Any elk season opened on Friday the 15th, so the plan was take my wife shannon and be on the mountain by daylight. we ended up cutting/grinding/packaging meat until 1:05 am friday morning (its easier to keep going sometimes versus all the clean up to just do it again). we finally got to where we park around 3:15 on friday afternoon. because it got so late, our plan was take the 45 min hike to our spot, set up our lean to, and chairs etc, watch the hill for a couple of hours and have everything ready for the morning hunt. we were almost to our look out, and as you climb higher you can start to see across to the other side. we were approx 50-75 yards from our spot, and i look across to the only little openign i can see, and sure enough, there are 4 cows feeding down hill. i couldnt believe it, i said shannon get down and get set up, there are elk in the clearing! she jumped to the ground, got on them, set the parallax, as i am throwing gear out trying to find my rangefinder etc! i ranged the bottom of the opening at 535 yards. the scope was dialed to 9.25 minutes up, and i took a quick look for wind. it felt dead, and a look through the binos confirmed the trees were not moving. seh said i am on her but they are moving out. i said stay ready, and i will stop them. About this time my dad walks up (he was 3 or 4 minutes behind us, and he said what is she looking at? is she going to shoot? i said yep, and bugled hard and loud. the cow stopped with only 2 feet to go before entering the tree line, and almost instantly shannon broke the trigger. I didnt have time to get the video camera set up, or my spotting scope, but even through the 8 power bino's there was no doubt. I didnt have time to fire up the exbal so i was using my chart i had made two days before. for this reason i had her hold on the shoulder but closer to half way up. she made a perfect hit and put a hole right through the top of the heart!! It is now approx 4:10 and we have only been on the mountain for 30-45 minutes and we have an elk on the ground! I wish i could have got it on video and i wish i could have got the spotting scope set up, but all and all, it could not have gotten any better! we got the elk at approx 5:15 and she was dead on the ground 20 feet from where she shot it!
I took her out for the first time to shoot this gun a couple of weeks ago and she fell in love. she rang steal on every shot from 620-930 yards (there was zero wind)
Since that day, we have been talking a little about maybe getting her an edge built. so after this i said you just shot an elk in the heart at 535 yards, do you want one yet? she said i already got one, you better get one now!!!!!
I took her out for the first time to shoot this gun a couple of weeks ago and she fell in love. she rang steal on every shot from 620-930 yards (there was zero wind)
Since that day, we have been talking a little about maybe getting her an edge built. so after this i said you just shot an elk in the heart at 535 yards, do you want one yet? she said i already got one, you better get one now!!!!!