My son's friend that live a few houses down drew a general season bull tag here in Arizona. His dad asked me to guide him and I readily agreed. We set up camp on Wednesday and scouted that night and most of Thanksgiving day- taking a few hours in the middle of the day off to eat a dinner of pork loin and stuffing. Couldn't fit a turkey in the grill

We got into elk on Friday morning but had people climbing all over us. We passed the raghorns we saw.

We moved to another area and Dallin missed a shot at a big 6x6 that really bummed us out.

Saturday morning we went to a new place to me. I found two bulls feeding, one of which was 360-370 class bull. He could not get steady enough to shoot through the window we had. I was pulling my hair out!

We saw some other bulls but now he was set on a 6x6.

Saturday night we went into a meadow that I usually hunt the September hunt in but it was crazy warm at 9000' and I thought they might still be in there. We checked two meadows and decided to try a third which was tucked in between two ridges. I spotted a lone bull feeding about 3 pm. Dallin knelt down and shot. He missed. He shot again. He missed again. The bull was broadside about 120 yards away. We told him to take his time and shoot once more. This time he hit. The bull took off running and I couldn't see the hit on him since he swapped directions.

He was using a 168 Amaxs in a 300 Winchester with a funky Vortex scope.
To shorten up a lengthy story I will just say that we tracked this bull until dark over 2 miles -almost back to the truck . When he hit a log road that I knew we could easily drive to I called it off for the night and decided that he needed to bed down and hopefully stiffen up. We went back this morning and parked at the blood. We jumped him in 20 minutes. We were in north slope old growth timber that had deadfalls and crunchy snow everywhere. We tracked him by hoof tracks mostly as blood was very sporadic. We found where he had spent the night and bled profusely. He still was able to jump deadfall that we had to climb over. We had to get him this morning as dad was going home and wanted to help.

I finally cornered him when he made a tactical error and got into some rocks and a cliff that had deadfall he couldn't jump over. I had Dallin leave the magnum with the funky scope and use my 260AI. I had loaded 140 Game Kings which have killed a lot of stuff for me.

He threaded a bullet into the last rib which went through the vitals and through the off shoulder, making it through the scapula and ending up at the skin. The bullet did a couple of cartwheels and ended up in more rocks!

This was the toughest tracking job I have ever been a part of. We were worried many times that we had lost the bull but somehow managed to pick up blood and carry on.

The Amax had exploded on the shoulder and not making it to the vitals. I cannot recommend that bullet for elk hunting!

Here is the excited hunter and the weary guide!




Here is the hero shot with his dad. He wanted me to make it look even bigger!




All of this hunting was at over 9000' and we had only patches of snow in the north slopes. Morning temps were teens and highs were high 50s. Very warm for this country and this late in the season.

Great write up beautiful bull and good on you loaning him your rifle! I agree on the amax bullets why folks insist on using target bullet for hunting is beyond me.

It was actually his little brother's rifle. I guess the uncle has a reloading business and made him up 200 rounds of this "load".

Nice bull Dennis!

Nice bull! Congrats to him on his first and to you for helping to make it happen.

If I put in for the draw in Arizona and get drawn I'm sending you a pm...

Congratulations.

Prezactly. Some guys insist they are great and its all about the bullet and not the headstamp...Great story and very nice bull. You did good!!!! Now that young man is hooked for life and you'll probably end up with a good hunting partner. He'll be able to pack them out when you get old

One day I will get a bull close to that to hang on my wall.

I probably never will, but I keep trying.

Do you put in for the grizzly or ochoco elk tags? Some nice bulls brought out of their

You do that

I've seen some nice ones in the Ochoco's while deer hunting. However, more big bulls are taken from the chesnimus and desolation units. I'm just happy enough to drop any bull in the 3 percent hunter sucess rate unit I hunt. Any bull there is rewarding as hell...

Shot my first bull up by clackamas lake in the santiam unit for a longtime the state record was taking out of the grizzly unit on private land of course. I want to hunt where dennisinaz hunts

Private land [bleep] have it pretty easy around here. Public land hunters earn their animals and merits...

Good on you and congrats to the kid.

BSA, why do you try to make every thread about you?

Egocentric???????


Dennis congrats to you and the kid.Nice bull!!!!!!

I'm at fault here we got bsing about elk hunting in Oregon so I know he wasn't trying to make it about himself. Anyhow you have great day and how about we/you try not to muddy up this thread anymore.

Steadfast and Loyal

They work perfectly fine for the correct game size..... work more reliable than sierra game kings in my 30 years or so of experience...

