Bull with my wife's 6.5 CM

[wapitiaddict]

Harvested a bull this year with my wife's 6.5 CM that I had set up for her. It is a Ruger Predator, Boyd's laminate stock, and supressor. (Long story why I shot it with her rifle.)

Bull was standing slightly quartering away and a little uphill. One shot to the boiler room at about 190 yards, with factory Hornady precision Hunter 143gr eld-x and the bull only went 20-25 yards. Notice the funky left antler coming out the front of the skull.

Last year I was on a hunt with my friend that shot a nice mature bull with his 6.5CM using the same ammo at about 275 yards. First bullet was in the boiler. The bull ran about 40 yards and stopped. It was dead standing, but he put two more in him. We recovered two of the bullets right under the hide of the off side. Perfect mushrooms. I've seen elk shot with much bigger calibers do the same thing.

I would say that if you do your part, get within appropriate ranges, make a good shot on the vitals, this caliber and bullet combo will do the job on elk. Having said that, while I think the CM is big enough for elk out to 350-ish yards, I personally wouldn't take a shot on elk further than that... Even though ballistic table may say you could. I understand that is just my personal opinion and others may think differently.

 

[Mram10us]

Nice bull. Congrats. I'm not a fan of cm for elk because I've shot and watched them get hit with bigger in the vitals and they still go. I don't want to risk it, but again, congrats

 

[KurtB]

Cool looking bull. Saw one catch a 140 vld at 400 yards this year, he died. That from a Lapua going slower than a Creedmoor. Shot placement trumps all. Hunt with whatever gives you confidence though.

 

[beretzs]

Nice bull, congrats.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Harvested a bull this year with my wife's 6.5 CM that I had set up for her. It is a Ruger Predator, Boyd's laminate stock, and supressor. (Long story why I shot it with her rifle.)

Bull was standing slightly quartering away and a little uphill. One shot to the boiler room at about 190 yards, with factory Hornady precision Hunter 143gr eld-x and the bull only went 20-25 yards. Notice the funky left antler coming out the front of the skull.

Last year I was on a hunt with my friend that shot a nice mature bull with his 6.5CM using the same ammo at about 275 yards. First bullet was in the boiler. The bull ran about 40 yards and stopped. It was dead standing, but he put two more in him. We recovered two of the bullets right under the hide of the off side. Perfect mushrooms. I've seen elk shot with much bigger calibers do the same thing.

I would say that if you do your part, get within appropriate ranges, make a good shot on the vitals, this caliber and bullet combo will do the job on elk. Having said that, while I think the CM is big enough for elk out to 350-ish yards, I personally wouldn't take a shot on elk further than that... Even though ballistic table may say you could. I understand that is just my personal opinion and others may think differently.

Congrats!! I am a huge 6.5 caliber fan. I think they over perform with their heavy for caliber high sd and bc bullets. We shoot elk and deer out to 800ish with the creed at 9000 ft elevation.

 

[wapitiaddict]

Hunt with whatever gives you confidence though.

I definitely agree with this....
About that long story about why I shot the bull with my wife's rifle.... We had snuck up on this group of elk as they were feeding from a clearing into the trees early in the morning. We were literally on our hands and knees as we crawled behind sagebrush to a nice boulder that was about 180-200 yards from the elk. I set my pack on top of the boulder and then set my wife's rifle on top for a nice, solid rest.

By that time the elk were disappearing quickly from the clearing into the trees. I turned to my wife and told her to quickly get up on the gun to take a shot at one of the last remaining bulls that was still out in the open. She was too nervous and had too much adrenaline that she didn't want to take the shot.

So since the rifle was already in position I ended up taking the shot on this bull.

What's interesting though is, because of the can, the rest of the elk casually trotted into the trees. They bedded down just a few hundred yards of where my wife and I were de-boning and packing out my elk for the next few hours. The bulls were even bugling occasionally during this time.

Here is the even crazier thing! We got my elk all packed out and taken care of that day, so we decided to try it again the next morning so my wife could try again. The very next morning the elk were in the exact same clearing, and we snuck up on the elk to the exact same boulder. Again crawling into position. And this time some of the elk moved even closer towards us. We had two bulls fighting literally within 65 yards of us. The only thing that saved us is we had perfect wind at our face. And we were slightly down hill so the thermals were moving down.

There were probably 7 or 8 bulls in the group of 50 elk. They were bugling and carrying on like it was the rut, but it was Oct 17th. And no, this wasn't a high fence hunt. This was wild elk on public land.

Anyhow, my wife had a pick of several bulls. I caught a glimpse of a real big one but he disappeared quickly into the trees. Although, there was a nice six point that had his left antler half broken off. I would have shot him if I hadn't tagged out already. There was also a nice five point and a few raghorns.

For several minutes as my wife took aim, and I called out various instructions on different bulls as they turned broadside or as shooting lanes opened up, the elk slowly moved into the trees one by one. The last two elk were two raghorns. They slowly walked into the trees and then there were no more elk. The whole time my wife never pulled the trigger! She was literally shaking uncontrollably. Her arms, her legs, literally her whole body shaking. She was also about to puke.

All I could do was laugh. She felt really bad, but I just had the time of my life. It was such an awesome experience with the elk that close and bulls sparring, bugling, and pushing cows. I told her I would rather have her not pull the trigger than take a shot she wasn't comfortable with. She said the scope was bouncing around like crazy because she was shaking so bad. She was scared of making a bad shot. I told her that was the right choice.

After that, she decided to call the hunt and we were happy to go home with my bull. It was a hunt we won't forget.

 

[lancetkenyon]