Son's first Elk

cajun said:

Cool story. When you said son I was thinking kid not a grown *** man with a beard lol. Congrats!

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crashlanding said:

Great story! Love the part about the rifle going click, been there, done that

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Raudy707 said:

Just got back from Eastern Oregon last night. My son and I drew cow tags hoping for his first elk. We drove 10 hours from our hometown in Northern California to small town near John Day, Oregon. I had arranged for a private land hunt and we drove in thick pea soup fog in search of our our ranch and trailer they had set up for us. It was 22 degrees and we arrived around 9 pm. We quickly moved our optics, rifles and packs inside and went to bed. The next morning we stepped out and it was 17 degrees. Everything was frozen. We jumped in the sidexside and headed for the highest ground we could before grey light. We parked and walked to a peak and started glassing. After about 20 min I found a heard of elk bedded on a neighboring ranch where we could not hunt. My son however was excited that we saw elk. He said well, that means they're here. I agreed. He found some nice mule deer bucks and then about 1500 yards away I found 4 elk on a table top ridge feeding. All cows, and on our ranch. I said that's our elk, let's go! We quickly gathered up our packs and started heading towards them. At about 800 yds we had to walk across a barren patch of ground and not seeing the elk, I quickly started leading us across the open patch. Suddenly I look out towards the elk and here are 3 set of ears and eyes cresting the ridge 200 yds in front of us. They immediately stop and lock on us. We can only see heads and maybe 6 inches of neck. We're busted! They wheel and run west off the ranch and down into a timber patch. Our hopes and dreams gone! I apologized and said I rushed it. I should have waited in cover and glassed for a few minutes. The ranch is 3000 acres so I was worried they were going to walk off the northwest corner we had spotted them in. We moved out towards our boundary and glassed down into oblivion. Just frost and fog. Focusing dead to where the elk had gone we failed to notice 20 head of elk just off our south boundary feeding our way. We perked up and glassed hoping for them to come our way. My son taps me on my shoulder and points down where the first elk had run. Low and behold they were walking up a far ridge back up towards the herd. 1300 yds, 12, 11...I'm feeling good out to 600 yds in the 5-8 mph crisp cold winds so we move down to south facing slope and hope to intercept as they enter the ranch. At 920 yds they are on the ranch. 2 good cows and cripple hobbling cow in the rear. A large 200 acre pine thicket is the 500 yd mark. Laying down hill is not an option so I toss my outdoorman pack across a frozen sage bush. I get my son on the rifle and say ok the ethical thing to do is kill the cripple so that's our target animal. I range them and at 730 yds I'm like it's gonna happen so get smashed into that bush and tell me how it feels. He nods and says he's good. They keep walking and throwing their noses in the air checking the wind. At 613 the stop and the cripple starts feeding. He dials his 7 mag to 10.7 moa and asks what's the wind. Looking across the canyon I say 1. I'm locked on the cow and hear him breathe out then hold. Click! The rifle rocks and he looks at me like what happened? I said did you load it? He said in all this excitement no, I forgot to. Ha I'm said well it's a good thing because the trigger was almost broken from that jerk. Now his nerves were really pumping and I'm like it's fine just take your time and squeeze when your on her shoulder. He exhales and holds so I lock on the cow still feeding. Boom! I see the hide on the ribs ripple but don't hear impact. They run towards the pines for cover and I hear him work the bolt. Suddenly after a 20 yd hobble she stops, throws her head back and starts to wobble. I said don't shoot! She tips over about 3 seconds later and she's dead. We hug and high five and I'm congratulating him on his first elk and he says Dad the other cows are still behind that juniper waiting for her. Maybe you should shoot one too. I said move over. I get behind his gun and one peeks out from the juniper. 590 he says. I adjust to 9.8 and she's facing right at me. I hold on the chest neck junction and shoot. She drops instantly. All four feet come up as we hear hard impact echo back to us. We doubled up! Father and son. It's 9 am. Pretty awesome experience and lifetime memory. The 168 grain Accubond long range bullet worked excellent for us again. His was a pass through, tomato soup inside, one lung missing a 3 inch swath, the other damaged by shock and the liver completely lacerated. Broke ribs going in and going out. Excellent performance! Mine hit the neck vertebrae between the shoulders breaking the neck and killing her instantly. CNS shutdown. I've attached some pictures for you guys to see. Pretty proud of my boy to get his composure back after the elk fever jerk trigger and perform a text book shot in the shivering cold. This was H1000 powder at 2900 fps and despite the 15 degree temps it was spot on the shooting solution.

