Hunting, pics, rifles, stuff. etc.

[Lost River]

Friends,

I have been in the gentle rolling hills of Idaho:


The weather has been odd. A week and a half ago, it was blowing like crazy and wind chill was in the negative digits. Nasty cold. Yesterday while recovering a cow elk I had quartered up the day prior, it was so warm we were not even wearing jackets. Probably in the 30s.

The day prior though the wind would be blowing on the tops of a hill and you would not want to have any exposed skin.

Hard to see here, but here is a pic of the snow blowing off of a hill we had been on a couple hours earlier:






Suffering the terrible view from the porch after getting back and building a fire.






A couple weeks earlier I ended up helping some people during their elk hunt. I will just say that no matter what the size of the cartridge your rifle is chambered in, if you can't shoot/ don't have any idea how determine range, in addition to not being able to physically get to an animal after you get one, you probably should not be shooting at them in the firstplace..

Fortunately the 6.5 Manbun was readily available to mercifully end the debacle.



Somehow I got roped into recovering an entire animal for a person who could not even physically get to it, let alone actually carry pieces of it out.

Nice back straps, removed with the uber-expensive custom Mora blade. Because everybody knows you need a $300 knife to process big game, Grin!






More to follow

[Lost River]

The bottom of the draw looked like this on the exposed, sunny side:



The other side where the cow slid to a stop was narrow and snow covered and still pretty steep.

Again, if a guy is so overweight, that they can't walk 200 yards without huffing and puffing, then trying to climb stuff like this is not advisable and asking someone else to help is pretty poor form. If it was not for their wife who was in the truck (literally knitting something) I might have not have been as nice, but I hate to see a wounded animal, and she was actually a nice lady, and they definitely did need the meat. anyways... (sorry just had to vent, that debacle cost me about a full day that I could have been doing my own thing).




That adventure also reminded me that I am not so young myself, having reached the half century mark. Packing an entire elk out, piece by piece on my back, on a pack frame made me sore for days. In my 20s and 30s, it was not that big of a deal. Getting tougher these days. Fortunately it was a short pack. Unfortunately it was extremely steep. Hiking sticks are absolutely your friend.



Ends up I was not alone in the narrow, steep brush covered draw. A big cat had been on my trail.

[Lost River]

The rifle.


6.5 Manbun.

24.3" barrel

I had put it in a T3 Varmint stock, which really helps in terms of making it more steady for shooting. I stole my NF 5.5x22 off of my target .300WM for load testing and liked it so much I have kept it on there. Shooting factory 143 ELDx loads for now, as factory ammo is pretty much unobtanium, but I have been too busy to do any load development.

You have to be careful when shooting a 6.5 Manbun. You will find yourself saying words like Bro-dude and using words like shooting-system. One morning I thought it was awfully bright and realized I had my ball cap on backwards. I have never worn a ball cap backwards in my life, Bro-dude.


Anyways,

The eldx bullets obviously have done the job. That said I noted on elk #1 (485 yards) that the projectile grenaded when it hit bone. Not my idea of optimal performance, but it did result in a dead elk.



Fast forward to my elk this week.

Not great shooting on my part.

I came over a ridge and got busted by a cow that was feeding. She was looking right at me. Had I been able to, I wanted to find these particular elk that my dad and I had spotted earlier and get him a shot at them. Unfortunately it did not work out that way.

The cows were up and moving in an instant. The range was 285 initially. I dropped to the prone but the snow was too deep and I saw where my first bullet hit some snow about 15 yards in front of me. Looking through the scope, that snow obstruction had not been visible. A literal poof and cloud of snow. I got to my knees and now there were running elk.

I jacked the bolt and took a shot on a large cow that was slightly away from the others and heading for the timber. I saw her go down. I worked to bolt again. But then she got her front legs working and was partially obscured by some brush and snow. For only having front legs working she was moving surprisingly fast.

I gave her a bit of a lead and squeezed the trigger, trying to put one right behind her shoulder. I ended up putting it right into her shoulder. Being a meat hunter (that's why I hunt cows rather than bulls) that was not ideal, but at a shade over 300 yards now, and taking a kneeling shot (which I absolutely suck at) I was just relieved she was down and out.

Plus I did not want her getting any further down hill than she was, as I was going to have to cut her up and get her back to the top, and pack her all out.

Shot #1 hit unseen snow obstruction from prone.
Shot #2 hit her high, in the spine, and broke her back, right above and behind her shoulder.
Shot #3 hit her in the shoulder. Her lungs ended up getting trashed with that shot.

Start to finish was less than 10 seconds.

In elk hunting, climbing the mountains and locating the elk, then shooting them is the easy part.

The cow that will feed Henry, the girls and I in 2021:

Not the greatest pic, sorry.




She was a big girl.


To the right of the tree on the top of the ridge are some mountain mahogany trees. That is where I was shooting from.

