6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[omicron1792]

Dont take this wrong way as I totally agree with putting the elk down and would have done it myself, but just as an FYI - a lot of states, at least here in Idaho, consider the shot that killed the elk the person who is supposed to tag it. By Idaho law F&G would say you "harvested 2 elk".... Again, not an issue with putting an elk down, just might not want to say that on a public hunting forum...

That sounds like DOGE needs to get involved if they have enough time to worry about that.

 

[Timjohnson11]

Agree with ScreamingPotatoe here. Hard to argue with dead but that is concerning in my opinion. I killed a cow elk this past fall with a near identical position/bullet entry with the same Berger 108 Elite Hunter. The only difference is my shot was under 50 yards (coming from a 24" 6 creed with 2925 ish muzzle velocity). She was head on and dropped dead right there, she was lights out in under 10 seconds.. I didn't open her up (gutless method) as I had my 4 year old with me and had limited time before dark but it stoned her pretty good. I didn't notice an exit but did notice one side of the ribs was blood shot down at the very back of the rib cage as I was pulling a quarter off. Something made it atleast that far.

 

[solarshooter]

Agree with ScreamingPotatoe here. Hard to argue with dead but that is concerning in my opinion. I killed a cow elk this past fall with a near identical position/bullet entry with the same Berger 108 Elite Hunter. The only difference is my shot was under 50 yards (coming from a 24" 6 creed with 2925 ish muzzle velocity). She was head on and dropped dead right there, she was lights out in under 10 seconds.. I didn't open her up (gutless method) as I had my 4 year old with me and had limited time before dark but it stoned her pretty good. I didn't notice an exit but did notice one side of the ribs was blood shot down at the very back of the rib cage as I was pulling a quarter off. Something made it atleast that far.

Sounds like you made it into the main cavity. I was thinking maybe I hit the "point" of the shoulder (not sure what the bone is called but the one below the scapula), but there isn't evidence of any damage there on the quarter, and generally the impact and angle were further inboard then that. Other explanation is perhaps she was at much more of an angle than it appeared, but I think that's really unlikely as she would need to be almost 90deg from how she appeared to be oriented to me.

 

[AZ_Hunter]

Hmm. Thank you for posting that. I would prefer more straight line penetration to get to the vitals. That deflection is interesting.