I hunted the 2nd season in CO this year, minus my friend Matt. Normally Matt and I LR hunt together working as shooter and spotter. It works out really well and help ensure successful one or two shot kills for the most part. Matt was too busy at home to come this year.
We got the nickname the "Geriatric Crew" mainly from Matt. Our camp consisted of 4 hunters Greg, Jim B., myself and Mike, Ron was our cook. Our combigned age was pushing 290 years. with me being the youngest at 41.
Mike brought out Sparky and Kiid, his 8 yr and 3 yr old 1/4 horses. They were very helpful at moving elk quarters and old asses around the mountains. We set up camp on Thursday, and Friday morning I went out to my look-out, and spotted 3 bulls at about 1000 yards. A very good sign the day before any elk hunt. I spent Friday afternoon shooting the edge for 200 yard zero, then doping a rock face at 900 yards and confirming drops, with my charts. Greg gave me the old "your killing the hell out of those rocks, now lets see you eat one."
Saturday morning I was again in the Look-out and from there I can see everything. Mike was headed up a canyon on the horses and as daylight struck, i glassed 2 bulls out feeding in his drainage. They were about 3500 yards from me, and I was wondering if he had passed them in the dark. The idea that Mike might harvest one of these bulls intreaged me to the point I watched them thru the NXS, and when both bulls grew intent on the direction Mike was coming from I knew somthing was about to happen.
The lower bull humped and ran, a few seconds later I heard the rifle report, the bull then tumbled to a stop and I once again heard the second bullets muzzle blast. I waited a couple minutes and radioed to Mike nice shooting, that suprised him a bit because he didn't think he had an audience. With all that hub-ub I looked below me just in time to see my 3 bulls leaving an opening and head into the timber, I cursed myself for not being "in my hunt."
Monday was Gregs turn and he put on a pre dawn hike to get to #3, shortly after daybreak he caught a young raghorn heading to cover from the mountain side meadow. He slipped him a couple pills and it was a dirt nap for that bull.
Tuesday night brought with it a nice little snow storm. Wednesday Morning I headed to the north on a wheeler to try my luck in some timber, that had been good to me in 2010. When I got about 3/4 mile down the two track I glassed south to #3 and caught the movement of an elk. With-out knowing what or how many I raced back to camp and grabbed the spotter, at least 7 elk with 2 bulls. I grabbed my gear and made a quick pace the 1.7 miles to try and cut the elk off in an avalanche chute on the south side of #3. Well i was a little late, just as I looked up the slide the last 3 elk were exiting it continuing south to bed for the day. At 600 yards I had missed a great opportunity.
Thursday I was slow out of camp and it was one of those days that I couldn't make up my mind which way to go. After breakfast I stepped out of the tents to glass the 3 mountains before heading out. Low and behold there were 2 bulls on #1 straight above camp. My options were limited. Moving closer would put me in the timber with nothing but obscured vision of the bulls. Climbing after them would be a long process with little to no chance of seeing them when one would get there.
I excitidly called the guys out of the tents as I was going to set up and shoot from camp. It was near dead calm and I had practiced on a rock face just below the elk at 900 yard the previous friday, gathering my sight dope..
I set up the bipod and rear bag, uphill at 18 degrees ranged the 6x6 at 1182 yards. I doped the NXS and sent what I thought would be a fatal bullet into that bull. No reaction? do it again, no reaction? Now I'm starting to wonder, another shot and no reaction. I take a brief pause to think. I ask the guys if they see any impacts and look over my shoulder to see them slack jawed looking thru binos. I snapped at Mike, "get the spotting scope out I'm going to send a sighter at the rock face."
I redope the rock face and send one, to my suprise it is about 2 minutes right and 2.5 minutes high.
The slap of the bullet impact sent the 6x6 uphill into some quakies. After the rock impact I was sure the 3 shots were very clean misses, and felt confident that he was unscathed. I turned my attention to the 5x5 reranged him at 1202 yards. I Doped the rifle once again minus the elevational error of 2.5 minutes, and asked Mike to watch very carefully. I sent one and Mike called out a hit. The bull turned and very slowly turned uphill. At this point I was in it until he dropped, I chambered another cartrige as the guys were saying, "wait I think hes down" I shanked the second shot, at this point my nerves had been a bit frazilled, and I took a moment to gather myself. The bull turned broadside and I sent the third. I recovered from recoil in time to see his legs fold underneath him, sending the bull sliding downhill into a deadfall.
I watched the fallen bull for a couple minutes, pretty unaware of my surounding, what the audience was doing or saying. To say it was an exciting fast paced turn of events would be an understatement. I had gotten a little rattled during the process, the misses were a bit confussing to me at the time, I did at one moment want to quit after the misses on the first bull, but I drove myself to continue on when I flashed the idea of a sighter on the rock. I'm glad I did, i'm not sure how my additude would have been if I had given up.
Mike and I brought the horses to with-in 50 yards of the fallen bull. The final shot had broke the spine about 2-4 inches behind the shoulder. The 250 grain accu bond was recovered on the far side and weight 165 grains. From the first bulls tracks I found my 3 bullet impacts, they had blew unfrozen dirt thru the snow, and were nicly clustered a good 3 feet from impacting the 6x6 bull.
I have reflected on this event for quite some time since returning from the trip, almost 3 weeks ago. I have yet to clean the 338 edge as my plans are to shoot it and actually see if the error that day was more rifle or shooter induced. The gun did take a beating that week, as it rode on my back on horse back slung sideways, bumping and battering along thru timber. But then again, as ruggedly as it's built, I would think losing zero would be low on the list of problems.
This event didn't at all go the way I had planned, seems they never really do, in this instance I learned some more valuable lessons, ate some humble pie, and added to the base of experience that I have been building now for some 6+ years in the LRH field.
