Harleysboss
10-10-2014, 10:35 PM
Well I'm back from our elk hunt and we were successful. My son and I had drawn cow elk tags this year for an eastern Washington hunt unit. I have been testing my paper patching skills all summer from guidance from the numerous posts on this forum as well as help getting started from idahoron. Our rifles were a White Bison .504 and a "hotrod" Lyman deer stalker with a GM LRH 50cal. The loads were 75grns Goex FFFG followed by a hard card an a 460grn No Excuses conical size .500 wrapped 2 wraps of onion skin and finally run through a .501 size die.
On the morning that we connected, we had been still hunting a real thick patch of timber. WE had separated by about 50 yards to watch different draws. My son cow called softly and just seconds later we heard crashing coming off a ridge. I saw the cow first. she came trotting past me at about 15 yards. I made bleat noise and she slowed to listen. I lined up and fired. She bolted down the draw and past my son. He had heard the shot ( of course) and got ready. The cow passed him at about 25 yards and stopped. He did not see a hit so he lined up and fired. The cow took 10 steps spun and was down for the count.
During the skinning and quartering we found that both shots had found the mark and were actually about 3 inches part in the lungs. Since my son had the finishing shot he got to hang his tag on her. She was a nice young cow probably a 2 year old at about 400 lbs.
We continued the hunt for 3 more days and had a few other encounters but things just did not pan out to take a second elk on my tag. Six great days in the mountains with my son and we managed to take a fine animal for the table. A big thank you goes out to the paper patchers that share great info on this forum. Sorry no pictures yet. I still have to dig the camera out and down load them. I'm sold on the paper patch method and will continue to fine tune my technique.
On the morning that we connected, we had been still hunting a real thick patch of timber. WE had separated by about 50 yards to watch different draws. My son cow called softly and just seconds later we heard crashing coming off a ridge. I saw the cow first. she came trotting past me at about 15 yards. I made bleat noise and she slowed to listen. I lined up and fired. She bolted down the draw and past my son. He had heard the shot ( of course) and got ready. The cow passed him at about 25 yards and stopped. He did not see a hit so he lined up and fired. The cow took 10 steps spun and was down for the count.
During the skinning and quartering we found that both shots had found the mark and were actually about 3 inches part in the lungs. Since my son had the finishing shot he got to hang his tag on her. She was a nice young cow probably a 2 year old at about 400 lbs.
We continued the hunt for 3 more days and had a few other encounters but things just did not pan out to take a second elk on my tag. Six great days in the mountains with my son and we managed to take a fine animal for the table. A big thank you goes out to the paper patchers that share great info on this forum. Sorry no pictures yet. I still have to dig the camera out and down load them. I'm sold on the paper patch method and will continue to fine tune my technique.