Buffalobob
10-20-2011, 16:06
I left Wyoming and headed back to Utah for the rifle elk hunt. I only had a cow tag so it seemed it should go pretty easy and I would be in and out in just a few days. Wrong again! A small rainstorm turned into a two day blizzard and I was trapped down in the valley in a hotel room until the 8-12 inches of snow on the high mountain roads became passable. After 4 days of being cooped in the motel, I finally managed to get to my camp site and shovel snow to clear the area for my tent. Setting up camp took most of the day but the weather had warmed up a lot so it was not all that unpleasant. The first day of hunting saw a lot of walking and checking for elk sign but no elk were seen. Fortunately 90% of the hunters had gone home to Momma and their lazy boy recliner so I had the place to myself. The second day early in the morning I spotted about 25 elk headed across the valley to the ridge I was on. I pondered where they would cross my ridge and decided to head for that saddle. First I took off the bipod being as I would not be needing it and in the process managed to drop the rifle on the scope. I could not believe that right when I needed the rifle that I had potentially knocked off the zero but with the likely range of a shot being under 100 yards I went after the elk. By 11:00 it was apparent that the elk had bedded down somewhere on the side of the hill and would not cross the saddle until late afternoon. I decided to go to camp get some food and check the zero. The zero was two MOA high and half MOA left so I spun the dials and got out the hex wrench and loosened up the set screws and adjusted the turrets to zero. Being in a hurry I did not fire a confirmation shot being as the Nightforce is a dependable scope and I was certain of my shooting.
So I drove the half mile back to the ridge and got my pack on and headed back to the elk. Instead of going directly to the saddle I decided to first go to the beginning of the adjacent ridge and glass the hillside where the elk would come up to the saddle. Sure enough there were the elk bedded down in the pines and snow where it was nice and cool. Range to a calf was 556 yards- just a nice chip shot with the 257 Wby and 139 gr Wildcat HP RBBTs.. So I shed my gear and put the bipod on the rifle and dialed up the scope. Wind was gusting from 0-10 but the aspen leaves provided real time data for the shot so I dialed in 1 MOA of wind. So I fired and there was no sound of impact. Instead the calf merely looked upward as if to find out if a squirrel was up in the tree. I thought maybe I had flinched or something so I put another cartridge into the Ruger #1 and fired again. This time the calf stood up and looked all around. But did not move off. In fact none of the elk were disturbed and I was shooting without a break on the barrel. Well, being mystified as to what was happening being as I had just finished zeroing he rifle I sat and pondered how I could miss twice at a lousy 556 yards. After about ten minutes I decided that maybe the tall Harris bipod was the trouble and that I had zeroed it without the bipod and this was introducing a POI change. Off comes the bipod and I improvise the same set up I had used for zero with my rolled up jacket and pack. The set up was a little unstable but I started on the trigger squeeze anyway and just before the trigger broke the rifle slide of the jacket as the firing pin fell. Surprisingly enough, I hear the sound of the bullet impact the elk so I get the rifle back up and sure enough it is hit but way back somewhere. Now I really have made a mess and have a wounded elk and a rifle that won’t hit the side of a barn. Still the elk are not spooked and just lying around or grazing. The calf stands there a minute wobbling around and then beds back down. I ponder three options: go to the truck and get the 7mm Allen Mag and come back which will take about 45 minutes, try to stalk within 50 yards of the wounded elk in the midst of a herd of 25 elk or just wait and see if the animal is going to die soon. No options are any good but I know if I leave and go to the truck and the herd decides to move on while I am gone I will never be able to track one animal in a herd of animals so I opt to stay in place and wait. After a little while three other elk graze uphill to the calf and the calf stands up as if to leave so I have no choice but to try to make a shot that I have no faith that can be made with the rifle in the shape it is in. So aiming low, I fire and hear the impact and see the calf roll back down the hill. What a relief!
