Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Storybook hunt

Part 3 of 3 =============================



My son-in-law was driving back to camp to help us pack out any animals we got. Dave and I quartered the bull, got it on my cart and back to the truck, dropped the head off at the Parks and Wildlife station in Craig for CWD testing, then stopped by Wendy’s for lunch. We then stopped by Wal-Mart where I bought a cleaning rod and used it to poke the .280 Rem case out of the .338’s chamber. By 11:00 we were back on the road to Meeker and gave my son-in-law a call. He was 3 minutes out from Meeker and too late to help us.

Back at home I photographed the stuck case. Left to right:
.338 WM / 225g AccuBond
.280 Rem fired in a .338WM chamber
.280 Rem /140g AccuBond
.375 Win fired in a .45-70 (a mistake I made years ago)



160g Speer Grand Slam recovered from bull. Retained weight 145.5g or 77.8%:


And yes, I do label my ammo. (Just need to read the labels or look at the head stamps…):


Given that Dave had taken his first elk on his first hunt using my Ruger M77 in 7mm RM with a 160g Grand Slam it seemed fitting that I took this bull using his Ruger Hawkeye 7mm RM and the same load, using bullets I had given him when I stopped loading them about 12-13 years ago. In fact, Dave called it a ‘storybook hunt’ because of the irony of my using his rifle and because things had turned out as I had predicted – from the mid-week weather getting a few animals moving to where we would get one and the path they would take through the area. (I’ve taken two elk out of this area before so I had some experience with their movements through it.)

All in all it was a great hunt and, although Dave’s health has been a concern for years, I’m saddened that this will be his last elk hunt. His bird hunting days are probably over too, as he can’t get his arms above – or even up to – his shoulders. Hopefully we can do some antelope hunts together in the future.

One last picture – son-in-law and myself goofing off while watching the then undefeated Broncos beat then undefeated Packers on Monday Night football: