My 2013 Wyoming Elk Hunt (Read 165 times)

Putting up mounts of animals (Fish and Foul included) does a few things.  One of them is to honor the animal ~ another is to share your experience and the animal with other people.

Great animal ~ God created animals to serve and feed mankind ... he just make some more glorious than others.

It's one thing to kill and eat an animal for sustenance.  Why do you then take the head of the animal and put it on your wall?

 

In your thinking, to have killed an animal like that, you must be a strong man.  Why not show everybody else by hanging it's head in your home.  In reality, killing it with a bullet makes absolutely zero assumptions about your strength and will.  All you had to do was aim and pull a trigger.

 

You are not stronger than the elk, or smarter.  You just knew how to aim and point a stick.  That does not make you a man.

Should we all play - Guess the gun?  I guess a 300 win-mag

 

I am not playing guess the cartridge

 

IIRC he already posted it was a 7mmRM.  I'm interested in an update on how the bullet weighted out -- whether it was a bullet failure or if the petals just stripped off and made it look like it.  I'm guessing the latter.

 

IIRC he already posted it was a 7mmRM.  I'm interested in an update on how the bullet weighted out -- whether it was a bullet failure or if the petals just stripped off and made it look like it.  I'm guessing the latter.

Spaniel actually read my blog.  It was a 7mm Remmington Magnum caliber.  My gun is a Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker.  I was shooting Winchester E-Tip 150 grain bullets.

I shot this elk from about 50 yards away and the velocity of the bullet was well over 3,000 feet per second on impact.  The bullet is advertised at 99% weight retention (meaning it should stay together with controlled expansion), but going that fast and hitting the rib bones at an angle immediately on impact was too much for it.

The top bullet in the picture is one that I recovered from a mule deer a couple years ago.  It is what the bullet is supposed to look like.  The bottom picture is the bullet that I recovered from this elk, it expanded like it was supposed to, but the impact then ripped the petals off of it.  It ended up weighing 95 grains when recovered for about a 63% weight retention.  Still the core of the bullet held together and it did its job delivering all it's energy into the elk before it stopped near the opposite hind quarter after entering the front right shoulder.

It is always amazing to me that such a tiny little thing (the bullet) can kill such a massive animal.  The bullet is about the size of a pencil eraser.

Oh well, as I said in my blog, I was extremely lucky to shoot such a beautiful animal on this hunt.  It's been over 2 weeks and I'm still on cloud nine.

 

Spaniel actually read my blog.  It was a 7mm Remmington Magnum caliber.  My gun is a Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker.  I was shooting Winchester E-Tip 150 grain bullets.

 

I shot this elk from about 50 yards away and the velocity of the bullet was well over 3,000 feet per second on impact.  The bullet is advertised at 99% weight retention (meaning it should stay together with controlled expansion), but going that fast and hitting the rib bones at an angle immediately on impact was too much for it.

 

 

I did read your blog when you originally started the thread, I guess I missed an update (I saw the pic of the bullet but no weight).  The section of your post I bolded reflects exactly what I guessed had occurred.  As you know bullets are designed for an optimal impact velocity; too slow and they won't open, too fast and they can blow apart.

I actually carry two guns most of the time when deer hunting around here.  A smokeless powder muzzleloader for long shots, and a 44mag carbine for anything under 100 yards.  The bullet in the muzzleloader is excellent for longer range work, but it was not designed for the velocity at which that particular rifle drives it so I have to give it 100-125 yards to slow down. 

Congrats again.  I'm sure you'll have plenty of cloud nine moments reliving that hunt each time you see the mount.

 

I take the head and antlers to honor the animal and help me remember the hunt.  I have the antlers of every male cervid that I've shot, but just the biggest and prettiest end up as shoulder mounts that go on my wall.

 

You haven't been around an elk if you think anyone could think they are stronger than one.  They are a massive animal and walking up to them on the ground is overwhelming.  This bull probably weighed around 800 pounds.

 

I do think I was smarter than him.  He shouldn't have stuck around when I cow called, but he must have been thinking with his other head because although I'm sure his brain was telling him danger danger he hung around long enough for me to get a glimpse of him through the trees and get it done.

 

Also as I mentioned in my blog, I'm not a big trophy hunter, this was a hunt on a Wyoming general tag that any resident of the state of Wyoming can buy over the counter.  I was shooting the first legal animal I saw, no matter what size the antlers.  That's kind of what makes this even more special to me, I didn't realize this was a trophy class animal until I started walking up to him on the ground.

 

I personally think not taking the antlers and head of such a beautiful animal would be disrespectful.

 

You might check out my blog if you are actually interested.  It's not all about blood thirsty wanton killing of animals believe it or not.  This Wyoming hunt ended up taking 3 posts to get all my thoughts put down in writing.

 

www.padens.blogspot.com

Just want to apologize for my posts.  I was drinking and emotional.  I love animals and seeing the pictures made me mad.  I just blurted out my first impression.  I should have kept my opinion to myself.

Color me jealous; very well done.  And you are right about what it's like to be up close and personal with an 800lb bull...the last one I was close to added to the intimidation by trying to gore me. 

Beautiful antelope.  They are incredible animals and very difficult to hunt.

Never mind.

 

Nice shooting, npaden.

Never mind the shooting, nice log cabin!