Elk by Racksmasher

VERY NICE!!! Congrats!!

Last week I went to Straight pine Lodge in central Pennsylvania, my goal was to get a load of good eating Elk meat, and a nice set of horns. Straight Pine has a very nice lodge, and the meals were very good, the owners are wonderful folks that are very hard working. the area I hunted was 20 minutes from their family farm, myself and the owner sat in a 8x8 elevated box blind, sitting patently we enjoyed the morning, calling and looking over the landscape, then the rain came, to my right I saw a Elk run down the logging road, 10 minutes later I saw it run back up the road in the direction it came from.After talking things over with the owner, he thought we should move to another location,so we gathered up our gear and headed to another blind. After walking a bit , I saw the new blind in the distance, the owner was maybe 15 yards in front of me , as he turned his head to look at me I could tell there was a elk in front of him, the Bull showed up at this small field the same time we did, the bull was standing broadside, 60 yards, I braced up against a tree kneeling with my Freedom arms 83 in 454 Casull, and shot, at the shot the bull dropped instantly, in the pouring rain I gathered my gear and noticed the bull was getting up, getting ready to shoot again my Ultra Dot was pretty much filled with water, I could not get another shot into him.A short wile later we spotted the bull bedded down, about 100 yards away, I shot and missed, we took a breather and got our heads together. Following the blood trail another 100 yards, I looked up and spotted the Bull with some cows, I crawled to about 50 yards and shot again at the bull, seeing the bullet hit his chest, he did"nt even flinch, so I shot again, watching the bullet hit 2" from the previous shot, no reaction, so I put another one in him, yes, same reaction, now he was getting wobbly, and finally went down. This was one tough ass animal, how a animal can stand there and take the 300 grain XTP"s like that left me shaking my head, BUT he was on the ground, it was a great hunt, and I"m going back next year, thanks for sharing my hunt with me , and I wish my buddies were there, thanks James for putting this up.

You took one hell of a nice Bull Jim!

Good job! Honestly if ya want it
To go go a bit smoother use an afrAme or a barnes xbp and i can promise itll go down quicker? Were all your shots thru the vitals? Hit bone?

Also. Very very nice bull!

Fine specimen. It is amazing how they can take such punishment.

1st shot was high in the shoulder, the rest were behind the shoulder , center rib cage.

Great elk! I've heard they can soak up some damage, but dang, he sounded tough.

Good hunt.

Very nice elk! Congrats?

Awesome Racksmasher! Congratulations on a fine bull elk with a revolver!

QUOTE:
"This was one tough ass animal, how an animal can stand there and take the 300 grain XTP's like that left me shaking my head, BUT he was on the ground, it was a great hunt, and I'm going back next year, thanks for sharing my hunt with me. I wish my buddies were there, thanks James for putting this up." END QUOTE

Yes sir, They are amazingly tough; having been in on literally dozens of elk kills I can vouch for that.

That is why I always recommend a minimum of .30 caliber in rifle type cartridges with a minimum bullet weight of 165 grains in a Nosler Partition or Accubond or similar type bullets in a pistol. And .454 caliber min. in a revolver with good bullets.

And this is just MHO.

Jimmy, Here are the lungs of an elk I shot at a measured 90 yards using Winchester 260gr Partition factory ammo from my FA`s 454. You can see the how close the shots were, however, the elk showed NO indication of being hit by the first or second shot. I remember asking the guide if I missed. At that point I caught a slight stumble as he moved and realized my shooting was just fine but the elk did not know that.... Tough animal..... Congratulations again on a beautiful 6x6 that will soon live forever in your home....

Congratulations, that's a nice bull! They are very tough animals!

Two weeks ago, I shot an elk with my 475 Linebaugh. I was shooting 400 gr WFNGC LBT'S at approx. 1200 fps. The first shot was to break the shoulders. [no reaction] The second shot was for the heart lungs and again no reaction. We could see the shots were good on the hide from where we were so I quit shooting. The bull went 50 more yards and piled up. Approx 10 seconds after he hit the ground there was no movement. The same day using a SRH 44 mag with 300 gr WFNGC LBT's my son shot a cow elk. After shooting 4 times I asked what is wrong. The cow showed no visible signs of being hit. He shot 2 more times and the cow stood still for almost a minute while he was reloading, then just fell over. After gutting we found 5 of 6 hits including the heart and shoulders broke down. Hard to believe the hits they can take. Extremely tough animals! Congrats on your success!!!!

Congratulations on a great elk! Thanks all for sharing. I have only hunted elk in my dreams so I truly enjoying reading about them.

dhom, congrat"s to you and your son!

Awesome Bull! Congratulations!!

awesome bull congrats. any elk with a revolver is a celebration/ although I am not a fan of the xtp's. I know they work well for some peeps...I have not had that luck with them. good job that is some good feed in the freezer.