My brother and I hit the elk woods today.......

We shot a couple of spike bulls (Martians) at first light this morning. It was 2*F when we left the truck an hour and a half before daylight. We got to my honey hole, and waited for them to come out and feed. After 2 good snow storms this week, I KNEW they'd be there, so we waited, and at almost 7:30 on the nose, here they came. We each shot one, side by side to each other from 465 yds. They dropped in their tracks. We drug them to the bottom of the canyon, and just got back about an hour and a half ago. We're gonna go back up in the AM to finish hauling them the last 2 miles to where the truck will be waiting. Here"s a couple pics of each. The temp was only about 10* at the time of the pics, and it only got up to about 20* for a high today. Supposed to be only about 8* for a high tomorrow. Should be great times...

Mine:



My brother's (429 powered 84) If you look just behind & right of my brother, you can see my bull laying in the background...



It's tough work, but it's a blast!!! And it SSSUUUUURE tastes good...




Doug...

My meatball order is in..

72mav wrote:My meatball order is in..

Al ,you are a meatball

Well we finally got them out of the woods today! When we took off this morning at 8:00am it was a CRISP 2* above and just keep gettin colder and colder! By the time we got back to the trucks at 11:00am the wind was blowin around 25 to 30 mph and windchill around -15 at least! Now all that has to be done is processed and then the best part stick a fork in it with a little steak sauce and down the gullit,MMMMMMMMMMM GGGOOOOOD. Ya'll have a nice day now form the frozen north Montana!


Dan

All I have to say is, these better be the best tastin' elk I ever had. The worst part about the wind was walkin' straight into it while hauling them out with the game carts. Just shows how good elk meat is, and just what people go through to get 'em, and how eager we are to hit it again. I was gonna get some pics, but the cold literally killed my cell phone in less than an hour. Now I just need to get my daughter her deer, and we're good to go for the year.










Doug...

Doug,

Nice Elk you guy's shot i told my parents about them and how cold it was my mom said you guys were crazy.You guys must be some die hard hunters and you can keep the cold weather up there i hate it.

Later Mark.

cool deal Doug , I bet them big rascals are a pain to get out of the woods

Good deal guy's,I love to hunt, but not in that kind of cold.

72mav wrote:My meatball order is in..

Your order is in Al...

Mark Miller wrote:Doug,

Nice Elk you guy's shot i told my parents about them and how cold it was my mom said you guys were crazy.You guys must be some die hard hunters and you can keep the cold weather up there i hate it.

Later Mark.

I'm not so sure about crazy Mark, but sometimes I wonder about smarts. As far as die hard, one has to be if you want to put elk meat in the freezer. When the bad weather hits like it did, these critters love to eat, so I took my brother to a honey hole that more often than not, produces every time you go there, after a storm blows in.

KY JELLY wrote:cool deal Doug , I bet them big rascals are a pain to get out of the woods

Thanks Randy. These aren't too bad to get out. We used 2 game carts, and we just put them on whole, and wheel them out. They work in probably 90-95% of the areas we go. You should come up sometime, and get yourself one (elk). You'll be hooked for life.
Check out this link: http://www.neetkart.com/features.html This isn't "just" like ours, but we built our own, the same but different, due to being patented and all.

bbf-falcon wrote:Good deal guy's,I love to hunt, but not in that kind of cold.

The cold isn't too big of a deal when you're huntin' up here Rick, 'cause you're always movin'. Not alot of huntin' from blinds like back your way. At least in my areas. The biggest thing, is to stay hydrated. This cold weather will dry you out as fast or faster than a warmer day. These were about 2-2 1/2 miles from the truck, and it only took us 3 hrs. to go in and bring them back to the truck. And those on here that have eaten it, know exactly why we do it.




Doug...

Congrats Doug!....But that's almost a heat wave you are having down there !
We were working up north in Edmonton all week... outside... Temp thursday morning at 7am was -5 F !!!

[quote="56Tbird"]

72mav wrote:My meatball order is in..

Al ,you are a meatball [/quote

How do I taste?? ]

What do u guys sight ur guns in at? 500 yards? Can't imagine shooting that far. Are you like snipers and counting for wind and such?

duff429 wrote:What do u guys sight ur guns in at? 500 yards? Can't imagine shooting that far. Are you like snipers and counting for wind and such?

We zero everything we shoot, 3" high at 100 yds. I use a BDC (Bullet Drop Compensating) Dial on all of my scopes. I send them to Leupold with all of my ballistics info for each rifle, and the dial is custom calibrated for that particular load. Here's a pic of my son's set-up.


When hunting, I just range the target with my laser rangefinder, adjust the turret to whatever the range is (465 yds. in this case), hold dead on, and squeeze the trigger. Myself, I did do a little "shooting" while in the military, and have taught my kids and others the proper way to take game at long range. Though this is not considered long range to those who know how, and have the right equipment. It IS a long shot for the average hunter, regardless of what caliber rifle you have. Alot of people are of the inclination that just because they shoot the biggest, flattest shooting magnum rifle out there, that they can shoot anything, anywhere. I took my elk with my wife's rifle, a 6.5x284 Norma. A long way from a magnum cartridge. It all comes down to practice. Never shoot at ANY animal at ANY range that you have not proven yourself able on an inanimate target. It's only fair to the game you hunt. I practice on a 1000 yd. range year round, and to date, my farthest kill on an animal is 729 yds. And that would be this guy.



Long range shooting is not hard, it just takes alot of practice. It's really no different than drag racing. To get good, ya gotta spend time to get there.




Doug...