BT Sniper
I am just now recovering from the many tasks involved with a successful hunting season. This year my father and I drew both deer and elk tags for a familiar unit we have spent a lot of time hunting. While we did not see one buck during deer season I was rewarded with successfully taking a very nice elk during elk season. This is now the second elk I have taken with my custom 230 grain 30 caliber bullet shot from a trusty Savage 300 WM I put together.
Any other hunters that may have had success this year or previous with your own custom made bullets please feel free to share...
Here is my story....
Oregon 6x6 taken with custom BTSniper 230 grain 30 cal bullet
Hunting season started at the end of September. A recent wet summer had the forest all in green more so then years past. The weather forecast for the opening day of the 2019 Oregon deer season called for a drastic change from the pleasant 60 degrees and sun to a chilling cold with wind and snow starting in the early hours of opening morning. Future forecast for the following several days called for more cold temps with possibility of snow. In my mind it was the perfect weather conditions for deer to be out and about. To make a short story even shorter….after 12 days of hunting my dad and I saw zero horns on any deer and the number of does we seen wasn’t even encouraging, but we did spend our time wisely scouting the area for elk as we both had bull tags for the same unit.
Returning to camp for elk season my dad and I had been in camp since Friday before the season started that coming Wednesday. We spent the extra days before the season scouting for elk and where hunters might not be (the latter being more of a challenge). Nights had been windy and cold, blowing the tarps on the top of the tent to a relentless beating of drums making it a bit of a challenge to get a full night’s sleep, we both determined that future camp sites would take more advantage of natural wind breaks with more trees and less wind. Wednesday morning, the opening morning of elk season brought a welcome change in the weather as we awoke to clear skies and no wind.
We had a plan to hunt a couple dead end roads on a hill side we had seen a large bull hanging around. Before first light we were in position yet saw nothing after I had walked quite a distance. Later that morning I moved over to the other side of the ridge and walked a ways down into a new canyon. Having seen nothing but other hunters we returned to camp and spent the rest of the afternoon in bed, waking up just in time to go to bed as it had gotten dark.
Thursday morning we walked a gated road to a good stand overlooking the junction of three draws emptying into a large canyon. Walking in while still dark we were in position by first light around 6:45. About an hour later I spotted a spike bull elk at about 635 yards with one cow, these elk appeared not 400 yards from a rather noisy camp site. I knew there were other elk in the area and was anxiously waiting for rest of heard to show, I waited with the scope on this spike for several minutes but the rest of the elk never showed. I was very close to taking that spike but let it go, 10 minutes afterwards I catch a glimpse of big bull lower in the draw and closer at about 400 yards making a slow quite escape, by the time I got the gun up he had disappeared back into the trees heading down the canyon and I never caught sight of him again that morning. It was difficult to go to sleep that night, I would have been happy with that spike and feared that might have been the one and only chance and I let it go. Finally sleep came and then the 4:30am alarm signaled the start of day three.
I made the decision to walk a closed road a mile further down the same canyon we had just hunted the morning before. We arrived a little later then the day before, just after first light around 7am. A short walk later we broke out on the edge of the big canyon. I left dad on the edge of the closed road back in the timber a bit while I walked another 200 yrds down the ridge of the junction of the small draw we were following and the large canyon it drained into. I positioned myself in a spot that had a great view of a large portion of the other side of the canyon. There were several openings amongst the trees that would provide shot opportunities should an elk present itself. I ranged all these openings with my range finder and received readings from 375-425 yrds, well within range of my 230 grain custom bullet propelled by a 300WM and certainly within my comfort range after practicing all summer at distances twice that far. I took the average distance of all the possible shots I may encounter and preset my elevation turret on the scope to 400 yards. Then I looked for a good place to position myself to both sit and wait as well as a spot with a stable rest for shooting off of. I found an old fallen tree that still had a limb parallel to the ground that would be a perfect rest should a shot present itself on the other side. I just had to move a few limbs and brush out of the way to make a perfect spot to go prone with a very steady rest. As it turns out several years ago I had a similar set up with a fallen tree for a rest and made a shot at 535 yards on a nice 5 point elk.
Just as I was finishing clearing out my hide I heard what sounded like a bugle way up the top of the canyon, I was doubtful that it was in fact a real elk as I knew there was a camp up there but for the heck of it I answered with a couple quick cow calls. Than not but two or three minutes later I spot an elk coming up out of the bottom of the canyon on the far side approaching one of the many openings I had just ranged. I dropped down prone behind my fallen tree, positioned my riffle sturdy against the limb and trunk of the tree, brought the scope up and saw branched antlers, I knew I was going to take the shot but the bull was still moving fairly fast up the side of the canyon about to reach the safety of the trees, while I held the cross hair on him I let out a loud cow call simply with my voice, EeeeWhooo! amazingly the elk stopped that instant at the edge of the opening trying to identify the sound while presenting a perfect broadside shot. It took me only a second to position the cross hairs tight in the pocket behind the shoulder and pull the trigger.
