Nothing impressive about a late season cow elk.

[nakneker]

My cousin was struggling to find an elk to wrap his tag around for the last week. I told him I’d go with him this morning because my jeep could go where his a dodge dually can‘t and we know a good area that requires some serious off roading to get there. We got lucky and it snowed last night 5-6 inches making conditions ideal for elk, little to no wind. So off we went this morning, we were where we wanted to be as it began to turn light and we had several elk glassed up within 20 minutes. They were within range so he picked out one of the smaller cows and waited for a shot. Didn’t take long for the one he wanted to turn broadside as she was nibbling on some buck brush. I ranged her at 862 yards, he dialed it on his new 300 NMI improved built by Alex Wheeler and touched off a Berger 230 hybrid. She dropped in her tracks. The other elk had no idea what happened, the snow really dampened the shot. So we watched them for another 5-6 minutes until one of the other cows smelled her fallen comrade and headed out over the hill, apparently not liking the smell of blood. We were able to use a wood cutting road to get within a 100 yards and then I cut a road to the elk from there, it’s an old burn and there wasn’t much to that.

Nothing too impressive about a cow elk on a late hunt but a one shot kill with his new rifle really put a smile on my cousin’s face. He’s a meat hunter and couldn’t be happier. Always fun to be in the woods with him, one of the most pleasant people I know. He can’t hike and hunt, he has a bad hip and a bad knee.

I had the identical rifle built, it weighs right at 8 pounds without glass. The recoil is much milder than I would have dreamed possible, terminator T2 brake. We haven’t had the rifles long but they shoot small at 100 and we’ve been practicing out past 1k and doing pretty good with them. I’ll probably retire my 338 Lapua and start using this for the long shots, it may be the perfect long range elk rifle for me. Time will tell, just need to draw some tags which isn’t easy here in Arizona, at least the quality bull elk hunts aren’t easy to draw.

 

[ohlongarm]

My cousin was struggling to find an elk to wrap his tag around for the last week. I told him I’d go with him this morning because my jeep could go where his a dodge dually can‘t and we know a good area that requires some serious off roading to get there. We got lucky and it snowed last night 5-6 inches making conditions ideal for elk, little to no wind. So off we went this morning, we were where we wanted to be as it began to turn light and we had several elk glassed up within 20 minutes. They were within range so he picked out one of the smaller cows and waited for a shot. Didn’t take long for the one he wanted to turn broadside as she was nibbling on some buck brush. I ranged her at 862 yards, he dialed it on his new 300 NMI improved built by Alex Wheeler and touched off a Berger 230 hybrid. She dropped in her tracks. The other elk had no idea what happened, the snow really dampened the shot. So we watched them for another 5-6 minutes until one of the other cows smelled her fallen comrade and headed out over the hill, apparently not liking the smell of blood. We were able to use a wood cutting road to get within a 100 yards and then I cut a road to the elk from there, it’s an old burn and there wasn’t much to that.

Nothing too impressive about a cow elk on a late hunt but a one shot kill with his new rifle really put a smile on my cousin’s face. He’s a meat hunter and couldn’t be happier. Always fun to be in the woods with him, one of the most pleasant people I know. He can’t hike and hunt, he has a bad hip and a bad knee.

I had the identical rifle built, it weighs right at 8 pounds without glass. The recoil is much milder than I would have dreamed possible, terminator T2 brake. We haven’t had the rifles long but they shoot small at 100 and we’ve been practicing out past 1k and doing pretty good with them. I’ll probably retire my 338 Lapua and start using this for the long shots, it may be the perfect long range elk rifle for me. Time will tell, just need to draw some tags which isn’t easy here in Arizona, at least the quality bull elk hunts aren’t easy to draw.

Very impressive a good time and fabulous eating.

 

[wedgy]

Congratulations on the cow ! Nice of you to go with him and share the work. Alex builds a fantastic rifle, what action, stock, barrel contour did you go with ?

 

[Tommie]

A freezer full of some of the finest protein. Nothing impressive? BAH!

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Looks like a nice cow to me and a fun hunt, not to mention the long poke on harvesting her.

 

[pikespeakgoat]

Any elk is a good elk!

