d3ntalbliss
Lil-Rokslider
So last weekend did a quick trip to chase some meat. The elk tag I had was just OTC, but had to be antlerless elk within a mile of cultivated land. Luckily my BIL has some family with property that we could hunt and access the fringes of forest service where they generally see elk. There were three of us chasing meat and one of us had a OTC whitetail tag (short range weapon). We got up early Firday morning and drove to the mountain and were hiking to where we wanted to glass and expected to see the elk. They were there, only problem was is we did not beat the daylight and we had no way to get in on them.
So I anxiously debated whether or not to try and get a shot at 585 yards. But with the herd moving and heading into timber I decided against a shot and we watched them feed into cover. We tried to cut a track in the snow and must have been too low on the sidehill and with the wind heading up toward them we decided not to exhaust ourselves heading up the mountain with bad wind. So morning hunt was eventful in that we saw about 36 elk, just no shot opportunity.
So for the afternoon we moved to the valley floor to check the fields and sure enough we found a group of 10 elk. Only problem is they were in an adjacent property and we could not get permission. the other hard part is there are some ranch homes in the area and a highway so shot safety was a concern. Luckily after watching the small group of elk for about 30 minutes somebody pushed them off the adjacent property onto property for which we had permission. Now the only problem was making a safe shot. There were probably about 30 head of cow in the field and varying houses around. Fortunately for the field they were in, the field just to the east was up on a bench with a small treed and sagebrush hill between that offered a higher vantage point and safe shooting angle to shoot down at the elk and ensure what was behind our shot path.
We got into position and it had begun snowing. We were a little nervous because the elk had moved to the border of the property we could hunt and were in a tight knit group right on the fence. We laid prone in the snow and had a perfect rest for our shot. Now to get a range. I attempted to range with no luck. It was snowing hard enough I couldn't get a reading past 8 yards.
Man was I glad I refreshed up on my reticle. The night before I was reviewing my reticle user manual and it had a MOA marking known size calculation for yardage. So I assumed for an average cow elk from spine to belly to be 30-34 inches. So for simple math I went with 30 x 100 / MOA of known measurement at that yardage and that gave me approximately 375 yards. So I dialed my turret for elevation to 350, no wind.
We must have waited 20 minutes for a cow to single out from the group. I told my BIL that he got first shot. He fired and hit his cow and luckily the group ran away from the fence. I took aim at the lead cow and let it rip. With them moving and the scope recoil I wasn't certain I hit pay dirt. After 5 seconds, the cow I shot at peeled off from the group and got the shaky legs and laid down and expired. Now the work began.
Nice thing was being a meat hunt and where we were it wasn't to much work other than to gut it and drag it about 200 yards to the nearest access road. We loaded her and my BILs whole. My cow was a little bigger and it was about all the three of us hunters could muster to get her in the bed of the truck.
So a question as to bullet type. I was shooting 150 grain ballistic tips, and I can say that I am not a fan. I hit her perfect behind the shoulder, but that bullet literally exploded and ended up also puncturing the stomach. She only went 40-50 yards so it did what it was supposed to, but in thick timber blood trail would have been non existent and finding her could have been problematic. I think I will be going with accubonds from here on out.
The next morning had me and my BIL busting brush and doing some deer drives trying to get our buddy a whitetail. Pushing a group of willows after only entering 50 yards our buddy had a shot at a nice whitetail buck at about 40 yards. Unfortunately with the slug and not having a rifled barrel and the deer full on bounding, he was unable to connect. Gridding the area confirmed, no blood on the freshly fallen snow from the night before. As a thank you to the property owner and to earn our trespass privilege, we helped the owner get some cows moved that had got to where they weren't supposed to be.
So we had one more play on a spot we had seen some whitetail the day before, which was exactly where we had shot our cow elk the day before. Between the upper and lower fields there was about 100-150 strip hillside with sage, trees, willows and a creek separating the upper and lower fields. So as we hiked on the edge of the upper field we saw a whitetail buck and doe feeding up top. My BIL dropped back and drove around to the opposite side and our other buddy and I stayed to keep an eye on things. That buck was feeding on a mission and fed away from us a couple hundred yards and then dropped onto the hillside into the thick sage and trees.
Our plan was to try and pinch the deer to our buddy so I circled to above where the deer had dropped down the hill and my BIL went south. He was in a tiny little patch of stuff between the two fields. The pinch worked great but our buddy had stayed too far up the patch so when the deer pinched out he was too far for the shotgun. The buck darted across the corner of the field and jumped into some super thick willows.
So we decided my BIL and I would circle along the creek to the backside of the willows and our tag holding friend would sit right at the fence behind some willows where the deer had entered. We circled along the creek and behind the willow patch where we thought the deer would hold because how thick it was. Not 50 yards into the willows and I see a really nice whitetail buck bigger than the one we scared into there. He actually was curious and walked towards us. At about 20 yards he had seen enough and turned to run towards our buddy. But then some smaller bucks that were with him must have grabbed his attention enough because he then turned the opposite way of where our friend was. We pushed further into the willows hoping to still push the other buck to our buddy. A few minutes later I see the buck running away from me towards where our buddy is. I shouted "Here he comes!!" about ten seconds later two shots ring out followed by a "woohooo"!!. We rushed out to the edge of the field to see our buddy had bagged himself a cool little whitetail buck.
