Been elk hunting ...

by Flatlander, Saturday, October 19, 2013, 09:24 (3997 days ago)

Amy and I went elk hunting in the Glass Mountains in West Texas. There is a free-ranging elk herd there of about 1,000 head that is pretty judiciously hunted. No high fences, just really big country.

We were hindered a good bit by fog and rain. The first day we saw a herd of cows and a pretty good 5x5 bull and a couple of younger bulls.

The second morning was still raining. We spotted a 6x6 bull at about 3/4 mile and stalked to 175 yards and passed on a clean broadside shot because he could have used another year of length and mass. But the stalk was great ...

Later that morning we got into javelina and aoudad, but we were on some fresh elk tracks and I wasn't inclined to spoil that with a shot on either.

We finally went back in and got dry, got lunch and headed back out with the notion of spotting from high ground ... loafing in the sun that finally came out ... when Amy spotted this bull. It was a pretty quick shot from sitting at 250 yards. 30-06 180 gr Nosler Accubond through both lungs from a Ruger 1-A. The bull ran 30 yards and piled up dead.

The rest of the trip was exhausting and a hazy memory of blood and guts and heavy weight.

While skinning out, we found an 8" elk tine buried in the bull's rear hindquarter ... no indication of a wound on his hide ... still a headscratcher. Lost a little meat as a result but not much.

All in all, a fantastic bull ... aged and on the downhill slide, broken-nosed ... I would have liked to have seen him last year or before, in his prime. These are all off of Amy's phone. She took some great shots of this bull before and immediately after the shot that I will add when she gets them downloaded. One puts those brow tines into perspective - they are huge. I am not much on scoring animals, but this one has a 41" inside spread, a 48-1/2" beam, and a rough SCI score of about 335 ... the bases are twice as big as anything I've killed before.