C.Smith
Handloader
- Oct 11, 2006
- 1,411
- 0
Well I finally shot my first elk. Shot it on Halloween up in the Blue Mountains which is in the south eastern portion of Washington State. I missed the opener on Saturday because my son had two hockey games (I'm the assistant coach) and my daughter had a soccor game. My 10 year old son and I got back to camp Saturday night to find my friends had seen a large herd of elk over by the Tuccannon river road by Watson Lake. One of them had to leave (his wife was sick) and his friend Micah Clark (founder of Camp Patriot). Now I have met Micah once before more than six years ago but he stayed to show me where they saw the elk the day before.
We got up late at 0600 hours but still made it to the take off point before light. Instead of hiking to the canyon they saw them the day before we opted to go up the closer canyon you have to pass due to us getting up late. By the time my son and I got to Micah up by some rocks not far from the base of the canyon finger he had found elk up at the top of the canyon 4100 feet. We were just over 2000 feet. We could not tell what it was other than an elk more than likely a cow and figured the rest had gone into the burnt trees across the canyon where this one was going. My son stayed with Micah and I went hiking, wow I'm out of shape. On the way up I had to cross the rim of a coneting canyon and was spotted by a large bull elk (ivory tipped and looked to be very large) down in the bottom). I was stuck and with no real other way I crossed anyway hopeing he would not spook and head over the herd I was after and spook them, but he stayed put watching me the whole way. Took me an hour to get up to to the edge near where I last saw the elk and they were gone from the open area and had moved into burnt trees on the other side of the canyon, easily 500 plus yards away. I could not tell for sure what was what other than I could see at least two bulls in the bunch.
I back upped to the edge of the finger I was climbing out of sight and climbed to the top, sometimes on all fours. Once over the rim, I crossed the rim on the back side and crawled up to the ledge directly above them around 300 yards or less. I sat there moving around the rocks trying different angles looking for a spike (only thing legal in the general hunt) but could not spot a spike. Small herd of 20 animals or so with two bulls a forked horn and smalled branched. Fun to watch, but they decided after 20 minutes to herd up and move down. I crossed the trees to the opposite side of the canyon I came up on and tried to parralell them, but I think they stopped in the first draw to feed and I missed them and walked on by thinking they were on the move.
I went past two draws and started down the 40 degree slope, stopping halfway on an exposed point. I lost the herd and sat down frustrated and had a snack. Half way through my snack I herd a cow locator call and looked up and across the canyon to another heard coming down the canyon from the other side I had climbed up. This herd had about 50 head in it and I spotted two spikes right away, woo hoo. They were under 300 yards but I could not get a clear shot to shoot with out fear of hitting a cow and had to hold my fire. They got to the bottom out of sight in the trees. I started down hill, side hilling along an elk trail hoping to not make much noise, wind was in my face blowing hard which helped me alot.
I was walking along thinking the heard me and spooked when I heard a grunt or snort behind and thought that I mistakenly walked right into them. Looking around I could not find the source of the sound. I was almost to a rock outcropping that is above the next draw. These draws were not deep or wide around 50 yards or less. I moved foward and spotted at least half the heard in front of me. The farthest one away on the otherside of the draw was a spike. I pulled the trigger on him and nothing. I thought I had not disengaged the safety all the way and worked it back and forth and tried again, with the same results. By this time I had the attention of a cow elk who thankfully could not figure out what I was (only my neck and head were exposed). I worked the bolt as quieltly as possible and saw that the bolt had not cocked. I forgot my Savage has to be cocked in the fire position, I had loaded it on the half safe position thus it did not cock. By the time I got it ready to fire the spike had moved behind a tree slightly up hill. Once the cow looked away I dropped back out of her sight and moved up to my left up hill to get a shot at him.
He moved out from the tree and once he stopped moving I shot, and time stood still for half a second. The elk all jumped and and started to move when the spike I shot started running down hill, I did not know if I hit him. He ran about ten yards and did a somersault down hill, which I knew I must have hit him. As he was rolling down past me I could hear him breathing and knew I made a good lung shot, he thankfully died very quickly requiring no finishing shot. I shot him slightly quartered towards me just behind the left shoulder and had a half doller size or slightly smaller exit hole near the back of the ribs, hitting both ribs.
