There is a TL;DR (too long, didn't read) summary near the bottom.
So as long as I'm crowing, I went skiing before work yesterday.
Today I took the afternoon off and took off after elk the way I have done most of my life in pursuit of whitetails. Not too much effort other than a 30 minute drive to the land on the unit for which I have a private-land-cow-tag.
Confession; a missed shot:
A little background info-- I grew up in North Georgia and lived my entire adult life in Auburn until I moved to Colorado just about 3 years ago. I'm 46. I have never killed an elk, but I know that this time of year the elk are down at lower elevation and they are herded up. The herd I was pursuing is over 200 strong, so avoiding 400+ eyeballs in the open terrain is quite a different proposition than trekking through briar thickets or sitting in a ladder stand looking for a 50-75 yard shot like I have primarily done since 1983.
So I feel like a 300 yard shot on an elk is a slam dunk. When I arrived in my vehicle, the herd was mostly bedded (some standing) out in the middle of a ranch with the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range in the background. I was able to drive within a quarter mile or so and park in some thick brush that extended out into the open range directly at the herd.
The wind was perfect and I used the cover to get as close as possible. I belly-crawled through the snow the last 50 yards to get in position to set up my rifle and range the elk. I was in luck, they had not budged. I couldn't get a good lock on an elk to range them, however (new Leopold). I did get a range on a lone tree in their proximity at 457 yards.
While that was a little farther than I wanted to shoot, I felt solid and my rest was good. I watched them for about 45 minutes. I have a Nikon BDC reticle scope on a Savage .300 win mag. I wasn't rich at the time I put that rig together, but it works for me. I wish I had a Zeiss or Swarovsky, but I don't (anyway, it has done the job and I even hit a metal silhouette of a rabbit at 600 yards once!). There were a few stray cow elk to the left of the tree and I felt they were slightly closer, maybe 440-450 yards. Solid rest...lined up....sqeeze.....boom! The scope jumped back into place and everything was on the move. I didn't have that "can't miss" feeling afterwards, so I wish I had not pulled the trigger.
I walked the long walk until I found the exact spot where she had been standing. There was violently disturbed snow from an emergency take off and some piss here and there. No blood. I couldn't help but notice that I was standing 75-80 yards beyond the tree I had ranged, not slightly in front of it as I had mistakenly determined. So what I guessed at 440-450 was actually probably around 530 yards. Lesson learned and I will hopefully get one more shot early next week before the season ends on the 31st.
I certainly enjoyed today though and I had to brake for a bighorn sheep on the way home. No pics of the sheep, but I put some hunt pics below.
TL;DR--I shot at an elk beyond my comfort zone and had a clean miss. Saw a bighorn too. Had fun. Here are some pics.
So as long as I'm crowing, I went skiing before work yesterday.
Today I took the afternoon off and took off after elk the way I have done most of my life in pursuit of whitetails. Not too much effort other than a 30 minute drive to the land on the unit for which I have a private-land-cow-tag.
Confession; a missed shot:
A little background info-- I grew up in North Georgia and lived my entire adult life in Auburn until I moved to Colorado just about 3 years ago. I'm 46. I have never killed an elk, but I know that this time of year the elk are down at lower elevation and they are herded up. The herd I was pursuing is over 200 strong, so avoiding 400+ eyeballs in the open terrain is quite a different proposition than trekking through briar thickets or sitting in a ladder stand looking for a 50-75 yard shot like I have primarily done since 1983.
So I feel like a 300 yard shot on an elk is a slam dunk. When I arrived in my vehicle, the herd was mostly bedded (some standing) out in the middle of a ranch with the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range in the background. I was able to drive within a quarter mile or so and park in some thick brush that extended out into the open range directly at the herd.
The wind was perfect and I used the cover to get as close as possible. I belly-crawled through the snow the last 50 yards to get in position to set up my rifle and range the elk. I was in luck, they had not budged. I couldn't get a good lock on an elk to range them, however (new Leopold). I did get a range on a lone tree in their proximity at 457 yards.
While that was a little farther than I wanted to shoot, I felt solid and my rest was good. I watched them for about 45 minutes. I have a Nikon BDC reticle scope on a Savage .300 win mag. I wasn't rich at the time I put that rig together, but it works for me. I wish I had a Zeiss or Swarovsky, but I don't (anyway, it has done the job and I even hit a metal silhouette of a rabbit at 600 yards once!). There were a few stray cow elk to the left of the tree and I felt they were slightly closer, maybe 440-450 yards. Solid rest...lined up....sqeeze.....boom! The scope jumped back into place and everything was on the move. I didn't have that "can't miss" feeling afterwards, so I wish I had not pulled the trigger.
I walked the long walk until I found the exact spot where she had been standing. There was violently disturbed snow from an emergency take off and some piss here and there. No blood. I couldn't help but notice that I was standing 75-80 yards beyond the tree I had ranged, not slightly in front of it as I had mistakenly determined. So what I guessed at 440-450 was actually probably around 530 yards. Lesson learned and I will hopefully get one more shot early next week before the season ends on the 31st.
I certainly enjoyed today though and I had to brake for a bighorn sheep on the way home. No pics of the sheep, but I put some hunt pics below.
TL;DR--I shot at an elk beyond my comfort zone and had a clean miss. Saw a bighorn too. Had fun. Here are some pics.
