Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 2018 Backpack Hunting Trip

I put in my ear plugs, got on the gun, told Yo, “ready”. He said “center” and the shot broke. I saw the impact hit right .1 mil of the aim point, Yo said “hit”, the bull stood up and was nearly broadside, I immediately sent another into the ribs as I spotted my first impact. The second shot hit .2 left in the lungs. The bull stumbled back a step, and quartered away and started sinking. I held right .2 and shot again. At that shot the bull started going down, and I reloaded the second mag. He was hard quartering to us kind of sliding down the hill but his head was still up, and I put the reticle center of his neck, and held right .2. He collapsed at the shot. Yo said sarcastically- “you can stop shooting now.... he was dead on the first shot”.



I stayed on the bull for another second, but it was obvious he was down, and TJ said “OC, bottom right bull, 650”. OC confirmed which one, Yo said “got it OC, center when you’re ready”. OC fired, and it went high and left by nearly 2 mils. The bull trotted up the hill, TJ said “670”, and both Yo and I said “down 1.5, right .5”. OC, chambered another round, and fired. It was a wild miss. At that the elk went up and over the ridge, without stopping.

As soon as they were gone, OC said “fck!”. We asked “what?”, and he informed us that he had his big gloves on and when he chambered the second round, he couldn’t feel the trigger and it fired before he was ready.

After that, we discussed what happened on OC’s first shot. He stated “I mean I guess it was me, but it looked good when it went off, and there is no way I pulled it two full mils”. I agreed with him. I’ve seen him shoot probably 100k rounds in my life in some really messed up situations, and I’ve never seen him jerk a shot that bad. There was nothing obviously wrong with the rifle, and he has a solid system, so we decided that he would shoot mine if he got another chance until we could check his rifle.

We had a couple minute conversation with Yo again saying that it was dead on the first shot. I explained the above, and Yo said “man, I work the bolt, but every deer I have killed has dropped at the shot”. I asked if he had ever missed, and he said “bro, no”..... “Well, you might want to be ready, because one day you will....”



A quick peek through the spotter confirmed we were good...


Yo was pretty excited


Within 5 minutes the snow started coming down hard again, and the wind picked way up. We moved down the backside of the ridge to get out of the wind to eat breakfast/lunch.


French press coffee is pretty good in a snow storm....




Third and fourth learning points

Rapid bolt manipulation:

If the animal is still up and/or alive, keep shooting. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 223 or a 338 mag- if the animal isn’t completely down, keep shooting or eventually you will lose an animal. Be able to spot your own hits/misses, immediately run the bolt after follow through, and be prepared to shoot again.
In hunting and depredation/culling several hundred animals, almost all the animals I’ve seen get away have been because dudes want to shoot and then admire their work over the scope/look through binos/pat themselves on the back sometimes even dropping the rifle down without rechambering, just standing there waiting for the animal to go down. Then, even if it dropped at the shot, it gets back up and runs out of sight with the shooter standing there confused.

Learn to shoot very accurately and very quickly, and keep shooting until they are down and dead. This bull didn’t need a second shot- I watched the bullet hit and saw the splash of dirt after it exited. Had I waited he would have fallen over inside of 10 seconds. The first shot went between ribs, hit the top of the heart, and exited the offside shoulder/leg joint leaving an inch and a half exit hole. Doesn’t matter- keep shooting.


Light triggers, thick gloves, and stress do not mix.

Pull off gloves before shooting. If someone is extremely practiced to chamber and fire quickly without thick gloves- they are extremely vulnerable to having an ND due to the gloves hitting the trigger before their finger under stress and at speed. OC knew this: he watched it happen to a ridiculously trained and capable person a few years back on a 180+ inch mule deer. Yet he, like most people do not want to learn from others mistakes and adjust, instead just saying “it works for me” until it bites them on the butt.



To be cont....