Had a great time with my son-in-law for the three days he hunted. Saw lots of elk every day while he was with me (3 days). Focus was on helping him get his second one and opening morning he had a 200 yard shot at opening light. He passed because he had a fixed 4x and couldn't determine if the animal was really a cow or had short spikes. I had a 14.5x cranked up and it was definitely a cow. That opportunity was lost but we headed up Agner Mt. and saw lots of elk on the south face headed around to the north side and up to the top.
Agner has three peaks on the area we can hunt and we were on the eastern one. In 2010 my son-in-law made a 363 yard shot from the east peak to the middle one and took his first cow. This time we had cows at about 400 yards and he wasn't comfortable taking the shot. So I did, at a lasered 389 yards. The 7mm RM barked and I heard the familiar "whump" of a good hit. The cow raised its head and the trees exploded with a stampede of elk. The one I shot disappeared into the pines a few yards behind it.
After we crossed the valley we circled around above the pines and immediately saw blood -- not just a few drops here and there but the biggest blood trail I have ever seen, with foot-wide pools of thick, dark blood and what can best be described as ribbons of blood, 2-3 feet long and 4-5 inches wide, also thick with dark blood. We were sure we would find the cow down in the sage within a few yards. Instead the blood trail led us over the top of the ridge, across the next valley and over the crest of the next ridge - over half a mile according to Google Earth and the best I can plot our path.
The blood trail gradually decreased. Each time we thought it had disappeared we would flag a tree or a bush near the last blood, search until we found more, then continue following the trail until we lost it again. Must have put up a dozen flags in the last 300 yards. In the end we lost the trail for good, about 100 yards from an adjoining property that was off-limits. Some elk went straight for it, others headed down hill towards another property boundary not much further away. It was getting late so we opted to follow the elk down, which would take us closer to the truck, hoping to get out before dark, which we did but barely. By then we had walked about 5-6 miles for the day and my right hip was killing me.
We made it back up there the next day and continued the search but never did find any more blood trail or the cow. We found elk but they were on the neighboring property half a mile over the property line. The third day we found elk on the north face of Long Mountain (not to be confused with Long's Peak, which is in Rocky Mt. Nat'l park), We couldn't get within 800 yards in the morning and in the afternoon climbed up to the steep face near the top. To our dismay there were horses tied up in the pines (trespassers) and the elk were gone.
Son-in-law went home Sunday, after hunting 3 days. I continued to hunt the RFW ranch through Monday, last day of its season, without any luck, I saw lots more elk on private property and got a small 5x5 buck, counting brow tines, but 3 tines were broken off - not a trophy for the wall but a freezer-filler. The migration wasn't really started so my Unit 3 cow tag wasn't worth much. A lot of time was spent sitting on hill tops in Unit 3 scanning the distance for elk, reading books and listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The election results made me so happy the disappointment of not getting a cow wasn't that big a deal. Only a couple disappointments, including the CO governor's race. Overall, a true slaughter of the obamacrats.
Still, very disappointed about the cow I lost. This was the first one I've shot that hasn't been put down and recovered. (I did have one jump a fence and get put down by someone else last year.) In retrospect I think I know what happened. I had practiced with clay pigeons and steel plates at the range at 300, 500 and 600 yards. There isn't a good berm to put them on at 400 so I ignored that range, thinking I could interpolate well enough and, based on experience, anticipating any shot would be under 300 yards. (Since 1982 I've only taken 3 shots at longer ranges.) The pines behind the cow were lasered at 399-400 yards before she stepped out into the open and I lasered her at 389. I used a point 1/3 down between the 300 and 500 aim points in the scope and aimed about 1/3 down from the top of the shoulder, sure I wouldn't shoot over and thinking I might hit a bit lower. Later, based on blood found on bushes, I figure I hit exactly at the height at which I had aimed. That would have been good but I didn't allow for any wind coming through the saddle at the top of the valley, ahead and to my left. We were behind some scrub oak and couldn't feel any real wind until we stood up after the shot and took a few steps toward the saddle. Then I got a couple good gusts. I think the wind carried the bullet to my right. Based on a B.C. of .387 for a 160g North Fork SS (estimated based on bullet shape and weight and B.C. for a Grand Slam) and a 10mph crosswind, the bullet would have drifted almost 12.5". That would have meant a high shot toward the back of the lungs or top of the liver. Given the height where we saw blood on the brush (entrance wound) and the darkness of the blood on the ground (from the exit side), I'm convinced that is what happened. My fault and I was pretty depressed about it - not because I didn't get a cow but because I caused one to suffer so horribly. Still pretty disturbed about it and keep playing it over in my mind and thinking about how I will do it differently next time.
