1410 yard cow elk

Congratulations Keven

Your description of hunting with your Dad and 7RMHB made me laugh. That was the way it was this Fall with my two kids. The girl is a great spotter with infinite patience while the boy just wants to get moving and chase something down.

Kirby builds really great hunting rifles. The ability of his smithed rifles to place bullet after bullet in the same spot under field conditions at extreme ranges always amazes me. It amazes me even more when it is me shooting.

Somehow that Luepold scope just keeps on killing animals. Always amazes me that people cannot take a lesson from success. There are scope that work and there are scopes that don't. Although, it would seem like it is time for you to get a new base with more cant in it.

Bullet performance – I have a few comments

1. As you demonstrate, it takes a trivial amount of time to take a few pictures of entrance and exit wounds to show what a bullet did so people can see for themselves. In your case you were up in deep snow way up a mountian and still got the pictures, yet we have seen other people who can't get a picture in an alfalfa field and write pages of excuses why they have no pictures.
2. A 300 grain bullet at 1410 yards breaks two shoulders of a cow elk and is retained under the hide. Momentum is zero at that point. The bullet appears to have at least 50% retained weight. This is very similar performance to other witnessed and verified shots at long range.

There was an article recently about elk wintertime coping mechanisms. The article stated that they are able to lower their metabolism such that they do not burn as much energy and give off as much heat. Thus they can get by on less food under colder temperatures. This would imply that their respiratory system is slowed down and that their circulatory system is slowed down. With such a slow system, it will take longer for an animal to either bleed to death of die of suffocation. With all of the hair it is possible to close off the wound so the lungs do not collapse and the animals still has partial lung capacity (this happened to me two years ago with an antelope). This allows the animal to keep up a slow supply of oxygen to the brain and muscles.

I had forgotten what a misery the Utah scrub oak could be. Those pictures bring back some memories of some gruesome hikes through that stuff.

Finally, there are some really great members on this forum who actually know a lot about long range hunting and are here to help people. Hopefully, I will draw out for this Fall and get to visit Utah for a while, but with less snow!

Congratulationson a really great series of shooting and some really wonderful pictures.
 
Great story, write up, pics and real world data. Not to mention great shot!! I have had great performance with the 300 SMK as well.

Thanks for posting the story.

Jeff

.
 
Thanks for posting your experiance! I appreciate that you always give such great detail. You also appear to be younger than I'd have guessed:D.
 
Goodgrouper
Well if I am not mistaken, that is the longest shot at a elk and harvested. Kirby owes you a t-shirt and Sierra owes you a case of match kings. Pictures are worth a 1000 words. Phone books or elk are close to the same. Almost apple to apples, but one is esaier to clean and haul out. I keep telling you gotta love those Broom tails (horses). I won't hunt without them. One thing you did say RHB had his camera, hmmmmm, there is a video section on here! Grit horse a little tired, lead rope was tight or maybe tired of scrub oak. Anyway I enjoyed it and I have emailed the story thoughout the western states. Thanks for sharing your success and encourage us folk who are shooter challenged. IP
 
GG,

When you write up a hunt, your descriptions are so vivid and full of detail that it makes one almost feel like they are with you. And your photos are so great that it really makes me hesitant to even post any when I attempt to do a write up. It's real treat to relive them with you. Thanks a lot. Great shots, great story, and superb pics. RHB's camera is something special.

Super reporting on "in-field" terminal performance of your chosen projectile. Thanks again.......

Jim
 
Great write up and pics GG, I want to thank you and your dad for including me on this hunt !! It was a hunt we'll be talking about for a long time to come !!

There were a couple of things about the shots I would like to add. After the initial shot and miss, the corrections put the next shot into the vitals ,center of rib cage, but back about 5" from the shoulder. I told GG to give me one click right and one up at that point, and the next three shots were no more than six inches apart !!!! Great shooting from a less than ideal shooting position !! Says a lot about ol' GGs skill level, and the Thunder is no slouch in the accuracy department either !!!

As far as being a great spotter , Not True, Groupers being kind because I froze my but off for six hours in the dark !!! LOL !! There was something special about the spotting that day, but it wasn't me. The trace that evening was something to behold !! The sun was close to the horizon and about 75 to 80* angle to the shot and the trace was as crisp as I've ever seen. It looked like a huge corrugated pipe arcing down on the Elk with one difference, I could see the Bullet out in front of the trace !!! It looked like a 2 foot long bright gold arrow with the trace tapering back from it !! I could watch it go right into the Elk and see the hair lift !! Then the trace would follow it right in. I'll probably never see the bullet do that again in my life !!!

I also wanted to mention that GGs Dad has an unbelievable motor, ( he can run up and down those Mountains all day long. Literally ) it's always fun to have him along !! Especially on these tough hunts LOL!!

