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Took a few days, but got my cow elk this year in Colorado! Initially my main goal was to get my son a nice buck with his muzzleloader, so I put my cow hunt on the back burner. The first 4 days, we hunted 5 miles into a wilderness (packed in on horses, but hunted on foot). Only saw one shooter buck which some other hunters shot. Weather may have played a roll as it rained, sleeted, and snowed morning, noon, and night! Let me tell you it it hard to sleep in a tent with lighting flashes simultaneously with thunder. Anyway, they could have shot a couple of dink bucks, but that is not what we came for. Therefore, on the 4th day, we packed up and went to plan B, which was some areas I knew of where you could spot and stalk bucks above timberline.
After spotting a bachelor group of 6 bucks, my son made a stalk on them and was just over a rise 50 yards from them, but they spooked at the last minute and he had to take a hurried 107 yard shot in a driving snowstorm and didn't get the buck. Two of the bucks were 27-28" 4x4s (he called them "absolute monsters") and he is still kicking himself.
So I continued to try and get him (and a friend) a buck and the timberline country we were hunting holds few elk. Thursday they hiked a roadless 13,000 ft basin and didn't see any bucks. However, there was a small patch of timber near the bottom as they were hiking out. As luck would have it, there was a small herd of 15 elk in that patch (including 1 nice bull,which of course always happens when I have a cow tag!) and they came out not far above the jeep road where I was waiting to pick the guys up. I was so surprised that I missed the first opportunity to shoot, but was able to get in front of them and be waiting as the came out of the next patch of timber. It was so steep that I was able to lay prone and still shoot. Don't really think I could have otherwise because this Texas boy was really having a time climbing the mountain to get up to where I could shoot and I was huffing and puffing. Anyway, a cow came out 120 yards above me and stopped. The angle was so severe up that I remembered to aim low.
At the shot, I was pretty sure that she was hurt when she ran. It took me 10 minutes just to get up those steep 120 yards to where she stood and there were the tracks of the herd, but no blood! However, it was muddy and I had no problem following the tracks. It was so steep that I knew if she was down, she would have slid quite a ways down hill. Sure enough, after going only 50 yards, I spotted a dark brown patch below me. The binocs confirmed it was the cow.
It sounds really good when you say that you packed an elk out on your back 5 miles, and I have done that, but as I get older, it is also nice if they happen to be closer to a road. As luck would have it, she was about 250 yards above the jeep road when I shot, and she slid down to within 50 yards of the road. I decided to do one better and my son and I pulled her free from the tree that stopped her and she slid down and landed IN THE ROAD! After the hike that my companions had just made, it was probably for the best!
Equipment does the job:
Knight Long range hunter, non-plastic jacket set up. Remington STS 209 primer, 90 gr of BH 209, and a 350 gr Hornady FPB bullet. I did manage to make the FPB come apart this time. And it certainly was not a pass through. The bullet entered right at the right elbow. The bullet completely shattered the end of the large upper arm bone (humerous) just above the elbow and due to the steep angle, continued upward into her chest. We are talking major bone here! The only piece of the bullet I found was aprox 50% of it INSIDE the heart. Single hole in, no exit, so when I was cutting the heart up to fry today, there was the chunk of lead in the top of the heart. Did not find the other piece, but that is the piece that did her in so fast. With the bone it hit, it was great that it kept on trucking and did its job. Two years, two shots with BH 209 and the FPB, two elk! I might give the thor a try next year, but I can testify that the FPB will defintately get the job done
It is also notable that I was using the Non-plastic jacket with BH 209 and it worked great! I loaded on the Friday before the hunt, hunted in the rain all week, shot when we came out of the wilderness on Tuesday, reloaded and shot the elk on Thursday and both times the shot was instantaneous. We all used muzzlemitts on the end of the barrel as well.
After spotting a bachelor group of 6 bucks, my son made a stalk on them and was just over a rise 50 yards from them, but they spooked at the last minute and he had to take a hurried 107 yard shot in a driving snowstorm and didn't get the buck. Two of the bucks were 27-28" 4x4s (he called them "absolute monsters") and he is still kicking himself.
So I continued to try and get him (and a friend) a buck and the timberline country we were hunting holds few elk. Thursday they hiked a roadless 13,000 ft basin and didn't see any bucks. However, there was a small patch of timber near the bottom as they were hiking out. As luck would have it, there was a small herd of 15 elk in that patch (including 1 nice bull,which of course always happens when I have a cow tag!) and they came out not far above the jeep road where I was waiting to pick the guys up. I was so surprised that I missed the first opportunity to shoot, but was able to get in front of them and be waiting as the came out of the next patch of timber. It was so steep that I was able to lay prone and still shoot. Don't really think I could have otherwise because this Texas boy was really having a time climbing the mountain to get up to where I could shoot and I was huffing and puffing. Anyway, a cow came out 120 yards above me and stopped. The angle was so severe up that I remembered to aim low.
At the shot, I was pretty sure that she was hurt when she ran. It took me 10 minutes just to get up those steep 120 yards to where she stood and there were the tracks of the herd, but no blood! However, it was muddy and I had no problem following the tracks. It was so steep that I knew if she was down, she would have slid quite a ways down hill. Sure enough, after going only 50 yards, I spotted a dark brown patch below me. The binocs confirmed it was the cow.
It sounds really good when you say that you packed an elk out on your back 5 miles, and I have done that, but as I get older, it is also nice if they happen to be closer to a road. As luck would have it, she was about 250 yards above the jeep road when I shot, and she slid down to within 50 yards of the road. I decided to do one better and my son and I pulled her free from the tree that stopped her and she slid down and landed IN THE ROAD! After the hike that my companions had just made, it was probably for the best!
Equipment does the job:
Knight Long range hunter, non-plastic jacket set up. Remington STS 209 primer, 90 gr of BH 209, and a 350 gr Hornady FPB bullet. I did manage to make the FPB come apart this time. And it certainly was not a pass through. The bullet entered right at the right elbow. The bullet completely shattered the end of the large upper arm bone (humerous) just above the elbow and due to the steep angle, continued upward into her chest. We are talking major bone here! The only piece of the bullet I found was aprox 50% of it INSIDE the heart. Single hole in, no exit, so when I was cutting the heart up to fry today, there was the chunk of lead in the top of the heart. Did not find the other piece, but that is the piece that did her in so fast. With the bone it hit, it was great that it kept on trucking and did its job. Two years, two shots with BH 209 and the FPB, two elk! I might give the thor a try next year, but I can testify that the FPB will defintately get the job done
It is also notable that I was using the Non-plastic jacket with BH 209 and it worked great! I loaded on the Friday before the hunt, hunted in the rain all week, shot when we came out of the wilderness on Tuesday, reloaded and shot the elk on Thursday and both times the shot was instantaneous. We all used muzzlemitts on the end of the barrel as well.
