I just wanted to share opening day of 2011 elk season with my long range friends!
On 10/10/11 my dad, good friend Ken and I were set up before daylight with all of the conditions plugged into exbal and ready to go. We sat there anxiously awaiting daylight, and when it finally came it only brought disappointment, as all we could see is fog! Here we were with defensive edge 338's, tons of longrange practice, all the right equipment and we couldn't see further than 40 yards! Ken and I each shot bulls last year at longrange, and dad hunted archery, so it was Dads turn this year to shoot first. The fog finally lifted at about 830 am for about 30 literal seconds, and only showed us a very small patch near the bottom of the openings we were watching. In that 30 seconds, I jokingly threw up the binoculars and said look we can see our hill! To my surprise, there was an elk in it! Unbelievable coincidence of time and place for that to happen. I said theres an elk! Dad and ken both looked at the only spot we could see and sure enough, another one moved through. We didn't get a good look so we couldn't tell if they were bulls or not because they were moving through pretty fast, and then the fog was back. The fog stayed until around 10:30 and then all of the sudden it was gone. We immediately scanned the close hillside and didn't locate any elk. We then began searching the adjacent hillside that is further in distance. After a few minutes, Ken said I think I just saw and elk butt, but cannot locate it now. I set up the spotting scope and started picking through trees. After about 10 minutes, I spotted a bedded elk. I studied it for long enough for it to move its head where I could it was a cow. Before long, we were able to see that there were several elk bedded and one by one, we tried to paint horns. Finally, as I watched one I saw an antler tip and said we have a bull! I checked all the conditions in exbal to make sure they were all still good and had dad dial the scope up 22.25 minutes for the 950 yard shot. My dad has been practicing a lot with me out to 1000 yards but to date hadn't shot an animal at distance. As he settled in on him, I asked how he felt about it. He said really good, how's the wind? This was one of those rare circumstances where there was no wind. We had a small cloud of fog in the canyon and it was dead still! He adjusted the parallax as I relayed that to him that the wind was absolutely dead and told him to stay on the white patch through the tree until it got up. At this point, we couldn't see any of his body, just a patch of white through the trees. Every few minutes I announced to dad that conditions were the same and to stay on that spot. Just after I said that the last time, dad said he just got up, he is in the open and is broad side. Dad sent the 300 grain SMK and the bull just dumped and died right there! This was dads first long range shot at an animal and he drilled the bull at 950 yards!! This was possibly the best opening day of hunting I have had and I am very thankful I was able to be there with dad when this happened. Sorry so long, I just wanted to share it you guys. Good luck this season! By the way, it was a raghorn 4x4, and unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures! It was several hours after dark before we got back to the truck and all the cameras were in another vehicle several miles away. This will be the last time I don't keep a small camera with me at all times when retrieving game.
Also, thank you Shawn and Bob for building great rifles and sharing your knowledge.
On 10/10/11 my dad, good friend Ken and I were set up before daylight with all of the conditions plugged into exbal and ready to go. We sat there anxiously awaiting daylight, and when it finally came it only brought disappointment, as all we could see is fog! Here we were with defensive edge 338's, tons of longrange practice, all the right equipment and we couldn't see further than 40 yards! Ken and I each shot bulls last year at longrange, and dad hunted archery, so it was Dads turn this year to shoot first. The fog finally lifted at about 830 am for about 30 literal seconds, and only showed us a very small patch near the bottom of the openings we were watching. In that 30 seconds, I jokingly threw up the binoculars and said look we can see our hill! To my surprise, there was an elk in it! Unbelievable coincidence of time and place for that to happen. I said theres an elk! Dad and ken both looked at the only spot we could see and sure enough, another one moved through. We didn't get a good look so we couldn't tell if they were bulls or not because they were moving through pretty fast, and then the fog was back. The fog stayed until around 10:30 and then all of the sudden it was gone. We immediately scanned the close hillside and didn't locate any elk. We then began searching the adjacent hillside that is further in distance. After a few minutes, Ken said I think I just saw and elk butt, but cannot locate it now. I set up the spotting scope and started picking through trees. After about 10 minutes, I spotted a bedded elk. I studied it for long enough for it to move its head where I could it was a cow. Before long, we were able to see that there were several elk bedded and one by one, we tried to paint horns. Finally, as I watched one I saw an antler tip and said we have a bull! I checked all the conditions in exbal to make sure they were all still good and had dad dial the scope up 22.25 minutes for the 950 yard shot. My dad has been practicing a lot with me out to 1000 yards but to date hadn't shot an animal at distance. As he settled in on him, I asked how he felt about it. He said really good, how's the wind? This was one of those rare circumstances where there was no wind. We had a small cloud of fog in the canyon and it was dead still! He adjusted the parallax as I relayed that to him that the wind was absolutely dead and told him to stay on the white patch through the tree until it got up. At this point, we couldn't see any of his body, just a patch of white through the trees. Every few minutes I announced to dad that conditions were the same and to stay on that spot. Just after I said that the last time, dad said he just got up, he is in the open and is broad side. Dad sent the 300 grain SMK and the bull just dumped and died right there! This was dads first long range shot at an animal and he drilled the bull at 950 yards!! This was possibly the best opening day of hunting I have had and I am very thankful I was able to be there with dad when this happened. Sorry so long, I just wanted to share it you guys. Good luck this season! By the way, it was a raghorn 4x4, and unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures! It was several hours after dark before we got back to the truck and all the cameras were in another vehicle several miles away. This will be the last time I don't keep a small camera with me at all times when retrieving game.
Also, thank you Shawn and Bob for building great rifles and sharing your knowledge.
