iaengineer
Member
First, I want to thank eveyone on here. I got so much good advice here from old post and all the private messages.
My son decided last year we would go try a late cow hunt. We picked Wyoming because a long time ago I spent some time there and new the roads pretty well. We went the first 5 days of January. The weather at that time was not helpful at all. First day it started out -25 and blowing snow. The next couple of days were not much better. The visiblity was very low and it was tough to glass anything. We didn't see an elk the entire time. At this point we were getting alittle discouraged. BuzzH called me on the last night he said he wanted to go out with us to do some scouting because he was taking his dad and a friend out in the next couple of days but I actually think he was feeling sorry for us not at least seeing anything. The next day the weather was slightly better but still tough to get around on the roads and glass. At least we did get to see an elk. Buzz spotted a bull about a mile away.
My son was out of school and I had Jan 19 off work so we decide we would make one more quick trip out. Wow what a difference two weeks made in the weather. It was sunny and in the 40s and 50s during the day. We hunted saturday and didn't spot anything. We talked to two different game wardens and they both said they haven't see anything. Then we got a tip from another hunter that saw a large herd on a small piece of blm. We checked it out and didn't see anything from the road so we took a hike and walked over the first ridge and walk right into a herd of cows. My son couldn't get setup for a shot before they walked off the public ground. Then we walked over the next ridge and found another small herd bedded. Same thing my son couldn't get setup and get a shot before they left.
The last day we decided to go back and take one look before we started on our 12 hour drive back home. We walked back a mile or so more from the last herd we saw. Nothing so we decided to look over one more ridge and then head back home. Over the ridge was a herd of about 100 cows. We decided I would take the first shot this time. So I crawled down the ridge and got a good rest on rock. I was prone and had a good rest but had to lay at an odd angle because of the catus. Rookie mistake I didn't bring everything with me so no range finder I figured it was about 400 yards. Also, I was thinking it looked kind of steep. I picked out one standing broad side and took the shot. It stumbled and went behind a big rock and the rest of the herd ran off. Then it came stumbling back out facing the other direction still standing. I setup again and shot again and it went straight down. We tried to step it off and I think it was closer to 500 yards.
I learned something very important. That hill turned out to be a steep mountain side and we had to pack all the meat back up it. We couldn't go around it because it was private ground. It ended up taking us the rest of the day to get all the meat to the truck.
I ended up using factory ammo. I was given several boxes of ammo and they shot really good in my gun so I figured I might as well use them. They were just plain soft points. The first shot the bullet completely failed. It failed to penetrate. The second one worked ok but it didn't exit either. Both shots were placed perfect in the chest broadside. From now on it will only be premium bullets.
Since I had to shoot from such an odd angle I got wacked by the scope pretty bad.
All we had was a phone so the picture is not too good.
In the end we made it home a day late completely exhausted but we ate some elk last night and it was awesome. It was a great hunt and we can't wait to do it again.
My son decided last year we would go try a late cow hunt. We picked Wyoming because a long time ago I spent some time there and new the roads pretty well. We went the first 5 days of January. The weather at that time was not helpful at all. First day it started out -25 and blowing snow. The next couple of days were not much better. The visiblity was very low and it was tough to glass anything. We didn't see an elk the entire time. At this point we were getting alittle discouraged. BuzzH called me on the last night he said he wanted to go out with us to do some scouting because he was taking his dad and a friend out in the next couple of days but I actually think he was feeling sorry for us not at least seeing anything. The next day the weather was slightly better but still tough to get around on the roads and glass. At least we did get to see an elk. Buzz spotted a bull about a mile away.
My son was out of school and I had Jan 19 off work so we decide we would make one more quick trip out. Wow what a difference two weeks made in the weather. It was sunny and in the 40s and 50s during the day. We hunted saturday and didn't spot anything. We talked to two different game wardens and they both said they haven't see anything. Then we got a tip from another hunter that saw a large herd on a small piece of blm. We checked it out and didn't see anything from the road so we took a hike and walked over the first ridge and walk right into a herd of cows. My son couldn't get setup for a shot before they walked off the public ground. Then we walked over the next ridge and found another small herd bedded. Same thing my son couldn't get setup and get a shot before they left.
The last day we decided to go back and take one look before we started on our 12 hour drive back home. We walked back a mile or so more from the last herd we saw. Nothing so we decided to look over one more ridge and then head back home. Over the ridge was a herd of about 100 cows. We decided I would take the first shot this time. So I crawled down the ridge and got a good rest on rock. I was prone and had a good rest but had to lay at an odd angle because of the catus. Rookie mistake I didn't bring everything with me so no range finder I figured it was about 400 yards. Also, I was thinking it looked kind of steep. I picked out one standing broad side and took the shot. It stumbled and went behind a big rock and the rest of the herd ran off. Then it came stumbling back out facing the other direction still standing. I setup again and shot again and it went straight down. We tried to step it off and I think it was closer to 500 yards.
I learned something very important. That hill turned out to be a steep mountain side and we had to pack all the meat back up it. We couldn't go around it because it was private ground. It ended up taking us the rest of the day to get all the meat to the truck.
I ended up using factory ammo. I was given several boxes of ammo and they shot really good in my gun so I figured I might as well use them. They were just plain soft points. The first shot the bullet completely failed. It failed to penetrate. The second one worked ok but it didn't exit either. Both shots were placed perfect in the chest broadside. From now on it will only be premium bullets.
Since I had to shoot from such an odd angle I got wacked by the scope pretty bad.
All we had was a phone so the picture is not too good.
In the end we made it home a day late completely exhausted but we ate some elk last night and it was awesome. It was a great hunt and we can't wait to do it again.
