late cow elk hunt

we leave for a montana elk hunt on new years day with our hunt to start on Jan 3. the host said the elk are there and we should have a good chance to fill tags. he said that the elk seem spooky this year and we should be prepared to shoot to 300 yards. My 375 winchester contender is my primary gun with a ruger redhawk 4.25" 44 mag with a burris ff3 as my finisher. I dug out my magnum research ssp-91 .308 out of mothballs and checked the zero and it is ready to go if need be.
I have been shooting off of the bipod prone, my prefered long range shooting position and off of my tripod trigger sticks with a homemade pistol rest out to two hundred yards. i have been able to keep the groups to 3 inches or less at 200. My son Brad has a Scoped Ruger blackhawk 45 colt with 250 gr deep curls and a heavy load of h-110 in case of a close encounter but he is carrying a browning a bolt 300 wsm to reach out there if need be. My wife will have her rifle in 7-08 so there will be one to use if i absolutely have to make a long shot to fill the freezer.
i feel pretty confident that the handguns will come into play if the elk are in a stalkable location. I have my range finder for exact ranging and my drop charts indicate a near top of back hold at 300 with my current zero. anything that i am forgetting?

Worry less about killing an elk and enjoy the hunt, if it happens it?ll happen if doesn?t, there are lots of really cool things that can make the trip a success and enjoyable without an elk on the ground.

Enjoy,.....Trapr

Sounds like the sighting in and load work are done. Little more practice ,warm clothes, sharp knives, game bags, and most of all a positive attitude. Yes we are going to kill elk, Yes we will have fun with friends and family. And if the hunting gods don't smile on you, you will still have a good time. GOOD LUCK< HUNT SAFE!

Good luck and stay safe.

Good luck and enjoy your hunt

Drive safe too this time of year!

Enjoy.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Good luck.

Have fun and post some pictures.

Sounds like a great way to start the new year.

Good luck and give 'em hell!

thank you all, will definitely enjoy the trip no matter what. an elk is the bonus, i have bowhunted elk many times and havent harvested an elk yet. i havent had a bad hunt, some were better than others but none were bad-i will give an update when i return

Best of luck on the hunt and safe travels.

Who are you hunting with up there?

a guy that my brother knows, he has hunted with him before and he graciously opened up the invite for the rest of the family. I am a plus one on this hunt so don't know much other than late season gun hunting elk. kind of weird going into this hunt knowing so little, but my brother is the hunt master on this one. we will see if he gets an atta boy or an ah crap.

Good hunting!

back from the great state of montana! it was a great hunt with three out of 4 tags filled> unfortunately none dropped to a handgun. the temps were unseasonably warm and the elk were tucked into hidey holes in the cool dark timber. we found them consistently in a 3-4 mile block on a 17,000 acre lease. we hunted by pickup truck driving the two tracks and ranch roads looking for the elk then stalking them. dawn and i hunted with Tony our guide. day one we saw 14 bulls and some of them were real booners. only legal cows we saw were about two miles away moving into dark timber near dark and no way to get to them before dark. day two brought a stalk on a small herd but no shot. morning of day three and no elk on the meat pole switched me to rifle mode to capitalize on possibly a quick non handgun opportunity. first thing morning three i spotted two cows moving out of a creek bottom towards the dark timber. Tony said that he knew where they were going so away we went to cut them off. a 1/2 mile stalk and a two shots later and a cow on the ground. 2 miles away my son shot bull calf. later that day dawn filled her tag with a bull calf. i think a a handgun could have been used but, all shots were from bog pod tripods except dawn who used my pistol rest trigger sticks. two shots were at 200 yards and one at 185 so not close range by any means. very enjoyable hunt without having to run the mountains to get an elk.

Congrats on filling some tags and the freezer!

Congrats,.....it seems unseasonably warm has been the case for everyone on elk this year. My hunt was as well.

Trapr

would the gentleman's name be Tony Piscopo with Continental Divide Outfitters?

Way to go guys and gals.

wiseguy- yes tony was our guide and outfitter and duke was another guide while we were there. you obviously know him or know of his outfitter business.

I'm actually going on a cow elk hunt with him Dec 2020. I've heard nothing but good things about him.

wiseguy- i think you will enjoy it. it is low impact on the property. no wandering around or pushing. they want everyone to have the chance at success. my wife dawn has a lung issue and cant run the mountains. Tony was great about being mindful of letting her rest after coming up the hills before going on. we had three stalks- one was no opportunity as they just disappeared. the other two resulted in dead elk. I will highly suggest that you practice ALOT from the standing position from a set of bogpod sticks or your own variation of it. I figured out after the second stalk that most shots are 100 yards or more and it happens fast. had time to settle in but the elk were not out in the open so had to stand to shoot. my brother missed three shots from 150-234 with a rifle. he doesnt practice off sticks, but he already booked for next year and has bought stick already to start practicing from. We enjoyed this hunt alot, good food, good guides, nice bunkhouse. if we were looking for another elk hunt, Tony would be our guy. you can pm if you have any more questions. btw he will do everything possible to get you in handgun range if you are committed to taking one that way. he split us up one handgunner and one rifle shooter so we could double if the chance arose. i would recommend him 100%.

Thanks Dave! Glad to hear you had a great hunt