But 168s in a 300 for elk of anything other than a Barnes is POOR choice.

Especially if you are going to hit a shoulder.

Dennis Super job!!!!! You can't beat the joy seen in those pictures!!!

Jeff

Congrats! Kudos on the assist!

Everyone needs at least one rodeo.... grin







Don't kid yourself- it was poor shooting all around.

There is no magic pixie dust that gets sprinkled on "hunting" bullets that makes them work. Amax's ARE hunting bullets and as such are no different than any other bullet- use the right one. A 168gr Amax and a 300WM is a disaster waiting to happen. The 178gr is better but still light for general use on elk, though wrecks deer sized animals. The 208gr Amax is the one if someone is going after elk, and will penetrate deep enough and generally exit even from quartering shots.

Use the right Amax and they make bigger wound channels than just about any other bullet.



168gr Amax, 300 mag, and a vortex....... It's like a train wreck.

Like I said, I told him from the get go that I didn't think it was a good choice but having no experience with it I didn't I should tell him he couldn't use it. The bull had a nasty wound on the shoulder that should have been fatal with the bullets I have used on elk. 208 Amaxs have been unobtainable so he probably didn't have much choice. The rifle was supposed to be the long range coues deer rifle and the bullets worked good on the 95# deer.

This bull was killed on public land but within a mile of the Ft. Apache reservation where elk tags are $20K

It's a great elk. Make no mistake, I'm certainly not passing judgement. I meant it when I stated that everyone needs at least one rodeo... Grin.

Amax's are fantastic killers..... When used correctly. 168's into coues would be a wreck. 178's on bigger deer are really too much and the 168's are splashier still.


For 30cal Amax's-

168's for 308 win
178gr for 300 mags on deer
208gr for elk.


I've used the 178gr Amax from a 300WM on elk, and while they performed wonderfully, the ranges were quite a bit longer.


Enough of the bullet nonsense. Talk him into a 243 or 308.

The 180 or 200 gr. Nosler partition would have worked better as well. I have to commend Dennis for introducing the young man to elk hunting. I'm sure he'll remember that for the rest of his life and now he's probably hooked on elk hunting big time!! Good job Dennis and what a wonderful first bull for that young man. Congrats on a job well done..

Kid got a dang nice elk, I've never shot one so won't denigrate the bullet choice while looking at pictures of recovered dead elk!

Call me c'yurse like that!

^^southern word for everything from peculiar, set in ways, stubborn, strange, ^^^^^




Mike

Nice boool. You are one seriously patient dude - and skilled.

The scope on this rifle was a Vortex 6-18 (I think). I never looked through it until we were tracking this bull. I couldn't make out a bloody thing. Somehow the eyepiece focus was screwed out all the way and everything was blurry. No wonder he couldn't hit anything! I refocused it and gave itback to him. He was amazed at how clear it was now. He never said a word during the hunt. I asked him why he didn't say anything. He said that he just thought it must be a cheap scope!

Even though the scope was now focused. I felt better about my scope and bullets so we switched.

He has killed a cow before on a junior hunt with his dad's 30-06. He would have been better off with the -06 and the XP3 loads he uses in it. They were in shock and awe of the 'magnum' moniker on the other rifle and used it.

Funny how adding that word magnum makes people think it is automatically going to be a super killer!

I hope he learned from it but the kid is not a gun guy and will probably be influenced by whatever and whomever he hunts with in the future.

Cool on the vortex, wife has a pair of binocs... they are some really great glass for the buck. Better than a couple of junk leupold scopes and binocs we have.

I was sure hoping Vortex had not gone downhill already.

Long range, 300 and 168 grain bullets don't fit. Thats a bullet for only an idiot to consider long range with.

But so many folks go with what they are told.....

I run 185s in a 308 and consider it a mid range load... 210 bergers when I get around to driving it to 1000 eventually...

168s drift..... badly...

Vortex is already gone in my book. My point was that the scope was not focused and once focused was much better.

The eye box on this vortex scope was terrible. The overall resolution was mediocre and their internal integrity is very poor.

They have a very high failure rate and a very good warranty. A case of another company using a great warranty to cover for lousy products.

I would much prefer to have a Leupld scope any day over a Vortex.

Nice bull, congrats.

Excellent work there Dennis; congrats to you both!

That's pretty darned cool. Good on you for taking the lad. And for your patience.

Dennis, you and your hunter definitely earned that elk. Congrats!

Congrats to y'all.

Dallin is a very lucky young man to have friends like you guys!!!