YoteSmoker
Handloader
- Oct 3, 2006
- 1,602
- 0
I spent all of last week elk hunting to return to civilization with my internet not working until recently and lots of cleaning and puting stuff away in the meantime. So now for the report... My girlfriend, I, and two really good friends headed for the hills Friday the 15th and we set up camp. Opening day began Saturday and although we saw deer, we didn't see any elk until Monday evening, when right before dark, my friend Josh shot a big bull which we ended up tracking until 3 am! The shot was taken at 260 yards. The bullet went in the right side and out the left front leg, so I'm guessing it must have went through the lungs/liver possibly. We tracked and tracked and tracked. The blood was red but very little and in some places we could see the drag mark in the dirt from the offside leg that was busted. The reason we kept on the tracks was it was forecasted to rain in the morning, but at 3 am, we slept in the trucks until daylight at which time we resumed tracking where we left off and made it a little further (all in all 1.5 miles by GPS). Then the rain came and we lost any sign of the animal.
On Wednesday evening, Josh spotted a herd of 50 elk and made a good clean kill on a 5x5 bull. The shot was made at 324 yards by range finder with his 30-06 Interarms rifle which I had handloaded with 180 grain Accubonds. One shot and the bull dropped less than 10 feet from where it stood. Success! We then quartered and packed it up the mountain from dark until 2:30 am and again slept in the truck as we were about an hour from camp and it was in the 20's and frost was on our packs even at the time we did the cutting on the elk earlier in the night.
I didn't personally shoot anything nor did my girlfriend or other friend, but we all consider it a successful and good hunt as two bulls were hit although unfortunately one was found. The meat is already finished at the processor, which makes a good finish to our hunt all around.
On Wednesday evening, Josh spotted a herd of 50 elk and made a good clean kill on a 5x5 bull. The shot was made at 324 yards by range finder with his 30-06 Interarms rifle which I had handloaded with 180 grain Accubonds. One shot and the bull dropped less than 10 feet from where it stood. Success! We then quartered and packed it up the mountain from dark until 2:30 am and again slept in the truck as we were about an hour from camp and it was in the 20's and frost was on our packs even at the time we did the cutting on the elk earlier in the night.
I didn't personally shoot anything nor did my girlfriend or other friend, but we all consider it a successful and good hunt as two bulls were hit although unfortunately one was found. The meat is already finished at the processor, which makes a good finish to our hunt all around.
