Colorado 2nd season success and disappointment

[deputyrpa]

We just completed our yearly family elk hunt in Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado, and I scored a 5x5 bull on Monday afternoon. I was the only one in the party of eight to get a shot at a bull. Two satellite bulls came out in the farthest field away from my blind, and proceeded to move downhill and towards a ravine where they would have slipped away. So I ranged the bigger bull with my new Kilo 2200LRH at 798.1 yds AMR, and 842 LOS. The bull was quartered to me left to right, and the wind was in my face and slightly left to right at 15mph. I dialed my Burris Veracity 4-20 sitting on my 340 Bee Accumark to 16MOA elevation and 1.5MOA left windage, based upon my dope card for CO, and let it rip. The 250 gr. SGK, pushed by 87.9 gr IMR 7828SSC @ 2940fps (at NY conditions), hit in the front shoulder a bit high, took out a lung, traveled back to the spine and shattered several hind vertebrate, and exited near the rear. The bull dropped instantly, and then got up and struggled to run 40 yards and then went down. When gutting it, I noticed that the bullet made a mess of the inner hind quarters, destroying the anus glands and bladder. The smell was awfully musky. Regardless, we packed and sledded it out 2 miles, and celebrated at the cabin by barbecuing the tenderloins. Yikes! We could not even stand to smell them - so much as eat them. As I continued to butcher and package the meat, it stunk up the cabin and everyone was noticing the rank smell. Later, I cooked up some loin slices to test them, and although the musk taste was not as strong, it was still inedible. We wound up throwing all of the meat away. This was an extremely disappointing ending to a hell of a nice shot.

 

[unclefish]

That's to bad . We had a very poor year also in our group. I was very fortunate to get my cow elk on Sunday night. But alot of guys went home with tag soup.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Many years ago a friend and I were deer hunting and we kicked up a couple does in a draw. They were within 100 yards and quartering away. My friend shot first and hit one. Then I shot the other and hit the front leg. As it turned out my friend gut shot the one and basically ruined the meat. Mine I had to trail for a while and was able to close the deal. I learned then that risking a gut shot was a bad thing.

 

[deputyrpa]

The only other thing I can imagine that happened is that it took a step towards me, continuing downhill while eating, before the bullet arrived 1.05 seconds after I pulled the trigger. The two bulls were meandering on a steep slope. That would account for the higher hit and longitudinal bullet path. I just missed the impact due to recoil.

 

[ltgibbson]

what a bad way to end a good kill

 

[Predator 22]

Did you try making sausage, jerkey or snack sticks out of it? Elk, and deer for that matter may have a musky taste during and post rut. Seen it many times. What a waste!

 

[deputyrpa]

Did you try making sausage, jerkey or snack sticks out of it? Elk, and deer for that matter may have a musky taste during and post rut. Seen it many times. What a waste!

We had to spit the meat out of our mouths - it was so bad! This is the first out of 7 that was like this. Never had we ever tasted anything this vile. We even hung a piece of meat from a string in the view of a trail cam in hopes of catching videos of the huge red fox that was getting into things at the cabin. Nothing came near that meat for 4 days! Instead, it jumped up on the hood of the pickup and chewed on the windshield wiper one night! Was it trying to tell us something?