Nebraska early season elk hunt, part 1

[lerch]

Freaking awesome Kirby!!!!!! that thing is a damn monster!!!!! nice write up also, sounds like yall had a heck of a time, congrats to your dad and brother as well. Great shootin done by all!!!! there is a certain exotic deer species that might look kinda small mounted up next to that hoss if you know what i mean!!!!!

congrats again

steve

[Buffalobob]

Those elk are humongous. That was a good test of the new bullet.

Congratulations to everybody.

[Slopeshunter]

Great write up, thanks for sharing. Sounds like you boys got some good exercise out there!

[royinidaho]

First Kirby, great going. It's only a few who have the dedication to start out with an idea (Allen Mags), bring the forces of the earth together (a Canadian farmer) and the willingness to completely follow through to the undisputable conclusion (That hunt, that bull, that rifle, those bullets and of course the camera man;)) Sharing with the camera man was priceless.

Next for the disclaimer, it that's the correct moniker for the high fences, I really don't think it should be necessary to mention such stuff. We have an newly created "high fenced reserve" locally, by Rulon Jones (Denver Bronco Wide Receiver of their super bowl days. There are a couple of thousand acres of mountainous area were no ATV will go. A harder hunt I couldn't image unless one got lucky. Especially if one set a goal and would take nothing less than that quality of animal. As usual one could settle for less and not leave empty handed.

Next are the two good bullet reports. The 358's performance was awesome to say the least. Both shoulders and spine, wow and only a 280 grain bullet.

The 265 out of the AX is particularly spectacular. I can only compare the performance to my own experience. (Having the point of impact where you wished is a whole nother story.)

You shot a hog (~1100#s) of a bull at 600 yds plus, through the ribs, a typical shot of preference. There was a young bull moose shot (about 650-700#s with the same point of impact as yours at a max of 70yds. Yours made a step or two and keeled over. The young moose just walked off another 70 yards and could have gone as far as he wanted. Given one was a 265gr bullet impacting at well under 3000 fps and the other was a 130 gr Sierra BT impacting at at least 3100 fps one should have expected results to be at least on the same sheet of paper. NAH!

Finally regarding the photos. Its a given from the first image that the profile is your Hollywood shot From the second image, with all of those points, is there even a human face in there somewhere.;)

Well done my friend. All the way around.

PS: If Richard reads this "Whar's my 265s;)- git the presses rollin')
and Kirby sharpen your reamer.

[phorwath]

Thanks for sharing your hunting trip with us Kirby. I've been looking forward to your report as well as the Wildcat bullet performance. That elk looks huge! Like an Alaskan moose. Glad to hear the AT RBBT performed well. I'm going to have to get some Wildcats for those looong shots. Can't wait to test them out in some of my rifles.

[Guy M]

"Next for the disclaimer, it that's the correct moniker for the high fences, I really don't think it should be necessary to mention such stuff."

Roy - we disagree. I think Kirby did the right thing by pointing out what kind of hunt this was up front, and I don't think it took anything from his story. Without that, folks would have been all up in arms about it, knowing that you can't normally just go out and find a couple of giant bulls like that in the wild. When I tell people about my big elk hunt a few years ago, I start out by telling 'em where it happened, up in the Wind River Mtns in Wyoming. Or last season, here in the Washington Cascades. Kirby did the same, telling us all where he hunted, on a private ranch in Nebraska. Makes sense to me.

Can't say I'm a big fan of high fence operations, but they seem to have a place in modern hunting, particularly with "branch antler" elk tags getting harder to draw. I thought Kirby's story was well written, the photos were good. It was obvious that the group had a great time and hunted hard. It was good to see the success someone can have if they hunt hard, know how to shoot and use good equipment.

Dang, those are some huge monster elk! Tough to find bulls like that in many seasons of hunting public land. At 51, with a lot of years of hunting, I've only managed to nail one really nice 6x6 bull.

High-fence operations do provide a service. I admit to being a little disturbed by some of them, but after looking over the web site, and learning how huge this particular ranch is, I was impressed. Seems like vacation time is hard to come by, and this kind of hunt/vacation could be a lot of fun.

I'd like to hear more about that operation that Rulon Jones too. Kirby, thanks again for posting the story & photos. Good shooting!

Regards, Guy

[Fiftydriver]

MT4XFore,

Hope to have your reason for coming up to the shop ready by the end of the week. Digging out from e-mails pretty well and hope to get out and range test some rifles here by the end of the week, will be in touch soon.

I will be honest, the pics really do not do this bull justice.

Kirby Allen(50)