Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Just finishing up our 2007 early season elk hunt on the Rocking Heart Elk Ranch near Chadron, Nebraska. Now before I start with the hunting story, let me say from the start that this hunt was on a high fence elk hunting ranch. It is not a shoot an elk in a pasture type hunt but it is a high fences area that is very large. Walking across it would not be something I would want to do. Many are opposed to this but in my opinion, these hunts can be some of the very best opportunities to be able to harvest a fine animal as well as test new equipment such as bullets and rifles in an situation that is somewhat more controled then a public ground hunt. Also, the ability to get field results in a hurry really relys on this type of hunting when bring out new products at least when you want to test them on large game which is what I wanted to do with the 338 Allen Xpress and also with the new 265 gr AT RBBT Wildcat 338 bullet.
So just to make sure the point is clear, I am in no way trying to say the elk taken in this story are wild free roaming elk. What I will say however is that it was vastly harder then I ever expected it to be.....
Our adventure started off On Thursday morning as we left home early and headed south for the 11 1/2 hour drive to Chadron, Nebraska and then to the Rocking Heart ranch owned by Ron and Judy Scherbarth. We had hunted on their ranch earlier in the spring to get an idea what it would be like and really had alot of fun with some challanging hunts so that is why we booked the elk hunt.
We arrived around 5:30 and got the motel room set up and taken care of and then drove out to drop off the gear at Rons house on the ranch. Got out there around 7:00 and he met us at the door and wanted to know if we wanted to go do some scouting for an hour or so before the light faded. We were all over that!!!
We drove out in his mule and parked on the ridge of a hill in one of his big meadows . There were at least 30 bulls ranging from two year old bulls up to very mature bulls in the 9 year old range.We glass over the herds for the biggest bulls to try to find the ones he had told us about from his eariler scouting trips.
We spotted three of his biggest bulls. Kept track of them by their ear tag numbers(this proved to be very helpfull later on!!!) The first bull we spotted that looked good was "9L" All of the bulls with "L" were 7 year old bulls, Ear tags with "K" were 8 year olds and there was one "J" bull which was 9 years old.
"9L" was a VERY big typcial 6x6 other then two kicker points on his right G-5 which were both around 5 to 8"; long each. Ron said this bull was a 385 to 390 class bull.
We then spotted the big non typical he had talked to me about. His left side was a perfectly typical 6 point with good tine length and very long main beams. His right side however was all screwed up. He had a typical 5 point frame but then had two huge points on his bottom end. One coming off the base under the main beam and the other coming out of the junction of the main beam and his second point. They were both very long, Ron estimated they were in the 24 to 25" length each!!! He also had a non typical point coming off the side of the main beam at his royal point as well which also forked at the top of the point. This point looked to be a foot long or so. He was not overly wide, around 35" inside Ron figured and said he thought he would score 415 to 420". He was "81K" and the one I decided I wanted.
The other bull was the oldest. Just called him "Red" because he was the only bull on the property that had a red tag meaning he was 9 years old. The year before, his sheds scored 413 as a typical 7x8. This year he lost alot of length but was still very long in the main beam and very heavy and Ron figured he would be around 385".
There was also another bull, "12K" that was a big typical 6x6 that Ron figured was in the 375 to 380 class.
It was very neat to see that many big bulls but to be honest, I was hoping for at least two 400 class bulls and it looked like there was only one on the property. We watched them till dark and then headed back to the house and then back to the motel.
The next morning we made it out to the ranch from the motel at 6:00. There was a heavy fog and so we ate breakfast quick and were headed out to hunt by 6:30. In the fog we drove out to the big meadow. We stopped and got out and Korey grabbed his rifle and we snuck up to the hill where the feeders were on the other side. When we got there there were two elk. One was a 2x3 and the other a very long spike!!!! Not another bull to be found.
The fog was still patchy so we drove over to the other side of the ranch to check out some heavy timbered draws where Ron said the bigger bulls sometimes like to hang.
When we got there we found another big bull. This one was called "Crooked Neck" because he held his head off at a noticable angle. This bull was not in the herd the night before and he was a big bull, just younger with a bit less mass and length then the others still he was as big as any we had seen. Only problem was that he had not even started to rub his rack yet and he was in full velvet. We would have scored around the 370 range Ron figured.
