Buffalobob
Well-Known Member
The annual elk hunting trip to Utah is over. I had an antlerless tag for the Manti.
It snowed on me the first night I was there and made setting up camp a cold experience. I use closed cell foam floor pads as my sleeping pads and that levels out the ground under the tent and provides really good insulation form the ground. Firewood has to be cut and catholes have to be dug.
I hunted with a re-barreled 1970's era Ruger #1. It has a Spencer 8 twist, 28 inch barrel in 257WBy minimum SAAMI and Nightforce optics. I still have a good supply of the Richard Graves 130 gr Wildcat bullets which work very well on elk and deer. Muzzle velocity is about 3250 fps.
The place I was hunting was a valley that I had previously killed three cow elk before and I knew the elk would cross frequently. There was about an 800 yard long clear area down the valley and the rifle is generally accurate for about that distance. For two days I sat on a point of land and watched the valley and then on the morning of the third day a herd crossed. As elk will do what you don't expect, this time they crossed behind me instead of in front and I had to turn around and shoot from a kneeling position instead of prone. The range was only 125 yards and I deliberately let the three adult cows go by before targeting the smaller of the two calf. Size is very important when it comes to packing out elk uphill! Bullet entered the back of the head and exited out the front. Dead before it hit the ground.
It snowed on me the first night I was there and made setting up camp a cold experience. I use closed cell foam floor pads as my sleeping pads and that levels out the ground under the tent and provides really good insulation form the ground. Firewood has to be cut and catholes have to be dug.
I hunted with a re-barreled 1970's era Ruger #1. It has a Spencer 8 twist, 28 inch barrel in 257WBy minimum SAAMI and Nightforce optics. I still have a good supply of the Richard Graves 130 gr Wildcat bullets which work very well on elk and deer. Muzzle velocity is about 3250 fps.
The place I was hunting was a valley that I had previously killed three cow elk before and I knew the elk would cross frequently. There was about an 800 yard long clear area down the valley and the rifle is generally accurate for about that distance. For two days I sat on a point of land and watched the valley and then on the morning of the third day a herd crossed. As elk will do what you don't expect, this time they crossed behind me instead of in front and I had to turn around and shoot from a kneeling position instead of prone. The range was only 125 yards and I deliberately let the three adult cows go by before targeting the smaller of the two calf. Size is very important when it comes to packing out elk uphill! Bullet entered the back of the head and exited out the front. Dead before it hit the ground.