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Raudy707 said:

Just got back from Eastern Oregon last night. My son and I drew cow tags hoping for his first elk. We drove 10 hours from our hometown in Northern California to small town near John Day, Oregon. I had arranged for a private land hunt and we drove in thick pea soup fog in search of our our ranch and trailer they had set up for us. It was 22 degrees and we arrived around 9 pm. We quickly moved our optics, rifles and packs inside and went to bed. The next morning we stepped out and it was 17 degrees. Everything was frozen. We jumped in the sidexside and headed for the highest ground we could before grey light. We parked and walked to a peak and started glassing. After about 20 min I found a heard of elk bedded on a neighboring ranch where we could not hunt. My son however was excited that we saw elk. He said well, that means they're here. I agreed. He found some nice mule deer bucks and then about 1500 yards away I found 4 elk on a table top ridge feeding. All cows, and on our ranch. I said that's our elk, let's go! We quickly gathered up our packs and started heading towards them. At about 800 yds we had to walk across a barren patch of ground and not seeing the elk, I quickly started leading us across the open patch. Suddenly I look out towards the elk and here are 3 set of ears and eyes cresting the ridge 200 yds in front of us. They immediately stop and lock on us. We can only see heads and maybe 6 inches of neck. We're busted! They wheel and run west off the ranch and down into a timber patch. Our hopes and dreams gone! I apologized and said I rushed it. I should have waited in cover and glassed for a few minutes. The ranch is 3000 acres so I was worried they were going to walk off the northwest corner we had spotted them in. We moved out towards our boundary and glassed down into oblivion. Just frost and fog. Focusing dead to where the elk had gone we failed to notice 20 head of elk just off our south boundary feeding our way. We perked up and glassed hoping for them to come our way. My son taps me on my shoulder and points down where the first elk had run. Low and behold they were walking up a far ridge back up towards the herd. 1300 yds, 12, 11...I'm feeling good out to 600 yds in the 5-8 mph crisp cold winds so we move down to south facing slope and hope to intercept as they enter the ranch. At 920 yds they are on the ranch. 2 good cows and cripple hobbling cow in the rear. A large 200 acre pine thicket is the 500 yd mark. Laying down hill is not an option so I toss my outdoorman pack across a frozen sage bush. I get my son on the rifle and say ok the ethical thing to do is kill the cripple so that's our target animal. I range them and at 730 yds I'm like it's gonna happen so get smashed into that bush and tell me how it feels. He nods and says he's good. They keep walking and throwing their noses in the air checking the wind. At 613 the stop and the cripple starts feeding. He dials his 7 mag to 10.7 moa and asks what's the wind. Looking across the canyon I say 1. I'm locked on the cow and hear him breathe out then hold. Click! The rifle rocks and he looks at me like what happened? I said did you load it? He said in all this excitement no, I forgot to. Ha I'm said well it's a good thing because the trigger was almost broken from that jerk. Now his nerves were really pumping and I'm like it's fine just take your time and squeeze when your on her shoulder. He exhales and holds so I lock on the cow still feeding. Boom! I see the hide on the ribs ripple but don't hear impact. They run towards the pines for cover and I hear him work the bolt. Suddenly after a 20 yd hobble she stops, throws her head back and starts to wobble. I said don't shoot! She tips over about 3 seconds later and she's dead. We hug and high five and I'm congratulating him on his first elk and he says Dad the other cows are still behind that juniper waiting for her. Maybe you should shoot one too. I said move over. I get behind his gun and one peeks out from the juniper. 590 he says. I adjust to 9.8 and she's facing right at me. I hold on the chest neck junction and shoot. She drops instantly. All four feet come up as we hear hard impact echo back to us. We doubled up! Father and son. It's 9 am. Pretty awesome experience and lifetime memory. The 168 grain Accubond long range bullet worked excellent for us again. His was a pass through, tomato soup inside, one lung missing a 3 inch swath, the other damaged by shock and the liver completely lacerated. Broke ribs going in and going out. Excellent performance! Mine hit the neck vertebrae between the shoulders breaking the neck and killing her instantly. CNS shutdown. I've attached some pictures for you guys to see. Pretty proud of my boy to get his composure back after the elk fever jerk trigger and perform a text book shot in the shivering cold. This was H1000 powder at 2900 fps and despite the 15 degree temps it was spot on the shooting solution.

Click to expand...