Our elk season started Saturday and until today had been kind of uneventful. When we got to the hills this morning we hit fresh snow at about 2500’ and at 5000’ we had 4-5” of new fresh snow.
We drove down off the main ridge to get to the area where we planned on hunting and in this area we were right on the edge of the smow line. Shortly after legal hunting time we spotted a herd of approximately 40 elk on the ridge to our north.
Washington has kind of weird laws for elk hunting. You have to be drawn to be able to hunt any branched antlered, or cow elk. The hunters that don’t get drawn can only shoot spike elk, so that was what was on our agenda today.
In the herd was one spike elk. They made their way down and across the ridge and then turned slightly back. Finally the cows kind of split apart and the spike was standing looking straight south in our direction. He ranged at 690 yards and even though straight on wasn’t ideal, it appeared as if he would bolt over the ridge or into cover very soon so we set up for the shot.
My buddy ranged him at 690 and 690 so I dialed for that range, got the new 7mm Allen Magnum rock solid on the harris bipod and rear sand sock and the big 200 grain Wildcat ULD RBBT was on it’s way.
It sounded like a 500 pound beaver slapped his tail in a lake full of jello at the impact. The bullet took him slightly on the left side of his neck, ranged rearward through the lungs, turned the lungs to jello, almost exited just behind the ribs but remained just below the skin in the area just rearward of the ribs and then lodged in the front edge of the left hind quarter. At the shot and impact he instantly dropped his head and slightly doubled up, tried to take a step and half way through the step just fell flat on his face. He never twitched or moved, he just ceased to live and breathe instantly. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Chalk up one more for the new 7mm Allen Magnum.
Tomorrow we go back to the same area to see if we can get one with the 270 Allen Magnum. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]
This is a picture of the spike where he dropped.
This is the initial impact area on the bottom, left part of his neck. I have trimmed some of the blood shot meat away so it looks a little more dramatic that it initially did.
This shows the spot to the rear of the ribs and the final resting spot in the front of the hind quarter. Both of these areas have been trimmed slightly also.
This is the remains of the 200 grain Wildcat recovered from the front of the hind quarter. There was a small portion of the lead core remaining in the jacket but when it got washed up I lost it. We also dug out 4 or 5 small pieced of lead but I didn't save them. For the damage it did and the length it traveled, I am very satisfied with the performance of the Wildcat.
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