 

[JB10]

Its hard to get drawn for much here in arizona, i know ur pain. This elk and deer draw i looked at the number of applications and jaw dropped. No wonder it takes close to 7 years for a good bull tag. 2 years ago a good friend of my father in law drew a unit 10 bull tag. Took 8 years. He died 2 months before his hunt. Damn cancer.

 

[Bc'z]

Nice cow should be great eating.
Question..
Are you running Wesson oil in that Stihl in place of bar oil?

 

[nakneker]

Congratulations on the cow ! Nice of you to go with him and share the work. Alex builds a fantastic rifle, what action, stock, barrel contour did you go with ?

Thanks! I’ll post a pic of the rifles tomorrow. I really just relied on Alex on this build and I couldn’t be happier, Bat HR, McMillan game warden stocks, Brux #5, 9 twist, .260 freebore, terminator T2 brakes.

 

[nakneker]

Nice cow should be great eating.
Question..
Are you running Wesson oil in that Stihl in place of bar oil?

No, we run stihl bar oil. My cousin has a tree business and buys it by the pallet, he gets a decent discount on it. That’s been great oil but it’s expensive, not sure I‘d use it without his discount.

https://www.stihlusa.com/products/oils--lubricants-and-fuels/oils-and-lubricants/platinumoil/

 

[nakneker]

Its hard to get drawn for much here in arizona, i know ur pain. This elk and deer draw i looked at the number of applications and jaw dropped. No wonder it takes close to 7 years for a good bull tag. 2 years ago a good friend of my father in law drew a unit 10 bull tag. Took 8 years. He died 2 months before his hunt. Damn cancer.

That’s crappy luck! Sorry to hear about your father in law. Unit 10 holds some big bulls if you know the unit, I’ve hunted unit 9 and the Navajo Reservation to the East before the tags got crazy expensive. It was a good hunt, the state would open archery season and the Navajo Rez Opened their hunt two weeks later, some of those big unit 9 bulls would get pushed over onto the reservation. I ended taking three bulls over 360 during a five year stretch, you could draw an archery elk tag and deer tag back then and hunt either or at the same time. Biggest bull I took was 387 and he had very short main beams, if he would have had average beams he would have been pushing 400.

 

[liljoe]

2 guys, 1 elk and a chainsaw in a Jeep? That's a little crowded. I own one just like it.
Looks like a great day.
Joe

 

[boltfluter]

Sounds like a great hunt was had by all. And a great shot to boot. Being able to drive to the elk is priceless. Should be some fine eating.

Paul

 

[std7mag]

Dear Sir, i'd go with you on a not impressive hunt anytime!

I've been in the elk lottery here in PA for 12 years.
Out of staters have the same chance of drawing as the residents.
It used to be about 8,000 entrants for 123 tags. Number of tags would go up 1-3 per year.
At $11 per resident to get into the drawing. Much more for non resident.
Then the other year, the game commission got the great money making idea to add 2 archery seasons to the drawing, and jump the # of tags to 146.

This while being worried about a decline in the number of cows that were pregneant.

 

[old_heli_logger]

Let's see that Alex rifle!!

 

[JB10]

If i remember this elk and pronghorn draw there was something arround 180k applications and deer and turkey was arround 120k.

 

[CaptainMal]

Fun story to read and see. That chainsaw, if used to cut up the elk, first time I saw something like that. Guessing the chain oil would mess up the area around the cut but probably easy to trim off later. Fast and simple.

Now how do you trim off the backstraps?

 

[nakneker]

Fun story to read and see. That chainsaw, if used to cut up the elk, first time I saw something like that. Guessing the chain oil would mess up the area around the cut but probably easy to trim off later. Fast and simple.

Now how do you trim off the backstraps?

I’d never use a chainsaw for field dressing big game, I think my grandpa would visit me from his grave and lecture me on that one. I’m a bit of knife nut, my favorite hunting knives are made by Gene Ingram and Charles May, I think Charles learned from Gene. No non nonsense knives made to be used, here’s a few pics of a few of mine. D2 tool steel and S30V. Back straps came off slick, easy peasey. I used the chainsaw to cut a road to the elk, I always have a chainsaw with me when I’m in the woods. I hate turning around because of a wind blowin tree in the road or whatever the case may be, I end up using more than you would think.

 

[nakneker]

Let's see that Alex rifle!!

Here it is!

 

[nakneker]

A few more