Laturkeyhtr
10-06-2009, 01:10 PM
The elk hunt was quite short actually since I killed it my first day out. Even though I thought at first that I wouldn't shoot the first bull I saw, I did. Seriously, when I got to thinking about the horse back rides and how sick (altitude sickness I guess) I got while waiting for the afternoon hunt to fall into place, I wasn't sure that I was going to make it until I saw a bigger bull. Besides. this was the biggest critter I had ever seen with a gun in my hand that I could shoot. So I did!
According to the main guide, my elk probably weighed around 1000 pounds on the hoof. He also said he thought it would score around 270-280. I paid for 429 pounds of carcass weight at the processing plant. This didn't include any hide, neck, head, antlers, leg bones nor guts. I shot it with my Rem 700 in 270, shooting 130 grain Fusion bullets. Even though I shot three times at 285 yards uphill, I only hit him once, but it completely destroyed his heart. He ever acted like I had even hit him. I am not sure not sure which shot connected, but the main guide said it sounded to him like the first shot was the only one that hit him. No matter, he took a long three day ride home in the back of my truck and never complained once.
Actually, we were until after 11 PM getting it quartered and covered that evening and horsebacking back to camp. Then it took 6.5 hours the second day to ride in and pack it out back to camp. That horseback riding really took its toll on both my knees and my back.
Camp life and all of the guys in camp were super! Food was superb! I slept very well every night even though it did get down in the low 20's every night. The whole experience was well worth the time and money. I even got to spend a whole day tooling around Yellowstone and seeing all of the marvels there.
I throughly enjoyed the trip and have no regrets whatsoever. I am not sure that I will ever consider another horseback type hunt unless I do some serious riding before I go.
It is good to be back and I have a lot of things to catch up on.
http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo136/Laturkeyhtr_2008/elk.jpg
According to the main guide, my elk probably weighed around 1000 pounds on the hoof. He also said he thought it would score around 270-280. I paid for 429 pounds of carcass weight at the processing plant. This didn't include any hide, neck, head, antlers, leg bones nor guts. I shot it with my Rem 700 in 270, shooting 130 grain Fusion bullets. Even though I shot three times at 285 yards uphill, I only hit him once, but it completely destroyed his heart. He ever acted like I had even hit him. I am not sure not sure which shot connected, but the main guide said it sounded to him like the first shot was the only one that hit him. No matter, he took a long three day ride home in the back of my truck and never complained once.
Actually, we were until after 11 PM getting it quartered and covered that evening and horsebacking back to camp. Then it took 6.5 hours the second day to ride in and pack it out back to camp. That horseback riding really took its toll on both my knees and my back.
Camp life and all of the guys in camp were super! Food was superb! I slept very well every night even though it did get down in the low 20's every night. The whole experience was well worth the time and money. I even got to spend a whole day tooling around Yellowstone and seeing all of the marvels there.
I throughly enjoyed the trip and have no regrets whatsoever. I am not sure that I will ever consider another horseback type hunt unless I do some serious riding before I go.
It is good to be back and I have a lot of things to catch up on.
http://i369.photobucket.com/albums/oo136/Laturkeyhtr_2008/elk.jpg