Here's a bit of a story for you boys.
I went out elk hunting by myself the day before the season
closed in the west Kootney area.
The weather was a few degrees above freezing, lightly raining, with intermittent fog. I found some a fresh set of tracks, a bull with and a cow/calf. They were on the move. So I tracked them for awhile until I knew where they were headed. I then circled and hiked into an old cut block and
glassed it awhile from a hidden position and seen nothing.
I took out my lost cow call and gave it a squeeze.
Immediately a bull answered with a "EEeeeyough!".
I put the binos up and spotted his antlers and head looking
down toward my position. I gave another call and he started
coming down.
Try as I might I couldn't count all his points
through the thick spruce and brush. Then the thick fog
rolled in and covered the block, I didn't know where the
helll he was now, I couldn't hear anything either.
I impatiently waited until the fog lightened up a bit and I
could see him coming down silently just before the bottom of
the block. He hung up just before an opening and wouldn't
budge. All I could see was his head looking towards me
obscured by branches.
I gave a call and he turned his head
to the side which let me count his sixth point on the one
side. Binos down, rifle up. He got fidgety and start
skulking off back up the old cut block.
I found a hole through the thick spruce at about 100m in the
direction he was heading and when his shoulder was in sight
I let roar the 338Win and he dropped like a sack of hammers
into the thick brush.
I could see a 10ft spruce tree he was laying beside moving a
bit like he couldn't get up but wasn't dying. So, I barely made out a small patch of shoulder through the brush and decided to hammer him again for good measure. The spruce tree stopped moving. I made my way up to him and finished
him off.
I then dragged him down to where I could reach him with the
atv. I tied a rope around his antlers and threw two half-hitches around his nose and pulled him down to a flat semi-open spot (griz). From there I worked on him. By then it was pouring down rain and I was soaking wet but very happy.
I had no game bags so I had to try and keep him in bigger pieces with the hide on to keep the meat clean. I loaded that whole elk onto my little Suzuki Kingquad 300 and packed it down to my truck!
It was alot of hard work by my lonesome but was worth every bit. I shot him around 10:30am and got back to the truck around 4:30pm. What a day!
Here's the .338 225gr. Nosler Accubonds @ 2860fps MV, I recovered from the farside in next to the hide. The bullets both went through both shoulders causing extensive damage. The one on the left has 63% weight retention and the right 55% WR. Width's were L.641" R.842". Length's are L.53", R.44"
I went out elk hunting by myself the day before the season
closed in the west Kootney area.
The weather was a few degrees above freezing, lightly raining, with intermittent fog. I found some a fresh set of tracks, a bull with and a cow/calf. They were on the move. So I tracked them for awhile until I knew where they were headed. I then circled and hiked into an old cut block and
glassed it awhile from a hidden position and seen nothing.
I took out my lost cow call and gave it a squeeze.
Immediately a bull answered with a "EEeeeyough!".
I put the binos up and spotted his antlers and head looking
down toward my position. I gave another call and he started
coming down.
Try as I might I couldn't count all his points
through the thick spruce and brush. Then the thick fog
rolled in and covered the block, I didn't know where the
helll he was now, I couldn't hear anything either.
I impatiently waited until the fog lightened up a bit and I
could see him coming down silently just before the bottom of
the block. He hung up just before an opening and wouldn't
budge. All I could see was his head looking towards me
obscured by branches.
I gave a call and he turned his head
to the side which let me count his sixth point on the one
side. Binos down, rifle up. He got fidgety and start
skulking off back up the old cut block.
I found a hole through the thick spruce at about 100m in the
direction he was heading and when his shoulder was in sight
I let roar the 338Win and he dropped like a sack of hammers
into the thick brush.
I could see a 10ft spruce tree he was laying beside moving a
bit like he couldn't get up but wasn't dying. So, I barely made out a small patch of shoulder through the brush and decided to hammer him again for good measure. The spruce tree stopped moving. I made my way up to him and finished
him off.
I then dragged him down to where I could reach him with the
atv. I tied a rope around his antlers and threw two half-hitches around his nose and pulled him down to a flat semi-open spot (griz). From there I worked on him. By then it was pouring down rain and I was soaking wet but very happy.
I had no game bags so I had to try and keep him in bigger pieces with the hide on to keep the meat clean. I loaded that whole elk onto my little Suzuki Kingquad 300 and packed it down to my truck!
It was alot of hard work by my lonesome but was worth every bit. I shot him around 10:30am and got back to the truck around 4:30pm. What a day!
Here's the .338 225gr. Nosler Accubonds @ 2860fps MV, I recovered from the farside in next to the hide. The bullets both went through both shoulders causing extensive damage. The one on the left has 63% weight retention and the right 55% WR. Width's were L.641" R.842". Length's are L.53", R.44"
