home at. At least he went out doing what he loved.

On Sunday 9-21-2008 at 1254 pm Craig Sylvestor harvested "Sawtooth".

We were able to catch the fight on tape. Craig's and Jay Simon ranged the at bull 760 yards and after several shots the bull was hit.
The bull was moving around up the hill across the canyon. We had 20-30 mph gusting crosswinds.

Great bull and I'm not against long range hunting either but taking several shots at 760 yards before hitting the bull, I have to ask why? At 12:54 in the afternoon with those winds there was time to close the gap by at least 3-400 yards at least with the amount of daylight that was left. Just because you practice to long range hunt doesn't mean you have to when conditions just are not right.

 

[Savage99]

Congrats on the nice bull.

20-30 mph winds and shooting 750+ sounds like trouble to me. The best shots in the world would have trouble doing that...

I"m not at all against LR hunting, but I know that taking shots at that distance with that kinda wind is not a very smart thing to do...

I agree with the above.

The shooter 'dialed in' 11.75 minutes of elevation but no windage with a 20 to 30 mph cross wind?

Using http://www.eskimo.com/~jbm/calculations ... tions.html

The windage for the load listed at 760 yards where the shooting started is 103" or about 9 feet. 'Dial in' 13.1 moa for that! At the fabulous distance of 851 yards where the beast was killed the windage is 137 inches or about 13 feet! 'Dial in' 15.4 moa for that.

Sorry to read that your friend died on the hunt.

 

[hightopoutfitter]

I definately won't get into windage with you guys. You know your stuff. I will just say I was 900 yards from them on the ridge. Where I was at there was some serious wind what I believed to be 20-30 mph. Craig and my partner Jay were half way down the canyon on the opposite side from me. The wind may have been less there but you can hear the wind in the video camera. The bullet drift was estimated by point of aim and not dialing. I didn't want to complicate it for the shooter. Craig aimed about 3 feet right of the point of impact. We were at 9000 altitude. Not bad for a new distance shooter. The hunt and shot is on video. The gun was set zero at 330 yards so do the math at 3400 fps. .507bc at 5280 feet(training) elevation on a 59 degree day. 11.75 min. We dialed it, We killed it. The bullet was within 4 inches vertical elevation of the math. Craigs got a great bull and hunt of a lifetime. Prior to his hunt he did not know much about shooting distance other than to hold high. More to come in November We got 2 more big bulls to go smoke and the best bulls this year are still on the mountain. I will let you know.

 

[Lars]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.

I dont know how to put this polite but, holding your shot until you know you get your game with one shot is good hunting, beeing able to hit targets at long range is good shooting, keep shooting to hit game to far away is no good at all.

 

[Boresighter]

Lars, +1

 

[hightopoutfitter]

My friend just took a 4 point Utah Mule deer clean with one shot at 700 Yards. He used a 270 Weatherby and Leupold VX-3 long Range.

He made a great shot. We haven't lost an animal yet using Nosler bullets and making great shots.