Took my two grown offspring to Oregon for a guided public land Elk hunt in the Desolation Unit the last week of October. The outfitter was an energetic young man named Walker Powell. His outfit is called No Tell 'Em Creek Outfitters. The hunt was excellent and he had us in the elk on a daily basis. Yes, there were a lot of hunters. Yes, that unit has some extremely challenging ground but Walker knows the country inside and out. I never saw a shooter bull and my youngest son had a bull shot out from under him. So it goes with public land hunting.
My eldest got it done on the second evening inside the wilderness area boundary. Around 10:30 AM they spotted the bull in his bed from around two thousand yards away across the canyon and below them around a thousand feet in elevation. They moved down the opposing ridge to the point where they believed they were directly across the canyon from the bedded bull but could not locate him from that position. After glassing for hours, at 4:15 PM, the bull stood up from his bed exactly where he had been located originally. Two minutes, one shot and 469 yards later, he had his first bull elk. As he approached the downed bull, he got nice little bonus in the form of an old and worn 7 point elk shed that was less than 10 feet away from the dead bull. After breaking down the bull, hiking out in the dark miles from where we thought he would come out, crossing the John Day River in the dark, and spending the night out on the mountainside, we finally recovered him (and his bull) the next morning. Quite the adventure.
The rifle used was a Christensen Ridgeline in 6.5 PRC topped by a Leupold VX5HD CDS 3-15x44. Ammo was Horandy Precision Hunter 143 ELDX.
My eldest got it done on the second evening inside the wilderness area boundary. Around 10:30 AM they spotted the bull in his bed from around two thousand yards away across the canyon and below them around a thousand feet in elevation. They moved down the opposing ridge to the point where they believed they were directly across the canyon from the bedded bull but could not locate him from that position. After glassing for hours, at 4:15 PM, the bull stood up from his bed exactly where he had been located originally. Two minutes, one shot and 469 yards later, he had his first bull elk. As he approached the downed bull, he got nice little bonus in the form of an old and worn 7 point elk shed that was less than 10 feet away from the dead bull. After breaking down the bull, hiking out in the dark miles from where we thought he would come out, crossing the John Day River in the dark, and spending the night out on the mountainside, we finally recovered him (and his bull) the next morning. Quite the adventure.
The rifle used was a Christensen Ridgeline in 6.5 PRC topped by a Leupold VX5HD CDS 3-15x44. Ammo was Horandy Precision Hunter 143 ELDX.
