shoots-straight
Well-known member
Congrats Rat, you get bonus B&C points for loading whole, and getting it close to road.
Just another Raghorn
- Thread starter Rat Fink
- Start date
sra61
Member
Great bull! Nothing better than a freezer full of elk meat!
Brandenbowhunter
Well-known member
should eat great congrats!
shootbrownelk
Well-known member
I too shoot the first legal elk I see in a general area, bird in the hand and all that. Congrats, nice bull.
mtmander
Active member
congrats , nice elk
Nameless Range
Well-known member
I'd shoot that bull every year no problem. It's nice when they die near the truck on the return. Congrats!
Rat Fink
Member
Funny you mention that. I looked at the GPS and saw a nice gentle downsloping contour all the way down to the big flat spot by the road. Now keep in mind I have never hunted this spot before so every boot step was walking on fresh earth for me and I had no idea the layout of the terrain.
I killed the bull just before dark and looking down the hill it was all grass so I figured I would gut and drag since my buddy could help me. I field dressed him and took advantage of the nice little spring next to where he laid to clean up and then we loaded up and started tugging him towards the truck. The grass was wet and the grade was perfect to drag even though we didn't have a sled. The downfall was a pain but we moved most of it out of the way. We made it about 300 yards and it flattened out a bit and got kinda swampy. We decided to take a break from dragging and walk out to the truck which was a mile down the road, unload our gear, and come back in to quarter him and pack the last .2 mile.
We moved the truck up the road to just below where the bull laid and as we started to walk back in, the snow started. It was a heavy wet snow and it really came down. We got back to the bull and my buddy noticed a "trail" right next to where we were. We walked down it and sure enough it was an old 2 track headed right where we needed to go. We cleared the deadfall and moved our packs up about 30 yards and drug the bull up there. It was getting easier as the snow started to accumulate. We had a large pile of deadfall to work around with took around 15 minutes and by that time the snow was a couple inches deep. Once we passed the large deadfall it was all downhill again. The last half of the drag out was very easy in the 3 inches of wet heavy snow that had miraculously dumped just when we needed it the most , as a matter of fact of fact he tried to take off on us a few times.
My buddy said I must be living right to kill a bull so close to the main road, and then to have it dump snow just when we were about to abandon the drag out and quarter him. I guess things are going my way these days.
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Rat Fink
Member
It is a hell of a rifle for the money. I am very pleased with it's accuracy, fit, and finish. I got really lucky and a nice man that had one secured with a deposit decided to get out of it and arranged so I could buy it in his place. I was on the waiting list so I feel very fortunate to have gotten one.
Congrats! If I'd have had the scratch, I would have loved to have gotten 3. One for me and each of my two boys. I think it'd be cool for use to have matching rifles. Someday...
I plan on driving down to Whittakers later this winter. Quite the little gun shop.
I plan on driving down to Whittakers later this winter. Quite the little gun shop.
Rat Fink
Member
Mine is not factory direct so I am not sure. Seems like 3-4 months is what the two 24 hr Campfire group buys have been taking.
Rat Fink
Member
curiouser & curiouser. I'll have to increase my DTI quite a bit more for this, but it's made the short list.
Nice bull Dustin. Glad you were able to load him up whole.
Southern Elk
Well-known member
If that's a rag horn, I want one.
Rat Fink
Member
All wool, all the time. I was really wishing I had my old Savage 99 with me on Sunday. It was the perfect opportunity to use it on a bull.
