As many of you know I've had a helluva a year both physically and with family issues. Many of those issues in both areas are improving so I'm hopeful the new year will be better. I know many of you have tried contacting me and I apologize for either not getting back to you or taking a while. I've had some pretty serious issues to deal with that have taken all my time and attention.

Now on to the hunt, both deer and elk season helped a ton with stress and are a promising start to this coming new year. As I posted I shot a 1 1/2 year old doe opening day with my 454 which was a nice change for this area.

For my elk season I chose our second season which is spike only but with my disabled permit I can shoot cows too but no branch bulls. The season started rough with waking up opening day with a bad sore throat and sinus infection. I managed to get through the first two days of the season but we saw nothing in the areas I normally find elk during the first season. I took the third day off to rest but was still sicker than a dog. The fourth day is when things got interesting. I returned to my normal stomping grounds and found only a fraction of the tracks I normally see and no animals. I had to be back at noon for a Dr. appointment so we headed out early. After the appointment we had some lunch and got ready to head out. I started up the truck and heard a noise I knew right off, I had lost the bearing in the fan clutch. I didn't want to take my other truck since this one is set up with a winch in the bed for loading and I keep several hundred feet of rope in the tool box along with come alongs and blocks. I ran to the local parts store and grabbed a new fan clutch and threw it on. We didn't get into the woods until after 2:00 PM which gave us about 2 1/2hrs of shooting light. I had decided to try a different area I normally avoid because of local pressure and very unforgiving terrain. It started out with climbing a mountain where I went from sea level to 2200ft very quickly. We had two big branch bulls blow out of draw 40yds in front of us which impressed the hell out of my son that had only seen rocky mountain elk which look quite small compared to a mature Roosevelt which I have personally seen harvested bulls pushing 1400lbs. These two were in the 1k lb range whereas a big rocky will normally be be 600-700lbs.

It was about 3:30 when we spotted two cows on a relatively flat bench. One was probably 4-6" higher at the shoulder but she would never cl so I drew a bead on the smaller cowat roughly 80yds and touched her off. I had put the Millett red dot on her shoulder to break her down. The bench she was on went out for about another 100yds an then dropped about 100ft into a river gorge and I didn't not want her getting to that. The shot broke her left leg which was instantly obvious. She moved off about another 40yds but would not give me a clear shot except her big yellow butt. I didn't want the shot because I hate cleaning gut shots but I wanted her down so I put the dot on her butt and squeezed off another round and she dropped but fell over the windfall in the background. Both shots were off hand, the first disintegrated about 3" of leg bone just below the ball and I mean it powdered it. The bullet trajectory was deflected forward and it went through the brisquet breaking both of the front ribs. The second shot hit high and to the left of the butt hole and passed through about 12" of muscle just over the hip joint and entered the body cavity just outside of the tenderloin about halfway and lodged against the diaphragm but not before making a mess out of the guts.

I was fortunate to be able to maneuver my truck to within about 150ft of her and ran three 1/2 ropes to her and was able to drag her out with the truck and then load her with the winch in the bed. This cow is in the 600lb range which is pretty typical for a young cow around here and we got roughly 300lbs of meat off her. She was every bit as big as the 5x6 rocky I took with my Encore couple years ago.

This was my first revolver elk and I was using my own custom Ruger in 454 with the 240gr XTP Mags and the Millet Red dot.


This pic is where she came to rest, someone mentioned it looks like a jungle and it actually is a rain forest with 120" of rain annually it primarily ferns, multiple types of berry's, skunk cabbage, alders, firs and tamaracks with cedars higher up. There are some other nasty bushes I don't know the names of but they hurt. With me being 6'3" and 260 you can't appreciate how big she really is until the next pic.


This pic is of my wife and son helping with the skinning. Notice they are standing on steps and my son is 6' even and my wife is 5'7". This gives a little better idea of how big she was.


These next two pics are of the XTP which still weighed 229.6gr even after punching through roughly 3' of elk.



