S2H Winter Rifle Course Observations/lessons

[HighUintas]

Hey all, wanted to throw in a success story that wouldn’t have happened had I not attended the S2H course. Second weekend of hunting my cow elk tag and day 2 of the unit’s bull season being open as well, which meant far more hunters chasing the elk around the area. Had been seeing lots of elk, but had not been able to get on any for a shot. Spotted a herd Friday evening, made a game plan for the morning which entailed hiking up to timberline where we thought they’d feed past in the morning. I’m 6 months post-op ACL/MCL repair so my training this summer has been less than optimal. We elected to go an easier route up, but that meant a less favorable position in the trees. Once we got up there, the wind shifted and we had to alter our plan to work the wind. Well, as we crested a rise to get eyes on the elk, we had shots cracking over our head from hunters up the ridge who couldn’t see our position. Dropped back below the rise to be safe and then saw the elk skylined about 600 yards away moving over a ridge. We skirted behind the trees following them over the ridge hoping they would stop to feed when they got closer to cover again. Ended up having two other hunters cross our path that were chasing the same group and we all made our way across this face until we started hearing them in the trees. The other hunters opted to head out in search of another herd, we decided to stay put and see if they’d feed out of the trees when it got quiet again. We had just decided to start packing up when we heard a shot below us near a road, so we sat back down. About 1 min later, 6 cows popped out of the trees below and left of us. I was on the gun in prone on my pack with the mollinator and ready to fire in less than 10s and was waiting for elevation and yardage from my spotter, who had to grab my binos from my harness as his RF binos weren’t functioning all of a sudden. First shot was 300yds and took out both lungs, then they moved through a low spot and we lost them. I could just see their ears as the came out of the low spot, so I grabbed my pack and ran about 10 yards, then sat, got my elevation adjustment and made my second 336 yard shot seated with pack in front, unsupported rear which went through the neck and dropped the cow instantly. My second shot did not hit where I was aiming, so it’s clear I need to do more positional practice. Fortunately the story ended with a recovered animal. No way would I have been able to make those shots, let alone in that short of a time period, with moving in between before this course. I was shooting a tikka .243 1:10 with 95gr Sierra TMKs, my hunting partner posted the damage photos in the .243 thread for anyone interested. Huge shout out to S2H for the knowledge and skills that helped me get my first elk this weekend!

I'm struggling to find that 243 page. Mind sharing a link?

 

[nnmarcher]

I'm struggling to find that 243 page. Mind sharing a link?

I'm assuming this is it:

Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'

Oct 12, 2025

95 TMk on an elk. First shot was 300 yards in the lungs, 2760 MV, 2365 impact velocity. It continued to follow the small herd it was with for 40 yards before stopping, so another shot was fired at 340 into the neck which dropped it.

The remnants of the first round was found in the offside hide, the jacket and lead together weighed 28 grains. The second shot passed through the neck.

While butchering, we found the extent of the damage to the shoulder blade here:
Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'...

• 24valve

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[Small-foot]

I'm struggling to find that 243 page. Mind sharing a link?

Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'

Oct 12, 2025

95 TMk on an elk. First shot was 300 yards in the lungs, 2760 MV, 2365 impact velocity. It continued to follow the small herd it was with for 40 yards before stopping, so another shot was fired at 340 into the neck which dropped it.

The remnants of the first round was found in the offside hide, the jacket and lead together weighed 28 grains. The second shot passed through the neck.

While butchering, we found the extent of the damage to the shoulder blade here:
Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'...

• 24valve

• 
• 

Post 2,197 is my elk

Thank @nnmarcher for posting it as well

 

[jzeblaz]

Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'

Oct 12, 2025

95 TMk on an elk. First shot was 300 yards in the lungs, 2760 MV, 2365 impact velocity. It continued to follow the small herd it was with for 40 yards before stopping, so another shot was fired at 340 into the neck which dropped it.

The remnants of the first round was found in the offside hide, the jacket and lead together weighed 28 grains. The second shot passed through the neck.

While butchering, we found the extent of the damage to the shoulder blade here:
Post in thread '6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game'...

• 24valve

• 
• 

Post 2,197 is my elk

Thank @nnmarcher for posting it as well

Congrats M! I knew you T and Z would be on a tear this fall. Until the next one, happy hunting!

 

[Coopsdaddy]

Miscellaneous follow-ups as I remember:

Mags-

Tikka 223 mags have for the last couple of years started to show issues, not sure what has caused it, but the design in 223 leaves very little margin for error.
In the second summer of 2024 class, we had quite a few issues with 223 tikka mags. The Waters Rifleman mags that were used functioned flawlessly, as well as the standard cartridge Tikka and AICS mags.
I’ve been using the Mamba 10 round Tikka 223 mags since December, and they have been working very well. I believe we had 8 shooters using a single Mamba mag each in this last class for 1,000 +/- rounds apiece, and all worked flawlessly.

At this point if you can find them, I would highly suggest getting a few Mamba 10 round mags. If not, pay the piper and get the Waters mags- the 2.4” coal if you are going to use standard factory ammo. The 2.6” coal versions work, but sometimes bullets dip and get caught on the front lip of the mag.


AICS magazines for standard cartridges. They are the standard for a reason. AI branded mags are probably the best/longest lasting- I have 7-8 that are over 10 years old and tens of thousands of cycles through every one of them, still going strong. Having said that, the newest version of the MDT 5 rounds (at least) seem to be very good quality as well. The MDT flush fit work well and appeal to a lot of hunters, just understand that if they get frozen in the gun- you have to open the action and push them out/break them free from the top. The 5 and 10 round mags have an exposed lip that you grab and rip them out with.



Scope covers and caps:

Basically they all suck, because they all have a downside.

The neoprene scope covers are slow to remove, get left/lost, and get debris in them. They do seal pretty well however.

The flip up caps are way better in use, but are either big, clunky, and bulky (Aadmount/Tenebrex), or they work very well… until the levers break (Butler Creek). Then there is are the Vortex Defenders- they are clunky, the front opens constantly while strapped to a pack, and they constantly pull partially off when opening them- especially when rushed.

The single best caps are Leupold Aluminas, but they only work with their scopes. ZeroTech has a similar style, that seems to work well, and I will probably try to make a pair fit. Until then, I am probably going back to Butler Creeks and deal with the levers breaking when they do.



Sunglare:

This was a problem several days, as we we shooting on a hillside with the setting sun behind it. Some creative positions and covers had to be used to see the targets.

Frodo and Samwise using a jacket hanging and the tree to get in a shadow-
View attachment 845758


Some scopes are better than others at glare, but they all will suffer it if the sun is directly to the front and low. Sun shades are a thing, and probably should be on more scopes. As well, one can use tape to cover most of the objective up, and that helps.

Just wanted to verify and see if anything has changed on what mags you prefer for factory ammo.I need to pick up 3-4.
Thanks

 

[Formidilosus]

Just wanted to verify and see if anything has changed on what mags you prefer for factory ammo.I need to pick up 3-4.
Thanks

Not that I’ve seen. The Mambas have proven to the best feeding in all conditions of any I have seen. The Waters do well, however in wet sandy/dust the followers tend to get stuck due to the T3x version being polymer. I’m using a NDR 10 rounder (that only really works with 9) this fall, and it seems fine.
The Ascension small mag sounds like they do well, and probably would be one I would look at for carrying in the gun. As it is, I have several 4 rounds that still work well.