[Lost River]

Random stuff:


Shooting position:




As you can see, shooting from the prone, trying to thread the needle through the sagebrush and snow, down to the edge of the trees did not work out so well on the first shot, so I had to go to a kneeling position.


Trick candles.

I think I have talked about this here before.



The kids birthday party trick candles that you blow out, and they "re-light" themselves are something I carry in my pack. Perfect for fire starting in windy conditions, and/or when tinder is wet. It should be noted that they only re-light down to a certain point, then they act like regular candles. I used one on this past weekend to start a fire. It was primarily to use as a signal fire in hopes that my dad would see it and find me, as he got separated. Sticking some green pine boughs on it put up lots of smoke. However it was pretty windy, so that did not help. I later found out that he probably walked past me on the high ridge line, not seeing me, as his vision is declining (he will be 79 in February) and his hearing is even worse. He did not hear numerous shots from my Glock.

Swedish BAHCO saw.

Very efficient saw. However the teeth are designed for wood rather than bone. It will zip through tree branches with ease. It works well on bone, but a saw that has teeth specifically for bone would be a bit better. I carry this one because it serves both purposes. I can build a shelter to get out of the weather quite quickly if I need to, or cut larger branches for a fire very quickly.




The little sharpener shown here (or similar ones) can be picked up on amazon for less than 5 bucks and can get a Mora back to ready for action in less than 2 minutes. They have a fine and a coarse side. Stupid easy to use, and are light weight. No need to carry a large sharpening stone in the field.

[Duelist]

Lovely pics. I am a bit envious of the elk meat, though I was blessed to get a Coues this year so I have game meat in the freezer.

The freezing temps do not attract me much. LOL.

But. I am dying from laughter at the “6.5 ManBun with 5.5-22x scope” used to kill both of those cows.

BroDude.

[Lost River]

Additional random stuff.

Lots and lots of speed goats out.








Each time I pass this milepost I wonder if it is still going to either still be there, or be shot full of .22 caliber holes...

[Lost River]

Lovely pics. I am a bit envious of the elk meat, though I was blessed to get a Coues this year so I have game meat in the freezer.

The freezing temps do not attract me much. LOL.

But. I am dying from laughter at the “6.5 ManBun with 5.5-22x scope” used to kill both of those cows.

BroDude.

So the funny part, and that brings up a good point.

The 6.5 Manbun/Creedmoor worked fine. I don't think I have enough experience to form an opinion on the ELDx projectiles. I am comparing them to my usual 155 Scenars I normally use in a .308, which are a known performer for me. Time will tell. The primary reason for the switch is my dad needed a lighter recoiling rifle, and the 6.5 makes sense.

Now here is the "funny thing". I very rarely shoot big game close in, and rarely have to do fast shooting. This was an exception to the rule. This happened very quickly I got busted, got a range on them, dropped to the prone, and you know the rest.

Well, later on, I went to reset my elevation turret to zero, and I realized that I had done all my shooting on my lowest power setting, 5.5 power. Out of habit I almost always carry a variable power scope on its lowest setting, and this time was no different. so the shooting was around 285-300-315 yards at 5.5 power.

Just something to consider.

[rd62]

You're awfully nice to pack that elk out!

[Lost River]

I am not that nice.

Old people and kids seem to sucker me easily.

Edit to add: Guilt trip would be a better way to put it, though later I end up wondering why in the hell I should feel guilty about something that I had nothing to do with!

[Duelist]

So the funny part, and that brings up a good point.

The 6.5 Manbun/Creedmoor worked fine. I don't think I have enough experience to form an opinion on the ELDx projectiles. I am comparing them to my usual 155 Scenars I normally use in a .308, which are a known performer for me. Time will tell. The primary reason for the switch is my dad needed a lighter recoiling rifle, and the 6.5 makes sense.

Now here is the "funny thing". I very rarely shoot big game close in, and rarely have to do fast shooting. This was an exception to the rule. This happened very quickly I got busted, got a range on them, dropped to the prone, and you know the rest.

Well, later on, I went to reset my elevation turret to zero, and I realized that I had done all my shooting on my lowest power setting, 5.5 power. Out of habit I almost always carry a variable power scope on its lowest setting, and this time was no different. so the shooting was around 285-300-315 yards at 5.5 power.

Just something to consider.

Truth. I also hunt with the variable at the lowest setting. If the shot is a longer one, you’ll usually have time to adjust up if needed, but if it’s a closer one, you probably won’t have time to adjust down before the shot opportunity is gone.

I shot my little Coues buck at 130 yards this year, the closest opportunity I’ve had on these little grey ghosts. I could have shot him just fine with the 3-9 on 3, and in fact it was on 3 when I aimed first, but he’d been running around with a doe, and while I ”knew” it was the spike I was aiming at, I second guessed myself and zoomed in until I could for sure see his little bitty antlers before I fired. But the shot would have been fine at the low setting: I only zoomed in for target confirmation.