I had spent the week between the end of deer season and beginning of elk season watching several elk hunting videos and also watching my videos over the summer shooting steel targets at long distance, hearing that rewarding CLANG of the bullet hitting steel. As I cycled the bolt of my gun to chamber another round I heard the rewarding THUWAP of the impact of my custom 230 grain bullet hitting the side of the elk. I get back on the scope and the bull is down. The only two elk I had previously taken both fell to a single shot and never moved again, I was certainly ready for them to move as I know elk are strong creatures and can often require more than one shot to put them down for good, but like the previous ones this bull was down after the first shot!
When I was younger my dad would yell back at me after dropping a deer…. “bring your knife." After my first bull dropped many years ago I yelled “bull down” back at him. This year as I still lay in my hide with the bull down I yell back to dad “bring your knife” than to a bit of my surprise the bull stands up and starts hoofing it down the side of the canyon but dragging his unresponsive hind end. I quickly fire two more rounds, not sure if the first of these final two shots hit him but the final shot certainly did as he went down for good, on his back with hooves in the air. It was clear he wasn’t getting back up, yet at this point I am laying there with an empty gun as the modification I had done to the stock left me with only the ability to hold two in the magazine. I scrambled in my pockets for the extra rounds I carry for just such an occasion and quickly chambered one more round just in case. At this point I yell back to dad “bull down!”
It is funny to hear my dad tell the story of sitting alongside the closed road then hearing my shot and saying to himself “I knew the minute I left him alone he would get us into trouble.” I would have rather had him next to me to see the shots or possibly even get a shot himself yet after he came down and saw where the elk fell and the work we had in front of us getting the big bull out of the canyon, he jokingly said he probably would have tried to scare the elk away rather than let me shoot it half way down such a steep and deep canyon.
I unloaded all my extra gear onto my dad and had him walk back to the truck to reposition it on the opposite side of the canyon where I knew there was a road on top. As he walked back to the truck I walked a straight line down one side of the canyon and straight up the other side to find my downed elk. If I was a bit smarter at the time I would have told my dad to delay his walk back to the truck and guide me to the downed elk as we all know the brush is a lot thicker when you are standing in it then when you are looking at it from 400 yards away on the other side of a canyon. I did mark my shooting spot with a bit of orange tape and took a yardage to the downed bull. So when I got to the other side and started to have that hint of panic enter my mind that “oh my gosh, I’m not going to be able to find my bull” I checked the range to the hide with my range finder and found it to be right at the 350 yards I ranged the fallen bull from the shooting position so I knew I was at the right distance, all I had to do was walk the arc and locate the bull. At that point I looked to my left and not 20 yards away there laid my elk.
The distance of the first shot turned out to be 360 yards, since I had dialed for 400 yards with my scope the drop chart data showed a difference of about 1MOA vs. what I should have dialed, so it makes since that I hit about 4” higher then I was aiming and rather than scoring a hit behind the shoulder mid body I hit a little higher and put the first shot through both shoulder blades and clipped the base of the spine. As I was butchering the elk there was an additional shot in front of the other side shoulder that exited mid body, this probably being the final killing shot.
I wish I would have had more time and ability to do a thorough investigation as to the exact shot placements and if I hit him two or all three rounds but being by myself with a large mature elk flat on his back with hooves up all while perilously holding on to the side of the 45 degree canyon wall, I was doing good just to get him cut up without the bull or me falling further down the hill. It was the back of his antlers dug into the ground with his snout facing straight up to the sky that actually kept him from rolling further down the hill.
I did recover the bullet from the first shot under the hide on the far side, the recovered weight was 165 grains, about 70% of the original 230 grain starting weight. Very little blood shot meat and I couldn’t be happier with the results. This is the second bull elk I have taken now with my custom 230 grain bullets. I make these custom bullets myself in dies that I also made and machined myself. A very rewarding experience to get an elk and even more so when you reloaded the ammo and made the bullet too!
As for the pack out, luckily we where able to drive my Isuzu Trooper to within about 300 yards of where the bull dropped. Of course the remaining distance I couldn’t drive was the steep stuff, for that I got the pleasure of packing all the meat out on my back. All went well and 5 trips later I had everything in the back of the Trooper. Got back to camp and everything hung by about 7pm, figured I dropped him at about 7:30 that morning, what a lot of work, but worth it and rewarding. My dad still had a bull tag to fill but after all that work he figured he would not feel bad ending his season right there as we shared in the experience of this bull.
It was a rewarding season and a very good bull for the unit we were hunting. I even had success with doing my own European mount with the skull and antlers. The confidence I have now taking my second elk with a homemade bullet and this riffle…… well….. I’ll never have to buy a commercial bullet ever again and I look forward to the next opportunity I have at any elk with these custom 230 grain bullets!
Good Hunting and Swage on!
BT
p.s. Thank you for the patience of the customers still waiting for me to finish your orders and allowing me the opportunity to spend much needed vacation time in the hills with family, friends and these magnificent creatures.
I'll get some more pics loaded up soon.....
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