nakneker
Gold $$ Contributor
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.
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.