By Jason

November 26, 2014

Nov 2014

North West Colorado just outside of Craig. Bull Elk hunting.

We hunted hard for three days in a cold weather that this Galveston Bay Texas boy was not accustom to. We barley see 30 degrees where I am from, minus 6 might as well be the moon. But we endured.

On the first day we saw lots of elk including bulls. However being the first of a four day hunt I had the luxury of being a little bit selective on what I wanted to shoot. That little 4x4 wasn't going to do.

The second day brought lots of snow and the hunting was difficult. No bulls to be seen, but plenty of cows and spikes.

On the third day after sitting in the shoot house from 05:45 to 13:00 and not seeing a bull, but plenty of cows and spikes, we decided to give it a break. However on the way back to the lodge we ran into a large heard of elk...and by large I mean about 75 elk consisting of cows, spikes, and bulls.

After getting into position, some of the other hunters on the ranch made a move on the heard and got the elk running my way. From behind a 50 foot hill on my right that came down about 100 yards in front of me the elk started running out from right to left and crossing the ranch truck path that we were standing on.

The first bunch probably consisted on 30 cows and one or two spikes. No shooters. What a rush but we thought we had missed out and were pretty bummed.

20 seconds later however here comes a nice bull charging out from the back side of the hill with another split of the heard.

I lined up the cross hairs for a perfect shot and squeezed the trigger......nothing. Dang safety was on. Rookie mistake I guess, but happens to the best of us.

After a quick expletive and a flick of the thumb safety the Remington 700 chambered in 7 mag loaded with three rounds of 139 gr SST Hornady Superformance was back in action.

The elk was still running but I got him in the scope and squeezed the trigger. Nada, I killed air on that shot.

I racked the bolt, lined up the next shot. Nada..........sloppy. I was excited and too quick on the trigger. Bad shot simply put.

I racked the bolt again, took my time and found the bull in my scope one more time. Just as the cross hairs lined up with this neck the rifle barked one last time. DRT

For those that do not know DRT means "dead right there".

The third round hit it's mark. What an incredible hunt and I am a firm believer in Hornady's Superformance ammo. I saw two elk cows get hit with the same ammo and both were one shot quick kills.

Hornady, thanks for making a superb product.


Best Regards,

Shooter Jason
Seabrook, TX