We've had a couple of college kids, a brother and sister, living with us. They wanted to finish college in Alaska but their parents jobs took them out of state. The young lady drew a cow moose tag this year and I gave the choice of any rifle in my safe to use. Demonstrating impeccable taste, she chose my 1908 Mannlicher Schoenauer 8x56mm. I had procured some vintage Kynoch and Western ammo for it. I had already made quite a bit of brass from 8x57 for practice but decided to use some of the vintage ammo for the hunt. I had 80 rounds of the Western 200 grain round nose Lubaloy and spent a box making sure I was comfortable they were all going to fire and checked my zero. It was right on with the 200 grain Speer bullets at 100 yards. No misfires from either the Western or Kynoch ammo so I felt confident in the ammo. I was also going to be with her with my rifle if anything went wrong and she needed a different gun.
We had hunter about a week and a half, every day. I did kill a bull during one of our hunts but the cows were conspicuously absent from my favorite area. Unusual for that spot. We were walking back to the truck after having hunted a couple of my favorite meadow. In fact we could see the truck a couple of hundred yards down the trail when we spotted a cow. She was about fifty yards away and broadside. She never moved during the eternity it took for this young lady to calm her nerves and get settled in on the shooting stick. Finally she broke the shot. The cow was hit and hurt. She stiff legged it about 50 feet before stopping. I could tell she was hurt and told the young huntress to hit her again. This time the shot broke much quicker. The cow reeled and staggered for a few seconds and went down.
We immediately set to skinning and quartering the cow as it was getting late. I set a personal record for skinning, quartering and loading a cow moose. I got everything done, including loading the four wheeler and meat in the truck in 2.5 hours.
During the skinning I found both her bullets. Her first shot hit a little high in her excitement, clipping the top of the shoulder and passing through the spine ridge. That would account for the stiff legged movements after the shot. Her second shot was a good lung shot, taking out both lungs. Both bullets were under the hide on the off side.
The young lady did well. She maintained her composure on two moose kills. She was with me for my bull and helped with the field dressing and later the cut and wrap. She made a good second shot one her cow and made it without falling into a panic.
|
   
   
|
|
Reply With Quote
