Cousin Dave (you'll remember that he's a paraplegic from my antelope post) and I hunted hard all last week except Friday when our wives took us to see a local production of "Oklahoma".
The elk were staying up on the eco-terriost property that overlooks where we're permitted to hunt making faces at us. Yesterday our younger buddy Ralph who still has an 8 to 5, Monday through Friday job joined us. Yesterday afternoon the elk were headed down to the shooting gallery when cousin Dave drove too close to them. A disadvantage to hunting with a guy who is pretty well restricted to hunting from the pickup is that he has to get pretty close to the critters to make a shot and they're usually more scared of a pickup than some guy sneaking through the sagebrush in sagebrush friendly camo. Anyway they decided not to come to the shooting gallery when the truck got too close.
Cousin Dave felt bad about that so when we got out there at first light and elk were all over a hillside out side of eco-terriost land Ralph and I ran down and shot at them. I pulled my first shot to the right and Ralph missed too. The elk moved on down the hill and we followed. We got down to a cattle guard with a fence post beside it that was just the right height so I rested my little ole carbine on it and proceeded to shoot this big ole cow right through the neck at about 130 to 150 yards. I aimed at her head but she was moving and the bullet caught her in the neck.

Ralph then rested his Mauser Model 95 in 7X57 on the fence post at the other side of the cattle guard and shot another cow through the back at about 200 yards. Dave then drove down and missed a shot with his Ruger 77 in 7MM mag at about 300 yards.
Ralph's cow was still flopping around and Dave went down in his truck and finished it off.
Dave and I went back this afternoon and watched the elk up on eco-terriost land until just before dark. They were about 1000 yards away but we took some photos anyway.

He and I will hunt every day till he gets an elk. We've got through the 20th and I'm sure they'll make another mistake like they did today.
I've got another license for a different area and hope to get another elk before season ends. We've got some people with financial problems here who could use the meat.
I've now killed at least one ungulate type animal with each of the Savage calibers. Some of them didn't have horns. Does this qualify for the Savage grand slam or do I have to collect all antlered type animals to qualify?
pics of the four.
Caribou shot with 1950 vintage 99R 300 Savage

Antelope shot with 1955 Vintage 99F in 250

Antelope shot with 99F 22 High-Power

Today's elk shot with 1899 SRC in 303 Savage. 150 Sierra round nose flat point with 31 grains IMR3031.

David

Who am I to say on the Grand Slam but at least you're having fun, and WORK!

Yep, I'd call it a Savage slam alright! Now maybe the 22 HP and a mountain lion, since there are no tigers in NA
Thanks for pics and story.

Lee

4 dead animals + 4 Savage calibers = Savage Grand Slam.

David,
Mighty nice animals for the Savage Slam!!!!
Pretty good looking rifles also. Good for you. Hope one makes a mistake for cousin Dave.

Best and keep the pictures coming,

Steve

Good for all of you and thanks for sharing the story.

Nice story David, great pictures!

I think we need to get a sticky started of critters dispatched by Savages (..Savage rifles that is, to clarify for the eco-terrorists)

Congrats on your slam! Great story writing too.

I like Jeff's idea.

Awesome! thanks for passing this along for all to read and enjoy.

Good shooting!

dave

Congratulations! Well done.

A man who talks the talk and walks the walk.
Jagermeister!

Yup! I think you have earned the Savage Grand Slam! Great going, Wishing good Luck for Cousin Dave!

Congrats! I LOVE elk steaks, enjoy!

Excellent!!

Looks good. Congrats!

How come a young guy like you has all those rifles scoped. Nice record to be proud of and great eating also. GW

Cousin Dave was a little upset that he missed his elk yesterday. We were out at the ranch at first light and slowly cruised by the places we had been seeing elk for the last week. We didn't see any up on that forbidden ridge where we had seen them almost every day or anywhere on the trails to and from it. He was getting pessimistic. We headed on towards the back of the ranch and saw a small herd of about a dozen well back on the ranch about 700 or 800 yards away. They saw us and were moving but we didn't have anything to lose by heading back there. They disappeared behind a ridge and we figured we'd never see them again. We had had a small herd disappear back there once before. It's pretty rough terrain with a lot of hiding places. When we topped the ridge they were about 300 yards away. I said to Dave, "They're close enough". He pulled the truck sideways so he could rest his rifle on the mirror. They were getting restless and starting to move. He let loose and I thought I saw one off to the left stagger. At the moment he shot I'd been looking at the ones on the right. I said, "which one did you shoot at." He said, "The one lying there dead on the ground." Dave's kind of taciturn. The one I thought staggered ran off with the rest of the herd. The dead elk was down in the sagebrush and I couldn't see it. He could see it and put his rangefinder on it and came up with 295 yards. We drove on down to it and it was lying there real dead with an exit wound on the left side of its neck no more than two or three inches from where I hit mine yesterday. Needless to say Dave was real happy.
7 MM mag exit hole.

Starting field dressing. It ain't easy from a wheelchair.

One happy hunter and his Winter meat.

As we were driving out we were discussing shot placement and power of various calibers. I said I think my 303 would easily kill an elk at 300 yards if I could hit it in the neck. He agreed and said he may start hunting antelope and maybe even elk with his post-mil 99E in 308. I hope he does. Then we'd both be hunting with 99's. I plan to keep hunting with them. I had it in mind to switch back to my 284 DL after I got an elk with the SRC but I am definitely going to hunt my second elk this year with the SRC and may continue to use it in the future.
Dave and I were taught to always shoot just behind the shoulder. We think that was because we weren't very good shots back then and that was to give us a better chance of getting a bullet in the critter and eventually catching up with it. A neck or head shot is much better. If you hit the animal there it's dead. If you miss it's not wounded.
Roy Weatherby discovered on an African safari in the 1950's that poor shot placement wasn't compensated for by super energy rounds. Shot placement is king.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it and my Savages in their obsolete calibers.
David

Congrats on getting him his elk, that's awesome!

David those are some great photos and congrats on doing it with Savage rifles. Seems every Elk I ever get with my bow is at least a couple miles from camp and falls into the deepest hole and gets wedged between some trees. I understand that the fun is over when the Elk hits the ground and I like your hoist setup for lifting them. Still lots of work but it sure is a relief when you are successful. Tom.

Congrads to Cuz Dave! Sounds like a real Great Fellow!

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.