Greg might not like it but next year I will be killing alot more rocks and nearly every day.
Pics are to follow
We got the nickname the "Geriatric Crew" mainly from Matt. Our camp consisted of 4 hunters Greg, Jim B., myself and Mike, Ron was our cook. Our combigned age was pushing 290 years. with me being the youngest at 41.
Mike brought out Sparky and Kiid, his 8 yr and 3 yr old 1/4 horses. They were very helpful at moving elk quarters and old asses around the mountains. We set up camp on Thursday, and Friday morning I went out to my look-out, and spotted 3 bulls at about 1000 yards. A very good sign the day before any elk hunt. I spent Friday afternoon shooting the edge for 200 yard zero, then doping a rock face at 900 yards and confirming drops, with my charts. Greg gave me the old "your killing the hell out of those rocks, now lets see you eat one."
Saturday morning I was again in the Look-out and from there I can see everything. Mike was headed up a canyon on the horses and as daylight struck, i glassed 2 bulls out feeding in his drainage. They were about 3500 yards from me, and I was wondering if he had passed them in the dark. The idea that Mike might harvest one of these bulls intreaged me to the point I watched them thru the NXS, and when both bulls grew intent on the direction Mike was coming from I knew somthing was about to happen.
The lower bull humped and ran, a few seconds later I heard the rifle report, the bull then tumbled to a stop and I once again heard the second bullets muzzle blast. I waited a couple minutes and radioed to Mike nice shooting, that suprised him a bit because he didn't think he had an audience. With all that hub-ub I looked below me just in time to see my 3 bulls leaving an opening and head into the timber, I cursed myself for not being "in my hunt."
Monday was Gregs turn and he put on a pre dawn hike to get to #3, shortly after daybreak he caught a young raghorn heading to cover from the mountain side meadow. He slipped him a couple pills and it was a dirt nap for that bull.
Tuesday night brought with it a nice little snow storm. Wednesday Morning I headed to the north on a wheeler to try my luck in some timber, that had been good to me in 2010. When I got about 3/4 mile down the two track I glassed south to #3 and caught the movement of an elk. With-out knowing what or how many I raced back to camp and grabbed the spotter, at least 7 elk with 2 bulls. I grabbed my gear and made a quick pace the 1.7 miles to try and cut the elk off in an avalanche chute on the south side of #3. Well i was a little late, just as I looked up the slide the last 3 elk were exiting it continuing south to bed for the day. At 600 yards I had missed a great opportunity.
Thursday I was slow out of camp and it was one of those days that I couldn't make up my mind which way to go. After breakfast I stepped out of the tents to glass the 3 mountains before heading out. Low and behold there were 2 bulls on #1 straight above camp. My options were limited. Moving closer would put me in the timber with nothing but obscured vision of the bulls. Climbing after them would be a long process with little to no chance of seeing them when one would get there.
I excitidly called the guys out of the tents as I was going to set up and shoot from camp. It was near dead calm and I had practiced on a rock face just below the elk at 900 yard the previous friday, gathering my sight dope..
I set up the bipod and rear bag, uphill at 18 degrees ranged the 6x6 at 1182 yards. I doped the NXS and sent what I thought would be a fatal bullet into that bull. No reaction? do it again, no reaction? Now I'm starting to wonder, another shot and no reaction. I take a brief pause to think. I ask the guys if they see any impacts and look over my shoulder to see them slack jawed looking thru binos. I snapped at Mike, "get the spotting scope out I'm going to send a sighter at the rock face."
I redope the rock face and send one, to my suprise it is about 2 minutes right and 2.5 minutes high.
The slap of the bullet impact sent the 6x6 uphill into some quakies. After the rock impact I was sure the 3 shots were very clean misses, and felt confident that he was unscathed. I turned my attention to the 5x5 reranged him at 1202 yards. I Doped the rifle once again minus the elevational error of 2.5 minutes, and asked Mike to watch very carefully. I sent one and Mike called out a hit. The bull turned and very slowly turned uphill. At this point I was in it until he dropped, I chambered another cartrige as the guys were saying, "wait I think hes down" I shanked the second shot, at this point my nerves had been a bit frazilled, and I took a moment to gather myself. The bull turned broadside and I sent the third. I recovered from recoil in time to see his legs fold underneath him, sending the bull sliding downhill into a deadfall.
I watched the fallen bull for a couple minutes, pretty unaware of my surounding, what the audience was doing or saying. To say it was an exciting fast paced turn of events would be an understatement. I had gotten a little rattled during the process, the misses were a bit confussing to me at the time, I did at one moment want to quit after the misses on the first bull, but I drove myself to continue on when I flashed the idea of a sighter on the rock. I'm glad I did, i'm not sure how my additude would have been if I had given up.
Mike and I brought the horses to with-in 50 yards of the fallen bull. The final shot had broke the spine about 2-4 inches behind the shoulder. The 250 grain accu bond was recovered on the far side and weight 165 grains. From the first bulls tracks I found my 3 bullet impacts, they had blew unfrozen dirt thru the snow, and were nicly clustered a good 3 feet from impacting the 6x6 bull.
I have reflected on this event for quite some time since returning from the trip, almost 3 weeks ago. I have yet to clean the 338 edge as my plans are to shoot it and actually see if the error that day was more rifle or shooter induced. The gun did take a beating that week, as it rode on my back on horse back slung sideways, bumping and battering along thru timber. But then again, as ruggedly as it's built, I would think losing zero would be low on the list of problems.
This event didn't at all go the way I had planned, seems they never really do, in this instance I learned some more valuable lessons, ate some humble pie, and added to the base of experience that I have been building now for some 6+ years in the LRH field.
Greg might not like it but next year I will be killing alot more rocks and nearly every day.
Pics are to follow
