Elkeater
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 1,424
So having had heart surgery in August I wasn't sure I would be able to elk hunt this year but I managed to get lucky and draw a refuge hunt for the Colorado 4th rifle season. The refuge is 5 minutes from the house so it worked out nicely.
I started opening morning following a herd of about 500 elk down to the river and onto some really flat ground. I then crawled about 600 yards in a ditch to try to get within range. The mirage was so bad that at 800 yards all I could see of the elk was a tan blur. Even turning the scope down to say 12x didn't help. So the only alternative was to crawl within about 500 yards. I got within range and set up for the shot and sent a round at the last cow in line. Boom and nothing happened. Not knowing if I hit or not I didn't shoot again and the herd walked past at about 250 yards. After I went out and checked for blood I decided I didn't hit one. So I snuck up on them again and shot again. Once again nothing happened. I was pretty disgusted with things at this point. I've been shooting out to 800 yards regularly and I had the rifle shooting 3" groups at 500 yards. So not knowing what was going on I headed straight to the range. I suddenly couldn't hit paper. Then I realized the scope didn't seem to adjust. I'm shooting a Remington 700 5r .300 WM with a 6-24x vortex viper pst gen 1. Not having another option And sure not trusting that scope I ran home grabbed my old reliable ruger M77 Hawkeye in .300WM with a Nikon prostaff 3-9x40 BDC. I'm pretty good with this rifle out to 500 yards. So I drove back to the refuge and snuck up on a couple cows grazing just off the county road. 309 yards and one 180 accubond through the lungs did the job just fine.
I started opening morning following a herd of about 500 elk down to the river and onto some really flat ground. I then crawled about 600 yards in a ditch to try to get within range. The mirage was so bad that at 800 yards all I could see of the elk was a tan blur. Even turning the scope down to say 12x didn't help. So the only alternative was to crawl within about 500 yards. I got within range and set up for the shot and sent a round at the last cow in line. Boom and nothing happened. Not knowing if I hit or not I didn't shoot again and the herd walked past at about 250 yards. After I went out and checked for blood I decided I didn't hit one. So I snuck up on them again and shot again. Once again nothing happened. I was pretty disgusted with things at this point. I've been shooting out to 800 yards regularly and I had the rifle shooting 3" groups at 500 yards. So not knowing what was going on I headed straight to the range. I suddenly couldn't hit paper. Then I realized the scope didn't seem to adjust. I'm shooting a Remington 700 5r .300 WM with a 6-24x vortex viper pst gen 1. Not having another option And sure not trusting that scope I ran home grabbed my old reliable ruger M77 Hawkeye in .300WM with a Nikon prostaff 3-9x40 BDC. I'm pretty good with this rifle out to 500 yards. So I drove back to the refuge and snuck up on a couple cows grazing just off the county road. 309 yards and one 180 accubond through the lungs did the job just fine.
I'd hunt cow elk every year if I could draw the tag regularly.
