well first to start off, I finally got him after 7 days of hunting CO's 3rd season. It snowed the first 2 days of the season with a complete white out. During the first 3 days, we saw about 200 head of elk but they were all 1500+ yards. The heards started to get smaller and smaller and then to nothing because of clear sunny skys (warmer temps) during the day and a full moon at night so they were bedded down all day.
3 days before i took a shot at a cow elk at 675 yards but missed because of cross winds that were 25-30 mph from shooting ridge to ridge.
on our 7th day, after basically loosing hope and calling it a early day, we slowly started to work our way back to camp while glassing the hill sides. We saw about 4 cows bedded down in some aspen trees, then busted out the spotting scope and saw a legal bull about 100 yards to the side of them but couldn't tell how many points he had since his head was behind some brush. after watching for about 10 mins he finally turned his head and saw 6 points on one side.
I ranged him bedded down at 950 yards. There was no way to get any closer and if we tried, all we would of done was get their attention and flush them out of there.
So with nothing to loose, we said screw it lets try a hail mary shot and see if we hit him. there was a diagonal cross wind that was about 15 mph coming from 2 o'clock. I got on my belly and got all comfortable and took my time. I put my 10 mph windage marker in his vitals. and waited for my hunting buddy to have him in sighted in also so we both could shoot. Right after he said ok, I squeezed off a round and my buddy watched the bull's head drop instantly. In excitement of thinking i got him with one shot, he noticed about 1 minute later the bull lifted his head as if i didnt hit the vitals. but then i squeezed off another round but that time i used my 15 mph windage marker. and then finally dropped him.
After driving around to the other ridge and walking 1-1/2 miles and finding the elk. the first shot was carried with the wind and i hit him in the mouth (hence why he dropped his head) then i re gauged the wind for the second shot and it hit him in the stomach.
all i can say is 950 yards with a cross wind isn't an easy task, even though it wasn't a perfect shot, I cant complain because the meats on the table.
But i am very pleased about my 300 RUM (Remington Sendero SFll) and my Nightforce scope did very well on this hunt.
one other thing to share is that the ranch owner, she is 77 years old and still will go in horse back and pack out the meat for you. so that was an adventure all on its own. Because there is no way your packing out that much meat on foot since you can not get a quad or ranger anywhere near the location of the elk.
I was surprised to find him being a very semetrical 6x6 and probably weighed 550-600 lbs.
hope you all enjoyed my story.
Trying to pack out a belly caped head for a mount wasnt an easy task. It weighted roughly 75 to 100 lbs.
headed to pack out the meat!
