Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors old cow elk=zilch, 1899 SRC=1

Nice work... Glad you were both successful!!!!

Dave and I have way too much fun. Luckily the ranch we hunt on allows us to drive anywhere that's accessible. So far we've always been able to reach the elk with the pickup.
Oldtimer, it's gotten to be a habit to hunt with scopes. I got my first EG 300 drilled and tapped and a Weaver K3 mounted on it in 1959.
Thought you guys might like some photos of the SRC scope setup. It's got a Lightfoot mount and a Weaver K4 60-C scope with a post reticle. I got the scope from SBrown. The carbine shoots groups a little under 1" with 27 grains 3031 and Sierra 30-30 150 grain round nose flat point bullets. When I up the load to 31 grains powder it shoots 1 1/4 to 1 1/2" groups which is what I shot the elk with.


Cow elk do have small trophies. These are the ivories from my cow. She's a little older judging by the streaks. A young elk has much less figure. Kind of a uniform ivory color.

I'll have them made into earrings for my wife.
David

Awesome job of support for Dave! Congrats to you both!

congratulations still looking for mine.

norm

Great posting! Thanks, David.

Great post!

If you are going to get earrings made, contact DiamondJim. He did a set for me on my last elk and they turned out great.

Thanks RAS, the local jeweler can't get to them until after Christmas. I'll PM him.

150 Sierra round nose flat point with 31 grains IMR3031.


THAT's a GOOD LOAD in the 303 S.

It sure killed that elk in its tracks. I'm going out with it again Fri.

Good luck and thanks for the warning.

I should know better than to make some smart remark like a neck shot always kills. Another buddy of mine and I went out to a different ranch this morning. The elk were right where I thought they'd be. He's 20 years younger than I am and doesn't have cruddy lungs and I've already killed an elk so I told him I didn't mind if he went on up the steep 600 yard hillside and left me behind. He shot a small calf at 100 yds in the neck with a 30-06. When he walked up to it with his walkie-talkie in one hand (he'd just called me to tell me he had one on the ground) and his knife in the other it got up and started off to run off. He had to shoot it again at 100 yards plus. It was still alive when he got to it the second time and he finished it off with his knife. So anyway I've got custard on my face for claiming a few days ago in this post that a neck sort always kills them dead.
I realized in the last few days that I haven't killed anything with a tomato stake since I was in high school so I went out and zeroed my 308 tomato stake today and I'm going after old wapiti with it tomorrow. David with the red face.

Pretty much always take the heart/lung shot on most anything I shoot at although a little forward of that given that if I don't hit the heart/lungs I'll hit the shoulder and take their wheels out. Been known to take the "Texas heart" shot when I thought I could hit the back of the head.

I'm a 'boiler room' shooter too. Right behind the shoulder, in that crease and as low as I can be sure of a hit...That'll give me the heart and/or both lungs. I've shot deer and one elk through the back of the neck, but close in, under 100 yds where shot placement is all but guaranteed.

But let me propose a better shot: for the past ten years or so, I've held on the shoulder, 1/3 of the way up from the brisket. I've found in my memories of shots past, that better than 50% of the deer and elk I've killed have taken another step as I began the trigger squeeze, resulting in an impact several inches farther aft than where I was holding. By taking the shoulder, you avoid that, minimize tracking difficulties in the aftermath, and break both of the shoulders for sure if that telltale step is not taken. It works for me..Best regards, and thanks to the OP for an interesting discussion....glad your friend got out, tho limited in mobility...you're a true friend. ROD

Good lessons. I tried to shoot a cow in the head at 200 yds with my EG 308 yesterday and missed. It was just before sundown and I figured a clean hit or miss was just the ticket. No tracking in the rough stuff after dark. Should have gone for the shoulder shot. Will take a day or too off till the winds settle back down.

"Will take a day or too off till the winds settle back down."

Do the winds EVER settle down in Wyoming? Good hunt, BTW.
yooper

Winds have been bad all week here I did see 3 does this evening tho!

Sometimes they blow hard and then again they blow harder.

Sent the ivories off to diamondjim for earrings. I need to shoot younger ones for better meat. That old gal has a lot of gristle. The second one I got is a lot better.

That's why God gave us meat grinders. When we'd get an old whitetail out of the swamp in northern Minn. it went into hamburger without a thought. Easier to feed to the cattle dogs if it was too dam strong to cook too.