Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
Articles
Latest reviews
Author list
Classifieds
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles and first posts only
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Hunting
Long Range Hunting & Shooting
First elk hunt. Leaning toward Tikka
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="DartonJager" data-source="post: 1933476" data-attributes="member: 95733"><p>As you are going on a fully guided hunt and if all other factors are equal like already owning high quality clothing and a unit with good numbers of quality bulls, in my opinion the thee three most vital things for your success will be:</p><p>#1-<strong><em><u>Great fitting well broken in WATER PROOF boots.</u></em></strong> Your FEET are by far your MOST important piece of hunting equipment. You can be a long range marksman who's skill would make David Tubb weep with envy, be in BETTER shape than a Olympic triathlete but if by morning of day 2 your feet are so badly blistered you can not walk a 1/2 mile let alone 10 your hunt is screwed.</p><p><strong><em><u>#2-You CAN NOT be in to good of shape.</u></em></strong> You simply can not. Before ALL of my elk hunts I did cardio at a minimum of 5 days a week for over four months from the day after I got the draw results till the day I left for my hunt. Remember you start to fall out of shape the very day you stop excising. Mostly wearing a pack that I built up to finally carrying 40lbs in and walking up and down my local HS football stadium steps non-stop for at least one hour per session. My next choice was a very large and steep hill over grown with weeds created from a sanitary land fill I again walked with a pack but with 50lbs. This hill was very steep and allowed me an opportunity to educate and harden my feet to side hilling and going down hill both are in my experience much harder on you feet than walking up hill. You have an AWESOME advantage of living close enough to actual mountains to exercise in and NOTHING can equal preparing to hunt in the mountains like exercising in mountains. Not only will it get you in good enough shape to greatly increase your odds of success, it will also get your feet in shape and expose any problems your boots might give you when walking at angles while side hilling and going up or down at steep angles, none of which can be done while walking on flat ground or even steps. Lastly if you are in exceptional shape you can expect your guide to put forth a maximum effort and not limit any areas to hunt because your physical inabilities are wont allow for it.</p><p>#3-<strong><em><u>Your rifle/optic and shooting abilities. </u></em></strong>If your guide says 500 yard shots are possible then assume 600-700 are as well and invest time in shooting at long range to determine what you personal maximum range is you can take shots at elk to. In MY opinion it is much much easier and much more fun shooting to become good to 700 yards than loosing the weight you spoke of and with a quality gun like a Tikka and an equally high quality optic there is no reason you can not become proficient to 700 yards, so why limit your chances for success? Equip it with a Simms Laboratory Limbsaver recoil pad (as I did on my T3 300wsm) and you should be good on recoil management. I do own and have used NF and Zeiss with adjustable turrets, I will allow those more qualified than I to recommend an optic as I am still deciding on mine.</p><p></p><p>I would strongly as possible recommend a Tikka T3 Lite in 300wm as there are so many extremely high quality factory loads for 300wm you will without doubt find factory load ammunition more than sufficient for 600-700 yard shots.</p><p>If recoil will not affect your ability to shoot often enough to become proficient to 700 yards then why on earth not increase you maximum effective elk range from 400 to 700 yards?</p><p></p><p>If you can accomplish these three things and luck is on your side in terms finding decent numbers of quality bulls and the weather, you will have gone a LONG way in maximizing you odds for success.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DartonJager, post: 1933476, member: 95733"] As you are going on a fully guided hunt and if all other factors are equal like already owning high quality clothing and a unit with good numbers of quality bulls, in my opinion the thee three most vital things for your success will be: #1-[B][I][U]Great fitting well broken in WATER PROOF boots.[/U][/I][/B] Your FEET are by far your MOST important piece of hunting equipment. You can be a long range marksman who's skill would make David Tubb weep with envy, be in BETTER shape than a Olympic triathlete but if by morning of day 2 your feet are so badly blistered you can not walk a 1/2 mile let alone 10 your hunt is screwed. [B][I][U]#2-You CAN NOT be in to good of shape.[/U][/I][/B] You simply can not. Before ALL of my elk hunts I did cardio at a minimum of 5 days a week for over four months from the day after I got the draw results till the day I left for my hunt. Remember you start to fall out of shape the very day you stop excising. Mostly wearing a pack that I built up to finally carrying 40lbs in and walking up and down my local HS football stadium steps non-stop for at least one hour per session. My next choice was a very large and steep hill over grown with weeds created from a sanitary land fill I again walked with a pack but with 50lbs. This hill was very steep and allowed me an opportunity to educate and harden my feet to side hilling and going down hill both are in my experience much harder on you feet than walking up hill. You have an AWESOME advantage of living close enough to actual mountains to exercise in and NOTHING can equal preparing to hunt in the mountains like exercising in mountains. Not only will it get you in good enough shape to greatly increase your odds of success, it will also get your feet in shape and expose any problems your boots might give you when walking at angles while side hilling and going up or down at steep angles, none of which can be done while walking on flat ground or even steps. Lastly if you are in exceptional shape you can expect your guide to put forth a maximum effort and not limit any areas to hunt because your physical inabilities are wont allow for it. #3-[B][I][U]Your rifle/optic and shooting abilities. [/U][/I][/B]If your guide says 500 yard shots are possible then assume 600-700 are as well and invest time in shooting at long range to determine what you personal maximum range is you can take shots at elk to. In MY opinion it is much much easier and much more fun shooting to become good to 700 yards than loosing the weight you spoke of and with a quality gun like a Tikka and an equally high quality optic there is no reason you can not become proficient to 700 yards, so why limit your chances for success? Equip it with a Simms Laboratory Limbsaver recoil pad (as I did on my T3 300wsm) and you should be good on recoil management. I do own and have used NF and Zeiss with adjustable turrets, I will allow those more qualified than I to recommend an optic as I am still deciding on mine. I would strongly as possible recommend a Tikka T3 Lite in 300wm as there are so many extremely high quality factory loads for 300wm you will without doubt find factory load ammunition more than sufficient for 600-700 yard shots. If recoil will not affect your ability to shoot often enough to become proficient to 700 yards then why on earth not increase you maximum effective elk range from 400 to 700 yards? If you can accomplish these three things and luck is on your side in terms finding decent numbers of quality bulls and the weather, you will have gone a LONG way in maximizing you odds for success. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Hunting
Long Range Hunting & Shooting
First elk hunt. Leaning toward Tikka
Top