Although not a great pic, for those that didn't see it here is a pic of my little blacktail doe.


For those of you looking for a challenging hunt with high success rates you should look into OR outfitters that guide for Roosevelts. The cost is generally considerably less than most elk hunts in the rocky mountain states and you will work for one. The one good thing is you don't have altitude working against you but the terrain in most areas is very nasty and the weather normally sucks but it is a rewarding hunt. Obviously since I'm successful with Rosies you can hunt them even if your not in the best shape but it sure helps. I don't recommend diy hunts for them unless you are a very experienced mountain navigator. These mountains are flat treacherous at best and plain deadly at worse. These mountains are easiest to get lost in I've ever seen but the terrain is the killer. It is steep to the point of being vertical in many places with plenty of bluffs where a wrong step is instant death and the ground is normally saturated and slimy so an unwanted trip to the bottom of a canyon is a definite possibilitly.

I've lived in my current home since 06 and never had a problem with coons until about 4 mos ago. This big girl is # 3 and #2 with MK III. They have always been around but recently they have found my cat door and they have also started harassing my cats. In OR you actually have to get a nuisance animal permit to kill coons, which I did get one. The gun is MK III 22/45 with a Millet red dot. The first shot was 60yds to the body and the second a 40yd head shot. That red dot comes in handy for these night time kills.

Nice elk and nice shooting on all 3 critters! I hope you have a better year too Wapitirod. I could use one myself.

"These mountains are easiest to get lost in I've ever seen but the terrain is the killer. It is steep to the point of being vertical in many places with plenty of bluffs where a wrong step is instant death and the ground is normally saturated and slimy so an unwanted trip to the bottom of a canyon is a definite possibilitly."

When you put it that way, I'm signing up today

congratulations on the elk and deer. That's excellent performance with the XTP. I have always had good luck with them also. Hope next year is much better for you with health and family!! Take care bud!

Congrats Rod! Good to see you are out & about!

that's cool! what kind of red dot?

Congrats!!

Kyode, it's the Millet. I've actually had good luck with them on my 454, 500 and 22. They aren't quite as nice as the Ultradots but I like them and if you look around you can find them as low as 55.00 as opposed to the 125.00 some outfits sell them for. I wasn't sure I would like them at first because the lens is tinted but all my animals have been shot in medium to low light and two coons in the dark and I've had no issues. The tinted lens actually helps cut down on the dot flare you get with some sights.

Congrats on all three kills.

Good show Rod.

Rod,

If I may ask, how fast are you running those 240's? I am on a quest for lead and jacketed that are less than 335 and 360 ;^) My plinking load is a Ranier 250 at 1000, and I am finding that 265's (more or less) run at almost full throttle group closely to the plinkers. I've got a partial box of the 240 XTP mags, and trying to decide whether I should buy more for testing when I can find them again.

Thanks,

Craig

Great job Rod. I told you the time in the woods would help relax you. I am happy you got something. It is nice your boy and wife can help out with the skinning.

thanks guys, Craig I don't remember the chrono numbers but I think they were 1700+. i'm using a max load of H110 but this gun is a little slower than the advertised velocities but still fast enough to smash an elk.

I forgot to mention I owe a lot of thanks to a neurologist I found over in Portland. She started me on a medication that has all but completely stopped my hand tremors which is the biggest reason I was going to give up handgun hunting. Thanks to modern chemistry and a great doc at least for now I can keep shooting. I'm not quite the shot I used to be but good enough for hunting at moderate ranges. Now next year I hope to bloody the camo 500 on elk but we shall see.

Rod,

Appreciate that. I figured you were running pretty warm. My barrel is only 4 3/4 so I never get what you long hunters get, but it gives me something to work with. I am trying to keep my weights at 250-260ish, but it's hard to discount a bullet that was designed for the 454.

Great news on the meds. Your a little too young to have either the mind or body go too far south. We all have to live with little things breaking down, but to have to completely give up the handguns, oh boy.

Craig

Good job Rod!