I think many of us elk hunters have a strong masochistic tendency in that we must enjoy pain, why else would we shoot an elk, down in some remote canyon, knowing full well that its likely to require several guys back packing out 60-70 pounds of meat each on several successive trips out of, LORD ONLY KNOWS, what steep or brush filled canyon, on what frequently becomes a 2-3 hour trip best described as self inflicted calisthenics and a test to see if you can self inflict a heart attack while gasping for breath on wobbly legs.
If you hunt canyons your not going to have a great deal of competition from other hunters and your chances of getting an elk improve a good deal over the guys that never get 100 yards off a logging road, but theres a price to pay in much greater physical effort.
I once turned to my partner while we were each packing out 60 plus lbs of elk meat up a steep incline that we had been climbing for over an hour , and said.....
".HOW MUCH DID THAT LICENSE COST TO DO THIS?" neither of us could continue we were laughing so hard we had to stop , and almost cry at the absurd situation
this is NOT a bull I shot,its simply a picture I found posted, but it gives you a good idea of the typical area you still hunt, so you get some idea why I say a long range rifles not mandatory and why one of my hunting partners used a 358 win BLR for 25 years and thought it was the ideal elk rifle, almost any rifle that hits hard out to 300 yards will do fine in my experience
THIS IS A PICTURE OF THE AREA I HUNT FREQUENTLY FOR ELK
LOWER CANYON
yes elk sometimes run after being hit in my experience , and yes you can,t depend on any rifle dropping one instantly every time.
my mentors told me about 40% of the time elk would run before dropping,after being shot,no mater how well I placed the shot.
just curious? your post infers BOTH that the cow elk ran of and that you have elk meat?
Im assuming the elk eventually dropped?
the first two years I hunted elk I was only abut 20 years old,I used a 760 Remington slide action 30/06 , loaded with 220 grain soft point peters ammo,which was what most of the older guys in camp who had been hunting for decades before I started had found that rifle to work well. both of the first two elk I killed ran when hit and showed little reaction. both elk died after a 50-60 yard sprint, but I would have assumed I missed if I was relying solely on the elks reaction to being hit!
but I was hunting with several mentors who had advised me on the rifle, load, where to shoot, and how the elk frequently failed to instantly drop when hit!
I was UN-impressed with the 30/06 even though it provided a one shot kill in both cases, I saved up and purchased a 340 wby after spending months studying ballistic charts.
yes the next elk I shot dropped on bullet impact, but over the years that followed my mentors constantly joked about my "CANNON" and I eventually realized that the 340 wby seemed to kill more effectively in that it surely produced a much more noticeable reaction from game when hit, but the fact remained that both the 30/06 and the 340 wby killed with a single well placed hit, and occasionally elk still made a short run after being hit!
upper canyon
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=3738
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=1275
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=2846
If you hunt canyons your not going to have a great deal of competition from other hunters and your chances of getting an elk improve a good deal over the guys that never get 100 yards off a logging road, but theres a price to pay in much greater physical effort.
I once turned to my partner while we were each packing out 60 plus lbs of elk meat up a steep incline that we had been climbing for over an hour , and said.....
".HOW MUCH DID THAT LICENSE COST TO DO THIS?" neither of us could continue we were laughing so hard we had to stop , and almost cry at the absurd situation
this is NOT a bull I shot,its simply a picture I found posted, but it gives you a good idea of the typical area you still hunt, so you get some idea why I say a long range rifles not mandatory and why one of my hunting partners used a 358 win BLR for 25 years and thought it was the ideal elk rifle, almost any rifle that hits hard out to 300 yards will do fine in my experience
THIS IS A PICTURE OF THE AREA I HUNT FREQUENTLY FOR ELK
LOWER CANYON
yes elk sometimes run after being hit in my experience , and yes you can,t depend on any rifle dropping one instantly every time.
my mentors told me about 40% of the time elk would run before dropping,after being shot,no mater how well I placed the shot.
just curious? your post infers BOTH that the cow elk ran of and that you have elk meat?
Im assuming the elk eventually dropped?
the first two years I hunted elk I was only abut 20 years old,I used a 760 Remington slide action 30/06 , loaded with 220 grain soft point peters ammo,which was what most of the older guys in camp who had been hunting for decades before I started had found that rifle to work well. both of the first two elk I killed ran when hit and showed little reaction. both elk died after a 50-60 yard sprint, but I would have assumed I missed if I was relying solely on the elks reaction to being hit!
but I was hunting with several mentors who had advised me on the rifle, load, where to shoot, and how the elk frequently failed to instantly drop when hit!
I was UN-impressed with the 30/06 even though it provided a one shot kill in both cases, I saved up and purchased a 340 wby after spending months studying ballistic charts.
yes the next elk I shot dropped on bullet impact, but over the years that followed my mentors constantly joked about my "CANNON" and I eventually realized that the 340 wby seemed to kill more effectively in that it surely produced a much more noticeable reaction from game when hit, but the fact remained that both the 30/06 and the 340 wby killed with a single well placed hit, and occasionally elk still made a short run after being hit!
upper canyon
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=3738
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=1275
viewtopic.php?f=92&t=2846