Over a week ago, I was out hunting Utah's spike elk and/or a cow elk. I was using my light 6.5x47 pushing a Matrix 142 gr VLD to 2917 and my new Leica Geovid HD-B 10x42 ranging binoculars.

Preseason practice with both rifle and bino allowed me confidence as far out as 1390 yds, though I was limiting my shots to around 1150 altitude and temperature dependent.

The Leica HD-B's, when utilized with the micro SD card will give precise dope to 1000 yds, per the published info. My pair will do it to 1008 yds. No compliants here. All one does is drop your ballistic data in to the Leica web site and save it to you SD card. Insert the card in to the tiny slot in the battery compartment and i've always managed to be within one 1/4 moa click of my Shooter app.

Beyond 1008 yds, I pull the yardage, angle, baro and temp data off the HD-B's and drop the info into Shooter and get my dope that way.

The temps during the hunt had been unseasonably warm so the elk were leaving any opening they were out in and heading into the trees within minutes of the start of legal shooting light or not coming out of the trees until, again, minutes of legal shooting light ending.

For the last two hours of the day, I'd been sitting where I could watch a sizable Western facing slope. Nothing showed except a dozen does in 3 different groups. With just 20 minutes of legal light left, I decided to move over to watch the other side of the valley, where sage met the trees. Within a minute of glassing, I spotted two elk in the fading light which was even darker than usual due to the increasing cloud cover.

With the 10x binos, I could not make out the type of elk I was seeing. I quickly pulled out my 15-45x Zeiss spotter and verified a cow and spike. Both legal for me. I first ranged the bull at 1020. Knowing my HD-B's will give dope to 1008, I simply took several ranges on different sage until it gave me a 1008 yds where I pulled the 91 clicks off it and added 1 more to come up with 92 clicks/23 moa. I then set up for the shot. I had a solid prone set up using the PRS SLIK tripod and their SSP-1 rifle cradle. The rear bag was my beloved Dog Gone Good large Field Bag. Once he was broadside and standing still I triggered the shot and could see a puff of dirt beyond and over his back. I was flabbergasted to say the least. I quickly pulled a range and this time it was 950 yds. He had moved in 70 yds while I was setting up for the shot. This time I got 83 clicks or 20.75 moa off the HD-B's. I quickly dialed down and got set for the shot. This time he was quartering towards me showing me his right side. I quickly checked my watch and realized I had 4 minutes of legal light. The MOAR reticle of my Nightforce NXS compact was getting hard to see so I turned the illumination on and was blessed with an easy to see reticle.

Some of you might ask how easy it is/was for me to convert 1/4 moa clicks into decimal form of moa. I cheat! I created a small EXCEL division 4 cheat sheet, miniaturize it and laminate it at Kinko's using their luggage lamination sized plastic and two luggage tags to attach it to the HD-B's. It's not caliber specific so it stays with the binos at all times.

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At the shot, I saw no reaction. "I missed again" I thought. I bolted another round into the chamber and started to squeeze the trigger when I noticed him do a little stagger to the right. He caught himself, stood still and staggered to the left, but this time he kept sidestepping left until he could no longer keep his feet under himself. The bullet, I later found, had entered just to the inside of his right shoulder, penetrating through the thoracic cavity. I could find no exit in the dark when I got to him, without my smart phone, so no pics. Sorry. I broke him down in the dark using the gutless method so no looksie into the rib cage area.

Oh, and the Leica glass is pretty darn good world class glass too!

Alan

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