Didn't get drawn for any of my preferred tags this year but wanted to go elk hunting anyway. Put in for a CO cow that took zero points because my hunting buddy's son had no points. We all got second draw tags and left town after work on Oct 25 for CO. We got to town Thurs AM, set camp and proceeded to scout. Didn't find elk in a couple of likely places but I'd hunted there a couple times in the past and had a game plan for the first couple days.

Bluebird weather showed up Sat PM and stayed till today. Temps were 15-25 in the AM, 50+ in the PM. Elk weren't moving much - first and last light and not moving far. Turned up a spike bull on Day 1 but nothing else despite covering 30+ miles in 4 days. I wasn't finding elk up high but my buddy's son kept finding sign not far from camp. Spent Tues and Weds at lower elevation and started finding sign. Tonight a weather front is coming in and it seemed like animals were moving in early PM. I swung up higher in the watershed in the AM, found nothing again (slow learner) and rolled down lower. Started seeing animal movement about lunch - several deer and fresh elk tracks. This area is mainly black timber with aspen patches - good still hunting terrain which is my favorite way to elk hunt.

I got cell signal about 1:00 and told my buddies animals were moving ahead of the front. I decided to swing down next to the creek and still hunt toward a small secluded meadow next to the creek that I found on Tues. Thought I'd spend the PM still hunting toward the meadow and hang out till dark. These elk seem to like to appear at last legal hours so expected another long walk out in the dark.

Worked my way a couple hundred yards and saw 3 elk trotting to my left. I was a bit perplexed because I had the wind and was sure they hadn't seen me. I took 3-4 quick steps to see if they stopped and give me a shot. I looked to my right and 4 more were watching the other 3 run down the hill. At 50 yards dead broadside, I was fairly confident of the outcome.

A bit of weirdness, she ran uphill with the others for ~ 50 yards. I lost site of them. I went to the shot, found blood, and stated following a good blood trail. At 50 yards the bleeder hung a sharp left. I knew what that meant <G>. She went another 30 yards and was down when I got to her. She picked up her head when I approached and sent one through her neck. All over in less than 30 secs.

This is my first elk with a mono bullet - and won't be my last. Specs: Kimber MT, 308 win, 150 etip, 46.5 gr Varget, doing 2880. Impact velocity was likely north of 2800 at 50 yards. I found the bullet against the far side hide after going through the near shoulder. I like 2 holes but this worked as its supposed to. I have a Pa deer hunt coming up and will use this bullet/load to see how it handles deers. I'm guessing it will work grin

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Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it.