Recovered a Bull Caribou by Blood Trail

[Pdvdh]

I was Caribou hunting in interior Alaska two weekends ago and was fortunate enough to shoot a decent bull, and fortunate that he left a good blood trail to enable recovery. The animal was about 350 yds away and was shot with one of 'elkaholic's 190 grain SXR bullets from a .300 Win Mag. Muzzle velocity is about 3075 fps. Bullet entered and exited the ribcage on a mostly broadside shot.

Here's a photo of the blood trail I followed to track down this bull:

Massive blood loss out both sides of the rib cage.

And a couple photos of the bull caribou:

This bull traveled about 40 yards after bullet impact, and as you can imagine, the trailing/tracking job was not too difficult. Very nice to have caribou meat in the freezer heading into a long Alaskan winter.

 

[jimbires]

congrats on a nice bull . Jim

 

[trueblue]

A blind man could follow that blood trail.
Looks like the bullet performed well.
Congrats.

 

[Eaglet]

phorwath,

you call that a trail? Man, that's a highway!

Somewhat dark, isn't he?

Congratulations!

 

[elkaholic]

Congratulations Paul! That is nice bull and some beautiful country.
I'm currently working on a bullet that will gut and quarter the animal, and next year, maybe a "BURGER" bullet........Rich

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Congrats, nice buck, I like his color. Cool pictures too.

 

[gillettehunter]

Nice Job. Thats a blood trail we would all like to have. Surprised he went as far as he did. Good job. Thanks for the pics. Bruce

 

[bigngreen]

Looks like he kinda sprung a leak for some reason gun)You Alaska guys make me a little jealous but only a little

 

[T3-OleMan]

Paul glad you will make it one more winter. Good shooting. Best prime rib I ever ate came from one of them bad boys down in Cadalack, Quebec on a bear hunt with a French lumberjack that NO-Speaka-da-English.
Is that on the COPPER River? lightbulbYea, he should have used Mobile 1.

 

[SHRTSHTR]

Nice job Paul!

Rich's bullets are a well kept secret. I think he has it figured out. I need to try some in my 30-38 Lapua Improved.

That bull has the same coloration as a Talkeetna Mountain "Bou" I shot a few years back.

Oh yea, nice bull too! Were you sheep hunting as well?

 

[FEENIX]

Congrats on a job well done ... and thanks for sharing!.

Ed

 

[Pdvdh]

Nice job Paul!

Rich's bullets are a well kept secret. I think he has it figured out. I need to try some in my 30-38 Lapua Improved.

That bull has the same coloration as a Talkeetna Mountain "Bou" I shot a few years back.

Oh yea, nice bull too! Were you sheep hunting as well?

Hi Ray, and thanks guys. A profuse loss of blood in my experience, and I thought the photo exposed that fact well and that others might also be impressed. I don't think I've ever seen blood flowing out both sides like this. The animal was running 3/4 speed while this blood loss occurred. Imagine what it might have looked like had he just been walking after bullet impact!

Rich's bullets shoot very well (accurate) out of my .300 Win Mag. Better than any other bullet I've tried to date. This particular model is designed to open up at much lower impact velocity than standard factory fodder making them ideal for very long range shots. It was my desire, and I had intended to, shoot this bull at 700 yds, but once he began moving he came in my direction and just kept coming at a caribou's lope. Which is pretty darn quick. I couldn't readjust the vertical dope as quickly as he was traveling my way. At about 400 yds he started moving broadside with gave me a chance to get squared away.

Indeed I was searching for a Dall ram leading into the opener of sheep/caribou season, but was unable to find a legal full-curl ram. So we then changed gears and relocated some distance to concentrate on caribou.

As to coloration, this one is a little darker than he might have looked in another couple of weeks. Also, it was getting on towards evening. The photo of the blood trail was actually taken by with camera 'flash'. Photo adjusting computer software lightened up the photo to make the best of the actual lighting conditions, and I think that makes the bull appear just a tad darker than he might have if you'd been standing next to him. The antlers in full dark velvet may also play a role. In a couple more weeks the antlers would be velvet free.

Paul