Keechi Kid
FNG
So I have decided that this is the year and I WILL do some sort of elk hunt. I have been working out for a bit now but have decided to increase my preparation. Partly motivated by the Hunt Backcountry podcast experience project, I decided to try some different things this weekend. Here’s a quick report on my last roughly 36 hours.
I started Friday morning with a call from my brother about a group of hogs that were caught in a net wire patch of about 20 acres by his house. That wasn’t really directly elk hunt training related, but wasn’t a chance I was going to miss. I took my Kimber 6 GT loaded up with 107 TMK’s (thread about it here. https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/new-kimber-6-gt-and-107-tmk-report.442692/#post-4606345)
He used a Tikka 223 with 77 grain TMK’s. Five pigs were trapped in there. I put the first bullet in 3, he got the first bullet in 2. My shots tended to immobilize a bit faster than his. The difference was obvious. However, these pigs were amped up from the start and in active flight mode as a reaction to being trapped.
Simple entry and exit through shoulders at about 100 yards.
Some interesting exits from shots that immobilized these hogs. Keep in mind several shots were taken at pigs running directly away or at barely angled and mostly away.
After that, I decided to go check zeros on a couple of rifles with two loads. I had the two GT’s discussed in the above linked thread. I compared point of impact for two loads. 109 ELD-M and 107 TMK both loaded in alpha brass with 40 grains of superformance. Point of impact was identical. Met a buddy and got some packs loaded up. We took the rifles out to the ranch along with packs and camping gear. First stop was a wide open bottom which has ranges out to 8-900 yards. I set up a steel target on a t post stand. We worked our way out to 475 yards for the last shots taken.
A note about myself. I shoot a fair bit at game throughout the year, but almost all of my shots will be at 200 yards and in. A large majority within 100 yards. I know the trip I want to take could require the ability to shoot further so I have decided to work on that. We started at about 350. This was also my first time to work with a scope with a dialing turret setup. I was shocked at how easy 350 was. Just dialed a mil up and was grouping on paper plates and ringing steel. We then moved further away and shot prone off of packs. Easily ring steel at 475 with a 2 mil dial on my rifle and my buddy holding on a 2 mil hash. Had a strong wind blowing at about a 45 degree angle from our backs. Just held left side of the steel and nothing to it.
From there, we loaded up the packs and took off walking across the ranch. My first time to do a hike like that with a weighted pack. Pack weighed about 30 pounds. We did 7.5 miles yesterday and set up a camp along a creek. Built a little fire and just sat for a bit. Never saw any pigs while hiking, but did have some armadillos come out while we were sitting at the camp. Laid packs out and whacked armadillos at about 200 yards.
Got up this morning, made us some coffee on camp stoves. After a couple of cups, pulled down camp and took back off. Covered 8.5 miles over about 5 hours. Averaged a mile every 21 minutes while walking over the day.
Stopped by this bald eagle nest while walking I had found on the ranch.
The 8.5 mile mark had us by the steel target we shot yesterday. We had decided to make a little test of ourselves to drop our packs when we got there and make a first shot hit on the steel while tired from the hiking. Dropped the packs and immediately got ready to shoot. Both of us hit with that first shot.
From there, we did another 4 miles to take us out to 12.5 miles for the day. We finished up before 5 today giving us 20 miles covered with packs within 24 hours.
First time to push myself on the shooting and the hiking with a pack. I’m thinking it’s solid training for a Colorado elk hunt. Let me know if I’m doing it wrong I guess.
I started Friday morning with a call from my brother about a group of hogs that were caught in a net wire patch of about 20 acres by his house. That wasn’t really directly elk hunt training related, but wasn’t a chance I was going to miss. I took my Kimber 6 GT loaded up with 107 TMK’s (thread about it here. https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/new-kimber-6-gt-and-107-tmk-report.442692/#post-4606345)
He used a Tikka 223 with 77 grain TMK’s. Five pigs were trapped in there. I put the first bullet in 3, he got the first bullet in 2. My shots tended to immobilize a bit faster than his. The difference was obvious. However, these pigs were amped up from the start and in active flight mode as a reaction to being trapped.
Simple entry and exit through shoulders at about 100 yards.Some interesting exits from shots that immobilized these hogs. Keep in mind several shots were taken at pigs running directly away or at barely angled and mostly away.
After that, I decided to go check zeros on a couple of rifles with two loads. I had the two GT’s discussed in the above linked thread. I compared point of impact for two loads. 109 ELD-M and 107 TMK both loaded in alpha brass with 40 grains of superformance. Point of impact was identical. Met a buddy and got some packs loaded up. We took the rifles out to the ranch along with packs and camping gear. First stop was a wide open bottom which has ranges out to 8-900 yards. I set up a steel target on a t post stand. We worked our way out to 475 yards for the last shots taken.
A note about myself. I shoot a fair bit at game throughout the year, but almost all of my shots will be at 200 yards and in. A large majority within 100 yards. I know the trip I want to take could require the ability to shoot further so I have decided to work on that. We started at about 350. This was also my first time to work with a scope with a dialing turret setup. I was shocked at how easy 350 was. Just dialed a mil up and was grouping on paper plates and ringing steel. We then moved further away and shot prone off of packs. Easily ring steel at 475 with a 2 mil dial on my rifle and my buddy holding on a 2 mil hash. Had a strong wind blowing at about a 45 degree angle from our backs. Just held left side of the steel and nothing to it.
From there, we loaded up the packs and took off walking across the ranch. My first time to do a hike like that with a weighted pack. Pack weighed about 30 pounds. We did 7.5 miles yesterday and set up a camp along a creek. Built a little fire and just sat for a bit. Never saw any pigs while hiking, but did have some armadillos come out while we were sitting at the camp. Laid packs out and whacked armadillos at about 200 yards.
Got up this morning, made us some coffee on camp stoves. After a couple of cups, pulled down camp and took back off. Covered 8.5 miles over about 5 hours. Averaged a mile every 21 minutes while walking over the day.
Stopped by this bald eagle nest while walking I had found on the ranch.The 8.5 mile mark had us by the steel target we shot yesterday. We had decided to make a little test of ourselves to drop our packs when we got there and make a first shot hit on the steel while tired from the hiking. Dropped the packs and immediately got ready to shoot. Both of us hit with that first shot.
From there, we did another 4 miles to take us out to 12.5 miles for the day. We finished up before 5 today giving us 20 miles covered with packs within 24 hours.
First time to push myself on the shooting and the hiking with a pack. I’m thinking it’s solid training for a Colorado elk hunt. Let me know if I’m doing it wrong I guess.
