Hello folks,
I got my first elk yesterday!
Big cow in NM Unit 37. I dont know what she weighed on the hoof, as I quartered it out, but she was the biggest of the bunch. That rifle has 30" of barrel with that brake on it, for perspective.
3300 fps 143gr Hammer Hunter at just 100 yards. I'd been stressed out all this year about maybe needing to take a long shot, but these let me sneak right up on them to a rock outcropping that made a perfect rest. The HH held up perfectly, shattering ribs on entry and exit with a whole lot of blood splatter from the exit wound.
The elk jumped at the shot like all the rest with it, then walked down hill 5 yards and turned 180* to face back uphill. I could see the fountain of blood spurting from the exit, and knew it was a fatal shot. However, she turned her head and looked back downhill and I worried she might make a last run, so I put one more through the lungs and she laid right over. Maybe 30 seconds between shots.
I found one copper petal in the exit for the first shot. My follow up shot, also a broadside, went through the exit wound of the first and seems to have just enlarged the wound channel.
The lungs were utterly destroyed. Not the classic bang-flop, but a crazy blood Trail and full penetration so I will call it ideal terminal performance.
I got my first elk yesterday!
Big cow in NM Unit 37. I dont know what she weighed on the hoof, as I quartered it out, but she was the biggest of the bunch. That rifle has 30" of barrel with that brake on it, for perspective.
3300 fps 143gr Hammer Hunter at just 100 yards. I'd been stressed out all this year about maybe needing to take a long shot, but these let me sneak right up on them to a rock outcropping that made a perfect rest. The HH held up perfectly, shattering ribs on entry and exit with a whole lot of blood splatter from the exit wound.
The elk jumped at the shot like all the rest with it, then walked down hill 5 yards and turned 180* to face back uphill. I could see the fountain of blood spurting from the exit, and knew it was a fatal shot. However, she turned her head and looked back downhill and I worried she might make a last run, so I put one more through the lungs and she laid right over. Maybe 30 seconds between shots.
I found one copper petal in the exit for the first shot. My follow up shot, also a broadside, went through the exit wound of the first and seems to have just enlarged the wound channel.
The lungs were utterly destroyed. Not the classic bang-flop, but a crazy blood Trail and full penetration so I will call it ideal terminal performance.
