My 14 year old son had a youth encouragement cow elk tag in 16D over the Thanksgiving weekend. A buddy of mine also took another kid with us who had a tag. The first day was rough as it snowed heavily in the morning. We had spotted some elk but couldn't range them because of the snow and we were not willing to chase them down and up another canyon in this weather.
The afternoon cleared up nicely and we found 6 elk bedded on a mountain side. We THOUGHT they were cows. Even put the spotter on them but couldn't see antlers so we made the long hike in and up. Got close enough and turns out it was 6 bulls who had all been broken off during the rut haha. What luck!
The next morning we found a herd of cows and hiked in to get a shot. We got to within 250 yards of them and got the kid, that my buddy had brought, set up to shoot and the herd winded us when the wind changed directions. They busted up the mountain side and stopped almost at the top. We ranged them at 820 yards which was too far for that kid to shoot so we got my son set up with my 7 PRC which is shooting the 170 Gr Tipped Hammer Hunters. My 14 year old son and I shoot at 1000 yards pretty regularly so I knew he could make the shot. There was a 2 mph wind but coming from the 6 oclock position. I dialed the required 16.25 MOA that the kestrel called for and .25 MOA left for windage.
One of the cows turned gave us a slightly quartering too shot and I gave them the go ahead. He let out his breath and relaxed and squeezed the trigger. We watched the vapor trail go all the way until the bullet made contact right in front of the shoulder. The cow spun around and ran about 15 yards and back flipped over.
Took us a while to climb up there but she was right in the same spot where she fell over. I didn't do any pics while we were processing the elk up there but we did take all the insides out to help drag it down the mountain a ways. The bullet entered in front of the shoulder. It didn't make contact with any bone. It went right through the middle of the heart and into the elks right lung and into the stomach. I did see evidence of good bullet expansion as I could see small wound channels going into the lungs and small holes in the stomach where the petals had entered. The hole through the heart was about quarter size on entrance and you could fit about 3-4 fingers through the exit. The shank nor the petals exited the animal. The bullet did a very good job at that range. The bullet at impact was going around 1875 fps. Which was a good lower velocity test on a large animal and not striking any bone. The bullet performed very well. My son has not forgotten to let me know that my longest shot was 760 yards.
View of how high up we were.
The afternoon cleared up nicely and we found 6 elk bedded on a mountain side. We THOUGHT they were cows. Even put the spotter on them but couldn't see antlers so we made the long hike in and up. Got close enough and turns out it was 6 bulls who had all been broken off during the rut haha. What luck!
The next morning we found a herd of cows and hiked in to get a shot. We got to within 250 yards of them and got the kid, that my buddy had brought, set up to shoot and the herd winded us when the wind changed directions. They busted up the mountain side and stopped almost at the top. We ranged them at 820 yards which was too far for that kid to shoot so we got my son set up with my 7 PRC which is shooting the 170 Gr Tipped Hammer Hunters. My 14 year old son and I shoot at 1000 yards pretty regularly so I knew he could make the shot. There was a 2 mph wind but coming from the 6 oclock position. I dialed the required 16.25 MOA that the kestrel called for and .25 MOA left for windage.
One of the cows turned gave us a slightly quartering too shot and I gave them the go ahead. He let out his breath and relaxed and squeezed the trigger. We watched the vapor trail go all the way until the bullet made contact right in front of the shoulder. The cow spun around and ran about 15 yards and back flipped over.
Took us a while to climb up there but she was right in the same spot where she fell over. I didn't do any pics while we were processing the elk up there but we did take all the insides out to help drag it down the mountain a ways. The bullet entered in front of the shoulder. It didn't make contact with any bone. It went right through the middle of the heart and into the elks right lung and into the stomach. I did see evidence of good bullet expansion as I could see small wound channels going into the lungs and small holes in the stomach where the petals had entered. The hole through the heart was about quarter size on entrance and you could fit about 3-4 fingers through the exit. The shank nor the petals exited the animal. The bullet did a very good job at that range. The bullet at impact was going around 1875 fps. Which was a good lower velocity test on a large animal and not striking any bone. The bullet performed very well. My son has not forgotten to let me know that my longest shot was 760 yards.
View of how high up we were.
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