2010 Oregon Coast Elk~Almost

[Tumbleweed]

Didn't get an opportunity at the big 330 Roosevelt bull I had seen last year in this area, but on the last evening of the elk hunt at 4:15pm a very nice 5 point that I had seen the day before the hunt began to emerge in a heavy, thick reprod area across the canyon. As soon as I saw where he was, I knew that it was going to be tuff to kill him down in that hole. I ranged it, 915 yards, I got my rifle set up and gave a slight elevation adjustment to my Shepherd scope, no wind, conditions were great other than low light. I watched him through the scope for at least a half hour as he moved behind brush and limbs, frequently wiping the increasing moisture off my back lense. Finally 2/3 of his body emerged in the failing light, but as I looked through the spotting scope, he still had a large limb covering his vital area and more brush farther back covering his body, can I snake a 210VLD in between the brush? I had slight pressure on the trigger but knew that I had to have a better shot. Based on where I would have to go in the dark to find him, he needed to be dead for sure, tracking a wounded or missed elk in that brush would have been a nightmare scenario. I waited on the shot as he only needed to move 30 feet or so to the right in order for me to have a full, unobstructed view of his body. He moved to the opening but down low, all I could see was the back of his guts and hind quarter, obviously no shot. He fed back into the reprod as the light faded away and I packed up my equipment for the year, bummer, so close. I know I made a wise decision not to shoot, but I can't help but wonder if I could have snaked the bullet in behind that limb and taken a very nice animal.

[kcebcj]

You did the right thing man! Crippled elk at dark is a bad deal. At a couple hundred yards with a good shot you bet but at 900 no way. Good for you…get him next year.

[buzz4me2]

Nice decision.

I head up to Coquille tomorrow for a Roosevelt hunt in the Powers unit. I hope to get into a few and put a decent one on the ground.

[Double L Ranch]

Hi Tumbleweed,

Sounds like a great hunt, right up to the point where you were actually going to make a concious decision to shoot at over 900 yards. That is just killing, not hunting. Ethics have to play into hunting. If you want to shoot that far, then shoot at metal targets. They don't run away wounded, especially in fading light, never to be found again. Better off for a hunter to sharpen their skills to get closer to game for a hunt rather than buying a gun to replace the lack of skills. Certainly we all have opinions but this is the stuff the antis love to grab hold of.

[kiwi3006]

Double L Ranch, I see this is your first post, You need to go back and look at what this forum is called, LONG range hunting. A 900 yd shot is not that special on this site. I am sure that Tumbleweed has practiced enough at that range to make sure of the shots. You also need to read the rules of this site

"2) We do not discuss ethics. To do so will result in the post or posts being edited or deleted. "

We are here to offer advice or guidance about how to make the shot not whether it should be made.

Stu.

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Tumbleweed,
Congrats for the decision. You can now be sure it was the right one, you are not regreting a wounded animal. That was a very mature call on not shooting. Thanks for shring.
Double L Ranch
+1 with kiwi3006

"2) We do not discuss ethics. To do so will result in the post or posts being edited or deleted. "

This website is about long range hunting, so chime in and enjoy and support.

[mntnflyr4fun]

I hunt the CoosBay area, and know exactly what you are up against. We routinely figure that average shooting will be in the 500-600 yard range, and I carry two guns specifically to deal with these long cross canyon shots. My .338 Win Mag with 250 gr. Speer Grand Slams for up to 500 yards, and a 300 Win Mag with 200gr. Accubonds sighted in for 600 yds. and better. I am seriously considering a new bull barrel 338 RUM for a "truck" gun to get out there as the hunting tapers on the barrels I am using don't really provide the kind of accuracy I would like for these long range shots.

I recently invested in a Leica CRF 1600 with an inclinometer to show the up/down angular information needed for these long shots. Not that I plan to shoot anything at 1600 yds, but my experience with rangefinders has been that you should overbuy on range as there is lots of stuff that causes them to have limited ranging capabilites and so you better have more than you need.

Sounds to me like you definitely made the right decision with night falling and a deep hole to try and find a wounded bull in. Dangerous to say the least. I passed on a bull at 863yds this season myself as he had positioned himself in a spot that would have been just two dangerous for the retrieval, especially if he didn't just drop where he stood as he was already 1200 yds under the closest road from above and he couldn't be reached from the side we could shoot from. Sometimes just seeing these buggers makes the hunt successful