The SpongeROB Chronicles: The 2024 Elk and Deer 🦌 Hunt with the Avery’s and Cash

[robby denning]

In 2021 my dad shot a bull and could not call his shot besides that he thought he hit the elk. He said it was not huge, but definitely legal, and by itself. He never saw it again after the bang. I heard him shoot and was on the same ridge glassing a different direction, so within probably 10 minutes I was looking at the same basin he was. I was probably ~150 yards away from him, and maybe 200 from where the bull was supposed to be (and on the phone with him) when I saw a little 5x5 meandering through the brush looking pretty healthy. I dropped the phone, laid down, and squeezed off a round. The bull stumbled 10 yards or so and tipped over.

I picked the phone back up and told him the bull was down, and that I'd come get him so we could hike down together to get to work. The bull's belly was easily visible through the brush from where we stood. I would say I don't know how he couldn't find it again after the shot, but in that terrain the animals seem to appear and disappear like they were moving through portals. Moving 25 yards changes what you can see drastically.

As we started downhill, I spotted a second belly about 50 yards from the one we were walking towards. Dad's bull had died a couple steps from where he shot it and I shot a different one that he had never seen even though it was on the same hillside.

I always think to myself thank god we both had a tag, but I also think to myself that I would not have been shooting at a bull, injured or not, if I didn't have my tag in my pocket. I also think about the possibility that we never saw the second elk, and proceeded to pack out the first without ever knowing there was another, larger dead bull just 50ish yards away.

it can get confusing. good story. I leave my rifle home if I don't have a tag. Keeps me honest and no awkward convo with the warden about my 2A right to carry. Just did a deer hunt with my buddy Corey a few weeks ago after my tags were filled and just carried my pistol.

So on Dad's bull, did it drop in it;s tracks?

 

[intunegp]

it can get confusing. good story. I leave my rifle home if I don't have a tag. Keeps me honest and no awkward convo with the warden about my 2A right to carry. Just did a deer hunt with my buddy Corey a few weeks ago after my tags were filled and just carried my pistol.

So on Dad's bull, did it drop in it;s tracks?

Pretty close to it, yeah. I think it maybe stumbled a step or two and between that and falling over it was out of sight from his position. He was shooting his lightweight .300 WSM resting on a Primos Triggerstick and he admittedly had no idea what happened after the shot. He is also red/green colorblind so I assume the light belly didn't pop to him like it did to me but he saw them once I pointed them out.

 

[robby denning]

Pretty close to it, yeah. I think it maybe stumbled a step or two and between that and falling over it was out of sight from his position. He was shooting his lightweight .300 WSM resting on a Primos Triggerstick and he admittedly had no idea what happened after the shot. He is also red/green colorblind so I assume the light belly didn't pop to him like it did to me but he saw them once I pointed them out.

gotcha,

Ryan Avery helped me get the bucks out in the earlier story and said that is the great thing about shooting a suppressed firearm, you can often hear the impact at even close range.

Did you guys have to pack those bulls out on your backs? or could get a wheeler/horse near? Two bulls down with two guys is let's say "intimidating"

 

[intunegp]

gotcha,

Ryan Avery helped me get the bucks out in the earlier story and said that is the great thing about shooting a suppressed firearm, you can often hear the impact at even close range.

Did you guys have to pack those bulls out on your backs? or could get a wheeler/horse near? Two bulls down with two guys is let's say "intimidating"

When I realized we had two dead bulls my excitement quickly faded into thinking about the work to come. Yep, we carried them out. We called town to see if anyone could bring in horses to help us out, but couldn't find anyone permitted for where we were.

Thankfully this all took place shortly after sunrise and we had just started our day so we were fairly close to the truck and both bulls were dead by probably 8:15 that morning. As the crow flies I'd guess it wasn't more than 8-900 yards to the truck, but there was a very steep up-down-up-down to walk the shortest path. I'm not great at guesstimating elevation but I'd have to say it was probably a couple hundred feet up, at least half as far back down, back up almost as high, then lose it all to where the truck was parked. We could have taken a longer route to avoid the second up-down, but dad wanted to take the fewest total steps so I wasn't going to argue.

I did a gutless breakdown of my bull while he removed the guts from his to let it cool as much as possible...he taught me to field dress deer when I was a kid, but when it comes to anything beyond gutting he freezes up and gets scared of wasting meat. Once mine was quartered and bagged I moved over and quartered/bagged his, and then the long walk began. I carried rear quarters (and a head on the two last trips) and he took fronts. Breaks became more and more frequent as the day drug on.

I think we were getting the fire started to cook up some dinner back at camp around 10pm that night.

 

[GoatPackr]

@robby denning Did you get to shoot the HOG or any of the 6 UM rifles yet? Curious of your thoughts. I know you have one on order from UM.