Korey looked him over hards as well as "12K" who had joined up with him but decided that the big "9L" bull was a better bull, I agreed with him so we set out to find him. We drove down into a deep draw, Dad and Ron were in the front of the mule, Korey and me in back Safari style watching for bulls in the timber. As we climbed up over a steep ridge I looked over to my right and saw several patches of tan hide flashing through the timber. Tapped ron on the shoulder and we stopped and I glassed over at the elk just in time to catch a glimpse of the back end of a rack that we had not seen before. He was huge from what I could see.
I could only see from his royals back on the left side but he was a pig. He had several non typical points coming out of his main beam behind his royal making a huge web with the last three points all forking at their tips. HE WAS A BIG BULL!!! I told Korey that I would never pull the trigger on 9L until we made sure what that bull had all around.
We stalked that herd of bulls for 3 hours!!! Finally catching them in a deep draw with half of them bedded down. Getting a look at this new bull it was a good thing Korey waited for him. He was basically a very big 6x6 typical with alot of non typical points on the back end of the left side. His fronts were very long and hooked out and up very aggressively. His thirds were also world class and he had great top ends with extreme mass and webbing on the mainbeam and tops.
I leaned over to Korey and whispered, "There is your 400 bull!!!" He wasn't sure of that so I told him if he did not shoot him, I WOULD!!!!! That made up his mind that I was pretty convinced he was a big bull.
Problem was where he was. If we shot him there, if he fell to the shot he would be a day and a half job to get out of there piece by piece. If he happened to run down the draw, it would be more then that and we would more then likely have to bone him out and pack him out on our backs in some severely steep country with alot of dead fall.
We talked it over and decided Korey, Dad and I would work our way around the herd until we were down wind and on the back side of the draw and then Ron would slowly make his way down into the bottom hopefully just fast enough to make the bulls work their way up and out of the deep draw where we could get a shot and also get to the bull a bit easier after he went down. Ron was pretty impressed with this as he said he had never had hunters on the place that were actually willing to work to get a good shot at a bull. Hell, thats the best part of it, well, a good part of it anyway.
Took us an hour to work around and get to the spot we wanted and then set down. Dad was running the video, I was spotter trying to make sure to find the right bull as there were two other bulls that looked similiar to the big one with the non typical points on their left side, I am sure they were sons of this bull. Only problem is that they were 3 year old bulls and scored around 290-325 is all!!! Wanted to make sure we did not shoot one of them.
After another 30 minutes or so, finally, a big bull came up out of the hole. It was the oldest bull on the place, figures, he had played that game before, only not expecting anyone to be waiting on the top of the ridge. He was first up and then several other 5 year old bulls and then one of the younger bulls similiar to Koreys, I did not think it was him and told Korey to hold off until I made sure.
Part 2 of the story is on the next post because of size..... Read on....
So just to make sure the point is clear, I am in no way trying to say the elk taken in this story are wild free roaming elk. What I will say however is that it was vastly harder then I ever expected it to be.....
Our adventure started off On Thursday morning as we left home early and headed south for the 11 1/2 hour drive to Chadron, Nebraska and then to the Rocking Heart ranch owned by Ron and Judy Scherbarth. We had hunted on their ranch earlier in the spring to get an idea what it would be like and really had alot of fun with some challanging hunts so that is why we booked the elk hunt.
We arrived around 5:30 and got the motel room set up and taken care of and then drove out to drop off the gear at Rons house on the ranch. Got out there around 7:00 and he met us at the door and wanted to know if we wanted to go do some scouting for an hour or so before the light faded. We were all over that!!!
We drove out in his mule and parked on the ridge of a hill in one of his big meadows . There were at least 30 bulls ranging from two year old bulls up to very mature bulls in the 9 year old range.We glass over the herds for the biggest bulls to try to find the ones he had told us about from his eariler scouting trips.
We spotted three of his biggest bulls. Kept track of them by their ear tag numbers(this proved to be very helpfull later on!!!) The first bull we spotted that looked good was "9L" All of the bulls with "L" were 7 year old bulls, Ear tags with "K" were 8 year olds and there was one "J" bull which was 9 years old.
"9L" was a VERY big typcial 6x6 other then two kicker points on his right G-5 which were both around 5 to 8"; long each. Ron said this bull was a 385 to 390 class bull.
We then spotted the big non typical he had talked to me about. His left side was a perfectly typical 6 point with good tine length and very long main beams. His right side however was all screwed up. He had a typical 5 point frame but then had two huge points on his bottom end. One coming off the base under the main beam and the other coming out of the junction of the main beam and his second point. They were both very long, Ron estimated they were in the 24 to 25" length each!!! He also had a non typical point coming off the side of the main beam at his royal point as well which also forked at the top of the point. This point looked to be a foot long or so. He was not overly wide, around 35" inside Ron figured and said he thought he would score 415 to 420". He was "81K" and the one I decided I wanted.