I later find that the bullet has hit it in the head killing it instantly. I went over and cut it up and laid the meat in the snow to cool down overnight. So the day ended well and I made me some supper and went to bed. About 2:00 that night I snap awake with a picture in my mind of the scope dial when I had adjusted it to zero. The picture shows the dial set at +2! Instead of turning the scope down two MOA to 8 for -2MOA, I had spun it up two MOA to +2 which made the rifle 4MOA high at 100 instead of bringing it to zero at 100 yards. So the mental lapse of spinning the dial the wrong way because my mind was not on the task at hand but rather the elk on the ridge and my overconfidence in my abilities and not firing a zero confirmation shot had been the cause of my problems. Compensating bad luck in actually hitting the elk in the first place and good luck of actually killing it had saved the day.
Here is a video after the fact. There is a small joke about Aspen trees and I will post some videos of soot up aspen trees in a few days.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Microcystis?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/V6ewkxX72rw
So I drove the half mile back to the ridge and got my pack on and headed back to the elk. Instead of going directly to the saddle I decided to first go to the beginning of the adjacent ridge and glass the hillside where the elk would come up to the saddle. Sure enough there were the elk bedded down in the pines and snow where it was nice and cool. Range to a calf was 556 yards- just a nice chip shot with the 257 Wby and 139 gr Wildcat HP RBBTs.. So I shed my gear and put the bipod on the rifle and dialed up the scope. Wind was gusting from 0-10 but the aspen leaves provided real time data for the shot so I dialed in 1 MOA of wind. So I fired and there was no sound of impact. Instead the calf merely looked upward as if to find out if a squirrel was up in the tree. I thought maybe I had flinched or something so I put another cartridge into the Ruger #1 and fired again. This time the calf stood up and looked all around. But did not move off. In fact none of the elk were disturbed and I was shooting without a break on the barrel. Well, being mystified as to what was happening being as I had just finished zeroing he rifle I sat and pondered how I could miss twice at a lousy 556 yards. After about ten minutes I decided that maybe the tall Harris bipod was the trouble and that I had zeroed it without the bipod and this was introducing a POI change. Off comes the bipod and I improvise the same set up I had used for zero with my rolled up jacket and pack. The set up was a little unstable but I started on the trigger squeeze anyway and just before the trigger broke the rifle slide of the jacket as the firing pin fell. Surprisingly enough, I hear the sound of the bullet impact the elk so I get the rifle back up and sure enough it is hit but way back somewhere. Now I really have made a mess and have a wounded elk and a rifle that won’t hit the side of a barn. Still the elk are not spooked and just lying around or grazing. The calf stands there a minute wobbling around and then beds back down. I ponder three options: go to the truck and get the 7mm Allen Mag and come back which will take about 45 minutes, try to stalk within 50 yards of the wounded elk in the midst of a herd of 25 elk or just wait and see if the animal is going to die soon. No options are any good but I know if I leave and go to the truck and the herd decides to move on while I am gone I will never be able to track one animal in a herd of animals so I opt to stay in place and wait. After a little while three other elk graze uphill to the calf and the calf stands up as if to leave so I have no choice but to try to make a shot that I have no faith that can be made with the rifle in the shape it is in. So aiming low, I fire and hear the impact and see the calf roll back down the hill. What a relief!
I later find that the bullet has hit it in the head killing it instantly. I went over and cut it up and laid the meat in the snow to cool down overnight. So the day ended well and I made me some supper and went to bed. About 2:00 that night I snap awake with a picture in my mind of the scope dial when I had adjusted it to zero. The picture shows the dial set at +2! Instead of turning the scope down two MOA to 8 for -2MOA, I had spun it up two MOA to +2 which made the rifle 4MOA high at 100 instead of bringing it to zero at 100 yards. So the mental lapse of spinning the dial the wrong way because my mind was not on the task at hand but rather the elk on the ridge and my overconfidence in my abilities and not firing a zero confirmation shot had been the cause of my problems. Compensating bad luck in actually hitting the elk in the first place and good luck of actually killing it had saved the day.
Here is a video after the fact. There is a small joke about Aspen trees and I will post some videos of soot up aspen trees in a few days.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Microcystis?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/V6ewkxX72rw