I used my Savage 111 7mm Rem Mag with 160 grain AccuBond 2nds (thanks Russ and Ray for those) in once fired Winchester brass, 66 grains of Rl 22(thanks Pop for that load) and GM215M federal primers. I had to back pack him out of there it was so rough, but it was well worth it. Sorry this was so long.
Micah and Me after packing the rest of the meat out, right around 6 pm.
We got up late at 0600 hours but still made it to the take off point before light. Instead of hiking to the canyon they saw them the day before we opted to go up the closer canyon you have to pass due to us getting up late. By the time my son and I got to Micah up by some rocks not far from the base of the canyon finger he had found elk up at the top of the canyon 4100 feet. We were just over 2000 feet. We could not tell what it was other than an elk more than likely a cow and figured the rest had gone into the burnt trees across the canyon where this one was going. My son stayed with Micah and I went hiking, wow I'm out of shape. On the way up I had to cross the rim of a coneting canyon and was spotted by a large bull elk (ivory tipped and looked to be very large) down in the bottom). I was stuck and with no real other way I crossed anyway hopeing he would not spook and head over the herd I was after and spook them, but he stayed put watching me the whole way. Took me an hour to get up to to the edge near where I last saw the elk and they were gone from the open area and had moved into burnt trees on the other side of the canyon, easily 500 plus yards away. I could not tell for sure what was what other than I could see at least two bulls in the bunch.
I back upped to the edge of the finger I was climbing out of sight and climbed to the top, sometimes on all fours. Once over the rim, I crossed the rim on the back side and crawled up to the ledge directly above them around 300 yards or less. I sat there moving around the rocks trying different angles looking for a spike (only thing legal in the general hunt) but could not spot a spike. Small herd of 20 animals or so with two bulls a forked horn and smalled branched. Fun to watch, but they decided after 20 minutes to herd up and move down. I crossed the trees to the opposite side of the canyon I came up on and tried to parralell them, but I think they stopped in the first draw to feed and I missed them and walked on by thinking they were on the move.
I went past two draws and started down the 40 degree slope, stopping halfway on an exposed point. I lost the herd and sat down frustrated and had a snack. Half way through my snack I herd a cow locator call and looked up and across the canyon to another heard coming down the canyon from the other side I had climbed up. This herd had about 50 head in it and I spotted two spikes right away, woo hoo. They were under 300 yards but I could not get a clear shot to shoot with out fear of hitting a cow and had to hold my fire. They got to the bottom out of sight in the trees. I started down hill, side hilling along an elk trail hoping to not make much noise, wind was in my face blowing hard which helped me alot.
I was walking along thinking the heard me and spooked when I heard a grunt or snort behind and thought that I mistakenly walked right into them. Looking around I could not find the source of the sound. I was almost to a rock outcropping that is above the next draw. These draws were not deep or wide around 50 yards or less. I moved foward and spotted at least half the heard in front of me. The farthest one away on the otherside of the draw was a spike. I pulled the trigger on him and nothing. I thought I had not disengaged the safety all the way and worked it back and forth and tried again, with the same results. By this time I had the attention of a cow elk who thankfully could not figure out what I was (only my neck and head were exposed). I worked the bolt as quieltly as possible and saw that the bolt had not cocked. I forgot my Savage has to be cocked in the fire position, I had loaded it on the half safe position thus it did not cock. By the time I got it ready to fire the spike had moved behind a tree slightly up hill. Once the cow looked away I dropped back out of her sight and moved up to my left up hill to get a shot at him.
He moved out from the tree and once he stopped moving I shot, and time stood still for half a second. The elk all jumped and and started to move when the spike I shot started running down hill, I did not know if I hit him. He ran about ten yards and did a somersault down hill, which I knew I must have hit him. As he was rolling down past me I could hear him breathing and knew I made a good lung shot, he thankfully died very quickly requiring no finishing shot. I shot him slightly quartered towards me just behind the left shoulder and had a half doller size or slightly smaller exit hole near the back of the ribs, hitting both ribs.
I used my Savage 111 7mm Rem Mag with 160 grain AccuBond 2nds (thanks Russ and Ray for those) in once fired Winchester brass, 66 grains of Rl 22(thanks Pop for that load) and GM215M federal primers. I had to back pack him out of there it was so rough, but it was well worth it. Sorry this was so long.
Micah and Me after packing the rest of the meat out, right around 6 pm.