That was One Tough Cow for sure !!! Can't believe she was standing after any one of those shots??? ----RHB
 
GG,

When you write up a hunt, your descriptions are so vivid and full of detail that it makes one almost feel like they are with you. And your photos are so great that it really makes me hesitant to even post any when I attempt to do a write up. It's real treat to relive them with you. Thanks a lot. Great shots, great story, and superb pics. RHB's camera is something special.

Super reporting on "in-field" terminal performance of your chosen projectile. Thanks again.......

Jim

Come on, MT4XFore, don't do that to GG; he's already having a hard time keeping himself humble, I know I would, and then you talk to him like that!

You just ain't helping the man. I do have to admit you have pretty much told the truth though. :rolleyes:

GG, your writing and shooting is alright. Your picture taking abilities need a bit of improvement and you need to talk to your dad to help you get in better shape... I hope we're still friends!!! :D :cool:

Again, you do have one heck of a spotter!
 
Very nice my friend!!!

You ever sit down and figure how many miles worth of big game kills you have on that rifle?? LOL

Should be about time for a new barrel here pretty soon!!! Just goes to show how well those bigger 338s do for barrel life.

Good to hear the 300 gr SMKs work. After the constant pounding we have been taking on how they are such old fashioned, worthless bullets, I was beginning to consider just giving up on the 338 caliber all together!!:D Not really!!!

Anyway, great story, and shot. Being a flat lander, I much prefer reading and looking at such pictures then killing myself to live that. I will stay in the low land where I can breath normally!!!!


Thanks Kirby.
Old Green sure has put on some miles. I've got another barrel coming but this one just keeps going and going so who knows when it will finally bite the dust!

I like to look at pictures of high mountains too. I've always wanted to try my luck at Everest as it fascinates me but I don't have the fat on my fingers and toes that a guy needs to survive it. I'd loose every finger and toe and it wouldn't be worth it. But I still like to read about the guys who do make it to the top every year. Makes me feel like my adventures are pretty small.
 
Quite an accomplishment, GG, awesome shooting. Let me tell you, if you'll ever break that record do it while there's no snow on the ground and you CAN STILL GET A HOLD OF THAT GREAT SPOTTER YOU HAVE! :) :D :cool:

You probably done it before, could you give us the specs again on the spotting instrument used.

Much appreciated Eaglet.

The spotter I use is a Swarovski 20-60x80mm STS on a Bogen 3203 green tripod with Bogen pistol grip adjustment head. It's kinda heavy, but worth the effort to take it with you.
 
Congratulations Keven

Your description of hunting with your Dad and 7RMHB made me laugh. That was the way it was this Fall with my two kids. The girl is a great spotter with infinite patience while the boy just wants to get moving and chase something down.

Kirby builds really great hunting rifles. The ability of his smithed rifles to place bullet after bullet in the same spot under field conditions at extreme ranges always amazes me. It amazes me even more when it is me shooting.

Somehow that Luepold scope just keeps on killing animals. Always amazes me that people cannot take a lesson from success. There are scope that work and there are scopes that don't. Although, it would seem like it is time for you to get a new base with more cant in it.

Bullet performance – I have a few comments

1. As you demonstrate, it takes a trivial amount of time to take a few pictures of entrance and exit wounds to show what a bullet did so people can see for themselves. In your case you were up in deep snow way up a mountian and still got the pictures, yet we have seen other people who can't get a picture in an alfalfa field and write pages of excuses why they have no pictures.
2. A 300 grain bullet at 1410 yards breaks two shoulders of a cow elk and is retained under the hide. Momentum is zero at that point. The bullet appears to have at least 50% retained weight. This is very similar performance to other witnessed and verified shots at long range.

There was an article recently about elk wintertime coping mechanisms. The article stated that they are able to lower their metabolism such that they do not burn as much energy and give off as much heat. Thus they can get by on less food under colder temperatures. This would imply that their respiratory system is slowed down and that their circulatory system is slowed down. With such a slow system, it will take longer for an animal to either bleed to death of die of suffocation. With all of the hair it is possible to close off the wound so the lungs do not collapse and the animals still has partial lung capacity (this happened to me two years ago with an antelope). This allows the animal to keep up a slow supply of oxygen to the brain and muscles.

I had forgotten what a misery the Utah scrub oak could be. Those pictures bring back some memories of some gruesome hikes through that stuff.

Finally, there are some really great members on this forum who actually know a lot about long range hunting and are here to help people. Hopefully, I will draw out for this Fall and get to visit Utah for a while, but with less snow!

Congratulationson a really great series of shooting and some really wonderful pictures.



BuffaloBob,

thanks for your post. You bring up some very good points and observations.

Perhaps the elk was in "winter mode" and that's why she just kept eating lead. Not even that big bull we killed a few years ago at 1302 yards was as tough to bring down as this cow and he was 1/3 again the size.

10-4 on the great smithing skills of Kirby Allen and the tough as nails design of my Leupold LR scope. And a big 10-4 on the bullet things we've talked about!
 
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