We gutted him and beat feet home. As we get home and get unloading, our buddy realizes he left his rifle at the property. LOL. Fortunately the owner of the property grabbed it and he'll have to get it at a later date.
Why I hunt is for the meat, so it pleased my soul, when eating dinner my 6 year old son says as eating the grilled tenderloin, "I'm going to have dreams about this meat!!"
So I anxiously debated whether or not to try and get a shot at 585 yards. But with the herd moving and heading into timber I decided against a shot and we watched them feed into cover. We tried to cut a track in the snow and must have been too low on the sidehill and with the wind heading up toward them we decided not to exhaust ourselves heading up the mountain with bad wind. So morning hunt was eventful in that we saw about 36 elk, just no shot opportunity.
So for the afternoon we moved to the valley floor to check the fields and sure enough we found a group of 10 elk. Only problem is they were in an adjacent property and we could not get permission. the other hard part is there are some ranch homes in the area and a highway so shot safety was a concern. Luckily after watching the small group of elk for about 30 minutes somebody pushed them off the adjacent property onto property for which we had permission. Now the only problem was making a safe shot. There were probably about 30 head of cow in the field and varying houses around. Fortunately for the field they were in, the field just to the east was up on a bench with a small treed and sagebrush hill between that offered a higher vantage point and safe shooting angle to shoot down at the elk and ensure what was behind our shot path.
We got into position and it had begun snowing. We were a little nervous because the elk had moved to the border of the property we could hunt and were in a tight knit group right on the fence. We laid prone in the snow and had a perfect rest for our shot. Now to get a range. I attempted to range with no luck. It was snowing hard enough I couldn't get a reading past 8 yards.
Man was I glad I refreshed up on my reticle. The night before I was reviewing my reticle user manual and it had a MOA marking known size calculation for yardage. So I assumed for an average cow elk from spine to belly to be 30-34 inches. So for simple math I went with 30 x 100 / MOA of known measurement at that yardage and that gave me approximately 375 yards. So I dialed my turret for elevation to 350, no wind.
We must have waited 20 minutes for a cow to single out from the group. I told my BIL that he got first shot. He fired and hit his cow and luckily the group ran away from the fence. I took aim at the lead cow and let it rip. With them moving and the scope recoil I wasn't certain I hit pay dirt. After 5 seconds, the cow I shot at peeled off from the group and got the shaky legs and laid down and expired. Now the work began.
Nice thing was being a meat hunt and where we were it wasn't to much work other than to gut it and drag it about 200 yards to the nearest access road. We loaded her and my BILs whole. My cow was a little bigger and it was about all the three of us hunters could muster to get her in the bed of the truck.
So a question as to bullet type. I was shooting 150 grain ballistic tips, and I can say that I am not a fan. I hit her perfect behind the shoulder, but that bullet literally exploded and ended up also puncturing the stomach. She only went 40-50 yards so it did what it was supposed to, but in thick timber blood trail would have been non existent and finding her could have been problematic. I think I will be going with accubonds from here on out.
The next morning had me and my BIL busting brush and doing some deer drives trying to get our buddy a whitetail. Pushing a group of willows after only entering 50 yards our buddy had a shot at a nice whitetail buck at about 40 yards. Unfortunately with the slug and not having a rifled barrel and the deer full on bounding, he was unable to connect. Gridding the area confirmed, no blood on the freshly fallen snow from the night before. As a thank you to the property owner and to earn our trespass privilege, we helped the owner get some cows moved that had got to where they weren't supposed to be.
So we had one more play on a spot we had seen some whitetail the day before, which was exactly where we had shot our cow elk the day before. Between the upper and lower fields there was about 100-150 strip hillside with sage, trees, willows and a creek separating the upper and lower fields. So as we hiked on the edge of the upper field we saw a whitetail buck and doe feeding up top. My BIL dropped back and drove around to the opposite side and our other buddy and I stayed to keep an eye on things. That buck was feeding on a mission and fed away from us a couple hundred yards and then dropped onto the hillside into the thick sage and trees.
Our plan was to try and pinch the deer to our buddy so I circled to above where the deer had dropped down the hill and my BIL went south. He was in a tiny little patch of stuff between the two fields. The pinch worked great but our buddy had stayed too far up the patch so when the deer pinched out he was too far for the shotgun. The buck darted across the corner of the field and jumped into some super thick willows.
So we decided my BIL and I would circle along the creek to the backside of the willows and our tag holding friend would sit right at the fence behind some willows where the deer had entered. We circled along the creek and behind the willow patch where we thought the deer would hold because how thick it was. Not 50 yards into the willows and I see a really nice whitetail buck bigger than the one we scared into there. He actually was curious and walked towards us. At about 20 yards he had seen enough and turned to run towards our buddy. But then some smaller bucks that were with him must have grabbed his attention enough because he then turned the opposite way of where our friend was. We pushed further into the willows hoping to still push the other buck to our buddy. A few minutes later I see the buck running away from me towards where our buddy is. I shouted "Here he comes!!" about ten seconds later two shots ring out followed by a "woohooo"!!. We rushed out to the edge of the field to see our buddy had bagged himself a cool little whitetail buck.
We gutted him and beat feet home. As we get home and get unloading, our buddy realizes he left his rifle at the property. LOL. Fortunately the owner of the property grabbed it and he'll have to get it at a later date.
Why I hunt is for the meat, so it pleased my soul, when eating dinner my 6 year old son says as eating the grilled tenderloin, "I'm going to have dreams about this meat!!"
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