Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6.5-300 Weatherby – for Elk?

It’s over 100 miles north of Dillingham. The lake we land on loaded is not big enough to take off loaded. So, we unload, and then the pilot picks us up 11 days later 48 miles down river on a big wide stretch that is an infinitely-long landing/take-off strip.

The only mammal I have shot at that I missed was a giant bear at about 450 yds. I should have aimed lower with the .340 Wby through the brush he was in, but I aimed for the spine, which was clearly visible. Just as I pulled the trigger, he dove into the ground after some animal or something. In the ½ second of the bullet’s flight, it went over him. We later saw a moose approaching us at one point, but when we got close, guide said that he was about 47”, just 3” below legal.

Then we had 3 days of terrible weather. 70mph – 80 mph gusts, constant driving rain. When that was over, we had to head down river—leaving prime brown bear country. I was still hunting from the raft and when and where we camped along the way. 7.5 miles along the way, at about 3:30pm on the last day of moose season, we approached one of the countless splits in the river, and the guide decided to go river left, as that looked a bit better then river right, although they both looked decently navigable.

Just as he was committing to the left current, we saw a large cow and her calf running down river on the right bank of river right. The guide managed through intense effort to make it back to the river right current before we had gone too far in the left current. The guide reminded me that, in mid-September, if you see a cow, there is certainly a bull nearby. I listened and looked down river where the cow and calf had run off to. All of the sudden, the guide took three decisive actions very quickly that could have saved me from going home empty handed.

He spotted a bull in the same clearing (now a little behind us on the right bank of river right) where we had seen the cow and calf running down river. From the front of the raft, I was looking away (i.e., the wrong way) down river in the direction the cow and calf had run off to, which was pointed down river. Then, before I saw anything, the guide quickly cranked the oars to spin the boat clockwise so that it was perpendicular to the river, and I was facing the right bank, and he yelled at the top of his lungs “SHOOT IT!!!!!!” Without seeing anything yet, for a fraction of a second, this all registered, and I shouldered my .340 Wby as I scanned the bank from left to right, figuring (giving the emphatic nature of the guide's voice) that I would see either a giant bear or a big bull on the right bank. Within a second, I had a giant bull in my crosshairs at about 60 yards away quickly running to the right (up river) within seconds to some dense alder brush and trees on the right bank that probably would have prevented us from ever seeing that bull again.

Within a second, just as my crosshairs covered his body, I squeezed the trigger on his front quarters. I wanted to shoot a bit more forward of where I otherwise might because he was jogging quickly to the right, and I didn’t want the bullet to hit too far rearward on his body in case I wasn’t leading enough or he sped up. That first shot went through both lungs and exited.

The bull then, while hit up front, sped up his pace going the same direction to the right. Within a second after the first shot, I shot him again. This one again went through both lungs and exited. It was behind where I was aiming, but I was just trying to hit the running bull with an anchoring shot at that point to slow him down. Now, he slowed down. A second later, I hit him a third time through the ribs, through his vitals, and through his left shoulder and stopped under the far hide. He hobbled about 20 yards further away to his left into the brush away from the river and was apparently going down. For a few seconds, I could see his giant antlers wavering back and forth in the one stationary place in the brush where he was going down.

Then, the fun part began.