The other bull was the oldest. Just called him "Red" because he was the only bull on the property that had a red tag meaning he was 9 years old. The year before, his sheds scored 413 as a typical 7x8. This year he lost alot of length but was still very long in the main beam and very heavy and Ron figured he would be around 385".
There was also another bull, "12K" that was a big typical 6x6 that Ron figured was in the 375 to 380 class.
It was very neat to see that many big bulls but to be honest, I was hoping for at least two 400 class bulls and it looked like there was only one on the property. We watched them till dark and then headed back to the house and then back to the motel.
The next morning we made it out to the ranch from the motel at 6:00. There was a heavy fog and so we ate breakfast quick and were headed out to hunt by 6:30. In the fog we drove out to the big meadow. We stopped and got out and Korey grabbed his rifle and we snuck up to the hill where the feeders were on the other side. When we got there there were two elk. One was a 2x3 and the other a very long spike!!!! Not another bull to be found.
The fog was still patchy so we drove over to the other side of the ranch to check out some heavy timbered draws where Ron said the bigger bulls sometimes like to hang.
When we got there we found another big bull. This one was called "Crooked Neck" because he held his head off at a noticable angle. This bull was not in the herd the night before and he was a big bull, just younger with a bit less mass and length then the others still he was as big as any we had seen. Only problem was that he had not even started to rub his rack yet and he was in full velvet. We would have scored around the 370 range Ron figured.
Korey looked him over hards as well as "12K" who had joined up with him but decided that the big "9L" bull was a better bull, I agreed with him so we set out to find him. We drove down into a deep draw, Dad and Ron were in the front of the mule, Korey and me in back Safari style watching for bulls in the timber. As we climbed up over a steep ridge I looked over to my right and saw several patches of tan hide flashing through the timber. Tapped ron on the shoulder and we stopped and I glassed over at the elk just in time to catch a glimpse of the back end of a rack that we had not seen before. He was huge from what I could see.
I could only see from his royals back on the left side but he was a pig. He had several non typical points coming out of his main beam behind his royal making a huge web with the last three points all forking at their tips. HE WAS A BIG BULL!!! I told Korey that I would never pull the trigger on 9L until we made sure what that bull had all around.
We stalked that herd of bulls for 3 hours!!! Finally catching them in a deep draw with half of them bedded down. Getting a look at this new bull it was a good thing Korey waited for him. He was basically a very big 6x6 typical with alot of non typical points on the back end of the left side. His fronts were very long and hooked out and up very aggressively. His thirds were also world class and he had great top ends with extreme mass and webbing on the mainbeam and tops.
I leaned over to Korey and whispered, "There is your 400 bull!!!" He wasn't sure of that so I told him if he did not shoot him, I WOULD!!!!! That made up his mind that I was pretty convinced he was a big bull.
Problem was where he was. If we shot him there, if he fell to the shot he would be a day and a half job to get out of there piece by piece. If he happened to run down the draw, it would be more then that and we would more then likely have to bone him out and pack him out on our backs in some severely steep country with alot of dead fall.
We talked it over and decided Korey, Dad and I would work our way around the herd until we were down wind and on the back side of the draw and then Ron would slowly make his way down into the bottom hopefully just fast enough to make the bulls work their way up and out of the deep draw where we could get a shot and also get to the bull a bit easier after he went down. Ron was pretty impressed with this as he said he had never had hunters on the place that were actually willing to work to get a good shot at a bull. Hell, thats the best part of it, well, a good part of it anyway.
Took us an hour to work around and get to the spot we wanted and then set down. Dad was running the video, I was spotter trying to make sure to find the right bull as there were two other bulls that looked similiar to the big one with the non typical points on their left side, I am sure they were sons of this bull. Only problem is that they were 3 year old bulls and scored around 290-325 is all!!! Wanted to make sure we did not shoot one of them.
After another 30 minutes or so, finally, a big bull came up out of the hole. It was the oldest bull on the place, figures, he had played that game before, only not expecting anyone to be waiting on the top of the ridge. He was first up and then several other 5 year old bulls and then one of the younger bulls similiar to Koreys, I did not think it was him and told Korey to hold off until I made sure.
Part 2 of the story is on the next post because of size..... Read on....