 

[robby denning]

@robby denning Did you get to shoot the HOG or any of the 6 UM rifles yet? Curious of your thoughts. I know you have one on order from UM.

I did NOT! We we're burning the candle on the hunt (and I had to work the regular job some that week too) so there just wasn't time to shoot.

However...I did get to handle the HOG. I had seen a Rokstock prototype during my visit to UM in January, but it wasn't barrled, so Tanya's was the first completed gun I'd held.

With the big negative comb, it was a little weird to shoulder for off-hand. It took a few throws to get it right (as in immediate sight picture). It got easier as I went to knee then prone. If I understood Ryan, that is what it's designed to do, shoot best the closer to prone the shooter gets.

So, jury's out for me on if it'll be a good stock for the way I hunt: not a LR shooter, but have shot plenty of bucks prone, but more than a few off-hand or quickly from knee or tree. My stock is delayed too so hoping to get it this winter and hunt with it next fall. I'll post up.

And as far as the 6UM performance...I have not doubts after Ryan's giraffe that it'll be perfect for bucks. Really looking forward to it, and shooting supressed.

thanks for asking

 

[CorbLand]

Ryan Avery helped me get the bucks out in the earlier story and said that is the great thing about shooting a suppressed firearm, you can often hear the impact at even close range.

Shot a coues last week with a 7mag at 240 yards suppressed. You can definitely hear it hit. I shot, the guy spotting said you got him at about the same time I said, hes dead.

 

[robby denning]

Shot a coues last week with a 7mag at 240 yards suppressed. You can definitely hear it hit. I shot, the guy spotting said you got him at about the same time I said, hes dead.

Woot!

wondering if it could be heard at like a 100 yards or less.

anyone?

 

[robby denning]

When I realized we had two dead bulls my excitement quickly faded into thinking about the work to come. Yep, we carried them out. We called town to see if anyone could bring in horses to help us out, but couldn't find anyone permitted for where we were.

Thankfully this all took place shortly after sunrise and we had just started our day so we were fairly close to the truck and both bulls were dead by probably 8:15 that morning. As the crow flies I'd guess it wasn't more than 8-900 yards to the truck, but there was a very steep up-down-up-down to walk the shortest path. I'm not great at guesstimating elevation but I'd have to say it was probably a couple hundred feet up, at least half as far back down, back up almost as high, then lose it all to where the truck was parked. We could have taken a longer route to avoid the second up-down, but dad wanted to take the fewest total steps so I wasn't going to argue.

I did a gutless breakdown of my bull while he removed the guts from his to let it cool as much as possible...he taught me to field dress deer when I was a kid, but when it comes to anything beyond gutting he freezes up and gets scared of wasting meat. Once mine was quartered and bagged I moved over and quartered/bagged his, and then the long walk began. I carried rear quarters (and a head on the two last trips) and he took fronts. Breaks became more and more frequent as the day drug on.

I think we were getting the fire started to cook up some dinner back at camp around 10pm that night.

good work! Love this! Even a 1,000 yards packing out a single bull is no easy feat.

 

[CorbLand]

Pretty close to it, yeah. I think it maybe stumbled a step or two and between that and falling over it was out of sight from his position. He was shooting his lightweight .300 WSM resting on a Primos Triggerstick and he admittedly had no idea what happened after the shot. He is also red/green colorblind so I assume the light belly didn't pop to him like it did to me but he saw them once I pointed them out.

I am also color blind and can confirm that the color differentiation isnt the same for me as others. I cannot see the line between the two colors, it all just blurs together.

 

[Taudisio]

Woot!

wondering if it could be heard at like a 100 yards or less.

anyone?

100% absolutely. It’s even louder. I shot a buck in the back of the neck at 85 yards. Immediately knew it was dead even though he disappeared in 7ft tall grass/brush. That thump was almost louder that the shot.

Standing behind a shooter finishing off a buck at 15-20 yards with a 2750fps bullet suppressed, the thump wasn’t super easy to decipher, being able to watch the deer fold made it clear to me.

 

[robby denning]

100% absolutely. It’s even louder. I shot a buck in the back of the neck at 85 yards. Immediately knew it was dead even though he disappeared in 7ft tall grass/brush. That thump was almost louder that the shot.

Standing behind a shooter finishing off a buck at 15-20 yards with a 2750fps bullet suppressed, the thump wasn’t super easy to decipher, being able to watch the deer fold made it clear to me.

thanks man! that's what I was hoping for right there.

 

[realunlucky]

Woot!

wondering if it could be heard at like a 100 yards or less.

anyone?

I shot an elk at eighty yards 280ai with scythe and his cows didn't do anything but look around and wonder why he tipped over

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