big rifle man
Handloader
- Dec 21, 2005
- 850
- 0
Returned home from Colorado this past saturday with a smile. The first two days were in the high sixties and I successfully caused my nose to peel from sunburn. The third morning the temps went down to 32 degrees with rain at our camp at 7400 feet. As we started climbing to 9200 feet the precipitation changed to white which made the 4 wheel drive climb very interesting. Colorado mud is slicker than ice. We pulled into 9200 with a full scale blizzard outside and the truck rocking with the wind. needless to say we waited till the storm abated somewhat. The rest of the day was overcast and no one out of our group of four saw anything. The animals sat tight unlike the hunters who tromped around in 4-6 inches of snow. During the course of the first two days a number of cows plus a small bull were seen. On the fourth day all hell broke loose. The weather change got the Elk moving. At 7:30AM I heard a shot and found out later that one of my buddies was successful ( 5 X 5 ) At 8:15 I was trying to figure out how to get my toes warmer when I noted antlers coming out of the woods to my left into a field that was separated from me by a stand of Aspen. I kept my scope on the Elk and waited until I could see if it was a legal animal. After spotting four nice points on one side I ranged the Elk and found 326 yards separated me from it. The problem was high brush was showing only parts of the animal and I had to figure out how to shoot through a stand of Aspen. I picked a spot ahead of the animal and between a fork in the trees. I kept watching his progress by using the left eye for him and then switching to the right eye through the scope. As he entered the fork I touched off a round from my .338RUM. At the shot he just dropped. I watched for a short time and then walked out into the field. The brush was so high that at first I had trouble locating him and ended up doing a small grid search. I then saw an antler tip and found a Big 5 X 5 was mine. I think you could see my smile from florida. The bullet I used was a 225 Grain Sierra pro hunter that I had spoken about in another post. The bullet landed directly behind the right front shoulder and worked perfectly. At the processing plant I found that estimated live weight was 529lbs. Elk are definitely worth all the work.
