I drew a late season cow tag here in Utah. I had been out 4 times and seen elk all but one time. Each time they were either too far away or too late in the evening to go after.

This morning, my cousin came with me and we parked the truck at 630 AM. We hiked for an hour in the dark and as soon as it got light, we saw a cow way up high. We started to go after her and we were kind of side hilling it. We had been going up the hill for about 25 minutes when my cousin spotted 3 cows going up the other side of the canyon from us. I quickly sat down and got my rifle (Winchester Model 70 classic in 30-06) onto my sticks. I asked my cousin to range the elk and they were 410 yards away.

I normally don't shoot that far, but I had a really good rest since I was sitting downhill and my backpack had me supported from behind. I shot and I could tell I hit her. She started to run downhill and perpendicular to me. I quickly reloaded and shot again and then she disappeared over the top of her ridge. I was pretty sure that she would be down, but since I didn't see it happen, I sat right where I was and waited to see her re-appear up the other side of the canyon. In this panorama picture, I haven't gotten up from shooting. The red spot in the middle of the image is where she was.



She never showed again. So we hiked over, which took about 30 minutes.

We found where she crossed the gas line and followed her blood trail for 50 yards until we found her piled up.




We had brought a sled with us. It took some figuring out what the best combination of backpack carrying and sled carrying was. The sled was pretty small and if we tied ropes around it, the sled didn't move well over the snow. We ended up finding that if each of us carried a front quarter (I had the backstraps, tenderloins, and other loose meat also) and put the hind quarters tied together in the sled, then we could move really fast. It was about a 2.5 mile pack out.

Nice! Great way to start the New Year!

Awesome,should fill the freezer,
410 is a good poke.

That looks like a great start to the New Year!

Congrats.

Right on!

Congrats!

Good job on a nice sized cow!

Smart to have brought the sled. I always throw a sled in the truck when there is snow on the ground

Congrats

Well done!

Nice job.

That’s a freezer filler – congrats!

Congratulations

Congratulations on some nice eats.

Congratulations on a fun grocery-shopping trip!

Nice work. I have been out four times so far and yet to be on the right ridge at the right time. My brother did tag out last week. One lone cow all by herself, which is weird, but he connected and we hauled her out on our sled as well.

You look to be hunting a very similar area to us. 😉

FH

cool! How much does the round you shoot drop at 410 yards?

I held about 2.5 feet above where I wanted to hit and on the second shot, when she was running, I put the cross hairs a foot in front of her chest. The blood you can see in the photo is that shot. Honestly, a very lucky shot for me, and one I only took because I had already hit her. I recovered that bullet just inside of the opposite side hide. I'll post a pick.

Federal powershok 180 grain 30-06.

Looks like good eats this winter. Got shot, that's a fair poke.

Nice work, is that East Canyon?

very nice,,,, shot, and elk

Have a steak for me!

Alan

Nice work enjoy the awesome meat!

Very nice. I'm a little bit green with envy as I had to sit out the last two years because I failed to draw. Which unit, if you don't mind my asking?

Very workmanlike job. Where did your first shot hit?

Congrats. Get a Leupold with a B&C or LRD reticle and you can do 400yd and not guess about it, not the drop anyway. Wind's always an issue.

Have you found wind to be a big issue on your elk hunts?

To the OP, congrats, nice shooting, enjoy those good eats.

Nicely done and happy eating!

Nice cow there. I hope she feeds you and your family well. Good shooting, too!

NICE.. Congrats, good shootin' too.

be safe,

Good for you...should be some great eating.