Tom and I were hunting (either sex) elk on a ranch near Buena Vista, New Mexico. It was a typical five day hunt and we were on the fifth day with no elk in the bag yet. The clock registered 9:30 AM as we came around a flank of pinions and an anterless elk stood crystal clear at a lazered 350 yards.....just right for my .30-06 and it's 180 grain Accubonds. At the sound of the shot the elk simply dropped in her tracks. It turned out to be a trifle high as the bullet destroyed a section of vertebrae instead of hitting lower in the chest cavity as I wanted.....but it was still a DRT shot and I wasn't complaining at all.
That's when our guide, Ted, saw more elk behind her and they weren't at all concerned by our presence and the sound of the shot. Tom immediately picked out another cow lazered at 375 yards and dropped her with another spinal shot.....this time in the neck.....His .325 WSM with handloaded 200 grain A-Frames was more than a match for the cow as it dropped and didn't move at all after that.
Total elapsed time was about ten seconds and our hunt was over. By 6:00 PM that same day the elk was gutted, skinned, quartered, boned, cut, wrapped and in the freezer. We stayed at the ranch house another day to allow the meat to cool in the freezer and drove home. Needless to say it was a lot happier ride home with two (partially) frozen elk in the box of the pickup truck than if the last day of our hunt had been uneventful.
I'll post photos Monday as I'm not home right now.
