I finally got my photos downloaded. My CO deer hunt was unsuccessfull, but the guided WY elk hunt turned out to be another fabulous adventure. Six of us headed out from Minnesota on Oct. 20th, and spent a couple nights in Jackson to start the acclimation process. We ranged in age from 17 (lucky kid) to 70. The 70 year old and myself were the only ones who had hunted elk before, and we served as advisors and tribal elders to the rest of the group. This was to be the last week of the last camp that the outfitter was operating this year, and the report from the first week was 6 for 6, with two 300"+ bulls taken. This was public land, but to be my first guided hunt that was not in a wilderness area.
Opening morning was cool, with the remnants of a 12" snow from the previous week. My hunting partner Brad and I with our guide James rode out on horseback in the dark for about three hours before first light. I felt like we had ridden clear to Idaho before we could see anything. This day ended with a few elk, a bull moose, about a dozen mule deer, and no elk for Brad and I. Brad did pass on a 130 yard chance at a 4x4 early in the day. He ended up not filling his tag, so he may have a few regrets about that.
The elk had been shot at for a week, and chased by wolves to boot, so they only were out in the open for a very short time before timbering up. We found that the other guys were experiencing the same, so a "push" through the heavy timber was made with the six hunters spread along a wide willow creek. We were spread out over a mile, so there were some gaps in our coverage, but it ended out to be a success with 3 of our guys getting a bull, and one shot a great 7x7 at 375 yards. We left our pack horse with them, and the other four hunters didn't get back to camp until midnight. Lee, the 70 year old shot a nice 5x5, and they had ridden 24 miles on horseback that day.
Only one hunter from the other four was up for breakfast with Brad and I, and after the late day we had a late breakfast (4:30), so this portended a shorter ride today. THANK GOD!!!, as I could barely walk this morning. James kept stopping and glassing while it was full dark, and somehow he spotted some elk that were still out grazing in the open. He told us that we had to be in position once it was light enough to shoot, and that it was about 550 yards. Brad, the CPA passed on the long shot, and Rick (me) the retired cop and ex-marine said, "Game On!"
We were on a good horse trail that circled around one hill, and as we crept around the curve I could see about 50 elk spread along the hill across the ravine between us. We were in clear view of the elk, but were able to position ourselves without alarming any of them. There were two mature bulls in the group and two 5x5's, but they would move out of sight over the top, or be amongst the cows when I was lining up the shot. Eventually, the chance came for a good broadside at 550 yards.
My longest shot at a critter was 263 yards on a WY mulie a few years ago, but my Marine Corps
training and lots of practice with my .338 gave me confidence in this situation. I was shooting a .338 Winchester M70 Supergrade, with 3x12 Nikon ballistic scope. My taped on SPOT-ON chart showed the bottom of the 3rd circle. The 185 grain Barnes TSX bullets were handloaded to 3,034 fps, and it all shot better that I could. The wind was calm, my heart was still in my chest, my breathing was relaxed....it was time...BOOM.
I had told James that my preferred shot was a raghorn under 50 yards with my .454 pistol, but I guess that I will have to be happy with a 6x6 at 550 yards with my .338 rifle.
I will post some pics of the recovered bullet and what it did to both shoulders on the shooting link.